Declaring COVID-19 the Ultimate Failure of Leadership, Citizens of 43 Countries and Territories Together Release "Declaration of Interdependence"

NEW YORK, May 12, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- Declaring the COVID-19 pandemic the ultimate failure of our world's leaders to address our greatest collective threats—including deadly pandemics, climate change, ecosystem destruction, and proliferating weapons of mass destruction—citizens of 43 countries and territories who have together formed the global social movement OneShared.World today officially released the Declaration of Interdependence.

Drafted collectively with input from hundreds of people around the world, the Declaration demands that the leaders of all nations—as well as transnational groups such as the United Nations, the G7, and G20—place core principles of interdependence at the heart of their agendas.

"When our world collapsed in the 1930s and 40s," OneShared.World founder Jamie Metzl said, "we had leaders like Franklin D. Roosevelt and Winston Churchill to lead us. In the absence of equivalent leadership today, people from across the globe have come together to lead ourselves out of the current darkness and toward a better world for everyone. The Declaration of Interdependence is our collective anthem."

"We can't wait for leaders to save us. It's now time for all 7.7 billion of us to step forward together to save ourselves," said Professor Paula Rayman, a lead organizer of the movement, the former director of the Harvard Radcliffe Public Policy Center, and a leading expert on the transformative power of social movements.

Responding to the vacuum in global leadership and the mismatch between the global nature of our greatest challenges and the predominantly national way we are organized to meet them, OneShared.World seeks to fundamentally alter the global power structure so that the most pressing common needs of all people can be collectively addressed.

The Declaration's core principles include:

Supporting the establishment of a predictive, preventive, and responsive infrastructure to protect us from shared existential threats;

Ensuring that the most disempowered among us may enjoy the same essential liberties as the prominent and powerful, that our human commonality is celebrated within the context of our essential diversity, and that our equally worthy lives may be lived in dignity;

Working directly and through our communities, organizations, entities, and nations to safeguard our common humanity and shared home;

Forging a safe and sustainable global environment for all the species and ecosystems on our planet;

Guaranteeing the health, safety, and well-being of all children and all people and to ensure that they have equitable education, health care, and security;

Supporting and sharing artistic expression in all its forms to help engender connection, respect, meaning, and communication across cultures; and

Upholding and promoting human fellowship through mutual consideration, respect, empathy, and kindness.

Available in Arabic, simplified and traditional Chinese, Dutch, French, German, Hindi, Italian, and Spanish (and soon many other languages), the full English text is linked here. The Declaration follows OneShared.World's call for the world's citizens to sign a Pledge of Interdependence.

OneShared.World will drive tangible progress toward addressing our greatest common existential challenges and improving the lives of everyone on earth, particularly the most vulnerable. The fully inclusive global social movement and political force has additionally announced the launch of emergency action agendas to strengthen global public health infrastructure and support the most vulnerable populations in the Southern Hemisphere, the first of several such agendas focused on specific problems.

OneShared.World has also issued a call to artists around the world to share all forms of creative expression celebrating our shared humanity through the hashtag #onesharedworld.

In addition to Metzl and Rayman, members of the leadership team include former Asia Society President Vishakha Desai, Age Wave CEO and author Ken Dychtwald, philanthropy professional Betsy Fader, social activist Vanessa Gotthainer, Matarin Capital co-founder Nili Gilbert, Family Office Exchange executive Miguel Lopez de Silanes, Professor and Dean Luchen Li, university president Mary Papazian, journalist Isha Sesay, and Risk Global executive Klaus Thalmann. Other notable participants include percussionist and composer Susie Ibarra, former Missouri Governor Bob Holden, leading conservationist Enric Sala, and many others around the world of all ages, backgrounds, and orientations.

"Once we recognize we are all interdependent, that our security and well-being reside in each other and in the ecosystem we share, we'll realize that helping others is not charity but one of the best investments we can make in helping ourselves," said Metzl. "Our greatest global problems are shared. If we come together as one humanity to face them, so can be the solutions."

More on the movement, translated texts of the Declaration and Pledge, and essential links are at OneShared.World.

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SOURCE OneShared.World