Who We Are


The Earth Charter Initiative is a global civil society effort, in which many thousands of people have actively participated over a period of more than fifteen years.


The Initiative is supported by Earth Charter International (ECI), a small coordinating secretariat governed by the Earth Charter International Council and comprised of a small network of regional centers and field-posted representatives. Currently there are two formal Centers: one Center in Stockholm, Sweden (Center for Strategy and Communication) and one in Costa Rica at the University for Peace (Center for Education for Sustainable Development). These Centers in turn work with a very global and diverse association of governmental, civil society, religious, business, and international institutions who are formally or informally linked to the Initiative, as Affiliates, Partners, Endorsers and Supporters.


Support for ECI comes from diverse international sources, including a variety of public and private funding agencies as well as private sector contributors. Major contributors to ECI in 2006 and 2007, in financial and in-kind terms, have included Plan Netherlands (the Dutch chapter of Plan International), the Kendeda Sustainability Fund, CH2MHill, the Dutch National Committee for International Cooperation and Sustainable Development (NCDO), Rockefeller Brothers Fund, the AmanaKey Training Center in Brazil, the AtKisson Group, The Philanthropic Collaborative, the Mexican Government, the University for Peace, and UNESCO.


ECI is wholly independent and fully global in its outlook, and attempts to reach out to people of all nations, cultures, religions, and political parties in establishing the Earth Charter as a common reference point for ethics and sustainable development.


For more information, please see our Resource Center for historical documents and annual reports. Current members of our Council and staff, the Earth Charter International Team, appear below.


EARTH CHARTER COMMISSION MEMBERS


Africa/Middle East

Amadou Toumani Touré (Mali) (Co-chair)

Former President of Mali. President of the Inter-African Network for Street Children. Served as conflict resolution facilitator on behalf of African Presidents. Received many awards including the 1996 Africa Prize for Leadership awarded by The Hunger Project and promotes the process of democracy in the region.


HRH Princess Basma Bint Talal of the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan

For more than 20 years Her Royal Highness has worked nationally, regionally and internationally to promote a range of global issues, most notably in the areas of human development, gender equity and the well-being and development of children. Founding Chairperson of the Jordanian Hashemite Fund for Human (JOHUD), formerly known as the Queen Alia Fund for Social Development (QAF), the first non-governmental organization to address development issues at the national level. In 1992, she initiated the Jordanian National Commission for Women (JNCW) and became its Chairperson, establishing JNCW Forum on 1995. She also became president of the Mabarrat Um Al Hussein; a pioneering orphanage providing full care, education and vocational training in the country. She leads more than 25 local and national institutions and societies. She was voted Arab Woman of the Year, in 1995; in 1994 at Oxford University and bestowed the Grand Cordon of the Jewelled Al Nahda ìRenaissanceî given by her brother His Majesty the late King Hussein in 1994, due to her development and humanitarian efforts for her country.


Wangari Maathai (Kenya)

2004 Nobel Peace Prize Winner; Founder and Coordinator of the Kenyan Green Belt Movement. Biologist and environmentalist; former Chairperson of the Department of Anatomy at the University of Nairobi; Director of the Kenyan Red Cross Society; and Director of the National Council of Women of Kenya. In 1977 She founded the Green Belt Movement, a grassroots organization that seeks to fight deforestation, desertification and erosion in Kenya in coordination with global environmentalist networks. She served on the Independent Working Group on the Future of the United Nations and has received numerous distinctions, including Woman of the Year award in 1983.


Mohamed Sahnoun (Algeria)

Special Advisor to the War-torn Capital Societies Project, UNRISD, Geneva; Special UNESCO Advisor for the Culture of Peace Program; and Member of Special Advisory Groups concerning human rights, humanitarian assistance, development, environment and conflict resolution. Among his many diplomatic appointments he has served as Ambassador of Algeria to Germany, France , the United States and Morocco, and as Permanent Representative of Algeria to The United Nations. He was also a Member of the World Commission on Environment and Development (Brundtland Commission) and served as Special Advisor to the Secretary General of the United Nations Conference on Environment and Development (UNCED). He was the Executive Director of the First Phase of the Current Earth Charter Project, and member of the Earth Charter Management Committee.


Asia and the Pacific

A.T. Ariyaratne (Sri Lanka)

Founder of the Sarvodaya Shramadana Movement of Sri Lanka; grassroots development leader and international award winner who derives his inspiration from Buddhist spiritual teachings and Gandhian social action; "Sarvodaya Shramadana" means "The Awakening of All Through the Sharing of Effort"; this message has spread to all parts of Sri Lanka and is bearing fruit in about a third of the countryís villages, numbering over 8000, and embracing a diverse Sinhalese, Tamil, and Muslim population; awarded the Gandhi Prize in 1996.


Kamla Chowdhry (India) (Co-chair) In memoriam

Member of the World Bankís Advisory Committee on Environment and Sustainable Development; member of the World Commission on Forestry and Sustainable Development; member of CGIARNGO Committee; professor at the Indian Institute of Management (1962-1972) and visiting professor at Harvard Business School (1967-1968); consultant to the Atomic Energy Commission, Indian Space Organization, and private and public sector organizations (1962-1972) in India; program advisor for the Public Planning and Management Committee of The Ford Foundation (1973-1983); advised Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi on the establishment of the national Wastelands Development Board, and was head of Board during its initial period (1985-1988).


Wakako Hironaka (Japan)

Member of the Japanese Parliament, House of Councilors; member of GLOBE (Global Legislators Organization for a Balanced Environment); former state minister and director general of the Environment Agency in Japan; a writer and translator; among her books is What Values Should We Leave for the Future Generations? (a two-volume series containing interviews with distinguished world leaders).


Pauline Tangiora (Aotearoa, New Zealand)

Member of the International Steering Committee on Health for Minorities; executive member of the World Council of Indigenous Peoplesí Regional Womenís Committee; member of Rigoberta Menchuís Committee, Indigenous Initiative for Peace; lifetime member of the Maori Womenís Welfare Leagues; director of Maori International; a trained family counselor and justice liaison; in 1989 awarded the Queenís Service Medal for her community work in New Zealand and in 1990 awarded the New Zealand Commemoration Medal.


Erna Witoelar (Indonesia)

Former Minister of Settlements and Regional Development in Indonesia; founder of both the Indonesian Forum for the Environment and Friends of the Environment Fund; former chair of the Consumers International; has had more than thirty years of experience in civil society leadership and decision-making positions at local, national, and international levels; trustee of the Indonesia WWF Foundation; member of the Parliament of the Republic of Indonesia, the steering committee of the Anti Corruption Forum and the Working Group on Civil Society Empowering; recipient of several awards, including the 1996 President of the Republic of Indonesiaís Development Medal on Environment.


Europe

Mikhail Gorbachev (Russia) (Co-chair)

Mikhail Gorbachev served as President of the Soviet Union from 1990-1991 and as General Secretary of the Polit Bureau of the Central Committee, Communist Party of Soviet Union from 1985 to 1991. He is the President and founder of Green Cross International, since 1993; President, International Foundation for Socio -Economic and Political Studies (Gorbachev Foundation), since 1992; Recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize, 1990. Also recipient of the orders of Lenin, of Red Banner of Labour, Badge of Honor. He worked as a machine operator at the Stavropol Agricultural Institute in 1946 and later went to the Moscow State University where he graduated in law.


Pierre Calame (France)

Chief Engineer, Ecole Polytechnique (France). Former General Secretary of Usinor, an iron and steel industrial group. Since 1986, Chairman of the Foundation Charles Leopold Mayer for the Progress of Humankind, a Swiss-based international foundation, mainly devoted to the mobilization of knowledge and experience to assist in facing the major challenges of the next decade. Founding member of the "Alliance for a Responsible and United World ".


Ruud Lubbers (The Netherlands)

Professor of Globalization at the Center for Economic Research of the School of Economics of the Catholic University Brabant at Tilburg Chair Clingendael, Dutch Institute for International Relations; Chair Scientific Institute of the political party Christian Democratic Appeal (CDA); Chair Social Council of the Tinbergen Institute. From 1973 to 1977 he was Minister for Economic Affairs. From 1982 to 1994 he served three times as Prime Minister of The Netherlands. He is former President of WWF.


Federico Mayor (Spain)

Former Director General of UNESCO. From 1963 to 1973, Professor of Biochemistry, Faculty of Pharmacy of the University of Grenada (Spain). One of his major fields of study concerned prenatal biochemistry and the brain of the child, First Director of "Severo Ochoa" Molecular Biology Centre; from 1976 to 1977, Member of the UNESCO Advisory Committee for "Scientific Research and Human Needs".


Henriette Rasmussen (Greenland)

Teacher and journalist, former Member of the Greenland Home Rule Parliament for eleven years serving for four years as a member of the Cabinet, with the responsibility for Social Affairs and Labour. Delegate to the World Conference on Human Rights in Vienna in 1993, where her idea to found a Permanent Forum for the Indigenous Peoples under the United Nations system was recognized widely both by the states as well as the indigenous peoples representatives. Delegate to the Social Summit in Copenhagen, 1995. For many years, she served as Chief Technical Advisor of ILO for the promotion of rights of indigenous and tribal peoples.


Awraham Soeterndorp (The Netherlands)

Rabbi Awraham Soetendorp, was born in Amsterdam in 1943. As an infant he was saved by non Jews during the Second World War. He has then reestablished Jewish communities in the Netherlands and is now the co-chair of the Global Forum of Spiritual and Parliamentary Leaders and founding member of Green Cross International. He is also a human rights activist, writer, ecologist and founder and chair of theHope for Children Foundation" which is aimed to raise 0,1% of the gross yearly income for education of children everywhere.


Latin America and the Caribbean

Mercedes Sosa (Argentina) (Co-chair)

Internationally nown singer and activist. Member of Latin American music school of the "nueva trova". Suffered political exile during the years of dictatorship in Argentina because of her critical approach expressed through her music. Throughout her life she has supported causes related to human rights, dignity of peoples, self determination, preservation and rescue of Latin American values and unity in the region. Solidarity, hope and love are themes always present in her songs.


Leonardo Boff (Brazil)

Internationally recognized theologian. He is doctor in theology and philosophy and has been Franciscan and professor of systematic and ecumenical theology in Petropolis, Rio de Janeiro for more than 20 years. Together with others he is one of the initiators of the ìLiberation Theology,î which shows how to contribute in answering urgent questions of poverty and ecological degradation. He works on a systematic effort to link the spirit of liberation theology with the urgent challenge of ecology. Currently he is professor of ethics and philosophical basis of ecology at the State University of Rio de Janeiro. Author of many books such as Trinity and Society, Ecclesiogenesis, Cry of the Earth, Cry of the Poor, Global Ethos: a minimum consensus among Human Beings, and the classic Jesus Christ Liberator.


Yolanda Kakabadse (Ecuador)

Current Executive President of the FundaciÛn Futuro Latinoamericano and Former President of the World Conservation Union (IUCN). FundaciÛn Futuro Latinoamericano designs and organizes Policy Dialogues among decision makers in Latin America on sustainable development. During the Rio Earth Summit (UNCED) she served as NGO Liaison Officer. Counselor to the Vice President for Environment and Sustainable Development of the World Bank; Senior Advisor to the Global Environment Facility; Member of the board of directors of the Worldwide Fund for Nature International, of the World Commission on Forests and Sustainable Development, and of the World Resources Institutes Global Council.


Shridath Ramphal (Guyana)

Author of Our Country, The Planet. He was secretary-general of the British Commonwealth of Nations and the only person to have served on all five independent international commission on global issues, including the Brandt Independent Commissions on International Development Issues and the Brundtland Commission on Environment and Development. He was president of the World Conservation Union - IUCN in 1990.


North America

Maurice F. Strong (Canada) (Co-chair)

Secretary General of the 1992 United Nations Conference on Environment and Development (the Earth Summit). During 1985-1986, he served as Under-Secretary General of the United Nations and Executive Coordinator of the United Nations Office for Emergency Operations in Africa and was a member of the World Commission on Environment and Development. He was a Secretary General of the United Nations Conference on the Human Environment from 1970 to 1972, and became the first Executive Director of the United Nations Environment Program (UNEP) in 1973. He is an advisor to the United Nations, and serves on the boards of several other public service organizations and Corporations. He is Former President of the University for Peace Council and founding Chairperson of the Earth Council.


John Hoyt (United States of America)

President Emeritus of the Humane Society of the United States since 1970. He was also president of the Center for Respect of Life and Environment, president of EarthKind U.S.A. vice chair of the board of directors of EarthKind International, president of the International Center for Earth Concerns, member of the Grupo de los Cien, president of the Center for Earth Concerns of Costa Rica, member of Board of Advisors of the Albert Schweitzer Institute for the Humanities, and member of the International Advisory Board of the Center for Visionary Leadership. He has served as president of the World Society for the Protection of Animals, and president of the National Association for Humane and Environmental Education. He is author of Animals in Peril: How "Sustainable Use" is Wiping Out the World's Wildlife.


Elizabeth May (Canada)

Environmentalist, writer, activist, broadcaster, and lawyer. Former Executive Director of the Sierra Club of Canada; Member of the board of directors of the International Institute for Sustainable Development; Vice Chair of the National Round Table for the Environment and Economy. She has held the position of Associate General Council for the Public Interest Advocacy Centre representing consumer, poverty and environmental groups. She has been on the boards of Earth Day 1990 and Friends of Earth Canada. She is an Honorary Member of the board for the Canadian Environmental Network; Founder of the Canadian Environmental Defense Fund, Women for a Healthy Planet and Cultural Survival (Canada). In 1996, she received the award for Outstanding Leadership in Environmental Education by the Ontario Society for Environmental Education.


Steven C. Rockefeller (United States of America)

Steven C. Rockefeller has been involved in the Earth Charter initiative since 1995 and has chaired the Earth Charter International Drafting Committee since 1997. He joined the Earth Charter Commission in May 2000. Mr. Rockefeller is professor emeritus of religion at Middlebury College, where he also served as Dean of the College. He is the author or editor of several books and his essays appear in many publications. In recent years his research and writing have focused on global ethics, sustainable development, and the interrelation of democracy, ecology, and spirituality. Professor Rockefeller has served on the boards of many nonprofit organizations. He is former chairman of the Rockefeller Brothers Fund, a New York based foundation with international programs in sustainable resource use, the strengthening of civil society, and education. He is also a trustee of the Asian Cultural Council and The Philanthropic Collaborative and a member of the Council of the University for Peace in Costa Rica.


Severn Cullis Suzuki (Canada)

Severn Cullis Suzuki has been active in environmental work since kindergarten; worked with native peoples in British Columbia, Southeast Asia and the Amazon to protect threatened forests from logging. Adopted into the Raven Clan of the Haida Nation, she was given the name Killthgula Gaayaa, Good Speaker. She Founded the Environmental Childrenís Organization (ECO), a small group which raised money to participate in the Rio Earth Summit in 1992, "to act as a conscience to the decision-makers". Speaking in many venues-the Global Forum, the Earth Parliament, the Plenary Session of the Earth Summit, she is a regular speaker at schools, corporations, conferences and international gatherings on the necessity of changing our values, of listening to children, and of behaving as if their future matters. Also, a television host and presenter, she has participated in a number of programs in Canada, the U.S. and Britain. She has written many articles on environmental issues, and has published a book. She received the Global 500 Award in 1993.

 

EARTH CHARTER INTERNATIONAL COUNCIL


Council Co-Chairs

Steven C. Rockefeller (United States), Co-Chair

Steven C. Rockefeller is professor emeritus of religion at Middlebury College, where he taught for 30 years and also served as dean of the College and chair of the religion department. He received his master of divinity degree from Union Theological Seminary in New York City and his Ph.D. in the philosophy of religion from Columbia University. He is the author of John Dewey: Religious Faith and Democratic Humanism (Columbia, 1991) and the co-editor of two books of essays, The Christ and the Bodhisattva (SUNY, 1987) and Spirit and Nature: Why the Environment is a Religious Issue (Beacon, 1992). His essays appear in a variety of books and journals. In recent years much of his research and writing has focused on global ethics, sustainable development, and the interrelation of democracy, ecology, and spirituality.

Over the past twelve years, Professor Rockefeller has played a leading role in the drafting and promotion of the Earth Charter. He chaired the Earth Charter international drafting committee. Following the launch of the Earth Charter in 2000, he was made a member of the Earth Charter Commission. He currently serves as co-chair of the Earth Charter International Council and as chair of Earth Charter Associates, Ltd., which has been set up to provide the ECI Council with financial and legal assistance. His essays on the history, structure and purpose of the Earth Charter appear in many publications.

Active in the field of philanthropy, Professor Rockefeller has served as a trustee of the Rockefeller Brothers Fund (RBF) for twenty-five years and chaired the Fund's board of trustees from 1998 to 2006. The RBF is an international foundation with programs in democratic practice, sustainable development, peace and security, and arts and culture. Over the past decade Professor Rockefeller has served as a trustee of the Asian Cultural Council, the Council of the University for Peace in Costa Rica, the Philanthropic Collaborative in New York City, and the Wendell Gilley Museum in Southwest Harbor, Maine. He is a member of the High Level Advisory Panel at UNESCO for the UN Decade of Education for Sustainable Development, and he served as the moderator for the launch of the DESD at the UN Headquarters in New York City in 2005. In 1999, the Demeter Fund, of which he is president, established the Charlotte Park and Wildlife Refuge in the Champlain Valley of Vermont in the US.


Razeena Omar (South Africa), Co-Chair

Razeena Omar is a South African citizen who takes a keen interest in monitoring trends, shifts and debates on environment, conservation and education, including policies and implementation issues, and has been a central role player in these fields for a number of years. She holds academic and professional qualifications in the areas of Botany, Zoology, Ecology, Conservation and Education. Subsequent to working in the area of formal education, she joined the World Wide Fund for Nature South Africa (WWF-SA) and was thereafter appointed as Environmental Adviser to the previous National Minister of Education, Professor Kader Asmal for four years (1999-2003). Her work in the Ministry of Education included establishing the National Environmental Education Programme (NEEP), which resulted in Environment being recognised as a key issue in all education and training programmes in South Africa. Dr Omar has also contributed to the professional rigour of environment work through conducting a number of evaluations for example the US-funded Windows on the Wild Programme, and a number of Community-based Conservation and Environmental Education projects. She has presented numerous papers and workshops at provincial, national and international levels, and has produced a number of publications, which have made a significant contribution to the field of the environment.

She has visited and participated in courses in a number of international institutions in Africa, Australia, the USA, the Republic of the Maldives, Denmark and in the UK amongst others. She has also provided advice and guidance to international organisations such as UNESCO. She served on a number of decision-making boards and advisory structures and committees to contribute towards managing the environment sustainably. Dr Omar is currently the Executive Director for People and Conservation at South African National Parks (SANParks).



Council Members

Zainab Bangura (Sierra Leone)

Zainab Bangura is Chief of the Civil Affairs Office for the United Nations Mission in Liberia, a position to which she was named in 2006. She was recently nominated to assume the position of Minister for Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation for the government of Sierra Leone. Zainab began her career as a professional in the field of insurance. She was led into civil society work in response to war in her region in the early 1990s. In 1995 she founded the Women Organized for a Morally Enlightened Nation (W.O.M.E.N) at a time when the military, through the National Provisional Ruling Council (NPRC) governed the country. W.O.M.E.N was the first non-partisan women's political rights organization in the country and played a vital role in the campaign against the military junta. Zainab mobilized thousands of women to confront armed soldiers in pro-democracy street protests. With lack of training and little experience on how to combat thousands of unarmed women, the confused soldiers found themselves receiving orders from Bangura. 'We are your mothers, your sisters, your wives and your daughters,' she told them. 'If you're going to shoot us, then do it now. But, remember, the whole world is watching.' This extraordinary display of courage led to Sierra Leone's first democratic election in 20 years.

In 1996 Zainab launched The Campaign for Good Governance (CGG). As coordinator of the largest local NGO in Sierra Leone, Zainab led the organisation in promoting democratic participation, new civil society organisations, human rights, the rule of law, and the political and economic empowerment of women. CGG's work earned international recognition and Zainab herself was honoured with the 2000 Human Rights Award of the New York-based Lawyers Committee for Human Rights.

Zainab Bangura left CGG to establish the Movement for Progress Party (MOP) in January 2002. The party organised a diverse core team of founding members from the local professional class, academia and grassroots organisation, and Zainab was nominated as the party's presidential candidate and thus the only female candidate. More recently Zainab has worked as a consultant for the UN High Commission for Refugees and the Open Society Initiative.


Mateo A. Castillo Ceja (Mexico)

Mateo A. Castillo Ceja is "Titular de la Unidad Coordinadora de Participacion Social y Transparencia" (responsible for coordinating civil society participation and input to the Mexican government). Previously he served as President of the Ecological State Council of Michoacan, Mexico, and, with many others, has instigated processes of social participation in the development of environmental public policies for a sustainable Mexico. He is an altruistic person who takes part in the world humanitarian movement. He is considered a national expert in the implementation of local Agenda 21. He has been a representative of civil society in Mexico in many forums and international summits. Castillo is the main developer in Mexico of the Earth Charter and the founder of the National Secretariat. He was awarded the Citizen Merit Prize in 2003, and in 2004 he received honorary mention in the National Prize for Ecological Merit. In 2005, he was awarded one of the first Maximaw J. Kalaw Awards for his work in promoting the Earth Charter in Mexico.


Rick Clugston (USA)

Rick Clugston is Vice President of the Human Society of the United States, responsible for its programs on religion and sustainability. He is publisher and editor of Earth Ethics. He also directs the Association of University Leaders for a Sustainable Future and founded the Secretariat for Earth Charter USA. He is the deputy editor of The International Journal of Sustainability in Higher Education (MCB University Publications), and serves on the steering committees of the Forum on Religion and Ecology and the Global Higher Education for Sustainability Partnership.

Prior to coming to Washington, D.C., Dr. Clugston worked for the University of Minnesota for 11 years, first as a faculty member in the College of Human Ecology, and later as a strategic planner in Academic Affairs, Continuing Education and the Office of the President. He was a consultant to the State Department of Education, the Minnesota Business Partnership, and various colleges and school systems on educational improvement and evaluation.

He received his doctorate in Higher Education from the University of Minnesota (1987), and his masters in Human Development from the University of Chicago (1977). As an undergraduate psychology and biochemistry major at the University of Minnesota (1975), he received the Mayo Foundation Scholarship for Medicine and Medicine Related Fields. His doctoral thesis was selected as dissertation of the year by the American Association of University Administrators.


Marianella Curi (Bolivia)

Marianella Curi is a social psychologist experienced in the design of policies for sustainable development and of environmental education for sustainable development. Previously she was Vice-Minister for Natural Resources and Environment, and Undersecretary for the Promotion of Sustainable Development in the government of Bolivia. She was Director of the Bolivian Environmental Defense League, the most extensive network of non-governmental environmental organizations in that country. In 2004, she began working with The Nature Conservancy (TNC) in the position of policy specialist on the BOLFOR II Project, and she represents TNC in Bolivia. She is currently the director of the BOLFOR II Project, which is the largest sustainable forestry management in Bolivia, with financial support from USAID and The Nature Conservancy.

Ms. Curi initiated the creation of the Bolivian Council on Sustainable Development, and was engaged in the process of developing, validating, and promoting the Earth Charter in Bolivia through 2003.


Camila Argolo Godinho (Brazil)

Camila Argolo Godinho is a young Brazilian environmentalist. She received her undergraduate degree in International Business and has a post-graduate degree in Environmental Education. Camila has been working locally, nationally and internationally with youth and environment since 1999.

Camila has developed environmental education projects in slums in the city of Salvador (state of Bahia), and in 2002 she received the Petrobras/Universidade Solidaria Merit Award for the Project Environmental Educators that she developed in the community of Mussurunga.

She was a member of the United Nations Environment Programmee (UNEP) TUNZA Youth Advisory Council from February of 2003 until October of 2005. Camila has developed key activities in the international youth movement towards sustainability, and is also a member of the Commission of Sustainable Development Youth Caucus and Education Caucus. She has been a member of the Earth Charter Youth Initiative since 2002, and is now a member of its Core Group. Camila founded and coordinates an Earth Charter Youth Group in Brazil, where she promotes the Earth Charter among young leaders and poor communities.

Camila currently coordinates the GEO for Youth Project, an initiative of the NGO Interagir in partnership with UNEP, the Brazilian Ministries of Environment and Education, and the National Secretariat of Youth. She is also the coordinator of the Department of Social Activities of the Faculdades Jorge Amado, a well known college in Brazil.


Wakako Hironaka (Japan)

Wakako Hironaka is a Member of Japan's House of Councilors, elected from Chiba Prefecture in July 2004, and is currently serving her fourth term. She is currently serving as Chair of the Research Committee on Economy, Industry and Employment and as a member of the Committee on Education, Culture and Science in the House of Councilors. She is Vice-President of the Democratic Party of Japan. In 1993-94, she was State Minister, Director-General of Environment Agency in the Hosokawa Cabinet. Ms. Hironaka is also active internationally, as a member of the Earth Charter Commission, GLOBE and GEA.

Ms. Hironaka received a B.A. in English from Ochanomizu Women's University and M.A. in Anthropology from Brandeis University. She has written several books, essays, translations, and critiques on education, culture, society, and women's issues, including "Between Two Cultures: Woman - Her Work and Family" (1979), "Politics is Unexpectedly Interesting" (1989), and translations of Ezra Vogel's "Japan as Number One" and Haru Reischauer's "Samurai & Silk (Kinu to Bushi)".


Barbro Holmberg (Sweden)


Photo%20Barbro%20Holmberg.bmpBarbro Holmberg is a social worker from the Stockholm University, a mother of three children and a recognized Swedish Social Democratic politician. She has served for many years the Ministry for Foreign Affairs. In 1999, she became political adviser and also got involved with the Ministry’s Children Project as a project leader. In 2002, she was appointed as the State Secretary for that Ministry, and during the period of 2003 to 2006, she served as the Minister for Asylum and Migration. In addition to her involvement with the Ministry for Foreign Affairs, she also served as the Secretary of the Committee on the Convention on the Rights of the Child and Secretary of the Committee on the Convention on the Rights of the Child. She is the author of several books. The latest one, titled Married or not, does it matter? (1994), deals with issues of women’s rights. Ms. Holmberg has also been the editor of two magazines: The Social Politics Magazine and the Psychology Magazine, a publication for Swedish psychologists. Currently, Ms. Holmberg works as Deputy Member of the Board of the Swedish Riksbank (National Bank) and as a County Governor of one of the counties in Sweden.


Li Lailai (Peoples Republic of China)

Lailai Li received her bachelor's degree in English, and a master's and a doctorate in sociology from the University of Pittsburgh in the United States. Prior to her appointment as Associate Director of the Stockholm Environment Institute, Li Lailai served as the National Program Director of LEAD-China. Previous to that she worked as a research fellow at the Institute of Sociology and Anthropology at Peking University, where her research was focused on the interactions between the Chinese traditional values, agricultural activities and environmental impacts. She also served as Director of Information Resources at LEAD International (part time) from 1997 to 2001. She participated in the development of LEAD's information strategy, thereby fulfilling her interest in exploring the role of information and information technology in the human endeavor toward the greater sustainability of society.

Her research experiences and areas lie in NGO development to meet the functional requirement / challenge of the society and exploration of alternative development paths toward global sustainability.


Song Li (Peoples Republic of China/USA)

Song Li is a consultant to the World Bank. Her main responsibilities include advising on environmental project preparation in the African region and China, with particular focus on energy efficiency, renewable energy, climate change adaptation, land degradation, and fisheries. She is part of the team to advise on project financing and use of different World Bank and GEF financial instruments.

From 1996 to 2004, Song Li served as Senior Environment Specialist with the Global Environment Facility (GEF). Her major tasks included managing capacity building projects for countries to implement the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change, Convention on Biological Diversity, and Desertification Convention. Previously, Song Li served as Senior Program Officer for the Secretariat of the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD), UNEP, responsible for the financial mechanism and funding policy and program priorities; and as Director for the division of environmental law, Treaty and Law Department, Ministry of Foreign Affairs, People's Republic of China, she represented China at negotiations for global environmental conventions and at Rio Conference on Environment and Development in 1992.

She holds an L.LM with a focus on Environmental Law from George Washington University, a Certificate in public international law from the Institute of Diplomacy of China, and a Masters in French literature from University Paris III.


Alexander Likhotal (Russia / Switzerland)

Alexander Likhotal is currently president of Green Cross International. He received his Ph.D in Political Science in 1972 from the Institute of International Affairs in Moscow, the subject of his thesis being 'The Shaping of the British Security Policy'. He started his academic career as a lecturer at the Moscow State Institute of International Affairs, where he became senior research fellow at the Diplomatic Academy of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in the USSR. In 1988 he became Professor of Political Science and International Relations at the Diplomatic Academy, and in the same year was appointed Vice Rector.

During the wake of Gorbachev's perestroika, being already a well known expert in the field of European security, he received a proposal to become the chief analyst of NATO politics in the International Department of the Central Committee of the CSPU - one of the Soviet foreign policy co-ordination bodies.

In 1991 Alexander Likhotal was appointed Deputy Spokesman and Adviser to the President of the USSR. He has been since then an advisor to Mr Gorbachev, founder of Green Cross, for many years.


Brendan Mackey (Australia)

Brendan Mackey has a PhD in tropical forest ecology, and is a Professor of environmental science at The Australian National University, Canberra. Brendan's research and teaching is in the areas of global environmental change and biodiversity conservation, including the challenge of conservation planning in extensive intact country where indigenous interests are paramount. He Co-Chairs the IUCN Ethics Specialist Group, is a member of the Global Ecological Integrity Group, and currently serves as President of the Australian National Sustainability Initiative. He is an Associate Editor for the international journal "Environmental Conservation" published by Cambridge University Press. Brendan has a long-standing commitment to the Earth Charter Initiative. He served on the drafting committee, and participated in numerous regional consultations, including an Australian national forum he convened. Prof Mackey also served as Chair of the Earth Charter education advisory committee during the initiative's second phase. Brendan has written extensively on themes related to environmental science, conservation, and the Earth Charter, in particular, on the significance of ecological integrity to world ethics for sustainability.


Elizabeth May (Canada)

Elizabeth May is an environmentalist, writer, activist, and lawyer. She is the elected leader of the Green Party of Canada since 2006. Prior to that, she served as Executive Director of the Sierra Club of Canada since 1989. She is a former member of the Board of the International Institute of Sustainable Development and is former vice-chair of the National Round Table on the Environment and the Economy. In 1999, Dalhousie University created a permanent chair in her honour, the Elizabeth May Chair in Women's Health & the Environment. She has received numerous rewards, including the United Nations Global 500 award and three honourary doctorates. She is the author of five books (the 6th is in press). In 2005 Elizabeth May was honoured to be appointed as an Officer to the Order of Canada.


Oscar Motomura (Brazil)

Oscar Motomura is the founder and Chief Executive Officer of the Amana-Key Group, a center for excellence in management, a network of associates with global reach, based in Sao Paulo, Brazil. The purpose is to serve as a world reference for radical innovation in management that is capable of generating genuine development of people, organizations, communities, and the greater whole. The Amana-Key Group has adopted the Earth Charter as a global reference for its education programs and innovation retreats. Thousands of leaders from corporations and the government take Amana-Key programs every year, where their awareness of global issues affecting all of humanity is expanded along with their understanding the importance of contributing to our collective evolution, through ethical and conscious management practices.


Dumisani Nyoni (Zimbabwe)

Dumisani (also "Dumi") Nyoni is a graduate of Psychology from Cambridge College, in the United States, works on the coordinating team of Pioneers of Chang, a global network of young leaders, activists, social entrepreneurs and change agents between 25-35 interested in understanding and have an impact on the systems that affect the communities, insitutions and societies around them.

Dumisani is a youth activist, leader, motivator and consultant with a range of experiences from building and coordinating global action networks, facilitating large and small gatherings, workshops and conferences as well as advising organizations on strategy development, team building and the inclusion and participation of youth in programs and processes.

Having perviously worked with the Earth Council at its former Headquarters in Costa Rica, Dumisani helped to launch the youth component of the international Earth Charter Initiative for which he continues to act as an advisor. Dumisani has also worked as a Youth Coordinator at the Youth Employment Summit (YES) Campaign, where he helped to organize the first global summit on Youth Employment, and to establish YES Country Networks in over 70 countries which are youth-led multi-stakeholder coalitions that are launching projects around the world to create sustainable livelihoods for youth.

Dumisani serves as an advisor and board member to innovative organizations globally such as TakingITGlobal, EnVision Leadership, EcoVentures International, the Global Youth ACTION Network, The Sweet Mother Tour, IDEAS and Zimele Institute at the Organization of Rural Associations for Progress (ORAP) in Zimbabwe. He is also a writer and a keen musician.


Henriette Rasmussen (Greenland)

Henriette Rasmussen (b. 1950) is an educator and journalist from Greenlandic. She has also attended politics in her country, as member of the municipal council in Nuuk, the capitol, and as member of the parliament in the Home Rule, twice serving as minister in the Government in two periods, 1991-95 and 2003-05. She was one of the pioneers to the fight for the rights of women and the rights of indigenous peoples' internationally. She worked as Chief Technical Advisor for International Labour Office in Geneva, Switzerland 1996-2000. She was instrumental in the creation of the Permanent Forum for Indigenous Issues in UN, New York in 2002. She joints the Earth Charter Commission in 1997 and became member of the EC International Council, which she will attend until 2009.


Alide Roerink (The Netherlands)

Alide Roerink(1958, the Netherlands) is anthropologist and has been involved over the years in networking, advocacy and policy development for gender justice, international solidarity and global governance. Alide Roerink was coordinator of Vrouwenberaad Ontwikkelingssamenwerking, a network of gender experts in development agencies in the Netherlands. Since 2000 she is with the National Committee for International Cooperation and Sustainable Development (NCDO) in the capacity of ‘Advisor International Relations’ and member of the NCDO management team. Alide coordinates the NCDO Earth Charter programme and the Round Table of Worldconnectors for People and the Planet (www.worldconnectors.nl). Alide Roerink is board member of the Alliance for the University for Peace, NVVN (United Nations Associations Netherlands) and SIGN (Schoolfeeding Initiative Ghana Netherlands). NCDO is Affiliate to the Earth Charter Inititiative for the Netherlands and cooperated with the Earth Charter Initiative in the launch of the Earth Charter in 2000 in the Peace Palace in The Hague and in the Earth Charter+5 event in 2005 in Amsterdam. Alide Roerink initiated and co-edited the book ‘Earth Charter in Action. Towards a Sustainable World’. Alide Roerink was Advisor to the Earth Charter Initiative before she joined the Council.


Mohamed Sahnoun (Algeria)

Ambassador Mohamed Sahnoun is former Special Adviser to the Secretary General of the United Nations, on the Horn of Africa region. Mr. Sahnoun has had a distinguished diplomatic career serving as Adviser to the President of Algeria on diplomatic affairs, Deputy Secretary-General of the Organization of African Unity (OAU), and Deputy Secretary-General of the League of Arab States in charge of the Arab-Africa dialogue. He has served as Algeria's Ambassador to the United States, France, Germany, and Morocco, as well as to the United Nations (UN).

Previously, he served as Special Adviser to the Director General of the United Nations Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) for the Culture of Peace Programme, Special Envoy of the Secretary-General on the Ethiopian/Eritrean conflict (1998-1999), Joint Representative of the UN and the OAU in the Great Lakes region (1997), Special Representative of the UN Secretary General to Somalia (1992). He was a member of the World Commission on Environment and Development (the Brundtland Commission) in the 1980s, as well as Senior Adviser to the Secretary General of the United Nations Conference on Environment and Development in 1992.

Mr. Sahnoun studied first at the Sorbonne University, in Paris, and than at New York University, where he received his Bachelor of Arts and Master of Arts degrees in political science.


Kartikeya V. Sarabhai (India)

Kartikeya V. Sarabhai is the founder director of the Centre for Environment Education (CEE), a national institution engaged in promoting environmental awareness and conservation as well as education for sustainable development.

Starting small in Ahmedabad in 1984, CEE today works at the national and international level with a staff of over 200 professionals and 40 offices across India as well as in Australia and Sri Lanka. In 2005, CEE received the Global award for 'Outstanding Service to Environmental Education' from the North American Association for Environmental Education (NAAEE). Mr.Sarabhai also set up "VIKSAT" an NGO working towards people's participation in natural resource management as well as "Sundervan" a nature discovery centre.

Mr. Sarabhai has served on several committees of the Ministry of Environment and Forests and the Ministry of Human Resource Development, Government of India. These include greening India's formal education system and initiatives for biodiversity education. Mr. Sarabhai has long been associated with IUCN, and was the Chair of South and South-East Asia, IUCN Commission on Education and Communication. He is currently Vice Chair of the Indian National Commission. Mr. Sarabhai was instrumental in initiating SASEANEE, the South and Southeast Asian Network for EE. He was a member of the Indian delegation to UNCED at Rio and WSSD at Johannesburg and was co-author of India's report for UNCED. He has been closely associated with communications initiatives of UNEP, especially those connected with Ozone. Mr. Sarabhai has set up collaborative partnerships for CEE with international agencies such as the United States National Parks Service; United States Fish and Wildlife Service; Field Studies Council, U.K.; World Resources Institute, USA; and the South Asia Co-operative Environment Programme and the UNDP GEF Small Grants Programme for which CEE is the National Host Institute. Under his leadership CEE organized the first International Conference of the Decade of Education for Sustainable Development in January 2005.

Mr. Sarabhai received the 'Tree of Learning Award' from The World Conservation Union in 1998 in appreciation of his contributions to the field of environmental education and communication. In 2005, The Indian Institute of Human Rights presented Mr. Sarabhai with the "World Human Rights Promotion Award".


Tommy Short (USA)

Tommy Short is Chairman of Earth Council Alliance, a non-profit organization dedicated to fostering a sustainable global society based on the principles of the Earth Charter. He is an international business man and philanthropist who has long supported sustainability projects around the world. In the past two decades, he has traveled extensively in the Americas, Europe, Africa, and Asia, working with local communities and organizations to identify and fund projects that support the environment, youth, and the arts. As co-founder and chairman of the Earth Council Alliance, Mr. Short has taken further strides in identifying opportunities and communicating sustainability to numerous organizations with co-founder, Maurice Strong.


Mary Evelyn Tucker (USA)

Mary Evelyn Tucker received her PhD from Columbia University in East Asian religions. She was recently named to a dual appointment with the Yale Divinity School and the Yale School of Forestry and Environmental Studies. Along with her husband, John Grim, she is founder and coordinator of the Forum on Religion and Ecology, an international network of some 5000 people. Together they organized a ten-conference series on World Religions and Ecology at Harvard's Center for the Study of World Religions. They are series editors of the 10 volumes published by Harvard from this series. She co-edited the volumes on the ecological dimensions of Confucianism, Buddhism, and Hinduism. They are also editors of a series of 18 books on Ecology and Justice from Orbis Books. Tucker has been a committee member of the Interfaith Partnership for the Environment at the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) since 1986 and is vice president of the American Teilhard Association. She was a member of the Earth Charter International Drafting Committee.

She has published Worldly Wonder: Religions Enter Their Ecological Phase (Open Court Press, 2003) and edited two volumes on Confucian Spirituality with Tu Weiming, Her newest books are an edited volume of Thomas Berry's papers titled Evening Thoughts: Reflecting of the Earth as Sacred Community (Sierra Club Books and University of California Press, 2006), and The Record of Great Doubts: The Philosophy of Ch'i (Columbia University Press, 2007).


Erna Witoelar (Indonesia)

Erna Witoelar was appointed in October 2003 as UN Special Ambassador for MDGs in Asia & the Pacific. She is the former Minister of Human Settlements and Regional Development (1999-2001) and a former member of the National Assembly of Indonesia. She currently serves as chairperson of the Indonesia Biodiversity Foundation (KEHATI), co-chair of the Partnership for Governance Reform in Indonesia, and an Earth Charter Commissioner. Before joining the Indonesian government, she pursued a long career in civil society and led the Indonesian Consumer Foundation (YLKI), founded and led both the Indonesia Forum for the Environment (WALHI) and Friends of the Environment Fund (DML), among others. At the global level she was elected as President of Consumers International (1991-1997), was member of the Commission on Developing Countries and Global Changes (1990-1992), and was member of the Advisory Committee on Industry and Sustainable Development of the Brundlandt Commission (1985-1986). She is at present the board member of several civil society organizations at national and international levels, incl. chairing the YIPD (Foundation for Local Governance Innovation), and serves as Advisor to both the Indonesian Association of Municipalities and Association of Districts. She is a recipient of the UNEP Global 500 Award during the Rio Summit in 1992, the Earth Day International Award at the UN in 1993, and the Indonesian Presidential Medal for the Environment in 1995.


ECI STAFF

Earth Charter Internacional Secretariat and

Earth Charter Center for Education for Sustainable Development at UPEACE
San José, Costa Rica

Mirian Vilela, Executive Director
Betty McDermott, Project Coordinator
Marina Bakhnova, Project Coordinator
Alicia Jimenez, Project Coordinator
Lisa Jokivirta, Intern (Education)
Dominic Stucker, International Youth Coordinator

Earth Charter Program on Religion and Sustainability
(Satellite Office)
Heidelberg, Germany
Michael Slaby, Inter-faith Coordinator