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Council
ECI Council The ECI Council oversees the work of the Earth Charter International Secretariat. It sets major goals, policies, and strategies for ECI, and provides guidance and leadership to the broader Initiative. The ECI Council is not a legally incorporated entity. The Council elects its own members in consultation with members of the global network of Earth Charter supporters.
Council Members
- Mateo Castillo (Mexico)
- Alexander Likhotal, (Russia / Switzerland)
- Oscar Motomura (Brazil)
- Alide Roerink (The Netherlands)
- Kartikeya Sarabhai (India)
- Mirian Vilela (Brazil)
Mateo A. Castillo Ceja (Mexico)
Mateo A. Castillo Ceja was the head of the Coordinating Unity of Social Participation and Transparency in the Ministry of Environment of Mexico. Previously he served as president of the Ecological State Council of Michoacan, Mexico, and, with many others, has instigated processes of social participation in the development of environmental public policies for a sustainable Mexico. He is an altruistic person who takes part in the world humanitarian movement. He is considered a national expert in the implementation of local Agenda 21. He has been a representative of civil society in Mexico in many forums and international summits. Castillo is the main developer in Mexico of the Earth Charter and the founder of the National Secretariat. He was awarded the Citizen Merit Prize in 2003, and in 2004 he received honorary mention in the National Prize for Ecological Merit. In 2005, he was awarded the Maximo Kalaw Award for his work in promoting the Earth Charter in Mexico. Mr. Castillo holds a Master’s degree in quality and competitiveness and is a biochemist in the area of pharmacology.
Alexander Likhotal (Russia / Switzerland)
Alexander Likhotal is currently president of Green Cross International. He received his Ph.D in Political Science in 1972 from the Institute of International Affairs in Moscow, the subject of his thesis being ”The Shaping of the British Security Policy”. He started his academic career as a lecturer at the Moscow State Institute of International Affairs, where he became senior research fellow at the Diplomatic Academy of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in the USSR. In 1988 he became professor of political science and international relations at the Diplomatic Academy, and in the same year was appointed vice-rector.
During the wake of Gorbachev’s perestroika, being already a well known expert in the field of European security, he received a proposal to become the chief analyst of NATO politics in the International Department of the Central Committee of the CSPU - one of the Soviet foreign policy co-ordination bodies. In 1991 Alexander Likhotal was appointed deputy spokesman and adviser to the president of the USSR. Since then he has been an advisor to Mr Gorbachev, founder of Green Cross, for many years.
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Oscar Motomura is the founder and chief executive officer of the Amana-Key Group, a center for excellence in management, a network of associates with global reach, based in São Paulo, Brazil. The purpose of Amana-Key is to serve as a world reference for radical innovation in management that is capable of generating the genuine development of people, organizations, communities, and the greater whole. The Amana-Key Group has adopted the Earth Charter as a reference for its education programmes and innovation retreats. Thousands of leaders from corporations and the government take Amana-Key programmes every year, where their awareness of global issues affecting humanity is expanded along with their understanding of the importance of contributing to our collective evolution, through ethical and conscious management practices. Mr. Motomura started his career in Brazil in a large, multinational financial institution, where he reached a senior management position at the age of 26. He founded his own company at 28, which was the starting point for what is now Amana-Key. Motomura is known in Brazil as one the most creative specialists in the area of strategy. He holds degrees in business administration and social psychology.
Alide Roerink (The Netherlands)
Alide Roerink is an anthropologist and has been involved over the years in networking, advocacy, and policy development for gender justice, international solidarity, and global governance. Alide Roerink was coordinator of Vrouwenberaad Ontwikkelingssamenwerking, a network of gender experts in development agencies in The Netherlands. From 2000 to 2012 she worked at the National Committee for International Cooperation and Sustainable Development (NCDO) in the capacity of advisor international relations, and is a member of the NCDO management team. Alide coordinates the NCDO Earth Charter programme and the Round Table of Worldconnectors for People and the Planet (www.worldconnectors.nl). Alide Roerink is board member of the Alliance for the University for Peace, NVVN (United Nations Associations Netherlands) and SIGN (Schoolfeeding Initiative Ghana Netherlands). NCDO is Affiliated to the Earth Charter Initiative and cooperated with the Earth Charter Initiative in the launch of the Earth Charter in 2000 in the Peace Palace in The Hague and in the Earth Charter+5 event in 2005 in Amsterdam. Alide Roerink initiated and co-edited the book Earth Charter in Action: Towards a Sustainable World. Alide Roerink was advisor to the Earth Charter Initiative before she joined the Council.
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Kartikeya V. Sarabhai is the founder and director of the Centre for Environment Education (CEE), a national institution engaged in promoting environmental awareness and conservation as well as education for sustainable development. Starting small in Ahmedabad in 1984, CEE today works at the national and international level with a staff of over 200 professionals and 40 offices across India, as well as in Australia and Sri Lanka. In 2005, CEE received the Global award for Outstanding Service to Environmental Education from the North American Association for Environmental Education (NAAEE). Mr.Sarabhai also set up VIKSAT, an NGO working towards people’s participation in natural resource management, as well as Sundervan, a nature discovery centre.
Mr. Sarabhai has served on several committees of the Ministry of Environment and Forests and the Ministry of Human Resource Development, Government of India. These include greening India’s formal education system and initiatives for biodiversity education. Mr. Sarabhai has long been associated with IUCN, and was the chair of South and South-East Asia, IUCN Commission on Education and Communication. He is currently vice-chair of the Indian National Commission. Mr. Sarabhai was instrumental in initiating SASEANEE, the South and Southeast Asian Network for Environment Education. He was a member of the Indian delegation to UNCED at Rio and WSSD at Johannesburg and was co-author of India’s report for UNCED. He has been closely associated with communication initiatives of UNEP, especially those connected with Ozone. Under his leadership CEE organized the first International Conference of the Decade of Education for Sustainable Development in January 2005. Mr. Sarabhai received the Tree of Learning Award from The World Conservation Union in 1998 in appreciation of his contributions to the field of environmental education and communication. In 2005, The Indian Institute of Human Rights presented Mr. Sarabhai with the World Human Rights Promotion Award.
Mirian Vilela is the executive director of Earth Charter International and has been involved in the initiative internationally since early 1996. She has coordinated an international process of consultation, and set up partnerships with organizations and individuals who contributed to the consultation process and who continue to be involved in the implementation phase of the Charter. She has organized and facilitated numerous international workshops and seminars on values and principles for sustainability. Prior to her work with the Earth Charter, Ms. Vilela worked for the United Nations Conference on Environment and Development (UNCED) for two years in preparation of the 1992 UN Earth Summit and is a member of the UNESCO Expert Reference Group for the Decade of Education for Sustainable Development (DESD). She is currently a faculty member of the University for Peace. She holds a master’s degree in public administration from the Harvard Kennedy School of Government, where she was an Edward Mason Fellow.
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