One World Now Logo

Mission Statement

Mission Statement Of One World Now And An Open Letter To All World Citizens

It is time for all of us to face up to the realities of the world as it is in this new century, a century, as Ted Turner stated at the World Federalist Awards Dinner, that is "critical to the survival of humankind". Whether it is terrorism, global warming, AIDS, the plight of the world's children in so many places, world hunger, human rights abuses, population instability, nuclear proliferation, decline of plant and animal species, corruption of the multi-national corporations, general economic turmoil, or any of the other numerous global crises facing the 21st century world, humankind simply is not, as things presently stand and as our governance is presently structured, ready and able to cope with them.

The Nation State structure of governance - with an impotent United Nations and being totally dependent, for what little global governance we now have, upon the cumbersome, unreliable and unpredictable treaty process -- simply cannot deal with these searing, ever-dangerous and potentially terminal global problems.

Indeed, America itself has shown a proclivity either to follow Bismark ("treaties are made to be broken") and break our treaties as we did with regard to the American Indians (such as my Choctaw and Cherokee ancestors, recounted in the "Trail of Tears"), or refuse to enter into them, as President Bush is now doing with regard to the Kyoto Protocol (Global Warming Treaty), the Treaty on the International Criminal Court and the Treaty concerning land mines.

With a structure of real global governance -- one with a legislative body that can, with appropriate checks and balances, enact binding laws on global matters or, in other words, a global structure that is democratized and empowered -- at least we will be giving ourselves a chance to save the world. Without such a structure of global governance we have no such chance, we are surely doomed and a cruel, agonizing, insidious and slow slide into Armageddon will be our terrible fate, much like T. S. Elliot's description of how the world will end, "not with a bang but with a whimper".

Your first reaction, I am sure, is that we've gone off the utopian deep end. But think about what we are proposing! We are proposing the greatest peaceful revolution the world has ever known. We are going to make this happen through the force of People Power.

In my travels throughout the world as an international lawyer, I have found out first-hand that there is a great aquifer of People Power just below the surface, just waiting to be tapped, to be aroused, to be mobilized and to be led in a march toward global governance. The fact that most of the political and economic power structures of the Western World will be opposed to this inexorable journey to global governance, will not be enough to stop it from happening. Despite all of the terrible legacies of the Twentieth Century, the world's bloodiest and dirtiest (pollution wise) century, it had a few shining moments -- the instances in which the people prevailed over colonialism, military dictatorships, monarchies, and other forms of tyranny and oppression.

Probably the greatest example of People Power is the second Russian Revolution, when the second most powerful ideology, communism, and the second most powerful Nation State of the Twentieth Century, the U.S.S.R., fell almost without a shot being fired. We believe with all of our hearts that a democratized and empowered United Nations can be created through just such a bloodless revolution engineered by People Power.

The People Power for this revolution is there. It is the goal of One World Now, and other NGO's and grass-roots organizations working with us, to activate and set off this waiting time bomb, so that the explosion of People Power can resonate throughout the world. The mechanism through which People Power will create this structure of global governance is to comprehensively amend the U.N. Charter through Article 109 of the present Charter. Article 109 provides for the calling of a "Charter Review Conference" upon a 2/3rds vote of the General Assembly and the great thing about Article 109 is that the vote to call such a conference is not subject to veto by any of the five nations with the single-nation veto power (Russia, China, France, Great Britain and the U.S.).

One World Now launched this great crusade at the Summit on Sustainable Development held in Johannesburg, South Africa, August 26 through September 4, 2002. We are asking all World Citizens to become soldiers at the barricades of this revolution and an active part of the People Power necessary to make the revolution a success, and to do the following:

  1. Sign the attached Petition, which exhorts the leaders of your country, as well as the leaders of all Nation-States to vote for the call of a Charter Review Conference under Article 109 of the UN Charter. Article 109 is quoted in the attached petition.
  2. Join all of our efforts, as well as taking initiatives of your own, in demanding that an Article 109 Conference be called by the General Assembly of the UN. Be as vocal as possible in that effort.
  3. Obtain from the One World Now website, or request by mail, Fax or telephone a copy of the OWN's outline of the proposed new UN Charter (see information below). Send in, to OWN's Charter Review Committee, any deletions, additions or changes you might want to suggest. Participate in the process of dialogue about the proposed new UN Charter.
  4. Become a dedicated missionary for the cause and actively persuade others to join this crusade.
  5. Give financial support to this crusade to the extent that you can comfortably do so.
  6. Contact officials of your national government, urging them to support the call for an Article 109 Conference. Exert the fullest pressure possible upon such leaders to bring about your nation's official joinder in the call.

Once 2/3rds of the members of the General Assembly are persuaded, by this vast array of People Power, to make the call of an Article 109 Charter Review Conference, OWN's Charter Review Committee will present to that Conference a consensus proposed new or comprehensively amended Charter ("Consensus Charter"). This Consensus Charter will have been prepared from the suggestions made by World Citizens during the dialoguing process. The Charter Review Committee will try to reconcile all of these suggestions without eliminating the basic principles of the initial draft of the Charter prepared by OWN.

Once the Article 109 Charter Review Conference has adopted a new or comprehensively amended Charter, you, along with the millions of World Citizens who will be participating in this revolution, will be called upon to campaign for ratification of the new Charter by each citizen's own nation.

We will all pursue ratification until 2/3rds of the members of the General Assembly, including the five nations who are the present permanent members of the Security Counsel (U.S., Russia, China, Britain and France), have ratified the new or comprehensively amended Charter. At that point, the ultimate goal of this great revolution and the noble mission of One World Now - the creation of a democratized and empowered United Nations - will have become a reality and humankind will have truly begun its journy to salvation. In doing this, the World will be truly placed on the road to salvation.

As President of One World Now, I ask you, your family and all of your friends and acquaintances to become a soldier and missionary in this, the greatest revolution in the history of humankind. I also request that you and your family join One World Now and give us your full support. An application to become a member of One World Now is available on-line or by contacting OWN's office.

Sincerely,


Benton Musslewhite
President, One World Now

1705 West Gray, Ste. A
Houston, Texas 77019
USA

Tel:(713) 528-2000
Fax:(713) 526-8568
E-mail:info@one-world-now.com