Global governance and citizenship

Abstract

INTRODUCTION As well as working out what is ethical and what we should do, global ethicists also need to think about how we can move towards a more just world. As discussed at the beginning of the book, global ethics combines theory with policy and practice. So as ethicists we need to be concerned with the mechanisms of global governance and with institutions and associations that can be used to deliver justice. In Chapter 5 we looked at rights theory, and human rights are perhaps the most obvious instance of the establishment of global ethics in international systems of global governance. In addition, there are many other institutions and associations that are part of the global-governance framework, some of which are connected and overseen by the United Nations, such as the WTO and IMF. In addition to our discussion in this chapter, we shall revisit concerns about the global system of governance throughout the rest of the book: the globally agreed Millennium Development Goals (Chapter 7); the International Criminal Court and the Geneva Conventions (Chapter 8); the Agreement on Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS) (Chapter 9); the Kyoto Protocol (Chapter 10); and the Convention on the Elimination of all Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW) (Chapter 11). Accordingly, much of your understanding of global governance and the impact of the various global institutions and associations of global justice will be developed when you consider the dilemmas of global justice in greater detail in the remaining chapters.