Saskatchewan Green Party is guided by a set of Core Values in our Constitution, Policies and Bylaws. SGP Core Values are aligned with the principles of the Global Greens and fall into these categories:
Ecological Wisdom
Social Justice
Participatory Democracy
Nonviolence
Sustainability
Respect for Diversity
We must ensure the integrity of ecosystems and preserve biodiversity
We acknowledge that human beings are part of the natural world. We respect the specific values of all forms of life, including non-human species.
We acknowledge the wisdom of the indigenous peoples of the world, as custodians of the land and its resources.
We acknowledge that human society depends on the ecological resources of the planet, and must ensure the integrity of ecosystems and preserve biodiversity and the resilience of life-supporting systems.
This requires that we:
- Learn to live within the ecological and resource limits of the planet.
- Protect animal and plant life, and life itself that is sustained by the natural elements: earth, water, air and sun.
- Take the path of caution when knowledge is limited to secure the continued abundance of the resources of the planet for present and future generations.
All citizens must have full opportunities for personal and social development.
We assert that the key to social justice is the equitable distribution of social and natural resources, both locally and globally, to meet basic human needs unconditionally, and to ensure that all citizens have full opportunities for personal and social development.
We declare that there is no social justice without environmental justice and no environmental justice without social justice.
This requires:
- Just organization of the world and a stable world economy which will close the widening gap between rich and poor, both within and between countries, balance the flow of resources from South to North, and lift the burden of debt on poor countries which prevents their development.
- Eradication of poverty, as an ethical, social, economic, and ecological imperative.
- Elimination of illiteracy.
- New vision of citizenship built on equal rights for all individuals regardless of gender, race, age, religion, class, ethnic or national origin, sexual orientation, disability, wealth or health.
Power and responsibility are concentrated in local and regional communities.
We strive for a democracy in which all citizens have the right to express their views, and can directly participate in the environmental, economic, social and political decisions which affect their lives; so that power and responsibility are concentrated in local and regional communities, and devolved only where essential to higher tiers of governance.
This requires:
- Individual empowerment through access to all the relevant information required for any decision, and access to education to enable all to participate.
- Breaking down inequalities of wealth and power that inhibit participation.
- Building grassroots institutions that enable decisions to be made directly at the appropriate level by those affected, based on systems which encourage civic vitality, voluntary action and community responsibility.
- Strong support for giving young people a voice through educating, encouraging and assisting youth involvement in every aspect of political life including their participation in all decision-making bodies.
- Elected representatives who are committed to the principles of transparency, truthfulness, and accountability in governance.
- Electoral systems that are transparent and democratic, and that this is enforced by law.
- Electoral systems where each adult has an equal vote.
- All electoral systems are based on proportional representation and all elections are publicly funded with strict limits on, and full transparency of, corporate and private donations.
- All citizens have the right to be a member of the political party of their choice within a multi-party system.
Security should not rest mainly on military strength but on cooperation.
We declare our commitment to nonviolence and strive for a culture of peace and cooperation between states, inside societies and between individuals, as the basis of global security.
We believe that security should not rest mainly on military strength but on cooperation, sound economic and social development, environmental safety, and respect for human rights.
This requires:
- Comprehensive concept of global security, which gives priority to social, economic, ecological, psychological and cultural aspects of conflict, instead of a concept based primarily on military balances of power.
- Global security system capable of the prevention, management and resolution of conflicts.
- Removing the causes of war by understanding and respecting other cultures, eradicating racism, promoting freedom and democracy, and ending global poverty.
- Pursuing general and complete disarmament including international agreements to ensure a complete and definitive ban of nuclear, biological and chemical arms, anti-personnel mines and depleted uranium weapons
- Strengthening the United Nations (UN) as the global organization of conflict management .and peacekeeping.
- Pursuing a rigorous code of conduct on arms exports to countries where human rights are violated.
Maintain biodiversity through sustainable use of renewable resources.
We recognize the limited scope for the material expansion of human society within the biosphere, and the need to maintain biodiversity through sustainable use of renewable resources and responsible use of non-renewable resources.
We believe that to achieve sustainability, and to provide for the needs of present and future generations within the finite resources of the earth, continuing growth in global consumption, population and material inequity must be halted and reversed.
We recognize that sustainability will not be possible as long as poverty persists.
This requires:
- Ensuring that the rich limit their consumption to allow the poor their fair share of the earth’s resources.
- Redefining the concept of wealth, to focus on quality of life rather than capacity for over-consumption.
- Creating a world economy which aims to satisfy the needs of all, not the greed of a few; and enables those presently living to meet their own needs, without jeopardizing the ability of future generations to meet theirs.
- Eliminating the causes of population growth by ensuring economic security, and providing access to basic education and health, for all; giving both men and women greater control over their fertility.
- Redefining the roles and responsibilities of trans-national corporations to support the principles of sustainable development.
- Implementing mechanisms to tax, as well as regulate, speculative financial flows.
- Ensuring that market prices of goods and services fully incorporate the environmental costs of their production and consumption.
- Achieving greater resource and energy efficiency and development and use of environmentally sustainable technologies.
- Encouraging local self-reliance to the greatest practical extent to create worthwhile, satisfying communities.
- Recognizing the key role of youth culture and encouraging an ethic of sustainability within that culture.
We promote the building of respectful, positive and responsible relationships.
We honour cultural, linguistic, ethnic, sexual, religious and spiritual diversity within the context of individual responsibility toward all beings.
We defend the right of all persons, without discrimination, to an environment supportive of their dignity, bodily health, and spiritual well-being
We promote the building of respectful, positive and responsible relationships across lines of division in the spirit of a multicultural society.
This requires:
- Recognizing the rights of indigenous peoples to the basic means of their survival, both economic and cultural, including rights to land and to self-determination; and acknowledgment of their contribution to the common heritage of national and global culture.
- Recognizing the rights of ethnic minorities to develop their culture, religion and language without discrimination, and to full legal, social and cultural participation in the democratic process.
- Recognizing and respect for sexual minorities.
- Equality between women and men in all spheres of social, economic, political and cultural life.
- Significant involvement of youth culture as a valuable contribution to our Green vision, and recognition that young people have distinct needs and modes of expression.
Showing 1 reaction