The Hague Appeal for Peace

During the last two centuries, humanity has outlawed slavery, colonialism and apartheid. Now after the bloodiest century in history, it is time to outlaw war.

On May 11, 1999, the Hague Appeal for Peace convened an International Peace Conference at the Netherlands Conference Center - on the 100th Anniversary of the first Peace Conference. The four-day meeting drew 10,000 participants, including Nobel Peace Prize laureates, government leaders and more than 1,000 international organizations.

The conference's opening and closing ceremonies included presentations by UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan and Nobel Laureate Archbishop Desmond Tutu. Also addressing the conference: Jordan's Queen Noor, Netherlands Prime Minister Wim Kok, former US President Jimmy Carter, Burmese democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi, World Federalist Movement andPresident Sir Peter Ustinov.

The Hague Appeal is a people-led movement that works closely with governments and international organizations. The Hague Agenda for Peace is the result of intensive consultation between the 72 members of the Hague Appeal Coordinating Committees and hundreds of organizations and individuals. The following is excerpted from the Hague Agenda. The complete document can be reviewed (and debated) on the Internet [www.haguepeace.org].

PREAMBLE: Replacing the Law of Force with the Force of Law

This century has seen unimagined changes. Society now has the means to cure much disease and eliminate poverty and starvation. We have witnessed successful experiments with active nonviolence in struggles for independence and civil rights, and the replacement of authoritarian government by democracy.

We have also seen genocide in Cambodia, Bosnia, Rwanda and Kosovo, brutal attacks against civilians, and the spread of horrendous weapons capable of ending life on much or all of the planet. Many governments have failed to prevent conflict, protect civilians, end war, eradicate colonialism, guarantee human rights, and create peace.

The Hague Appeal proposes a citizens' Agenda for Peace and Justice for the 21st Century. This fundamentally new approach builds on the New Diplomacy in which citizen advocates, progressive governments, and international organizations have worked together for common goals.

Civil society has launched campaigns to eradicate landmines, reduce small arms traffic, alleviate third world debt, end violence against women, abolish nuclear weapons and protect the rights of children. These grassroots efforts are succeeding because they mobilize ordinary people. Traditional approaches to preventing war have failed disastrously. It is time to redefine security in terms of human and ecological needs instead of national sovereignty and borders.

The violation of human rights - including the denial of economic, social, cultural, political and civil rights - is a root cause of war. We affirm the universality and indivisibility of human rights and call for stronger enforcement of human rights treaties and redress to victims.

It is time to wrest peace-making away from politicians and military establishments. Too often, peace initiatives are negotiated by the warmongers and imposed on those most affected. Those who have suffered most must have a place at the table, with equal representation for women.

The alarming concentration of economic power and the irresponsible imposition of neoliberal, macro-economic policies are destroying the environment, generating poverty and desperation, widening divisions and fomenting war. The Hague Appeal encourages efforts to challenge this destructive model of globalization through community-based coalitions such as the Jubilee 2000 call for debt forgiveness and through campaigns to eradicate poverty and to economically empower women.

Many of today's conflicts are fueled by economic greed and the grab for raw materials, while billions are spent on the arms trade. At the same time, many worthwhile peace initiatives and programs for human security suffer from a lack of funds. These priorities must be reversed.

Counter the Adverse Effects of Globalization

The Hague Appeal for Peace supports the creation of a just global economy with special emphasis on:

• Promoting respect for labor rights.
• Democratic reform of the World Bank, the International Monetary Fund, the World Trade Organization and other international financial institutions
• Accountability of multinational corporations
• Financing economic development from levies on international transfers of arms or funds (the Tobin tax)
• Cancellation of the crushing debts of the world's poorest countries.

Advance the Sustainable Use of Environmental Resources

The Hague Appeal for Peace supports initiatives to:

• Strengthen international environmental law
• Address the problems of overconsumption and misallocation of environmental resources
• Consider the increasingly serious problem of the inequitable allocation of water
• Support campaigns to save the world's forests and species.

Promote International Democracy and Just Global Governance

The Hague Appeal for Peace endorses:

• Democratic strengthening of the UN General Assembly and extending consultative rights to civil society representatives… at all levels of the UN
• The reform of the UN Security Council to make its composition more representative and its decision-making process more transparent.

The Hague Appeal's Top Ten Goals:

• Every national legislature should adopt a resolution prohibiting its government from going to war.
• Peace education should be compulsory in every school.
• Economic rights must be taken as seriously as civil rights.
• All states should unconditionally accept the jurisdiction of the International Court of Justice (ICJ).
• government should ratify the ICJ and implement the Ottawa Landmines Treaty.
• All states should integrate the New Diplomacy - the partnership of governments, international organizations and civil society.
• In the event of a humanitarian crisis, every creative diplomatic means possible must be exhausted before resorting to force under UN authority.
• Negotiations for a Convention Eliminating Nuclear Weapons should begin immediately.
• Trade in small arms should be severely restricted.
• The plan for the Global Action to Prevent War should become the basis for a peaceful world order.