Foundation for the Rights of Future Generations
The Foundation for the Rights of Future Generations (SRzG) is a practical and politically independent foundation under civil law based in Stuttgart . It defines itself as representing the interests of future generations and, as such, has the goal of promoting the scientific, political and social discourse on intergenerational justice. The SRzG was founded in 1997 by a group of students and, according to Wirtschaftswoche, is “the best-known extra-parliamentary think tank on intergenerational equity”.
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According to its own account, the foundation is managed by one of the youngest foundation boards in Germany. Political scientist Anna Braam has been chairwoman and spokesperson of the foundation since 2017. The board is supported by a group of young “ambassadors”. The board of directors and ambassadors work on a voluntary basis.
The work of the foundation is accompanied by a board of trustees and supported by a scientific advisory board and prominent scientists, including Ernst Ulrich von Weizsäcker , Franz Josef Radermacher , Hans Joachim Schellnhuber , Ortwin Renn and Rolf Kreibich .
The foundation is financially independent of donations from the economy and is financed through project-related support from third foundations as well as through private donations from a support group.
Foundation work
The foundation strives for a broad discourse on intergenerational equity and sustainability. It gives impulses through campaigns , interviews and events as well as through articles by authors in specialist journals. In recent years, the Foundation has published position papers that show long-term, generational policies in various policy areas, e. B. in the area of pensions, party structures, national debt, labor market and youth and child suffrage . In addition, the SRzG awards prizes as part of essay competitions on topics that are fair to the generations and at the end of each legislative period selects laws that particularly burden or relieve future generations. Congresses and symposia are held at regular intervals.
The foundation was involved in the fact that 100 mostly young members of the Bundestag introduced a draft law on November 10, 2006 to anchor intergenerational justice in the Basic Law, but the law was not passed.
Since 2005, the SRzG has had special advisory status at the United Nations.
Individual projects
Legislative price
The SRzG has been awarding the Legislative Prize since 2014, recognizing a law from the previous legislative period that is particularly sustainable and generational in its effects. The 2014 nuclear phase-out law and 2017 the introduction of Elterngeld Plus were recognized . Since 2017, the most unjust law, which has a negative impact on intergenerational justice, has also been chosen. In 2017, the award was given for the partial lowering of the retirement age to 63 through the law “Pension at 63”.
We want to vote!
Children and young people are not allowed to vote until they turn 18. That is about a fifth of the German population who are excluded from the right to vote and who are therefore not entitled to their most important basic political right, including about two million children and young people who are willing to vote. Since this violates the principles of democracy and popular sovereignty, the SRzG supports children and young people who are willing to vote with the initiative “We want to vote!” In campaigning for their right to vote. In 2014, 15 children and young people between the ages of 10 and 17 filed a complaint with the Federal Constitutional Court to abolish the minimum voting age in order to strengthen democracy and intergenerational justice. They were supported by the SRzG and the children's initiative Plant-for-the-Planet . The children and young people had previously submitted an election complaint to the Bundestag together with the SRzG in November 2013 and contested the Bundestag election. The election appeal was rejected by the Bundestag on May 8, 2014. The SRzG then filed a complaint with the Federal Constitutional Court in 2014. After long deliberations, the judges dismissed the complaint in April 2016.
Generational justice in the Basic Law
At the initiative of the SRzG, in 2006 members of the CDU, SPD, Greens and FDP drafted a supra-parliamentary proposal to anchor intergenerational justice in the Basic Law. The proposal of the MPs, the creation of which was accompanied and moderated by the foundation, envisaged anchoring the national goal of intergenerational justice in a new Article 20b of the Basic Law. The draft law was introduced to the Bundestag on November 22nd, 2006 by 104 members from four parliamentary groups and from all age groups. In 2007 the motion was up for debate in the plenary session of the German Bundestag and was then referred to the Legal Committee for further discussion. The law was not passed.
Scientific essay competitions
Since 2002, the foundation has awarded the Intergenerational Justice Prize, endowed with 10,000 euros, for academic essays on topics of intergenerational justice. Since 2007, the SRzG has been offering the demography prize for young scientists, which is also endowed with 10,000 euros . It is awarded every two years, alternating with the Generational Justice Prize.
Positions and core demands for the 19th legislative period
labour market
The foundation takes a stand against age discrimination on the labor market. The seniority principle contributes to the 'generational pay gap' and to frequently interrupted employment histories of younger employees who have to build a livelihood, need secure prospects and usually cannot yet fall back on savings. Among other things, she calls for age as a criterion for social selection to be deleted from the Dismissal Protection Act (Section 1 (3)) and rejects salary cuts for young civil servants. The prohibition of age discrimination should be anchored in the equality requirement of the Basic Law.
Intergenerational party structures
The foundation has developed an 11-point plan to help parties make involvement in democratic parties more attractive for young politicians, including more open structures, more opportunities for participation, digitization and the financing of aspiring, young candidates. The established parties have been losing membership since the 1970s because young people no longer join. The parties can hardly inspire potential offspring and the outdated party structures are also unattractive for newly recruited young party members. As a result, the parties are aging and less and less represent the interests of young people.
ecology
The state has the responsibility to protect the natural foundations of life for future generations. According to the foundation, nuclear power and coal are not compatible with the principle of sustainability. Therefore the FRFG advocates a speedy and consistent energy transition towards a full renewable energy supply. The current generation has to bear the costs for this. It also calls for a tightening of the national objective of environmental protection in Article 20a of the Basic Law in order to bind political competition to specific ecological guard rails.
Pension insurance
In the discussion about the pension, the foundation developed the division solution, according to which the pension-receiving and the contribution-paying generation should share the demographic burden. The split solution provides that if the pension contributions rise, the pension increases are dampened to the same extent. In addition, u. a. a correction of the Riester factor and the further development of the statutory pension insurance to a citizens' insurance take place, in which politicians, self-employed and civil servants are also included. [15] It also calls for the retirement age to be adjusted to life expectancy with flexible solutions, grants for low-wage earners and the promotion of disability pensions, as well as combating the causes of old-age poverty and promoting health in the company. As a first step, the SRzG demands that the MP and the members of all state parliaments be included in the statutory pension insurance.
National debt
The SRzG criticizes the fact that every new government has less and less financial leeway to actively shape society due to the high level of national debt. She was one of the advocates of the debt brake early on , but is critical of its practical implementation. Without investment bids, debt brakes mean that necessary investments in infrastructure and education are postponed or canceled entirely. The aim of debt brakes must be “saving for the future”, not “saving for the future”. The SRzG also calls for a future solo in the form of a levy on large private assets to finance childcare and education, and supports the alliance Umfairteile.
Suffrage
The foundation calls for a modified form of the right to vote for children, according to which every citizen, regardless of any age limit, should be entitled to vote as soon as they express their will to the competent authority. In practice, this can be regulated by maintaining a general age limit, although younger citizens can also exercise the right to vote if they register independently with the electoral office. Each vote should have the same count and the same legal chance of success (“one man, one vote”). The SRzG clearly rejects the parents' right to vote in proxy, as it violates the principles of equality and the highest personality of choice and may even tighten rather than end the external determination of children and young people.
Institutions for future generations
The foundation calls for a new institution to be set up to represent the interests of future generations. All democracies face a structural problem: they tend to prefer the present to the future. The electorate and elected politicians seek short-term advantages. In contrast, costs and risks tend to be shifted into the future. Such an institution is necessary in response to this.
Intergenerational Justice Review
The Intergenerational Justice Review (IGJR) is the only English-language scientific journal on the subject of intergenerational justice . The IGJR publishes articles from the fields of philosophy, politics and international law that reflect the current state of research. It is published every six months by the SRzG together with the Intergenerational Foundation and the University of Tübingen .
Awards
In May 2000 the foundation was awarded the Theodor Heuss Medal . In November 2001 she received the citizen medal of the city of Oberursel. In 2005 she received a foundation award from the State of Hesse. In 2008 the SRzG received the Apple Tree Foundation's integration award. On May 17, 2011, the Foundation for the Rights of Future Generations received an award from the EU Commission for carrying out an outstanding project as part of the European Voluntary Service. In 2014 she received the international “Our Task” award.
Web links
- Website of the generationenrechte.de foundation
- Foundation's English website
- Entry in the lexicon for sustainability (www.nachhaltigkeit.info)
- Foundation's Facebook page
- Foundation Twitter account
Individual evidence
- ↑ Schmergal, Cornelia: The helplessness of the young . Business Week No. 44/2012
- ^ Entry in the Gabler Wirtschaftslexikon
- ↑ Susanne Garsoffky, Britta Sembach: The deep crack: How politics and business play parents and childless against each other . Pantheon, 2017, ISBN 978-3-641-18340-0 , Chapter 4, footnote 48 ( limited preview in Google Book Search).
- ↑ Ambassadors. In: Generationenrechte.info. Retrieved December 11, 2019 .
- ↑ Advisory Board. In: Generationenrechte.info. Retrieved January 27, 2020 .
- ^ SRzG Board of Trustees. Retrieved on February 5, 2018 (German).
- ↑ SRzG funding group. Retrieved on February 5, 2018 (German).
- ↑ Legislative Prize 2014. Accessed on February 5, 2018 (German).
- ↑ Legislative Prize 2017. Accessed on February 5, 2018 (German).
- ↑ We want to choose project page. Retrieved February 5, 2018 .
- ↑ We want to vote. Retrieved on February 5, 2018 (German).
- ↑ Generational justice in the Basic Law. Retrieved on February 5, 2018 (German).
- ↑ Generational Justice Prize. Retrieved on February 5, 2018 (German).
- ↑ Demography Prize. Retrieved on February 5, 2018 (German).
- ↑ Press release: No special sacrifice for young civil servants! September 7, 2012, accessed on February 5, 2018 (German).
- ^ SRzG topics: labor market. Retrieved on February 5, 2018 (German).
- ^ SRzG topics: Intergenerational parties. Retrieved on February 5, 2018 (German).
- ↑ Press release: "Nuclear power is not responsible". April 7, 2011, accessed on February 5, 2018 (German).
- ^ SRzG topics: Ecology. Retrieved on February 5, 2018 (German).
- ↑ SRzG study "Generational Pension Policy, 2007 ( Memento of the original from September 24, 2015 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link has been inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this note. (PDF ; 250 kB)
- ^ SRzG topics: Pension. Retrieved on February 5, 2018 (German).
- ↑ Study "Intergenerational Justice in the Financial Constitution", 2005 ( Memento of the original from September 24, 2015 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. (PDF; 369 kB)
- ↑ Article "The German Debt Brake: Getting Out of Permanent New Debt" by SRzG Advisory Board member Gisela Meister-Scheufelen ( Memento of the original from September 24, 2015 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. (PDF; 99 kB)
- ^ SRzG topics: National debt. Retrieved on February 5, 2018 (German).
- ^ SRzG topics: Right to vote without age limit. Retrieved on February 5, 2018 (German).
- ↑ Core demands for the 19th legislative period. Retrieved on February 5, 2018 (German).
