The Commission's first Community Building meeting was convened at the Paul H. Nitze School of Advanced International Studies at Johns Hopkins University in Washington DC, on April 23, 2001. The meeting served as a pilot to introduce the Commission on Globalisation to international civil society leaders and organizations in the US and to solicit constructive feedback on the Commission's proposed organizational structure and activities. Consistent with the overall Commission commitment to multi-stakeholder gatherings, the Washington event brought civil society together with the business and government sectors in discussions about specific policy issues concerning globalisation and global governance.

The meeting was designed to explore both the background of globalisation and the goals of the Commission and its specific proposed activities. The strength of the meeting was enhanced by the participation of and statements made by Mikhail Gorbachev (Nobel Peace Prize Laureate, 1990), John Sweeney (President, AFL-CIO), and Lori Wallach (Director, Public Citizen's Global Trade Watch).

Maria de Lourdes Pintasilgo (Prime Minister of Portugal, 1979) and Huguette Labelle (President of the Canadian International Development Agency, 1993 - 1997), two members of the Commission, moderated the meeting. Aruna Rao (President of the Association for Women's Rights in Development, India) served as the meeting's secretary.

Following a brief introduction and framing of the discussing by Jim Garrison, the President of State of the World Forum, each of the participants briefly introduced him/herself and stated why they were interested in globalisation issues and the potential of a network such as the Commission. Following this, the featured speakers presented their views on globalisation and benefits of the Commission on Globalisation.

Mikhail Gorbachev spoke of his intention to see the State of the World Forum and, by extension, the Commission on Globalisation as the leading figure in the globalisation debate. He related that his interest from the onset of the State of the World Forum was to bring together leaders to talk about issues important to the day and that, in his mind, globalisation and its effects on the human community were the most important issue to discuss.

John Sweeney spoke on the importance of trade unions and the role they play in the globalisation debate. He mentioned the AFL-CIO's strong presence in the protests during the third WTO Ministerial Conference in Seattle in 1999, and the need to move beyond traditional protest and to work to influence decisions being made at the WTO level.

Lori Wallach spoke about her participation in the protests in Quebec City at the Summit of the Americas, April 20 - 22, 2001, and the need for the reform of global trade laws. Public Citizen's opposition to the North American Free Trade Agreement, the Free Trade Area of the Americas and the World Trade Organization are based on what they view as the dominant voice business plays in these agreements with little consideration given to civil society concerns. Her criticism of Trade Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPs) was based on the unfair implementation of these agreements as they related to indigenous knowledge. Drugs and other products could easily be developed and patented by foreign companies with little, if any, benefit gained by the communities who developed this knowledge over many generations.

Following these presentations, the meeting moved to lunch during which Lori Wallach further discussed her concerns about WTO rules and regulations with Barry Carin, Canada's High Commissioner to Singapore from 1996 - 2000 and currently the Associate Director of the Centre for Global Studies at the University of Victoria. This discussion proved to be one of the most rich and informative of the day. Dr. Carin's previous positions in Canada's government provided him with an insider's perspective on how the WTO is governed and provided counterpoints to Ms. Wallach concerns. Johan Cavanagh, the Director of the Institute for Policy Studies, felt that this discussion alone was enough to declare the meeting a success.

Following lunch the roughly 45 participants discussed the challenges to convening such a Commission. Angela Blackwell, the President of PolicyLink, spoke of the difficulties of the multi-stakeholder process and the need for individuals to come together in a spirit of respect for competing viewpoints. Gordon Smith, a former Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs of Canada and the current Director of the Centre for Global Studies at the University of Victoria, described the Commission's proposed "White Paper" process and the need for multi-stakeholder input to bring validity to the work. The participants were also encouraged to provide perspectives about priority concerns facing humanity and individual societies from globalisation's challenges, and to address the more important issues to be tackled by the Commission. Among these, the international role of women, a feminist perspective on globalisation, and the plight of women around the world were especially pronounced. Mahnaz Afkhami, a former Minister of Women' Affairs in Iran will work with the Commission to ensure these issues continue to be covered by serving as the Chair of the Commission's Women's Advisory Council. Other issues recommended for the Commission's deliberations included human rights violations, poverty, the environment, reform of governing institutions and the creation of new governing bodies to deal with specific global challenges, organized international crime, and the role of religion for influencing fundamental change.

LIST OF PARTICIPANTS ATTACHED

As a result of this meeting, the Forum Secretariat received 39 nominations for members of the Commission. Of these, 8 individuals, Nuno Miguel Teixeira de Azevedo, Monique Bégin, Betty Bigombe, Pregaluxmi Govender, Matthew Kukah, Dragoljub Najman, Boaventura de Sousa Santos, and Eduardo Viola have been invited to serve as Commissioners and have accepted. One person, Wangari Maathai, has been invited to serve as a Co-Chair.

Six individuals who took part in the meeting, Charlotte Bunch, Nat Colletta, David Korten, Michael Levett, Paola Melchiori, and John Sewell, have since agreed to serve as Commissioners. Additionally, representatives of the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA), the United Nations Development Programme and CIVICUS participated in the meeting. The heads of these organizations, Thoraya Obaid, Mark Malloch Brown, and Kumi Naidoo respectively, agreed to serve as Co-Chairs in the cases of Ms. Obaid and Mr. Malloch Brown (who has since resigned) or Commissioners in Mr. Naidoo's case.

This meeting also provided the Commission Secretariat an opportunity to further strengthen its relationship with the AFL-CIO and Public Citizen, two of the most prominent civil society actors in the United States and major organizers behind the protests at the Third Ministerial Conference of the World Trade Organization in Seattle in 1999.