The origins and history of the Green Charters and their position today

Information sources and referenced used helpful to understanding this paper:

• The Great Green Charter and the International Green Charter
• Glossary of Terminology (Definition of terms such as Jamahiriya)

The full name of the original document in Arabic is:

الوثيقة الخضراء الكبرى لحقوق الانسان فى عصر الجماهير

This translates approximately to "The Great Green Document of Human Rights in the Era of the Masses"

For the purpose of this paper we will refer to this the "Great Green Charter" for short.

The GGC was proclaimed in the Great Jamahiriya (Libya) on 12th June, 1988.

The International Green Charter (IGC) with the same 27 articles but with a different preamble and post script, was proclaimed in London, England, on 12th June 1999.

Both of them, given the articles are the same, are referred to as the "Green Charter".

The Green Charter: unique in the history of human rights

There are several important factors that make the Great Green Charter unique:

• It came from deliberations of around a million people gathered in some 2,200 conferences held around Libya, with a few also held abroad, simultaneously
• It is the most mass-produced grass-roots document in history, its articles resulting from that large participation, and thus has a powerful moral force
• As it was not drafted by a committee or government but by around a million free citizens it contains human rights like no other, such as the right to people's power

The Great Green Charter, being issued naturally in the main language of Libya, Arabic, and in accordance with its the circumstances that brought it about, namely the convocations of thousands of Popular Conferences embracing close to a million people, the document included a pre-amble and post-script that reflected these historic circumstances, and paid tribute to the Libyan revolutionary leader that had made it possible. It also contained the word "Jamahiriya" which means "self-governing state of the masses", a society or nation where the people rule themselves by themselves, without a government, rather themselves being the decision-makers gathered in their popular conference sessions, and the executors taking responsibility for their decisions in the administrative people's committees.

For this reason, with a view to popularizing the Green Charter around the world, and as a basis for a new human rights movement, some individuals gathered in London 11 years later, with the purpose to adopt the articles and proclaim them, in the English language, to enable many more people to become aware of their rights, without being hampered by references to the Libyan Jamahiriya in the preamble, and the post-script.

The original International Green Charter publications sometimes used the word "civil society" in lieu of Jamahiriya, and later additions have used the word "Freepublic".

The Green Charter rights are surely some of the most advanced human rights in the world, and include the rights to direct democracy and to struggle for freedom.

The Green Charter is an important weapon in the arsenal of revolutionary committees and those struggling for a world of freedom based on a strong culture of human rights.

For this reason it serves as a helpful unifying Charter which can be adopted as a Manifesto to unite diverse communities and movements around its common principles.

Indeed, where it is submitted to any organization or movement for adoption, to show their commitment to its principles, and rejected, then this is an immediate and clear sign to the masses that this particular group has different motives.

On the other hand, where it is adopted, it sets the clear human rights, principles and parameters that must not be violated by those adopting it, such as the movements of revolutionary committees.

Naturally, wherever new Freepublics emerge in the world, the masses gathered in popular conferences can again discuss their human rights and freedoms, perhaps using the Green Charter as a starting point.

They may adopt, modify, or replace it via the process of consensus in the conferences, for the people in the Freepublic pass their own legislation suited to their circumstances, aspirations, beliefs and requirements.

For it to have the moral weight and equivalence, however, at least one million free people should again participate in the formation of any new human rights charter.

Unless and until then, let us make good use of the Green Charter and share it widely while working to bring these rights into reality in our various communities.

References:

• The Great Green Charter and the International Green Charter
• Glossary of Terminology (Definition of terms such as Jamahiriya)