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The fifteenth Annual Summit
of Nobel Peace Laureates, held in Barcelona on 12-15 November 2015, attended by 19
winners, nine persons and ten
institutions.
It is a real scandal that their warning outcries have been silenced. The immense and biased media powers do not let hearing their wise and timely recommendations. Although time is running out, they want us passive, standardized and abet spectators.
It is a real scandal that their warning outcries have been silenced. The immense and biased media powers do not let hearing their wise and timely recommendations. Although time is running out, they want us passive, standardized and abet spectators.
"We, the peoples ..." must react:
THE
BARCELONA DECLARATION: REFUGEES:
THE CHALLENGE TO OUR HUMANITY
STATEMENT
OF THE XV WORLD SUMMIT OF NOBEL PEACE LAUREATES, BARCELONA
We, the Nobel Peace Laureates
and Peace Organisations, in the presence of youth from all over the world,
gathered together in Barcelona from 12 - 15 November 2015, have considered
issues affecting world peace - with special emphasis on the current refugee and
migration crisis.
We are profoundly shocked and
outraged by the barbaric killing of more than 150 innocent people in Paris on
the evening of 13 November. We express our deepest sympathy and solidarity with
the families of the victims and with the people of France.
This outrageous attack stresses
the urgent need to address the root causes of the current refugee crisis and
insecurity in the world. This situation should not be abused to demonise
refugees and the Muslim community.
As Nobel Peace Laureates and
Laureate organisations we join with millions of individuals, organisations,
communities and cities who every day make a difference by working for a better
and more peaceful
world.
We collectively raise our
voices in compassion for the millions of refugees who have been forced to leave
their homes. We affirm that the manner in which we honour and protect their
inherent dignity and human rights is a measure of our own humanity.
We are particularly concerned
about the plight of women and children whose lives have been devastated by
conflict, repression and deprivation. We must and can eliminate the conditions
that compel people to leave from their homes.
The refugee and migration crisis does
not exist in isolation. It is a symptom of the broader problems that confront
humanity that include
•
continuing conflict in many countries;
•
the consequences of militarism, extreme nationalism
and the use of force and proxy wars by global powers in pursuit of strategic,
financial and ideological interests;
•
distorted religious beliefs that lead to horrific acts
of violence;
•
the failure of governance characterised by rampant
corruption, persecution and the absence of democracy, basic human rights and
the rule of law;
•
the gross inequalities in opportunities and in
economic and social wellbeing between and within the so-called developed and
developing countries;
•
the failure to accommodate, tolerate and appreciate
the value of religious, cultural and ethnic diversity;
•
the growing impact of climate change that will
increasingly threaten food security and disrupt the lives of hundreds of
millions of people in
the most vulnerable societies; and
•
the criminal exploitation of refugees by human smugglers.
We believe that many of these
problems can be solved if the international community fulfils its commitment to
achieve the 17 Sustainable Development Goals that nations have already adopted
as the framework for a comprehensive, practical and achievable path to a secure
and peaceful future.
We also call on the
international community to
·
address the root causes of the refugee and migration
crisis while assuring access to asylum;
·
redouble efforts to bring peace to Syria, Afghanistan,
Iraq, Yemen, Ukraine, Palestine/Israel, Somalia, South Sudan, the Central
African Republic and other societies in conflict in a process that includes the
peoples involved - especially women - and concerned nations;
…..
·
prevent
ethnic conflict and repression by recognising the value of diversity and by
protecting the rights of minorities;
….
·
identify and prosecute those responsible for human
smuggling;
......
True security will never be
achieved by military force or by the possession and threat of nuclear weapons.
It requires adherence to international humanitarian law and global cooperation
in meeting the authentic needs of humanity. We call on the nations of the world
to:
•
redirect each year at least 10% of annual military
expenditure of over 1.8 trillion dollars to implement the programs required for
the 17 Sustainable Development Goals;
•
implement fully the Arms Trade Treaty and end illicit
arms trading;
•
put an immediate end to any new arms race - especially
the modernisation of nuclear arsenals and the pursuit of fully autonomous
weapons systems; and
•
fulfil the legal obligation to commence negotiations
now to eliminate nuclear weapons.
True personal, national and
global security is found in the practical application of compassion.
----------
We
Nobel Peace Laureates and Laureate Organizations remain seized of and address
more fully these specific critical issues in the following Appendix:
1.
The Sustainable Development Goals:
The
nations of the world have collectively agreed to a set of goals to be obtained
by 2030. These commitments when put into practice will be a model of
cooperative security. It is worthwhile to list the specific goals and their
underlying policy commitments, targets, and demand political leaders enact
programs to achieve them. The Sustainable Development
Goals adopted by the General Assembly of the United Nations on September, 25,
2015, contains 17 Goals and 169 associated targets (http://www.un.org/ga/search/view_doc.asp?symbol=A/69/L.85&Lang=E)
2. Nuclear Disarmament
Nine
nations: United Kingdom, France, Russia, China, United States, India, Israel,
Pakistan and North Korea possess and currently threaten to use nuclear weapons.
There are around 16,000 of these horrific devices, with over 95% possessed by
Russia and the United States. There is a
legal obligation to negotiate their universal elimination contained in the
Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty and clearly set forth in a unanimous decision
of the International Court of Justice.
..............
International Humanitarian Law prohibits the use of
any weapon in a manner that does not discriminate between civilians and
combatants or inflicts unnecessary suffering. Furthermore, it is illegal to
threaten populated areas with weapons of mass destruction. Nuclear weapons
violate these prohibitions. Their horrific capacity for destruction renders the
threat of their use immoral and in breach of International Humanitarian Law.
Policies founded on this threat are an unstable, unacceptable manner of
pursuing security.
The Nuclear
Nonproliferation Treaty requires the prohibition and verifiable elimination of
nuclear weapons. The nuclear-armed states have failed
to comply with these nuclear disarmament obligations. They must be called to
account by the international community and compelled to act responsibly.
In the past two years, a new momentum has built up in
the movement to ban and abolish nuclear weapons. Three international state
conferences in Oslo, Nayarit, and Vienna provided much of the expert evidence
that has now been summarized and submitted to the 2015 NPT Review Conference
and to the 70th session of the UN General Assembly as the humanitarian
basis for nuclear disarmament.
A
“Humanitarian Pledge”, launched at the conclusion of the Vienna conference on
the Humanitarian Consequences of Nuclear Weapons in December of 2014, has
already been joined by 121 states. The Pledge identifies a legal gap that has
enabled the nuclear-armed states to evade compliance with their disarmament
obligations and calls for action to close that gap in order to “stigmatize,
prohibit, and eliminate nuclear weapons.” We are inspired by the Five Point
plan of United Nations Secretary Genearl
Ban Ki-moon which calls for a convention or framework of legal instruments
eliminating nuclear weapons as well as the powerful new insight of Pope Francis
and the Holy See which has identified the possession and threat of use of
nuclear weapons to be immoral. Its analysis is that deterrence theory which
serves to justify possession and threat of use of nuclear weapons is premised
on the intent, readiness and willingness to annihilate millions of innocent
people and that such a posture cannot be considered moral, therefor both the
threat to use as well as the possession
of nuclear weapons is immoral.
……….
As
Nobel Peace Laureates, we urge all States to join the Humanitarian Pledge, to
make the evidence about the consequences of nuclear weapons a central focus of
political and diplomatic process to ban and eliminate them, and to build upon
the momentum of this new humanitarian initiative in order to ensure that there
are no further delays on the road to a nuclear-weapons-free world
Pending the
obtaining of the legal, verifiable, enforceable elimination of these weapons
and consistent with commitments already made under the Nuclear Nonproliferation
Treaty to diminish the Role of nuclear weapons in security policies, we ….
We also commend
strongly the hard work of the diplomats and the success obtained by the
Security Council Resolution 2231 on Iran that prevents further proliferation of
nuclear weapons in the Middle East Diplomatic efforts were equally successful
in ending Syria’s chemical weapons program and demonstrate that when the
political support and will is there, solutions to pressing security threats can
be achieved. We urge such commitment to the commencement of negotiations on the
prohibition and elimination of nuclear weapons…..
We condemn the
billions of dollars that several nuclear weapons states are committing to
spending to modernize their arsenals as well as the arms race such actions are
stimulating.
3. Climate Change:
The recent 5th
Assessment Report (AR5) of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC)
sent three overarching messages to the world: 1) Human influence on the climate
system is clear, and growing, 2) we must act quickly and decisively if we want
to avoid increasingly destructive outcomes and 3) we have the means to limit
climate change and build a better future. The report addressed explicitly the
implications of climate change on human security, including migration,
displacement and violent conflicts. The key findings of the IPCC in this regard
are as follows:
Climate
change over the 21st century is projected to increase displacement of people. Displacement risks increase when populations that lack
the resources for planned migration experience higher exposure to extreme
weather events, in both rural and urban areas, particularly in developing
countries with low income…..
The impacts of climate change on the critical
infrastructure and territorial integrity of many states are expected to
influence national security policies……
Building a
low-carbon world to stabilize the climate will create new opportunities for
individuals, companies and countries to share.
Climate change
will increasingly affect all citizens and economic sectors around the world and
will hit the poor and least favored hardest. It is therefore imperative that
the 21st Conference of the Parties to the United Nations Convention
on Climate Change to be held in Paris, France on 30 November-11 December 2015,
establish a comprehensive agreement to support swift and decisive action by all
member States to address adaptation to and mitigation of climate change.
The Summit was attended by nine Nobel Peace laureates:
1
President Dr. Oscar Arias Sanchez
2
President Frederik Willem De Klerk
3
Dr. Shirin Ebadi
4
Mrs. Tawakkol Karman
5
Mrs. Mairead Corrigan Maguire
6
Lord David Trimble
7
President Lech Walesa
8
Mrs. Betty Williams
9
Prof. Jody Williams
and ten Nobel Peace Laureate organizations:
1
The American Friends Service Committee
2
European Commission
3
International Campaign to Ban Landmines
4
International Labour Organization
5
the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change
6
International Peace Bureau
7
International Physicians for the Prevention of Nuclear
War
8
Pugwash Conferences on Science and World Affairs
9
United Nations
10
United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees
However, they do not all necessarily support all
aspects of the general consensus that emerged from the Summit's deliberations.
------------
The voice of the Nobel Prizes is ignored. The world,
without a compass, ruled by plutocratic
groups (G7, G8, G20 ...) instead of a re-founded, strong, active and efficient
United Nations.
It is urgent to rise firmly and tenaciously the people's voice.
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