• Conceived in 1987 at UN Environment & Development Conference and originally attempted at Rio Earth Summit in 1992, which was attended by over 18,000 NGO members
• New grassroots drafting initiative launched in 1994 by Mikhail Gorbachev, President of Green Cross International, Maurice Strong, UN Undersecretary General, and Rudd Lubbers, former Prime Minister of the Netherlands.
• Steven Rockefeller chaired International Drafting Committee
• Research for EC Foundation, headed by Rockefeller included:
  • More than 50 United Nations declarations plus over 200 NGO agreements, and international law instruments;
  • Scientific worldview including contemporary cosmology, physics, evolutionary biology, and ecology;
  • Wisdom of the world’s religions and philosophical traditions;
  • Social movements associated with human rights, democracy, gender equality, civil society, disarmament and peace;
  • Seven UN summit conferences on children, the environment, human rights, population, women, social development and the city held during the 1990’s;
  • Environmental and sustainable development ethics over the past fifty years;
  • Practical experience and insights of those groups that have successfully pursued sustainable ways of living and working.
• Earth Charter Committees formed to oversee grassroots input into unprecedented open drafting process around the world (Thousands of people in 78 countries involved over the course of ten years).
• Launched at The Hague Peace Palace in June 2000 with the grassroots Earth Charter Community Summits recognized as the major US effort.

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