The following article, about World Disarmament Week 2009 by Rubén Benayas, was published last year and, 12 months on, if this statement by Sergio Duarte (UN Under-Secretary-General and High Representative for Disarmament Affairs) at the recent United Nations 65th General Assembly is anything to go by, it would appear that the United Nations is no further advanced in its quest for nuclear and conventional disarmament:
“If major steps forward in disarmament are postponed indefinitely, if questions persist of compliance with non-proliferation commitments, and if military spending continues to rise while Millennium Development Goals continue to be unmet, then our potential contributions will be correspondingly limited.”

Last year’s article is just as relevant today:

World Disarmament Week: October 24 to 30

Every year the United Nations organises this week to coincide with the anniversary of its founding. The aim is to raise awareness among all of the UN’s member states of the danger posed by the arms race, to propagate the need to put an end to it and to foster a better public understanding of the urgent task of disarmament.

Every year the United Nations celebrates the anniversary of its founding in 1945 during this week. The main goals of Disarmament Week revolve around raising awareness among all of the UN’s member states of the danger posed by the arms race (whether conventional or nuclear armament), propagating the need to put an end to the arms race and fostering a better public understanding of the urgent task of disarmament. It also encourages the reallocation of the economic resources used for arms race to favour economic and social development.

Securing peace and safeguarding international security is the responsibility of all United Nations States through their firm commitment to reducing and subsequently eradicating the main threat to our planet, weapons of mass destructions, more commonly known as nuclear, chemical and biological weapons.

The week must be seized upon to adopt political strategies for disarmament and one of these is to invite all of the countries to take part actively through alliances in order to foster a true understanding of the problems related to disarmament, given that over history the arms race has caused huge human loss and great economic waste. The aim is to put an end to war as the way to resolve conflict and to eliminate the use of military force and threat at an international, national and regional level.

However, the disarmament promoted by the United Nations faces some superlative contradictions: the five countries with the right to veto in the Security Council (the USA, Russia, China, France and the UK), own 90 % of the world’s nuclear arsenal and are the world’s main producers and vendors of weapons of all kinds.

FIGURES:

• In 2008, sixteen major armed conflicts were maintained in fifteen places around the world: Africa: Burundi, Somalia, Sudan • America: Columbia, Peru, USA • Asia: Afghanistan, India, Myanmar, Pakistan, Philippines, Philippines (Mindanao), Sri Lanka. • Middle East: Israel, Iraq, Turkey
• The main military expenditure budgets in 2008 (in billions of $ – % of the world total armament expenditure): USA 607 – 41.5% / RUSSIA 58.6 – 4% / FRANCE 65.7 – 4.5% / UK 65.7 – 4.5% / CHINA 84.9 – 5.8% / GERMANY 46.8 – 3.2% / JAPAN 46.3 – 3.2% / ITALY 40.6 – 2.8% / SAUDI ARABIA 38.2 – 2.6% / INDIA 30.0 – 2.1%
• The total world expenditure on armament in 2008 is estimated at 1,226 billion dollars. From 1999 to 2008 expenditure increased by 45%
• Strategic and non-strategic nuclear warheads deployed around the world (year 2009): 8,392 total – USA: 2,702 / RUSSIA: 4,834 / UK: 160 / FRANCE: 300 / CHINA: 186 / INDIA: 60 to 70 / PAKISTAN: 60 / ISRAEL, 80

According to Rafael de la Rubia, International Coordinator for the World March for Peace and Nonviolence, “this year we have experienced the biggest economic crisis in history and still investment in armament worldwide has continued to increase. The military industry is the worst cancer that afflicts the world”.

Indeed, despite the most far-reaching, severe and long-lived crisis in history, weapons expenditure and provisioning continues to grow in 2009 despite the multiple treaties in force for the control and non-proliferation of nuclear and conventional weapons and conventions of all kinds on human rights, alliances of the civilisations etc.

An enormous business revolves around armament. To date, this lobby has managed to construct and generate a system capable of organising impossible wars, facilitating military encroachments and invasions of territories, sowing fear and distrust of the West among Eastern cultures and religions and creating ‘terrible, evil and cruel’ enemies using ferocious propaganda campaigns. All of this has been done to maintain the spectacular business of the military industry.

There is room for everyone in the armament business. Every country in the world allocates their biggest budgets (heedless to the fact that it is public money they are spending) on defence expenditure. Nobody escapes the arms spiral. It is not just Europe, the USA, China and India that allocate the most resources for security and defence; the impoverished and devastated countries of Latin America, Africa and Asia also allot more to these investments than they do to fighting hunger and poverty or to alleviating the serious problems of access to healthcare and education.

Many experts maintain that for the wars and tensions between territories the economic crisis provides the ideal climate for warmongering. It would be positive for our future evolution if, at this historic time, this terrible marriage between recession and war was broken.

We must hope that the 2009 Disarmament Week has the desired effect of raising awareness among leaders because, among the people of the world, the seeds of peace and nonviolence have already been sown.

Sources: SIPRI Yearbook 2009: Armaments, Disarmament and International Security

Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI) is an independent international institute for research who works on problems of peace and conflict, in particular arms control and disarmament. It was founded in 1966 to commemorate 150 years of uninterrupted peace in Sweden.

Further reading: SIPRI Yearbook 2010: Armaments, Disarmament and International Security

Original Article by kind permission of Pressenza International Agency

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It’s Time Change

To add our contribution to the celebration of John Lennon’s 70th birthday today here is a video compilation of some of John’s interviews relating to world peace. Below are some useful links.

John Lennon Official Site
Yoko Ono’s Imagine Peace Site
Julian Lennon’s White Feather Foundation
The Global Peace Initiative

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It’s Time For Change

International Non-Violence Day is being observed under the banner of United Nations (UN) today (October 2) – the birth anniversary of Mahatma Gandhi (1869-1948), who led India to independence and inspired movements for civil rights and freedoms across the world.

The UN desiring to secure a culture of peace, tolerance, understanding and non-violence invites states, UN bodies, regional and non-governmental organisations (NGOs) as well as individuals to commemorate the day through educating ordinary folks on significance of the day.

The world we live in looks very different from before. It is a world where no nation can claim to be safe, free from the winds of insecurity. Globalisation, with all its good and evil effects, is perhaps the most important catalyst for the rapidly changing equation of world politics.

The history of non-violence is perhaps as old as the history of violence. Man’s quest for peace has always been there. Therefore, non-violence has no grammar; there are no fixed rules for non-violent practices. It comes from within.

If violence is a part of man’s nature, so is non-violence. Gandhi developed a unique style of non-violent action, which is still a source of inspiration for the peace-loving people around the world.

Use of violence to attain political goals continues, while the conflict resolution mechanism has radically changed. Now we have global institutions, which are contributing to peacemaking, peacekeeping and peace building.

The UN, in spite of its limitations, is still a symbol of hope in a world of despair. With the decision to observe the International Day of Non-Violence, the UN has given the much-expected recognition to non-violence.

According to a Human Rights Commission Report (page 20), every year in Pakistan incidents of burning of women, domestic violence, kidnappings, merciless killings resulting from sectarian and ethnic violence and cases of sexual harassment surface. Non-violent practices of an individual and that of a society are complementary to each other. A culture of nonviolence can only be made sustainable when each individual and the society he lives in facilitate it.

It is not argued that everyone will have faith in non-violence. It is very natural that some will not like it due to difference in perception. Non-violence, as a strategy, was often rejected and criticized by many, basically on the grounds that violence is a necessary accompaniment to revolutionary change and that right to self-defense is fundamental.

Whichever side of the coin one chooses to look at, violent means cannot ensure a sustainable peace. To achieve a good end, means should also be good. A fragile peace is no peace at all.

We don’t know what change we will be able to bring about by merely observing only one day in the whole year as ‘World Non-Violence Day’. Let us join hands for a better and safer world for ourselves and for the future generations.

To practice non-violence, all we have to do is to understand what non-violence really is. What changes it can bring and how we can apply it to our personal, social and global life.

There is a saying, ‘No creation is possible without imagination’. Let’s start imagining a peaceful world. Let’s say “no” to violence.

The UN Secretary General Secretary General Ban Ki-moon gave the following message in connection with the day: “The International Day of Non-Violence marks the birthday of one of the doctrine’s leading voices Mahatma Gandhi. “Non-violence”, Gandhi said, “is the greatest force at the disposal of mankind,” said Ban Ki-moon.

“We, at the UN, strive to harness the power of non-violence to overcome prejudices, conflicts and cultivate mutual respect and understanding among peoples and countries. Indeed, the creed of non-violence echoes through the UN Charter,” he said.

“We work every day to bring these lofty principles to life. We do this by promoting human rights, seeking to resolve conflicts through peaceful means, campaigning to eliminate violence against women, working to achieve the Millennium Development Goals and building bridges across cultures and countering hatred and extremism everywhere,” he added in his message.

“This work cannot be left to governments or international organisations alone. Peace may be achieved around the negotiating table, but it is sustained around community tables,” he said adding, “Peace starts with people — it flows from the hearts of committed women and men. Communities, families and individuals all have a critical role to play in defeating violence and creating a culture of peace.”

“On this International Day of Non-Violence, let us work together to use the great force of non-violence to build peaceful and just societies for ourselves and for our children,” the secretary general concluded.

Original Article

The Peaceful Planet movement would make every day non-violence day,

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It’s Time For Change