African Green Charter | African Green Federation
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African Green Charter

Preamble

We, members of the African Greens Movement and citizens of Africa, United in our awareness that we depend on the Earth’s vitality, diversity and beauty, and that it is our responsibility to pass them on, undiminished or even improved, to the next generation Recognising that the dominant patterns of human production and consumption, based on the dogma of economic growth at any cost and the excessive and wasteful use of natural resources without considering Earth’s carrying capacity, are causing extreme deterioration in the environment and a massive extinction of species.

Acknowledging that injustice, racism, poverty, ignorance, corruption, crime and violence, armed conflict and the search for maximum short term profit are causing widespread human suffering

Accepting that developed countries through their pursuit of economic and political goals have contributed to the degradation of the environment and of human dignity

Understanding that many of the world’s peoples and nations have been impoverished by the long centuries of colonisation and exploitation, creating an ecological debt owed by the rich nations to those that have been impoverished

Committed to closing the gap between rich and poor and building a citizenship based on equal rights for all individuals in all spheres of social, economic, political and cultural life Recognising that without equality between men and women, no real democracy can be achieved

Concerned for the dignity of humanity and the value of cultural heritage Recognising the rights of indigenous people and their contribution to the common heritage, as well as the right of all minorities and oppressed peoples to their culture, religion, economic and cultural life

Convinced that cooperation rather than competition is a pre-requisite for ensuring the guarantee of such human rights as nutritious food, comfortable shelter, health, education, fair labour, free speech, clean air, potable water and an unspoilt natural environment Recognising that the environment ignores borders between countries

Building on the Declaration of the Global Gathering of Greens at Rio in 1992 and Global Green Charter, Cambera, 2001,