2.13

Constitutional Guarantees to Protect Rights

To prevent everyone, including minority groups, from tyranny-of-the-majority and ensure basic human dignity for all, certain constitutional rights must be guaranteed, even in the face of popular opinion.

A detailed articulation of a bill of rights is beyond the scope of this paper, but, as noted above, essential rights include freedoms of speech, assembly, movement, religion, and privacy, freedom from unreasonable search and seizure, and rights to public information, due process of law, and a livable environment.

Additional rights include those enumerated in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, as adopted by the UN in 1948, except with a few edits to indicate that human rights supersede those of countries (as specified below under “Argumentation / Core Values”).

Because these rights are fundamental, they must be adopted worldwide by treaty among countries, and take effect on or before the start date of our global democracy.

Although this may seem a tall order, the way can be paved through widespread but non-binding use of the tools described above, by the whole world population, discussing and provisionally approving these rights, to demonstrate popular support. (The path to widespread participation in online deliberation and decision-making is discussed below, under “Realistically, How Can We Get There?”)

As in conventional, representative democracies, constitutional rights may be amended by supermajority vote, at a threshold such as 2/3, 3/4, or 4/5 of the world population, once our global democracy takes effect.

Index

1 – Abstract
2 – Description of the Model
2.1 – Separate Countries are Failing Us
2.2 – We Need a Global Democracy
2.3 – How is this Possible? Through Two New Technologies
2.4 – Blockchains for Security
2.5 – Critical Success Factors
2.6 – Design
2.7 – Liquid Democracy
2.8 – Deliberation
2.9 – The Right to Information
2.10 – Subsidiarity: Localizing Decisions Whenever Possible
2.11 – Who Frames the Questions?
2.12 – Language Barriers
2.13 – Constitutional Guarantees to Protect Rights
2.14 – Constitutional Court
2.15 – Enforcement
2.16 – Phasing In
2.17 – Can We Really Unify Separate Countries?
2.18 – Worldwide Public Opinion
2.19 – Realistically, How Can We Get There?
3 – Argumentation
3.A – Core Values
3.B – Decision-Making Capacity
3.C – Effectiveness
3.D – Resources and Financing
3.E – Trust and Insight
3.F – Flexibility
3.G – Protection Against the Abuse of Power
3.H – Accountability