Renunciation of force in domestic and
international relations: Peace
Editing and commentary by Carolyn Bennett
The 1984 Declaration on the Right of Peoples to Peace expresses
“the will and the aspirations of all peoples to eradicate war from the life of mankind and, above all, to avert a world-wide
nuclear catastrophe….”
The 1984 Declaration on the Right of Peoples to Peace expresses
conviction “that life without war
serves as the primary international prerequisite for the material well-being,
development and progress of countries, and for the full implementation of the
rights and fundamental human freedoms proclaimed by the United Nations….”
The 1984 Declaration on the Right of Peoples to Peace “emphasizes
that ensuring the exercise of the right of peoples to peace demands that the
policies of States be directed towards the elimination of the threat of war, particularly nuclear war,
the renunciation of the use of force
in international relations and the settlement of international disputes by
peaceful means on the basis of the Charter of the United Nations…”
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he 1984 Declaration on the Right of Peoples to Peace “proclaims
that the peoples of our planet have a sacred right to peace [and] … declares
that the preservation of the right of peoples to peace and the promotion of its
implementation constitute a fundamental obligation of each State [and] appeals
to all States and international organizations to do their utmost to assist in
implementing the right of peoples to peace through the adoption of appropriate
measures at both the national and the international level.”
This week commemorates International Day of Peace established
by the United Nations General Assembly in 1981 (resolution 36/67PDF document) to
coincide with its opening session, which was held annually on the third Tuesday
of September.
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he first Peace Day was observed in September 1982; and around
the world, the International Day of Peace is observed on September 21. In a
unanimous vote in 2001, the United Nations General Assembly adopted a
resolution (55/282PDF document) establishing the 21st “as an annual day of
non-violence and cease-fire.”
UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon in this year's UN celebration
emphasized “education” but unfortunately his words ring hollow to me in the face of ongoing UN peacekeeping wars and the inordinately
abusively powerful U.S.-dominated UN Security Council and, with NATO, its wars.
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| UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon Center |
The Secretary-General said, and I expect he means well, “On this International Day of Peace, let us pledge
to teach our children the value of tolerance
and mutual respect. Let us invest in the
schools and teachers that will build a fair and inclusive world that embraces
diversity. Let us fight for peace and
defend it with all our might.”
No one I can think of in the world wants mere “tolerance”;
and even if it were so, tolerance is not inclusive in “mutual respect.” The nuclear powered
nations of the world respect no other nation, not even their own people.
Teaching and learning are impossible in a war zone. “Diversity”
is a term so overused as to be meaningless, let alone, observably practiced in any context of
domestic or international affairs.
And the trouble with “fight[ing] for peace
and defend[ing] it with all our might” is that “might” is killing the world’s
people; and peace, contrary to conventional views and propaganda, is not
something nations have to “defend”. All we have to do is let it be. Practice coexistence
instead of dominance. Practice respect and understanding and a diplomacy in words, instead
of in bullying, lecturing and condescending, invading and occupying and bombing,
from near and far. The problem with today’s United Nations is that it is not a union of 193 mutually respectful nations on a journey in peaceful, nonviolent, coexistence; but a concentration of power in the hands of a few hypocritical and capricious nations who impose their will, destructively, in ways that rob, infringe, brutally abuse the rights of global peoples and the sovereignty of nations.
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was reading a piece
published today on Facebook by the UN News Center recommending that a North Korean
leader’s human rights “atrocities” be brought before the International Criminal Court in The
Hague.This charge rises regularly from a general western bias against or a U. S.-French-UK expedient
demonization of some Asian or African leader.
The Facebook entry and the UN News Center reported that the head
of a United Nations-appointed inquiry into human rights violations in the
Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK) had found “Unspeakable atrocities.” Michael
Kirby reportedly said in the course of their investigation they “heard from
ordinary people who faced torture and imprisonment for doing nothing more than
watching foreign soap operas or holding a religious belief.” Based on his findings, he called “on
the global community to respond to a situation which indicates a large-scale
pattern of abuse that may constitute systematic and gross human rights
violations.”
I wondered if Michael Kirby were blind to actual and well documented U.S. atrocities? My
response to the UN news entry raised the question:
WHAT ABOUT UNITED STATES'
UNSPEAKABLE ATROCITIES (directly and indirectly: from militaries on the ground to drone missiles to proxy states and
armed insurgents and other factions and forces) in Yemen, Pakistan, Afghanistan,
Somalia, Palestine, Lebanon (with sanctions and other hostilities against Iranians
and North Koreans) and Iraq, Syria, Libya, Bagram Prison at Afghanistan and Guantanamo Bay at Cuba, even within the United States
itself, and other places?
UNLESS AND UNTIL the United Nations General Assembly (forget
the U.S.- dominated UN Security Council!), and the UN Human Rights Commission in particular
calls out the United States and other Western countries and their heads of
state for their deep and continuous abuses of human rights (indeed their
flagrant breach of international law and national sovereignty, and the killing of innocents), the UN will
continue to lose viability as enabler of world peace and reliever of human
suffering, and will lose all credibility in the eyes of the world’s peoples. |
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oday’s International Peace Day emphasis on “literacy” is far
from the mark. Some of the most “literate” people in the world ─ in the case of
the United States of America, graduates from the best and most highly financed
universities in the nation (Columbia, Chicago, Princeton, Yale, Harvard) ─ are coldblooded killers,
with impunity. There’s something sinister about this: they are getting away
with murder!! And the “international community” either applauds or wrings its hands.
International bodies, which seemed legitimate some years ago,
have been reduced to propaganda machines, mouthpieces stuffed with platitudes
and empty words recited on a long line of commemoration days. But they do
nothing to enable world peace or end global suffering.
Today is “International Peace Day.”
But with wars and conflicts in Syria, Lebanon and Libya, Afghanistan and Pakistan India/Karachi, the Occupied Palestinian Territories and Egypt, the Democratic Republic of Congo and Somalia and Sudan, Bahrain and Yemen, Iraq and Turkey, and on streets and within institutions of the United States of America and the United Kingdom ─ is it a day of International Peace, the renunciation of force in domestic and international relations?
Hardly; and there never will be peace, nonviolence, respectful
diplomacy, coexistence among nations and peoples as long as the current cabal
of belligerents holds sway.
Sources and notes
Declaration on the Right of Peoples to Peace [full text]
Approved by General Assembly resolution 39/11 of November 12,
1984, The General Assembly
Reaffirming that the principal aim of the United Nations is
the maintenance of international peace and security,
Bearing in mind the fundamental principles of international
law set forth in the Charter of the United Nations,
Expressing the will and the aspirations of all peoples to
eradicate war from the life of
mankind and, above all, to avert a world-wide nuclear catastrophe,
Convinced that life without war serves as the primary international prerequisite for the
material well-being, development and progress of countries, and for the full
implementation of the rights and fundamental human freedoms proclaimed by the
United Nations,
Aware that in the nuclear age the establishment of a lasting
peace on Earth represents the primary condition for the preservation of human
civilization and the survival of mankind,
Recognizing that the maintenance of a peaceful life for
peoples is the sacred duty of each State,
1. Solemnly proclaims that the
peoples of our planet have a sacred right to peace;
2. Solemnly declares that the
preservation of the right of peoples to peace and the promotion of its
implementation constitute a fundamental obligation of each State;
3. Emphasizes that ensuring the
exercise of the right of peoples to peace demands that the policies of States
be directed towards the elimination of the threat of war, particularly nuclear war,
the renunciation of the use of force in international relations and the
settlement of international disputes by peaceful means on the basis of the
Charter of the United Nations;
4. Appeals to all States and
international organizations to do their utmost to assist in implementing the right
of peoples to peace through the adoption of appropriate measures at both the
national and the international level.
http://www.ohchr.org/EN/ProfessionalInterest/Pages/RightOfPeoplesToPeace.aspx
“Marking International Day of Peace, UN highlights power of
education to build tolerant societies,” September 18, 2013, http://www.un.org/apps/news/story.asp?NewsID=45878&Cr=education&Cr1=peace#.UjnmCmzD-1s
18 September 2013 – The United
Nations today marked the International Day of Peace with a call to invest in
education that encourages children to embrace global citizenship based on
values of tolerance and diversity.
[This is in part an unfortunate, though popular and persistent
usage; no one wants mere tolerance: to be
tolerated.]
http://www.un.org/en/events/peaceday/
http://www.un.org/en/events/peaceday/2013/documents.shtml
17 September 2013 – The head of the United Nations-appointed
inquiry into human rights violations in the Democratic People’s Republic of
Korea (DPRK) reported today that testimony heard so far by his team pointed to
widespread and serious abuses, including abductions and torture, as well as
“unspeakable atrocities” in detention camps, http://www.un.org/apps/news/story.asp?
NewsID=45867&Cr=democratic&Cr1=korea#.Ujn9vWzD-1s
[Michael Kirby, chair of the Commission of Inquiry on North Korea, speaks at
the UN Human Rights Council #HRC24 in Geneva, 17 September 2013. © UN
Photo/Jean-Marc Ferré. More: http://sm.ohchr.org/1f4RY0m]
Bennett's books are available in New York State independent bookstores: Lift Bridge Bookshop: www.liftbridgebooks.com [Brockport, NY]; Sundance Books: http://www.sundancebooks.com/main.html [Geneseo, NY]; Mood Makers Books: www.moodmakersbooks.com [City of Rochester, NY]; Dog Ears Bookstore and Literary Arts Center: www.enlightenthedog.org/ [Buffalo, NY]; Burlingham Books – ‘Your Local Chapter’: http://burlinghambooks.com/ [Perry, NY 14530]; The Bookworm: http://www.eabookworm.com/ [East Aurora, NY] • See also: World Pulse: Global Issues through the eyes of Women: http://www.worldpulse.com/ http://www.worldpulse.com/pulsewire http://www.facebook.com/#!/bennetts2ndstudy
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