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Part 9: THE COMMISSION ON GLOBAL GOVERNANCE
The commission on global governance was established in 1992 in the belief that international developments had created favourable circumstances for strengthening global co-operation to create a more peaceful, just habitable world for all its people. The first step leading to its formation were taken by former West German Chancellor Willy Brandt, who a decade earlier had chaired the Independent Commission on Internacional Development Issues. A meeting he convened in January 1990 asked Ingvar Carlsson (prime Minister of Sweden), Shridath Ramphal (then Commonwealth Secretary-General) and Jen Pronk (Netherlands Minister for Development Co-operation) to prepare a report on the new prospects for world co-operation. Some three dozen public figures who met in Stockholm in April 1991 to consider this report proposed, in their Stockholm Initiative on Global Security and Governance, that an international commission should recommend ways by which world security and governance could be improved, given the opportunities created by the end of the cold war for enhanced co-operation. Willy Brandt, after consulting Gro Harlem Brundtland and Julius Nyerere, who had headed two previous commissions, invited Ingavar Carlsson and Shridath Ramphal to chair the new commission. The Commission, with twenty-eight members all serving personal capacity, started work in September 1992. The Commission held eleven meetings, six in Geneva (where its secretariat was established) and the others in New York, Cuernavaca (Mexico), Tokyo, Brussels, and Visby (Sweden). It commissioned a number of papers; it had discussions with several of their authors, a number of persons from public life, and representatives of many civil society organizations. Discussions on key issues on the Commission's agenda were arranged by the Common Security Forum, the Norwegian Ministry for Foreign Affairs and the Center for the study of Global Governance at the London School of economics. The UN University co-hosted a public symposium with the Commission in Tokyo. Regional consultations with experts were arranged, with the collaboration of local organizations, in San Jose (Costa Rica), Cairo and New Delhi. Support for the Commission's work was provided by the governments of Canada, Denmark, India , Indonesia, Netherlands, Norway, Sweden, and Switzerland, two UN Trust Funds established by Japan, the Canton of Geneva, the government of Mexico City, the European Commission, the Arab Fund for Economic and Social Developments (Kuwait), the MacArthur Foundation, the Carnegie Corporation and the Ford Foundation (all of the United States), the World Humanity Action Trust (United Kingdom), and the Friedrich Ebert Stiftung (Germany). The Commission decided at an early stage to remain active in effort to disseminate its report, OUR GLOBAL NEIGHBOURHOOD, and to promote its ideas and recommendations. These will be pursued through speaking engagements, seminars and workshops; work with governments, international organizations, NGOs, the media; and the distribution of material. The Commission's secretariat will continue to function in order coordinate this work: The Commission on Global Governance, Case Postale 184, CH-1211 GENEVA 28Switzerland, Tel: +41 22 798 2713, Fax: +41 22 798 0147
CO-CHAIRMEN
Ingvar Carlsson ---------------Sweden MEMBERS
Ali Alatas ----------------------Indonesia |