The Center for Global Community and World Law (CGCWL) was co-founded by Joseph Baratta, Ph.D., and Virginia Swain in 1993. We share an expertise in world law and global governance as well as a vision of the world’s evolution toward peaceful political union. We decided that the best way to implement our vision was to support the ideals of the United Nations Charter by establishing projects that recognize the need for new thinking and action to achieve a peaceful society.
For example, as co-founders of the Coalition for a Strong United Nations in Boston, we partnered with the John F. Kennedy Library to provide the public with twelve major conferences on the vital issues confronting global society and the United Nations.
CGCWL promotes new thinking, reflection and action towards achieving broad-based changes needed for a peaceful society. We provide various resources to facilitate mutual understanding and action for common goals among the peoples of the earth, states and multilateral entities. Specifically, CGCWL offers think tank services and programs in research, publications and working papers on conflict prevention, policy analysis and education to individuals and groups, which explore and develop linkages on key United Nations issues. CGCWL encourages related dialogue among those who wish to work cooperatively toward interdependent thinking and responsible action.
We conducted research and a project to address the Rwandan genocide; presented a paper on international cooperation at the Comparative International Education Society in 1996.
We were invited to present a paper at the Hague Appeal for Peace in 1999, “Establishing Professional and Non-governmental (NGO) Services for Mediation and Reconciliation at the United Nations” on the panel, Building an Effective World Security System: Enhancing the Capacity of the United Nations to Prevent and Resolve Armed Conflict in the Transforming Violent Conflict Strand.
At the NGO Millennium Summit in 2000, we provided a proposal for professional mediation and conciliation services for the United Nations. Other projects included collaboration with UNICEF on their Child Friend Cities Initiative (CFCI). CGCWL convened meetings with local government officials and other community leaders in Massachusetts who dealt with children’s issues. The research that preceded this project was presented at two conferences:The International Institute for Peace in Vienna, 1994, and Re-Imagining the Urban Environment:Toward Collaborative Relationships in the Inner City, Buffalo, NY, 1995.
CGCWL is a member of the Academic Council of the United Nations and a co-founding member of CIVICUS: Worldwide Alliance for Citizen Participation. We co-facilitated the meeting “The Challenge of Philanthropy in the Emerging Global Civil Society” at the First CIVICUS World Assembly on Strengthening Global Civil Society in Mexico in 1995 and further supported the CIVICUS process in the Philippines in 1999. We are also members of the Transcend Network of Invited Peace Scholars and Practitioners, United Nations Association of the United States of America, and the Women’s Foreign Policy Group.
We have served as NGO representatives through our organization and others (United World Federalists, Communications Coordination Committee, Symphony for United Nations, Association of World Citizens) to participate in the United Nations Conference on the Environment and Development in 1993, the Copenhagen Economic and Social Conference in 1995, the Beijing and Habitat Preparatory Process in New York in 1995 and the High Level Economic and Social Council Meetings for the Least Developed Countries in June 2004. We have provided training in Reconciliation Leadership for a member of the African Union stationed in Southern Sudan.
We are currently writing and producing projects on Friends of Dag Hammarskjold: Restoring Faith in Humanity and The World Federation
