A Social Charter for the Commons is not a Business Charter for Social Responsibility (html 
) in that it provides the institutional basis for the management and protection of a commons or a shared resource governed by the commoners themselves.
Creating a Social Charter requires the support and involvement of the people involved in and affected by the topic or resource system of concern. A Social Charter can be developed for a single commons or for overlapping commons.
It is an expression of commons law. Other legal frameworks are public domain law, public trust or human rights conventions. But they pertain mainly to the provision and allocation of public goods. Social Charters, by contrast, can be developet for any - however limited - commons. They are based on common rights.
They stem from the tradition of customary or natural law, which means that they are created by the users and producers of a commons and are not dependent upon state consent.
Social Charters are needed to complement other legal frameworks such as human rights,
because human rights are dependent on [national S.H.] government to legitimate them, the UN Declaration does not redirect the source of these rights away from sovereign governments to the sovereign people of a particular commons. As global citizens, regardless of national obligations, we have a responsibility to engage in areas of community and transborder action where the state and private sectors have little jurisdiction, authority or experience.
...with limited input from national governments and the private sector. The people who create a social charter thus ensure that administrative power is decentralized in order to maintain community access to — and sovereignty over — their own commons. (html )
Instead of regulating commerce and finance in the public interest (while also regulating the commons for the benefit of commerce and finance), the new duty of the state would be to confirm the declarations of the rights of people to their commons, allowing them to manage their own resources by recognizing and upholding their social charters." html
# Features of a Social Charter
Given the uniqueness of each commons, there is no universal template. For orientation and as a practical baseline, this is what a social charterdocument would include
- Vision and Mission Statement to Bring diverse Motivations into Alignement
- reference to historical, traditional and emerging claims to legitimacy and responsibility for shared resources (if necessary including claims to reparations or re-territorialization of resource boundaries)
- a description of the existing principles and patterns of stewardship
- a declaration of the users’ rights to organize and participate in the development of new institutions and rules
- a statement of the entitlements and responsibilities of users, stakeholders and producers of the commons
- a statement about - if possible - a quantifiable set of non-monetized metrics for measuring the common wealth through self-monitoring
- a basic structure of accountability and to Preserve Relationships in Adressing Conflicts
These features differ from those identified by Commons Trust, (html )
# Role of the Nation State
According to the authors of Global Commons Trust "state involvement usually delimits the participation of the people of a commons which is needed for the creation of effective commons trusts."
This may demonstrate an earnest intention on the part of the state — but it also exposes the legal standing of a commons directly to judicial challenges by powerful commercial interests.
Regional political entities, such as the European Union, the South Asia Association for Regional Cooperation, ASEAN and South America have developed social charters on behalf of their national citizens. This charters are unknown to most citizen. They are typically generated by clusters of individual governments in consultation with a narrow cross-section of interest.
Ecuador [ - html] and Bolivia [ html] have put provisions for natural preservation and social development directly into their national constitutions, giving ecosystems and species their own legally enforceable rights.
State-written social charters put the locus of power in government and function more as a complaint mechanism or quality control procedure than as a means of honoring the rights of people to their commons.
# FAQ
Social Charters FAQ
# Sources
P2P Wiki wiki
A social charter is one of the convivial constituting tools of Peer Governance in Commons. It is "a declaration of intent to hold a commons in trust for its beneficiaries.", as James Quilligan (html
) put it.
A Social Charter for the Commons is not a Business Charter for Social Responsibility (html
) in that it provides the institutional basis for the management and protection of a commons or a shared resource governed by the commoners themselves.
Creating a Social Charter requires the support and involvement of the people involved in and affected by the topic or resource system of concern. A Social Charter can be developed for a single commons or for overlapping commons.
source
It is an expression of commons law. Other legal frameworks are public domain law, public trust or human rights conventions. But they pertain mainly to the provision and allocation of public goods. Social Charters, by contrast, can be developet for any - however limited - commons. They are based on common rights.
Social Charters are needed to complement other legal frameworks such as human rights,
# Functions of a Social Charter - give all users and stakeholders an opportunity to voice the expectations and responsibilities emerging from their rights to common goods - operationalize the interests and practices of a local group or broader association of stakeholders - change the role of governents in the governance of commons - serve as fundament to Cultivate Shared Purpose & Values - set the stage for a way to Assure Commoners' Consent in Decision Making and Transparency in a Sphere of Trust
Cover source
# Features of a Social Charter Given the uniqueness of each commons, there is no universal template. For orientation and as a practical baseline, this is what a social charterdocument would include - Vision and Mission Statement to Bring diverse Motivations into Alignement - reference to historical, traditional and emerging claims to legitimacy and responsibility for shared resources (if necessary including claims to reparations or re-territorialization of resource boundaries) - a description of the existing principles and patterns of stewardship - a declaration of the users’ rights to organize and participate in the development of new institutions and rules - a statement of the entitlements and responsibilities of users, stakeholders and producers of the commons - a statement about - if possible - a quantifiable set of non-monetized metrics for measuring the common wealth through self-monitoring - a basic structure of accountability and to Preserve Relationships in Adressing Conflicts These features differ from those identified by Commons Trust, (html
)
# Role of the Nation State According to the authors of Global Commons Trust "state involvement usually delimits the participation of the people of a commons which is needed for the creation of effective commons trusts."
Regional political entities, such as the European Union, the South Asia Association for Regional Cooperation, ASEAN and South America have developed social charters on behalf of their national citizens. This charters are unknown to most citizen. They are typically generated by clusters of individual governments in consultation with a narrow cross-section of interest. Ecuador [ - html] and Bolivia [ html] have put provisions for natural preservation and social development directly into their national constitutions, giving ecosystems and species their own legally enforceable rights.
# FAQ Social Charters FAQ
# See Constituting Tools and Charter
# Sources P2P Wiki wiki