What is This?

The Creator entrusts Planet Earth to Humanity for the benefit of All Beings.

The planet is our capital asset and we the people have a responsibility to ensure that this asset is protected, not exploited. We can do that by being trustees for the planet. When humanity becomes the trustee of the planet and holds the asset in perpetuity for use of all beings, as guided by the principles set out below, life is assured for us all.

Put simply…

What has been set out here is a Trust, a Planet Earth Trust, in which we the people are Trustees and All Beings are the Beneficiaries.

What is a Trust?

In common law legal systems, a trust is a simple arrangement whereby an asset is managed by one or more persons for the benefit of others. A trust is created by a settlor (also known as the creator), who entrusts their asset to people of their choice (the trustees). The trustees hold the asset for the benefit of others (the beneficiaries). The trustees owe a fiduciary duty to the beneficiaries of the trust asset.

Trust: Creator -> Trustees -> Beneficiaries

The People’s Declaration is a declaration of intent to protect Planet Earth in Trust, for the benefit of the wider Planet Earth community. The Trust operates for the benefit of all beings and acts in the interests of the wider Planet Earth community.

A Trust is a legal person in its own right, separate from those who administer it. As the Trust is composed of all beings, those beings enjoy their own Rights & Freedoms (the laws that govern the trust).

The Planet Earth Trust is a living trust. The asset is held by the trust, thus it is not owned by the trustees or the beneficiaries therefore the asset is protected from creditors. Creditors (i.e. a person or institution to whom money is owed) therefore have no claim against the trust. Thus, there is no right to plunder the capital.

Membership

Membership is open to all to become Trustees provided the principles set out below are upheld, on a basis of one member one vote.

Definitions

Settlor = Creator

Asset = Planet Earth

Trustees = Humans

Beneficiaries = All Beings

= The Creator entrusts Planet Earth to Humanity for the benefit of All Beings

The Creator

The creator deity is responsible for the creation of Planet Earth. A deity is a supernatural immortal being who may be thought of as holy, divine, or sacred, is held in high regard, and respected by believers. Some deities are asserted to be the directors of time and fate itself, to be the givers of human law and morality, to be the ultimate judges of human worth and behavior, and to be the designers and creators of Planet Earth.

The Creator of the Planet Earth Trust is known to all, sometimes known as God, Gaia, Brahman, Brahma God, Yahweh, Allah, Waheguru, Pangu, sometimes by other names. Others believe the Creator is an architect and organizer of pre-existent matter and energy, who constructed the present cosmos out of the raw material and that God was created by the god before him. There are many beliefs and theories of who and how Planet Earth was created, each equally valid. The Creator is whatever or whomever you believe that entity is.

Planet Earth as the Capital Asset

The capital asset (Planet Earth) is a fixed asset which must remain intact. It is the equity (the growth that accrues from the capital asset) that is created from it that can be used for the benefit of the wider community. If the capital asset is in some way damaged or taken from, then the Trustees have a duty to ensure that it is restored to it’s original state of being. This applies equally to a small part of the planet (for instance within a local community) as it does to the planet as a whole.

The role of humans as Trustees

A Trustee is known as a fiduciary and owes the highest duty under the law to protect trust assets from unreasonable loss for the trust’s beneficiaries. A fiduciary is someone who has undertaken to act for and on behalf of another (Planet Earth) in circumstances which give rise to a relationship of trust and confidence. As Trustees, we are liable for certain problems which arise with the trust. Thus, as Trustees we have a duty to remedy the problems that arise for Planet Earth.

Values

The Planet Earth Trust is not based on an exchange of money (an imposed value) but instead on a recognition of the intrinsic values of the asset.

Our Responsibilities

The Trustee has specific responsibilities, which are identified as our fiduciary duties and obligations.

The Governing Law

In law, the Trustee is obliged to administer the trust in accordance with the governing law. The governing law for this Trust are the inherent Rights and Freedoms that apply to All Beings. These Rights and Freedoms are the ‘soft laws’ (also called ‘natural laws’) that are already upheld by many millions of humans in the world; indigenous people, buddhists and many other spiritual and religious persuasions.

What is The Declaration of All Beings?

It is self and community governance to help shape our lives. It sets out the principles that can lead to a better world for us all, providing guidance, a way forward. It is a suggested path forward to create a better life for you, your children and the children of all beings, for all times. It is a powerful enabling tool, a matrix, the key to life itself.

Why is it referred to as The Peoples Declaration?

Because it is by the people for the benefit of all beings of the planet. It is not a dogma or is it a legal requirement that is imposed by the state. It is for you to decide whether you accept and uphold what is presented here. If you do, we ask you to join us as a Trustee of Planet Earth.

How does this compare with the Universal Declaration of Planetary Rights?

the Universal Declaration of Planetary Rights is a sub-set of the wider Rights upheld under the Planet Earth Trust that have been proposed to the United Nations to adopt, to create ‘hard law’ international legislation. The Rights proposed are the Right to Diversity, the Right to Ecological Integrity, the Freedom of the Natural Cycles of Life, the Right Not to be Polluted, The Right to Restorative Justice and the Freedom of a Healthy & Clean Environment. These rights are the ones that could be used as the basis for international and national legislation.

Who or what are All Beings?

  • All Beings = human beings + all that lives.
  • All that makes up the myriad of species and entities of this world.
  • The soil, the seas, the trees, the honey bee.
  • The 20 million plus species that provide support and benefit to Planet Earth.
  • The atmosphere, the biosphere, the geosphere, the stratosphere that surrounds us – even other planets.
  • The Declaration applies equally to Beings that we do not yet know of, the countless number of species that will evolve, that we have yet to discover, yet to meet, yet to identify.

Why is the People’s Declaration laid out in a circular fashion?

The People’s Declaration has been designed so that a child can understand it. It has been set out in a circular matrix for ease of use so that the role of Trustee of Planet Earth can be grasped easily. It can be read from top to bottom, left to right, clockwise or otherwise. The Rights & Freedoms of All are underpinned by the Values, which in turn inform and lead to our Responsibilities. Our Responsibilities fall into two sub-categories, Obligations, and Duties. It is our Human Duties that we must act on now, for self and planet, and to smooth our journey to raising our consciousness in preparation for the global shift at the end of 2012.

What can the People’s Declaration be used for?

The People’s Declaration is a proactive mechanism to change the world – yours and the planet’s. It can be applied to any situation any community large or small, at a personal, local, national and international level. It can also be used:
  • for self contemplation, as a meditation or visualisation for self or in a group,
  • for future mapping, to co-create the future,
  • as a teaching aide, for children and adults alike,
  • as guidance for community decision making processes,
  • for decision making by setting up a Council of All Beings
  • as a global belief system to self-govern life on this planet

A short history of Trusts

The trust is widely considered to be the most innovative contribution to the English legal system.

Trust law developed in England at the time of the Crusades, during the 12th and 13th centuries. The trust was introduced by Crusaders. At the time, land ownership in England was based on the feudal system. When a landowner left England to fight in the Crusades, he needed someone to run his estate in his absence, often to pay and receive feudal dues. To achieve this, he would convey ownership of his lands to a friend, on the understanding that the ownership would be conveyed back on his return. However, Crusaders would often return to find the legal owners’ refusal to hand over the property.

Unfortunately for the Crusader, English law did not recognize his claim. As far as the courts were concerned, the land belonged to the trustee, who was under no obligation to return it. The crusader had no legal claim. The disgruntled Crusader would then petition the king, who would refer the matter to his Lord Chancellor. The Lord Chancellor could do what was “just” and “equitable”, and had the power to decide a case according to his conscience. At this time, the principle of equity was born.

The Lord Chancellor would consider it unjust that the legal owner could deny the claims of the crusader (the “true” owner). Therefore, he would find in favour of the returning crusader. Over time, it became known that the Lord Chancellor’s court (the Court of Chancery) would continually recognize the claim of a returning crusader. The legal owner would hold the land for the benefit of the original owner, and would be compelled to convey it back to him when requested. The crusader was the “beneficiary” (the “true” owner) and the friend the “trustee”. The term use of land was coined, and in time developed into what we now know as a trust.

International legal status of Trusts today

Today, trusts play a significant role in all common law systems, and their success has led some civil law jurisdictions to incorporate trusts into their civil codes, like France since 2007, amended in 2009. Trusts are recognized internationally under the Hague Convention on the Law Applicable to Trusts and on their Recognition which also regulates conflict of trusts.

Natural Law

Natural law or the law of nature is a theory that asserts the existence of a law whose content is set by nature and that therefore has validity everywhere. What those laws are have been debated by many, from Aristotle onwards. Aristotle noted that natural justice is a species of political justice, of distributive and corrective justice that would be established under the best political community. Were this to take the form of law, this could be called a natural law. He suggests in his tract, Politics, that the best regime may not rule by law at all.

Natural law theories have exercised a profound influence on the development of English common law, and have featured greatly in the philosophies of Thomas Aquinas, Francisco Suárez, Richard Hooker, Thomas Hobbes, Hugo Grotius, Samuel von Pufendorf, John Locke and Emmerich de Vattel. Because of the intersection between natural law and natural rights, it has been cited as a component in United States Declaration of Independence and the Constitution of the United States.

The Rights and Freedoms of All Beings are natural laws. They are the ‘soft’ laws that apply to us all. Aristotle suggested the best regime may not be by rule of law at all, but by consensual agreement of the community by governance of natural laws that apply to us all. Many communities in the world do just that – the indigenous peoples account for 350 million of the world, buddhists number 380 million (that amounts to 730 million – the size of Europe, a continent), as do many more spiritually oriented people . Many of them live by the inherent laws, the natural or soft laws, that apply to us all. We too can do the same.