Global Contract Report
The discussion paper defines the term "global treaty" and sets out evaluation criteria for potential global treaties. The criteria developed are to be discussed, applied and further developed in the future when analyzing potential global treaties together with science and politics.
The report begins with a rough description and embedding in the foundation's global ethical view. On the way to a global sustainable political order, a paradigm shift is necessary in various respects, especially changes to global, future-oriented and interdisciplinary thinking as well as intercultural understanding.
A central theme of the Global Contract Report is the definition of the term global contract:
A global treaty is a multilateral agreement between key actors – currently primarily state or supranational actors – that effectively regulates a significant issue of global relevance against the background of a sustainable and eco-social global political order or provides for the establishment of institutions to regulate such issues. Such a treaty
• deals with and regulates important issues
• has global relevance
• enables democratic legitimacy of the actors
• is legally binding and has global scope
• provides effective incentive and sanction mechanisms,
• regulates the financing of its practical implementation clearly and transparently
• establishes appropriate and supportive institutions and enables flexible decision-making processes
• avoids serious loopholes within the contract
In addition, a global treaty should also meet the following normative criteria:
• Promote sustainability
• observe the principle of justice
• Keep the peace
• respect and protect human rights
• be oriented towards the common good of the world and do not stand in the way of this.
Such multilateral agreements are currently concluded in the form of international agreements, protocols or conventions, international pacts, general declarations, statutes, by-laws, acts, conventions or declarations.
The definition is close to the understanding of the term “global governance”. However, the term world contract looks at the subject from a more legal perspective.
The report itself presents the individual formal and normative criteria in more detail. They can be used to examine whether an international framework represents a global contract, i.e. whether it meets all criteria, or whether individual criteria are not met and therefore no global contract exists. In addition, the report also works out the differences between a global contract and a global social contract.
The report is aimed at a broad, interested public. It consciously strives to use simple language. This enables the reader to understand what is already regulated in the relevant documents and why these agreements, declarations, reports, protocols and treaties are so important for everyday life. On the other hand, however, it also highlights the opportunity that lies in shaping the international framework for global treaties. In practice, this means ensuring that the criteria set out in the definition are taken into account. The aim is to arouse the reader's interest in this topic and to raise awareness of treaty negotiations such as those in Rio 1992, Kyoto 1997 or Johannesburg 2002.
At the same time, the criteria established for defining the term "global contract" should serve as a conceptual basis for discussion in science and politics. These should - where appropriate and possible together with the Global Contract Foundation - apply, review and further develop the definition in practice. The topic of "global contract" will probably be relevant for several decades to come, or will probably grow in importance.