ABSTRACT: In Stockholm on 22 April 1991, representatives of 29 countries signed a Document on "Global Government and Security". The document, which constitutes a basis for political commitment and action, affirms the need to create a security system, at international and regional level, which is not based on the military force of individual powers. "Peace and security -- it states -- will not be obtained if international co-operation is not extended to the question of the threats arising from failures in development, the degradation of the environment and the lack of progress along the path to democracy.

(The Party New, n.2, July 1991)

The world's leaders must act with decision to build a new system of peace and security at both global and regional levels.

Peace and security will not be obtained if international co-operation is not extended to the question of the threats arising from failures in development, the degradation of the environment and the lack of progress along the path to democracy. The injustices which prevail in the world are a constant threat to the security of nations and peoples. The growing economic and environmental interdependence has not been managed with adequate instruments of global co-operation. More than ten years ago the ex-Chancellor of West Germany,Willy Brandt,created an international North-South Commission. In 1980, the Commission presented its analyses and its proposals for the improvement of relations between industrialized and developing nations. In his report Willy Brandt wrote: "When starvation rules, peace cannot prevail. Those who want to eliminate war must also eliminate poverty. Morally it makes no difference whether a human being is killed in war or is condemned to die of starvation due to the indifference of others."

The governments of the key countries, whilst they accepted the idea of a first North-South summit (held in 1981 in Cancoon), rejected most of the recommendations in favour of a profound change in international economic relations.

The response to the second report, "Common Crisis", centred on the subjects of debt and energy, was much the same.

In the face of the deteriorating relations between East and West, in 1980 Olof Palme, the then Prime Minister of Sweden, founded the "Independent Commission on Disarmament and Security", which èdealt with the problems of security and the threat of nuclear war. The Palme Commission proposed a new concept of "common security".

Many of the key ideas of the Palme Commission, including the concept of common security, have now been accepted, but only after costly delay. During the 1980s the arms race continued and violent conflicts caused the death of millions of people.

In response to the growing problems of the world environment, the "International Commission on the Environment and Development" was created. The Secretary General of the United Nations appointed Gro Harlem Brundtland to chair the commission. His report was presented in 1987, with the title "Our Common Future". The central concept introduced by the Brundtland Commission was that of "supportable development". The report stated: "Supportable development attempts to combine the needs and the aspirations of the present without compromising the capacity to face those of the future. Far from calling for a halt to economic growth, it recognizes that the problems of poverty and underdevelopment cannot be solved without a new era of growth in which the developing countries play an important role and draw substantial benefits." (...)

The Commission on the South, created at the end of the 1980s and chaired by the ex-President of Tanzania Julius Nyerere, considered the situation of the developing nations, and in particular the possibilities and the need to reinforce co-èoperation between nations in the South of the world. The report was entitled "The Challenge of the South in 1990". It proposed a strategy centred on people and spoke strongly in favour of a reinforcement of democracy and a halt to authoritarianism, corruption, and militarization.

The findings of all four independent Commissions are united by a common denominator: no nation can solve its problems on its own.

We believe strongly that the time is right for an initiative that would respond to the evident needs of the present and the future with imagination and courage.

All the signatories of the Stockholm Plan

Ali Alatas, Indonesia, Minister of Foreign Affairs;

Patricio Aylwin Azocar, President of Chile;

Benazir Bhutto, Pakistan, ex-Prime Minister;

Willy Brandt, Federal Republic of Germany, ex-Chancellor, President of the Socialist International, Honorary President of the SPD, Chairman of the North-South Commission;

Gro Harlem Brundtland, Norway, Prime Minister, member of the Palme Commission, Chairman of the International Commission on the Environment and Development;

Manuel Camacho Solis, Mexico, Head of the Federal District;

Fernando Henrique Cardoso, Brazil, senator;

Ingvar Carlsson, Sweden, Prime Minister;

Jimmy Carter, United States of America, ex-President;

Bernard Chidzero, Zimbabwe, ex-Chairman of the Committee for the Development of the World Bank and the IMF, former Vice-Secretary General of UNCTAD, member of the Brundtland Commission;

Reinaldo Figueredo Planchart, Venezuela, ex-Minister of Foreign Affairs;

Bronislaw Geremek, Poland, Chairman of the Committee for foreign relations;

Abdlatif Al-Hamad, Kuwait, Director General of the Arab Fund for Economic and Social Development, member of the Brandt Commission and of the South Commission;

Mahbub ul Haq, Pakistan, UNDP Special Counsellor, Minister of Finance and Planning from 1982 to 1988;

Vaclav Havel, Czechoslovakia, President;

Edward Heath, Great Britain, member of the House of Commons, Prime Minister from 1970 to 1974, member of the Brandt Commission;èEnrique Iglesias, Uruguay, President of the Interamerican Development Bank, Foreign Minister from 1985 to 1988, Executive Secretary of the United Nations Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean from 1972 to 1985, member of the South Commission;

Hong-Koo Lee, Republic of Korea, ambassador to Great Britain;

Stephen Lewis, Canada, ex-Ambassador to the United Nations;

Michael Manley, Jamaica, Prime Minister;

Vladlen Martynov, Soviet Union, Director of the Academy of Sciences;

Thabo Mbeki, South Africa, Director of International Affairs and member of the ANC Executive Committee;

Robert McNamara, United States of America, member of the Board, World Institute of Resources, ex-Chairman of the World Bank;

Bradford Morse, United States of America, UNDP Administrator from 1976 to 1986;

Julius Nyerere, Tanzania, ex-President of the United Republic of Tanzania, Chairman of the South Commission;

Babacar Ndiaye, Senegal, Chairman of the Bank for African Development;

Saburo Okita, Japan, ex-Foreign Minister;

Jan Pronk, Netherlands, Minister for Co-operation and Development, vice-Secretary General of UNCTAD from 1980 to 1985; member of the Brandt Commission;

Shridath Ramphal, Guyana, Secretary General of the Commonwealth from 1975 to 1990, Minister of Foreign Affairs from 1972 to 1975, member of the Brandt, Palme, Brundtland and South Commissions;

Nafis Sadik, Pakistan, Executive Director of the United Nations Fund for Population;èSalim Salim, Tanzania, Secretary General of the African Unity Organization, member of the Palme Commission;

Arjun Sengupta, India, Ambassador to Belgium, Luxembourg and the EEC;

Edward Shevardnadze, Soviet Union, ex-Foreign Minister;

Kalevi Sorsa, Finland, member of the Board of Management of the Bank of Finland, Prime Minister;

Maurice Strong, Canada, Secretary General of the United Nations Conference on the Environment and Development, member of the Brundtland Commission;

Brian Urquhart, Great Britain, Ford Foundation.