1
00:00:00,817 --> 00:00:02,993
About 12 years ago,

2
00:00:02,993 --> 00:00:05,245
I gave up my career in banking

3
00:00:05,245 --> 00:00:08,356
to try to make the world a safer place.

4
00:00:08,356 --> 00:00:12,565
This involved a journey into
national and global advocacy

5
00:00:12,565 --> 00:00:17,388
and meeting some of the most
extraordinary people in the world.

6
00:00:17,388 --> 00:00:22,566
In the process, I became
a civil society diplomat.

7
00:00:22,566 --> 00:00:26,072
Civil society diplomats do three things:

8
00:00:26,072 --> 00:00:28,603
They voice the concerns of the people,

9
00:00:28,603 --> 00:00:31,691
are not pinned down by national interests,

10
00:00:31,691 --> 00:00:34,528
and influence change
through citizen networks,

11
00:00:34,528 --> 00:00:37,084
not only state ones.

12
00:00:37,084 --> 00:00:41,683
And if you want to change the world,
we need more of them.

13
00:00:41,683 --> 00:00:44,190
But many people still ask,

14
00:00:44,190 --> 00:00:48,741
"Can civil society really
make a big difference?

15
00:00:48,741 --> 00:00:54,012
Can citizens influence and shape
national and global policy?"

16
00:00:54,012 --> 00:00:56,961
I never thought I would ask
myself these questions,

17
00:00:56,961 --> 00:01:00,211
but here I am to share some lessons

18
00:01:00,211 --> 00:01:05,227
about two powerful civil society 
movements that I've been involved in.

19
00:01:05,227 --> 00:01:09,035
They are in issues
that I'm passionate about:

20
00:01:09,035 --> 00:01:13,214
gun control and drug policy.

21
00:01:13,214 --> 00:01:16,859
And these are issues that matter here.

22
00:01:16,859 --> 00:01:22,253
Latin America is ground zero
for both of them.

23
00:01:22,253 --> 00:01:24,296
For example, Brazil --

24
00:01:24,296 --> 00:01:30,550
this beautiful country hosting TEDGlobal
has the world's ugliest record.

25
00:01:30,550 --> 00:01:36,448
We are the number one champion
in homicidal violence.

26
00:01:36,448 --> 00:01:42,564
One in every 10 people killed
around the world is a Brazilian.

27
00:01:42,569 --> 00:01:47,678
This translates into over 56,000 people

28
00:01:47,678 --> 00:01:51,161
dying violently each year.

29
00:01:51,161 --> 00:01:57,082
Most of them are young, black boys
dying by guns.

30
00:01:57,082 --> 00:02:02,213
Brazil is also one of the world's
largest consumers of drugs,

31
00:02:02,213 --> 00:02:07,066
and the War on Drugs
has been especially painful here.

32
00:02:07,066 --> 00:02:10,339
Around 50 percent of the homicides
in the streets in Brazil

33
00:02:10,339 --> 00:02:13,776
are related to the War on Drugs.

34
00:02:13,776 --> 00:02:19,464
The same is true for about
25 percent of people in jail.

35
00:02:19,464 --> 00:02:24,596
And it's not just Brazil that is affected
by the twin problems of guns and drugs.

36
00:02:24,596 --> 00:02:31,620
Virtually every country and city across
Central and South America is in trouble.

37
00:02:31,620 --> 00:02:35,869
Latin America has nine percent
of the world's population,

38
00:02:35,869 --> 00:02:40,930
but 25 percent
of its global violent deaths.

39
00:02:40,930 --> 00:02:43,972
These are not problems
we can run away from.

40
00:02:43,972 --> 00:02:46,271
I certainly could not.

41
00:02:46,271 --> 00:02:51,147
So the first campaign I got involved with
started here in 2003

42
00:02:51,147 --> 00:02:53,190
to change Brazil's gun law

43
00:02:53,190 --> 00:02:56,278
and to create a program
to buy back weapons.

44
00:02:56,278 --> 00:02:57,857
In just a few years,

45
00:02:57,857 --> 00:03:00,295
we not only changed national legislation

46
00:03:00,295 --> 00:03:04,033
that made it much more difficult
for civilians to buy a gun,

47
00:03:04,033 --> 00:03:09,683
but we collected and destroyed
almost half a million weapons.

48
00:03:09,683 --> 00:03:14,262
This was one of the biggest
buyback programs in history --

49
00:03:14,262 --> 00:03:16,921
(Applause) --

50
00:03:16,921 --> 00:03:20,542
but we also suffered some setbacks.

51
00:03:20,542 --> 00:03:26,324
We lost a referendum to ban
gun sales to civilians in 2005.

52
00:03:26,324 --> 00:03:29,597
The second initiative was also home-grown,

53
00:03:29,597 --> 00:03:35,147
but is today a global movement to reform
the international drug control regime.

54
00:03:35,147 --> 00:03:36,938
I am the executive coordinator

55
00:03:36,938 --> 00:03:41,416
of something called
the Global Commission on Drug Policy.

56
00:03:41,416 --> 00:03:43,854
The commission is a high-level group

57
00:03:43,854 --> 00:03:47,755
of global leaders brought together
to identify more humane

58
00:03:47,755 --> 00:03:51,911
and effective approaches
to the issue of drugs.

59
00:03:51,911 --> 00:03:56,479
Since we started in 2008,
the taboo on drugs is broken.

60
00:03:56,479 --> 00:04:01,431
Across the Americas, from the US
and Mexico to Colombia and Uruguay,

61
00:04:01,431 --> 00:04:03,579
change is in the air.

62
00:04:03,579 --> 00:04:07,381
But rather than tell you the whole story
about these two movements,

63
00:04:07,381 --> 00:04:11,189
I just want to share with you
four key insights.

64
00:04:11,189 --> 00:04:14,788
I call them lessons to change the world.

65
00:04:14,788 --> 00:04:17,017
There are certainly many more,

66
00:04:17,017 --> 00:04:20,314
but these are the ones
that stand out to me.

67
00:04:20,314 --> 00:04:22,496
So the first lesson is:

68
00:04:22,496 --> 00:04:25,770
Change and control the narrative.

69
00:04:25,770 --> 00:04:27,604
It may seem obvious,

70
00:04:27,604 --> 00:04:30,646
but a key ingredient
to civil society diplomacy

71
00:04:30,646 --> 00:04:34,733
is first changing and then
controlling the narrative.

72
00:04:34,733 --> 00:04:37,890
This is something that veteran
politicians understand,

73
00:04:37,890 --> 00:04:42,813
but that civil society groups
generally do not do very well.

74
00:04:42,813 --> 00:04:45,158
In the case of drug policy,

75
00:04:45,158 --> 00:04:48,618
our biggest success has been
to change the discussion

76
00:04:48,618 --> 00:04:51,427
away from prosecuting a War on Drugs

77
00:04:51,427 --> 00:04:55,398
to putting people's health
and safety first.

78
00:04:55,398 --> 00:04:58,834
In a cutting-edge report
we just launched in New York,

79
00:04:58,834 --> 00:05:06,403
we also showed that the groups benefiting
most from this $320 billion market

80
00:05:06,403 --> 00:05:09,724
are criminal gangs and cartels.

81
00:05:09,724 --> 00:05:13,462
So in order to undermine
the power and profit of these groups,

82
00:05:13,462 --> 00:05:16,434
we need to change the conversation.

83
00:05:16,434 --> 00:05:22,726
We need to make illegal drugs legal.

84
00:05:22,726 --> 00:05:25,559
But before I get you too excited,

85
00:05:25,559 --> 00:05:28,694
I don't mean drugs
should be a free-for-all.

86
00:05:28,702 --> 00:05:32,827
What I'm talking about, and what
the Global Commission advocates for

87
00:05:32,827 --> 00:05:37,354
is creating a highly regulated market,

88
00:05:37,354 --> 00:05:42,579
where different drugs would have
different degrees of regulation.

89
00:05:42,579 --> 00:05:46,619
As for gun control,
we were successful in changing,

90
00:05:46,619 --> 00:05:49,544
but not so much
in controlling, the narrative.

91
00:05:49,544 --> 00:05:52,400
And this brings me to my next lesson:

92
00:05:52,400 --> 00:05:56,324
Never underestimate your opponents.

93
00:05:56,324 --> 00:05:58,553
If you want to succeed
in changing the world,

94
00:05:58,553 --> 00:06:00,922
you need to know who you're up against.

95
00:06:00,922 --> 00:06:04,590
You need to learn their motivations
and points of view.

96
00:06:04,590 --> 00:06:06,796
In the case of gun control,

97
00:06:06,796 --> 00:06:10,349
we really underestimated our opponents.

98
00:06:10,349 --> 00:06:13,274
After a very successful
gun-collection program,

99
00:06:13,274 --> 00:06:14,618
we were elated.

100
00:06:14,618 --> 00:06:17,454
We had support from
80 percent of Brazilians,

101
00:06:17,454 --> 00:06:20,335
and thought that this could help us
win the referendum

102
00:06:20,335 --> 00:06:22,747
to ban gun sales to civilians.

103
00:06:22,747 --> 00:06:25,928
But we were dead wrong.

104
00:06:25,928 --> 00:06:29,249
During a televised 20-day public debate,

105
00:06:29,249 --> 00:06:33,103
our opponent used
our own arguments against us.

106
00:06:33,103 --> 00:06:35,332
We ended up losing the popular vote.

107
00:06:35,332 --> 00:06:37,677
It was really terrible.

108
00:06:37,677 --> 00:06:43,836
The National Rifle Association --
yes, the American NRA --

109
00:06:43,836 --> 00:06:45,595
came to Brazil.

110
00:06:45,595 --> 00:06:48,695
They inundated our campaign
with their propaganda,

111
00:06:48,695 --> 00:06:50,238
that as you know,

112
00:06:50,238 --> 00:06:54,581
links the right to own guns
to ideas of freedom and democracy.

113
00:06:54,581 --> 00:06:58,458
They simply threw everything at us.

114
00:06:58,458 --> 00:07:00,385
They used our national flag,

115
00:07:00,385 --> 00:07:02,080
our independence anthem.

116
00:07:02,080 --> 00:07:03,915
They invoked women's rights

117
00:07:03,915 --> 00:07:09,302
and misused images of Mandela,
Tiananmen Square, and even Hitler.

118
00:07:09,302 --> 00:07:13,272
They won by playing with people's fears.

119
00:07:13,272 --> 00:07:17,916
In fact, guns were almost completely
ignored in their campaign.

120
00:07:17,916 --> 00:07:21,213
Their focus was on individual rights.

121
00:07:21,213 --> 00:07:22,792
But I ask you,

122
00:07:22,792 --> 00:07:25,021
which right is more important,

123
00:07:25,021 --> 00:07:26,832
the right to life

124
00:07:26,832 --> 00:07:29,897
or the right to have a gun
that takes life away?

125
00:07:29,897 --> 00:07:34,150
(Applause)

126
00:07:34,150 --> 00:07:37,972
We thought people would vote
in defense of life,

127
00:07:37,972 --> 00:07:42,756
but in a country with a recent past
of military dictatorship,

128
00:07:42,756 --> 00:07:47,027
the anti-government message
of our opponents resonated,

129
00:07:47,027 --> 00:07:50,626
and we were not prepared to respond.

130
00:07:50,626 --> 00:07:52,715
Lesson learned.

131
00:07:52,715 --> 00:07:56,005
We've been more successful
in the case of drug policy.

132
00:07:56,005 --> 00:08:00,719
If you asked most people 10 years ago if
an end to the War on Drugs was possible,

133
00:08:00,719 --> 00:08:02,731
they would have laughed.

134
00:08:02,731 --> 00:08:06,229
After all, there are huge
military police prisons

135
00:08:06,229 --> 00:08:10,325
and financial establishments
benefiting from this war.

136
00:08:10,325 --> 00:08:16,097
But today, the international drug
control regime is starting to crumble.

137
00:08:16,097 --> 00:08:20,926
Governments and civil societies
are experimenting with new approaches.

138
00:08:20,926 --> 00:08:23,248
The Global Commission on Drug Policy

139
00:08:23,248 --> 00:08:25,315
really knew its opposition,

140
00:08:25,315 --> 00:08:27,149
and rather than fighting them,

141
00:08:27,149 --> 00:08:31,793
our chair -- former Brazilian President
Fernando Henrique Cardoso --

142
00:08:31,793 --> 00:08:36,065
reached out to leaders
from across the political spectrum,

143
00:08:36,065 --> 00:08:38,875
from liberals to conservatives.

144
00:08:38,875 --> 00:08:43,751
This high level group
agreed to honestly discuss

145
00:08:43,751 --> 00:08:45,701
the merits and flaws of drug policies.

146
00:08:45,701 --> 00:08:50,461
It was this reasoned, informed
and strategic discussion

147
00:08:50,461 --> 00:08:54,222
that revealed the sad truth
about the War on Drugs.

148
00:08:54,222 --> 00:09:00,538
The War on Drugs has simply failed
across every metric.

149
00:09:00,538 --> 00:09:03,440
Drugs are cheaper
and more available than ever,

150
00:09:03,440 --> 00:09:06,227
and consumption has risen globally.

151
00:09:06,227 --> 00:09:08,409
But even worse,

152
00:09:08,409 --> 00:09:14,980
it also generated massive
negative unintended consequences.

153
00:09:14,980 --> 00:09:18,626
It is true that some people
have made these arguments before,

154
00:09:18,626 --> 00:09:20,366
but we've made a difference

155
00:09:20,366 --> 00:09:23,378
by anticipating the arguments
of our opponents

156
00:09:23,378 --> 00:09:25,484
and by leveraging powerful voices

157
00:09:25,484 --> 00:09:30,374
that a few years ago
would probably have resisted change.

158
00:09:30,374 --> 00:09:34,461
Third lesson: Use data
to drive your argument.

159
00:09:34,461 --> 00:09:37,456
Guns and drugs are emotive issues,

160
00:09:37,456 --> 00:09:41,357
and as we've painfully learned
in the gun referendum campaign in Brazil,

161
00:09:41,357 --> 00:09:44,422
sometimes it's impossible
to cut through the emotions

162
00:09:44,422 --> 00:09:46,512
and get to the facts.

163
00:09:46,512 --> 00:09:49,600
But this doesn't mean
that we shouldn't try.

164
00:09:49,600 --> 00:09:51,251
Until quite recently,

165
00:09:51,251 --> 00:09:55,265
we simply didn't know
how many Brazilians were killed by guns.

166
00:09:55,265 --> 00:10:00,780
Amazingly, it was a local soap opera
called "Mulheres Apaixonadas" --

167
00:10:00,780 --> 00:10:02,498
or "Women in Love" --

168
00:10:02,498 --> 00:10:06,410
that kicked off Brazil's
national gun control campaign.

169
00:10:06,410 --> 00:10:08,872
In one highly viewed episode,

170
00:10:08,872 --> 00:10:13,074
a soap opera lead actress
was killed by a stray bullet.

171
00:10:13,074 --> 00:10:17,370
Brazilian grannies
and housewives were outraged,

172
00:10:17,370 --> 00:10:20,644
and in a case of art imitating life,

173
00:10:20,644 --> 00:10:25,938
this episode also included footage
of a real gun control march

174
00:10:25,938 --> 00:10:28,422
that we had organized right here,


175
00:10:28,422 --> 00:10:31,255
outside in Copacabana Beach.

176
00:10:31,255 --> 00:10:36,699
The televised death and march
had a huge impact on public opinion.

177
00:10:36,699 --> 00:10:41,483
Within weeks, our national congress
approved the disarmament bill

178
00:10:41,483 --> 00:10:44,571
that had been languishing for years.

179
00:10:44,571 --> 00:10:47,586
We were then able to mobilize data

180
00:10:47,586 --> 00:10:50,886
to show the successful outcomes
of the change in the law

181
00:10:50,886 --> 00:10:53,007
and gun collection program.

182
00:10:53,007 --> 00:10:54,769
Here is what I mean:

183
00:10:54,769 --> 00:10:58,293
We could prove that in just one year,

184
00:10:58,293 --> 00:11:03,099
we saved more than 5,000 lives.

185
00:11:03,099 --> 00:11:06,862
(Applause)

186
00:11:06,862 --> 00:11:09,276
And in the case of drugs,

187
00:11:09,276 --> 00:11:14,570
in order to undermine this fear
and prejudice that surrounds the issue,

188
00:11:14,570 --> 00:11:19,678
we managed to gather and present data
that shows that today's drug policies

189
00:11:19,678 --> 00:11:23,549
cause much more harm than drug use per se,

190
00:11:23,549 --> 00:11:27,682
and people are starting to get it.

191
00:11:27,682 --> 00:11:29,818
My fourth insight is:

192
00:11:29,818 --> 00:11:34,044
Don't be afraid to bring
together odd bedfellows.

193
00:11:34,044 --> 00:11:36,018
What we've learned in Brazil --

194
00:11:36,018 --> 00:11:38,363
and this doesn't only
apply to my country --

195
00:11:38,363 --> 00:11:42,995
is the importance of bringing diverse
and eclectic folks together.

196
00:11:42,995 --> 00:11:45,131
If you want to change the world,

197
00:11:45,131 --> 00:11:49,427
it helps to have a good cross-section
of society on your side.

198
00:11:49,427 --> 00:11:52,027
In both the case of guns and drugs,

199
00:11:52,027 --> 00:11:55,463
we brought together
a wonderful mix of people.

200
00:11:55,463 --> 00:11:59,667
We mobilized the elite
and got huge support from the media.

201
00:11:59,667 --> 00:12:04,124
We gathered the victims,
human rights champions, cultural icons.

202
00:12:04,124 --> 00:12:06,701
We also assembled
the professional classes --

203
00:12:06,701 --> 00:12:09,697
doctors, lawyers, academia and more.

204
00:12:09,697 --> 00:12:12,437
What I've learned over the last years

205
00:12:12,437 --> 00:12:18,337
is that you need coalitions of the willing
and of the unwilling to make change.

206
00:12:18,337 --> 00:12:20,204
In the case of drugs,

207
00:12:20,204 --> 00:12:23,791
we needed libertarians,
anti-prohibitionists, legalizers,

208
00:12:23,791 --> 00:12:26,136
and liberal politicians.

209
00:12:26,136 --> 00:12:28,597
They may not agree on everything;

210
00:12:28,597 --> 00:12:32,846
in fact, they disagree
on almost everything.

211
00:12:32,846 --> 00:12:38,615
But the legitimacy of the campaign
is based on their diverse points of view.

212
00:12:39,521 --> 00:12:41,762
Over a decade ago,

213
00:12:41,762 --> 00:12:46,220
I had a comfortable future
working for an investment bank.

214
00:12:46,220 --> 00:12:50,492
I was as far removed from the world
of civil society diplomacy

215
00:12:50,492 --> 00:12:52,768
as you can imagine.

216
00:12:52,768 --> 00:12:54,927
But I took a chance.

217
00:12:54,927 --> 00:12:56,924
I changed course,

218
00:12:56,924 --> 00:13:00,284
and on the way, I helped 
to create social movements

219
00:13:00,284 --> 00:13:05,004
that I believe have made 
some parts of the world safer.

220
00:13:05,004 --> 00:13:10,178
Each and every one of us
has the power to change the world.

221
00:13:10,178 --> 00:13:14,790
No matter what the issue,
and no matter how hard the fight,

222
00:13:14,790 --> 00:13:19,504
civil society is central
to the blueprint for change.

223
00:13:19,504 --> 00:13:21,815
Thank you.

224
00:13:21,815 --> 00:13:25,832
(Applause)