{"id":35242,"date":"2013-10-21T12:00:19","date_gmt":"2013-10-21T11:00:19","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/?p=35242"},"modified":"2015-05-05T22:21:21","modified_gmt":"2015-05-05T21:21:21","slug":"replacing-violence-armed-rebellions-militarism-and-war-with-nonviolence-and-international-law","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/2013\/10\/replacing-violence-armed-rebellions-militarism-and-war-with-nonviolence-and-international-law\/","title":{"rendered":"Replacing Violence, Armed Rebellions, Militarism, and War with Nonviolence and International Law"},"content":{"rendered":"

Address to the 13th<\/sup> World Summit of Nobel Peace Laureates in Warsaw, Poland, October 21-23, 2013<\/em><\/p>\n

Stand in Solidarity for Peace: Time to Act<\/i><\/p>\n

Dear Friends,<\/p>\n

I believe the next stage of our evolution as the human family is to embrace nonviolence.\u00a0\u00a0 This will mean rejecting violence in all its forms and solving our problems together through nonviolence, human rights and international law.<\/p>\n

Replacing \u00a0\u00a0\u2018armed\u2019 rebellions, militarism and war, \u00a0with international law, is not an impossible task and will happen when we humans reach the critical mass of people who know that each life is sacred, and say \u2018no\u2019 to killing, force and the threat of force, which is currently used by most governments and extremist groups around \u00a0the world. \u00a0\u00a0We are challenged to stop killing each other, and instead use alternatives to violence in order to solve our problems.<\/p>\n

There is nothing good or glorious about violence, armed rebellions, militarism, nuclear weapons and war. \u00a0Suicide bombings, extrajudicial killings, renditions, secret trials, and torturing other human beings is always wrong and we as world citizens have the power to stop such inhumanity by raising our voices against the use of such methods be they used by individuals, armed rebels, \u00a0or governments.\u00a0 Torture should never be accepted; the current policies of\u00a0 many governments to ignore civil and human rights in the name of \u2018war on terrorism\u2019 is a denial of every world\u2019s citizens rights to basic freedom, worked for so long and hard by many people.\u00a0 When basic freedoms are denied or removed by governments or rebel groups people have a moral and legal responsibility to demand the return of those rights, otherwise all we have is domination and fear, and freedom, democracy and peace are no longer part of the peoples rich identity and inheritance.<\/p>\n

There is a great yearning for peace in the human family. We are tired of militarism and war and so much suffering. We know that we live in a rich world and yet with austerity cuts, \u00a0and military spending higher than it has ever been, the rich get richer and the poor get poorer.\u00a0\u00a0 We cannot tackle poverty and provide development, and representative democracy, unless we end militarism and war.\u00a0 Poverty and inequality will never change as long as we have policies which reward the rich and punish the poor.\u00a0 Things will never change as long as our governments\u2019 policies put invasion, occupations, and wars above their own citizens needs of education, health care, and taking care of the poor and marginalized in our societies.\u00a0 So why in the 2lst century and one hundred years after First World War, are we still allowing armies to train, kill and torture, other human beings and what can we do to change before it is too late?<\/p>\n

I believe we have to change our thinking and our mindsets.\u00a0 Much of our thinking is being distorted as it is based on the emotion of fear of \u2018otherness\u2019.\u00a0\u00a0 We see other people and countries, through the lens of fear which leads to hatred and demonization\u00a0 of others whom we see as separate and different, \u00a0because of \u00a0religion, race, class, etc.,\u00a0 we have allowed fear to be our master.\u00a0\u00a0 But there is another way to think and live and we are challenged to change both individually and collectively to bring about real change in our world.\u00a0 When we choose to let go of fear, choose forgiveness and to love both ourselves and all others, a transformative energy arises and we are faced with new possibilities.\u00a0 Letting go of our fear, both as individuals and countries,\u00a0 allows us to live fully alive in the moment as joyful, happy people, to reach out to others in fraternity and friendship which in the final analysis is the best form of human security. Spiritual Leaders in all faith traditions can help stop violence by ending all ambiguity and justification of violence, and working together with peopes of all faiths, and none, \u00a0\u00a0to end ethnic and religious conflict and war.<\/p>\n

Governments need to change their policies which are often based on the threat and use of force. The US government needs to move away from its policy of \u2018war on terrorism\u2019 This flawed foreign policy, and Israels \u00a0policy too,\u00a0 aroused the contempt and distrust of many people in the Middle East, and other places, \u00a0who see these policies as divide and conquer.\u00a0 The bombing attacks by extremists are a drastic mode of revenge.\u00a0 I would like to appeal for sanity and leadership by a change of USA\/Israeli policies from occupation and militarism to disarmament, to dialogue and negotiation, to reconciliation and peace, and working for fraternity amongst the nations, all so close to the heart of Alfred Nobel, and indeed stipulated in his will.<\/p>\n

The terror tactics being used by extremists does not advance the struggle against hegemony, foreign intervention, or external aggression, but peaceful, nonviolent means can bring closer the fraternity, equality, and justice all men and women of goodwill seek for our world today. \u00a0I appeal to all those who are using violence to reject such methods and take up the way of peaceful resistance, as Abdul Gaffer Kahn, Gandhi, King, Dorothy Day, and so many before have shown really does work.<\/p>\n

It seems the American people too are tired of their young men\/women dying in foreign lands and war and militarism equals Poverty for many people living in USA cities.\u00a0 Across Europe too we see people marching against re-armament, austerity cuts and unemployment. Many of us had high hopes when the European union brought us together as diverse countries to work for peace and against any more wars in Europe.\u00a0 Now we see the militarization of Europe through NATO when countries, facing severe austerity cuts, are being asked to fund the fighting and invasion and destruction of other countries, such as Iraq, Afghanistan,\u00a0 \u00a0Libya, etc., much against the wishes of the people of the world.\u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0A recent study has shown that at a time of austerity EU military spending increased to 194 billion euro, equivalent to the annual deficits of Greece, Italy and Spain combined.\u00a0 The Stockholm International Peace Research states that in 2012 world military expenditure is estimated to have reached $l756 billion \u2013 the highest ever.\u00a0 It is time to abolish NATO, bring an end to the European battle groups and an end to the missile defence shield, and develop a nuclear weapons free zone, \u00a0in an effort to end the militarization of the European Union to stop it developing in the wrong direction and contrary to the ideas and inspirations of its European citizens.<\/p>\n

I thank you all for your work and encourage you to keep it up, as it is an important \u00a0piece in this tapestry of love which will bring about an end to militarism and \u00a0war and bring about \u00a0peace for the human family.<\/p>\n

_________________________<\/p>\n

Mairead Corrigan Maguire is a member of the TRANSCEND Network for Peace, Development and Environment. She won the 1976 Nobel Peace Prize for her work for peace in Northern Ireland. Her book <\/i>The Vision of Peace (edited by John Dear, with a foreword by Desmond Tutu and a preface by the Dalai Lama) is available from www.wipfandstock.com<\/a>. She lives in Belfast, Northern Ireland. See: www.peacepeople.com<\/a>.<\/i><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Address to the 13th World Summit of Nobel Peace Laureates in Warsaw, Poland, October 21-23, 2013 – Stand in Solidarity for Peace: Time to Act<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[105],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-35242","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-nobel-laureates"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35242","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=35242"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35242\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=35242"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=35242"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=35242"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}