HUMAN RIGHTS AND NONVIOLENCE – BASIS FOR A NONKILLING WORLD

COMMENTARY ARCHIVES, 16 Dec 2008

Mairead Maguire, Nobel Peace Prize Laureate

Speech at the 9th World Summit of Nobel Peace Laureates
Paris, Dec 11-13/2008

Dear Friends,
     
I am very happy to be here with you all.  I would like to thank Bertrand Delanoe, the Mayor of Paris, Mikhail Gorbachev, and Walter Veltroni for their invitation to this Summit.

It seems to me that we can only have a world without violence, based on a culture of human rights and nonviolence. The Universal Declaration of Human Rights and the European Convention on Human Rights are important documents that set out basic rights, which are universal and indivisible for all the human family. The ongoing work to produce the trilogy to these first two documents, the International Convention on Human Rights by 2015 deserves all our support.

This year is the 60th anniversary of the UDHR and since its inception there has been an increased awareness of our human rights and responsibilities. However, sadly, this last couple of decades have seen an increase in abuse of human rights by both state and non-state actors. In the name of national security and with a policy of ‘War on Terrorism’ led by the USA/UK, many governments have set aside their human rights and international legal obligations, using ‘violence for violence’ and ‘terror for terror’ policies against their own peoples and foreign nationals.

Such policies by the USA have weakened their moral authority and diluted their ability to give real leadership to the world. These policies of state terror have in turn fed the anger, fear and despair of citizens, leading to an increase in militant groups using violence such as suicide bombings, and targeting civilians. The horror of such ‘terrorism’ came home to the people of Mumbai, in November, when l68 people were killed in terrorist attacks.

The murderous attacks of September 11 in New York by violent extremists were horrific events. But the response of the USA of ‘terror for terror’ made the world a more fearful, dangerous place. Great credit goes to millions of people around the world who united to try to ‘Stop the War,’ but their voices for dialogue were ignored.  

These USA/UK genocidal wars, invasions and occupations of Afghanistan and Iraq caused over a million deaths, 9O percent of which of civilians (mostly women and children), being examples of ‘war crimes’ and ‘crimes against humanity.” So too was Russia’s genocidal bombing of Chechnya. The list of violent atrocities carried out by allegedly civilized peoples is long, such as in Congo, Darfur, Zimbabwe, etc.

Surely the lesson to be learned is that violence begets violence, and we have to start using nonviolence and uphold human rights if we are to get peace. It is not possible to have wars, invasions, occupations, nor militant violence/armed struggles, and at the same time uphold human rights and international law! The alternative to violence is nonviolence and it does work. We must remove from governments their right to kill on our behalf, and challenge them to recognize nonviolence as a serious political science, using it as a way to solve problems and to build peace. We must abolish war as an institution, insisting on unconditional, all-inclusive dialogue to solve problems.

Article 4 of the UDHR states that everyone has the right to life, liberty, and security of person. Article 13 of the Nobel Charter for a world without violence affirms this right when it says, ‘We have a right not to be killed and a responsibility not to kill others’.

Albert Camus, the French Philosopher, posed what he called the great political question of our time: ‘Do you or do you not, directly or indirectly, want to be killed or assaulted?  Do you or do you not, directly or indirectly, want to kill or assault?’ Camus said that it is necessary to understand what fear means: ‘Fear implies and rejects the same fact: a world where murder is legitimate and where human life is considered trifling’.

As for his questions he says, ‘All who say no to both these questions are automatically committed to a series of consequences that must modify their way of posing problems’. And he said, ‘You have to know your position on this before you can deal with other issues’.  We are challenged first to disarm our mindset and to challenge our governments to find nonviolent solutions to problems, instead of resorting to murdering our brothers and sisters, in our interconnected, inter-dependent world.

One of our basic human rights is freedom from want and the right to security. It is increasingly recognized that we need to develop a broader concept of human security, which is primarily concerned with people, not governments and states. Factors necessary for human security include food, shelter, health care, (physical and mental), and personal safety and security. The Millennium Development Project recognized these basic needs and has set out Goals in order to meet them.

However, it is only by governments re-prioritizing their goals and diverting funds from military budgets to poverty, education, health care, environment, that a real difference can be achieved. To provide human security we need a Nonviolent Common Security policy for Europe and the world. The framework of a nonviolent common security policy would include international measures to ensure peace, justice and the integrity of creation with special focus in the immediate future on the developing world, where to all our shame, children die unnecessarily of preventable diseases and hunger.
 
Currently in Europe and elsewhere many governments’ resources are being put into the military approach and few into alternative nonviolent security approaches.

I believe we should replace NATO with a Nonviolent European Common Security Community; establish the same in other world regions (as the USA imperial power is decreasing, the world is becoming increasingly regionalized); and also an overall Global Nonviolent Common Security Community. It is time to dismantle NATO (this should have been done when the Warsaw Pact was dismantled), as it has no role.  

NATO (U.S. is NATO) whose member states include nuclear weapons states, such as USA, UK, France, and which maintain nuclear strike first use option, are indeed a danger to the world. The USA has nuclear weapons in six states in Europe. And as the USA and the UK are updating their nuclear weapons, they are endangering the Nuclear Non Proliferation Treaty and ignoring their commitments to disarmament.  

Steps should include removal of all US nuclear weapons from Europe and US missile defence installations from the Russian border. France/UK/USA/Israel/Russia and all other nuclear states should abolish nuclear weapons and all weapons of mass destruction.

The money spent on nuclear weapons would be better spent on alternative sustainable energy, helping protect the environment and producing jobs. It would be an inspiration to many if France gave nonviolent leadership and moved to abolish its nuclear weapons.

Armies: I believe in transforming our culture of war and militarism into a culture of nonkilling. We need to abolish armies (as has already been done in Costa Rica) and instead establish multi-national community of unarmed peacekeepers. Similar non-violent transformation and training could be used in police, prison and
security establishments.

If we are serious about peace, then the occupations and wars of Iraq and Afghanistan by the USA and NATO must be ended, and a Marshall Plan of financial assistance offered to help these governments and their peoples to rebuild and reconstruct their countries.

Last month I visited Gaza and was shocked witnessing the depth of suffering under the economic blockade by the Israeli government. Gaza is the largest Ghetto/Prison in the world but it is even worst than a prison, as the people have little food and medicines, completely cut off from the world, with the Israeli government holding all the keys to the prison. The Israeli government’s policy of collective punishment of 1.5 million people in Gaza (for over 2 years now) is a breach of the Geneva Conventions.

It is barbaric, cruel and inhumane, and yet UK, USA, EU and UN continue, for the most part, to remain silent, and indeed connive with this inhumanity by shamefully allowing this punishment of the Palestinians to continue, and even rewarding the Israeli government with funding and special status. (USA gives 10 million dollars a day unconditionally to Israel, much of which is spent on the military occupation and repression of the Palestinians).

Also the continued occupation of Palestine, the Israeli build up of illegal settlements, and the establishment of a racist apartheid system, means that the Israeli government is breaking all international laws.

In Palestine/Israel there is a political solution to this political problem, and through ceasefires by all parties, and serious dialogue, (including with Hamas) peace is possible. But the USA needs to change its policy of supporting Israel only, giving fair hearing to the Palestinians, who passionately want peace and justice, based on human rights and international laws.

The United Nations has a responsibility to act and should, I believe, suspend the UN membership of the Israeli government until it lifts the Siege and meets with its legal obligations under UN Resolutions (64 to date, including the Right to Return of Palestinians refugees, which Israel continues to ignore). I myself support the boycott/divestment movement against Israel until it meets its international commitments to democracy and human rights.

I am very hopeful for the future. I know there are so many people, both here and around the world, working for change, that indeed change will come. We know we are an interconnected, interdependent human family. Like all families we will have our difficulties and differences, but we know too that violence is not the way and in the final analysis we have to learn to live together, so love will find a way.  

Peace and happiness to you all.

www.peacepeople.com

This article originally appeared on Transcend Media Service (TMS) on 16 Dec 2008.

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