The Official Blog of the

Archive for the ‘Current Events’ Category

Ukraine and the Cluster Bombs Debate

In Conflict Resolution, Current Events, Europe, Humanitarian Law, NGOs, Solidarity, The former Soviet Union, The Search for Peace, Track II, UKRAINE, World Law on July 12, 2023 at 7:16 AM

By René Wadlow

Currently, there is at the highest foreign policy-making level in the USA a debate concerning the United States (U.S.) sending cluster bombs to Ukraine to support the ongoing counteroffensive. The Ukraine military forces have used most of the cluster bombs they had. It would take a good bit of time to manufacture new cluster weapons. Hence the request for cluster munitions from the U.S.A. However, cluster weapons have been outlawed by a Cluster Weapons Convention signed by many states.

In a remarkable combination of civil society pressure and leadership from a small number of progressive states, a strong ban on the use, manufacture and stocking of cluster bombs was agreed by 111 countries in Dublin, Ireland on May 30, 2008. However, bright sunshine casts a dark shadow. In this case, the dark shadow is the fact that the major makers and users of cluster munitions were deliberately absent from the agreement: Brazil, China, India, Israel, Pakistan, Russia, and the U.S.A.

As arms negotiations at the United Nations (UN) go, the cluster bomb ban has been swift. They began in Oslo, Norway in February 2007 and were often called the “Oslo Process.” The negotiations were a justified reaction to their wide use by Israel in Lebanon during the July-August 2006 conflict. The UN Mine Action Coordination Center working in southern Lebanon reported that their density there is higher than in Kosovo and Iraq, especially in built-up areas, posing a constant threat to hundreds of thousands of people as well as to UN peacemakers. It is estimated that one million cluster bombs were fired in south Lebanon during the 34 days of war, many during the last two days of war when a ceasefire was a real possibility. The Hezbollah militia also shot rockets with cluster bombs into northern Israel.

Cluster munitions are warheads that scatter scores of smaller bombs. Many of these sub-munitions fail to detonate on impact, leaving them scattered on the ground, ready to kill and maim when disturbed or handled. Reports from humanitarian organizations have shown that civilians make up the vast majority of the victims of cluster bombs, especially children attracted by their small size and often bright colors.

The failure rate of cluster munitions is high, ranging from 30 to 80 per cent. But “failure” may be the wrong word. They may, in fact, be designed to kill later. The large number of unexploded cluster bombs means that farmlands and forests cannot be used or used with great danger. Most people killed and wounded by cluster bombs in the 21 conflicts where they have been used are civilians, often young. Such persons often suffer severe injuries such as loss of limbs and loss of sight. It is difficult to resume work or schooling.

Discussions on a ban on cluster weapons had begun in 1979 during the negotiations in Geneva which led to the 1980 “Convention on Prohibition on the Use of Certain Conventional Weapons which May be Deemed to be Excessively Injurious or to Have Indiscriminate Effects.” The indiscriminate impact of cluster bombs was raised by the representative of the Quaker United Nations Office in Geneva and by myself for the Association of World Citizens. My Nongovernmental Organization text of August 1979 “Anti-Personnel Fragmentation Weapons” called for a ban based on the 1868 St. Petersbourg Declaration and recommended the creation of “permanent verification and dispute-settlement procedures which may investigate all charges of the use of prohibited weapons whether in inter-State or internal conflicts and that such a permanent body include a consultative committee of experts who could begin their work without a prior resolution of the UN Security Council.”

At the start of the review conference of the “Convention on Prohibition on the Use of Certain Conventional Weapons” then UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan called for a freeze on the transfer of cluster munitions – the heart of the current debate on U.S. transfers of cluster weapons to Ukraine.

There was little public outcry at the use by Ukrainian forces of cluster weapons since they were fighting against a stronger enemy. However, the debate in the U.S.A. may raise the awareness of the use of cluster weapons and lead to respect for the aim of the cluster weapon ban.

Prof. René Wadlow is President of the Association of World Citizens.

Democratic Republic of Congo: Sky Getting Darker

In Africa, Conflict Resolution, Current Events, Humanitarian Law, International Justice, NGOs, Nonviolence, Solidarity, The Search for Peace, Track II, United Nations, War Crimes on July 3, 2023 at 7:00 AM

By René Wadlow

The armed conflict in the eastern area of the Democratic Republic of Congo (RDC) on the frontier with Rwanda seems to be growing worse and is impacting in a negative way the lives of people. The current fighting adds to the insecurity of the area and has virtually stopped cross-frontier activities largely done by women small traders. As a result, the price of existing food supplies has increased greatly, and shortages are to be feared.

The current armed conflict is among a Tutsi-led militia, the Mouvement du 23 Mars (M23), the forces of the RDC government and different ethnic militias. The President of the RDC, Felix Tshisekedi, sponsored the creation of local militias to help government soldiers, but the government does not control these militias. The United Nations (UN) Stabilization Mission in the Congo (MONUSCO) which has been in the RDC since 1999 is the largest UN peacekeeping force with some 15,000 members. However, it has been unable to halt the fighting or to protect civilians. In fact, the area of conflict has grown and engendered a catastrophic humanitarian crisis, causing the displacement of more than one million civilians in North Kivu Province. The M23 has recently launched attempts to win allies in South Kivu Province, in particular the armed group Twirwaneko, with the objective of opening a front in South Kivu.

The government of Rwanda has become increasingly involved in the Kivu conflict with direct intervention by the Rwanda Defense Force (RDF) and, despite a theoretical UN sponsored arms embargo, with weapons and other military equipment. The M23 is also fighting against the Forces démocratiques de Libération du Rwanda (FDLR) a Hutu-led group hostile to the government of Rwanda.

Recent attacks by M23 on populations associated with, or presumed to support the FDLR, have grown. Incidents of rape, including gang rape, by M23 combatants are prevalent but are not limited to the M23. The armed conflict is colored by a tense political situation with general elections, most significantly a presidential election, scheduled for December 2023.

The increased violence indicates the need for local non-governmental peacebuilding efforts which can be also facilitated by international nongovernmental organizations (NGOs). There is also a greater need to build respect for International Humanitarian Law (IHL). When the framework of current IHL as drafted in the 1948 Geneva Conventions in light of the experiences of World War II, the focus was upon the actions of national armies. Today, much violence and strife is due to non-State actors and armed militias such as those in the RDC.

There are two major weaknesses in the effectiveness of IHL. (1) The first is that many people do not know that it exists and that they are bound by its norms. Thus, there is an important role for greater educational activities, the dissemination of information to the wider public, specific training of the military, outreach to armed militias, and cooperation with a wide range of NGOs.

The second weakness is that those violating IHL are rarely punished. Few soldiers are tried or court-martialed. This weakness is even more true for non-state militias and armed groups. There is yet much to do for the realization of the rule of law.

Note

1) For useful guides to International Humanitarian Law see:

D. Schindler and J. Toman, The Laws of Armed Conflict (Martinus Nihjoff Publishers, 1988)

H. McCoubrey and N.D. White, International Law and Armed Conflict (Dartmouth Publishing Co. 1992)

Prof. René Wadlow is President of the Association of World Citizens.

Track Two Efforts Needed to Reduce China-India Frontier Tensions

In Asia, Conflict Resolution, Current Events, NGOs, The Search for Peace, Track II on June 23, 2023 at 7:00 AM

By René Wadlow

There has been a constant buildup of military forces by the governments of both India and China along their common frontiers. The Indian province of Arunachal Pradesh (called Zangman by the Chinese) with Itanagar as its capital is claimed by the Chinese. The frontier was drawn in 1914 and is called the McMahon Line. The frontier dispute led to the October-November 1962 India-China armed conflict with important consequences especially for Indian foreign-policy making.

In recent years there have been flashes of tension along the Line of Actual Control (LAC) as the military of both China and India have built new roads and observation posts along the LAC. Such tensions could grow as the relative political power of India and China grows and takes the form of a struggle for power. Currently there are no public negotiations between the Chinese and Indian governments. India, this year, is the chair of the G20 grouping of states. The Indian government has organized a number of G20 seminars on different issues in a number of Indian cities. However, for the moment, China has not sent representatives to these seminars.

The Association of World Citizens (AWC) has expressed its active concern with these tensions on the India-China frontier and the possibility that the tensions will increase. With the lack of formal India-China negotiations, the AWC raises the possibility of strong Track Two discussions.

The term Track Two was coined by the U.S. diplomat Joseph Montville in his book The Arrow and the Olive Branch. Track Two discussions are organized by nongovernmental organizations often with the help of academic institutions. Track Two discussions among non-officials of conflicting parties aim to clarify outstanding disputes and see on what issues negotiations might progress.

As Adam Curle, experienced in Quaker mediation efforts, has written, “In general, governments achieve their results because they have power to influence events, including the ability to reward or to punish. Paradoxically, the strength of civilian peacemaking resides specifically in their lack of power. They are neither feared nor courted for what they can do. Instead, they are trusted and so may sometimes be enabled to play a part in peacemaking denied to more official diplomats.”

Adam Curle

Thus, it will be important to follow as closely as possible the results of the G20 seminars in India and then build upon them in a Track Two pattern. Concerning the China-India frontier issues, both governments must be convinced that there is a considerable desire for peace among their citizens. There is also a need for some involved in Track Two efforts to have an integrated perspective of peacebuilding techniques and a long-term view of possibilities for transforming political relations.

Prof. René Wadlow is President of the Association of World Citizens.

Protecting Cultural Heritage in Time of War

In Arts, Being a World Citizen, Conflict Resolution, Cultural Bridges, Current Events, Europe, Humanitarian Law, NGOs, Solidarity, The Search for Peace, Track II, UKRAINE, United Nations, War Crimes, World Law on May 18, 2023 at 7:56 AM

By René Wadlow

War and armed violence are highly destructive of the lives of persons, but also of works of art and elements of cultural heritage. The war in Ukraine has highlighted the destructive power of war in a dramatic way. Thus, this May 18, “International Museum Day”, we outline some of the ways in which UNESCO is working to protect the cultural heritage in Ukraine in time of war.

May 18 has been designated by UNESCO as the International Day of Museums to highlight the role that museums play in preserving beauty, culture, and history. Museums come in all sizes and are often related to institutions of learning and libraries. Increasingly, churches and centers of worship have taken on the character of museums as people visit them for their artistic value, even they do not share the faith of those who built them.

Knowledge and understanding of a people’s past can help current inhabitants to develop and sustain identity and to appreciate the value of their own culture and heritage. This knowledge and understanding enriches their lives. It enables them to manage contemporary problems more successfully.

It is widely believed in Ukraine that one of the chief aims of the Russian armed intervention is to eliminate all traces of a separate Ukrainian culture, to highlight a common Russian motherland. In order to do this, there is a deliberate destruction of cultural heritage and a looting of museums, churches, and libraries in areas when under Russian military control. Museums, libraries, and churches elsewhere in Ukraine have been targeted by Russian artillery attacks.

After the Second World War, UNESCO had developed international conventions on the protection of cultural and educational bodies in times of conflict. The most important of these is the 1954 Hague Convention for the Protection of Cultural Property in the Event of Armed Conflict. The Hague Convention has been signed by a large number of States including the USSR to which both the Russian Federation and Ukraine are bound.

A Blue Shield in Vienna, Austria (C) Mosbatho, CC BY 4.0

UNESCO has designed a Blue Shield as a symbol of a protected site. Audrey Azoulay, Director-General of UNESCO, has brought a number of these Blue Shields herself to Ukraine to highlight UNESCO’s vital efforts.

The 1954 Hague Convention builds on the efforts of the Roerich Peace Pact signed on April 15, 1935 by 21 States in a Pan-American Union ceremony at the White House in Washington, D.C. In addition to the Latin American States of the Pan American Union, the following States also signed: Kingdom of Albania, Kingdom of Belgium, Republic of China, Republic of Czechoslovakia, Republic of Greece, Irish Free State, Empire of Japan, Republic of Lithuania, Kingdom of Persia, Republic of Poland, Republic of Portugal, Republic of Spain, Confederation of Switzerland, Kingdom of Yugoslavia.

At the signing, Henry A. Wallace, then U.S. Secretary of Agriculture and later Vice-President, said, “At no time has such an ideal been more needed. It is high time for the idealists who make the reality of tomorrow, to rally around such a symbol of international cultural unity. It is time that we appeal to that appreciation of beauty, science, education which runs across all national boundaries to strengthen all that we hold dear in our particular governments and customs. Its acceptance signifies the approach of a time when those who truly love their own nation will appreciate in addition the unique contributions of other nations and also do reverence to that common spiritual enterprise which draws together in one fellowship all artists, scientists, educators and truly religious of whatever faith. Thus we build a world civilization which places that which is fine in humanity above that which is low, sordid and mean, that which is hateful and grabbing.”

We still have efforts to make so that what is fine in humanity is above what is hateful and grabbing. However, the road signs set out the direction clearly.

Prof. René Wadlow is President of the Association of World Citizens.

When There Are No Governmental Negotiations: Build Stronger Track Two Networks

In Being a World Citizen, Conflict Resolution, Current Events, NGOs, Nonviolence, Solidarity, The Search for Peace, Track II, UKRAINE, United Nations, World Law on May 8, 2023 at 6:00 PM

By René Wadlow

The continuing armed conflict in Ukraine and the lack of any formal governmental negotiations forces us to ask if more can be done on the part of nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) to encourage negotiations in good faith. The same lack of formal governmental negotiations exists in the tension-filled relations between China and Taiwan.

On the Ukraine conflict, there have been efforts at mediation through the United Nations (UN) Secretary-General and leaders of individual States to encourage ceasefires and the start of negotiations, but without visible results for the moment.

These governmental efforts can be called Track One. Track One diplomacy is official government negotiations with backup resources of government research and intelligence agencies. There can also be Track One “back channels” of informal or unofficial contacts.

Track Two diplomacy is a non-official effort, usually by an NGO, academic institutions, sometimes business corporations. The use of non-official mediators is increasing as the recognition grows that there is a tragic disjuncture between the UN’s mandates to keep peace and its ability to intervene in internal conflicts within a State – often confrontations between armed groups and government forces and sometimes among different armed groups.

Track Two talks are discussions held by non-officials of conflicting parties in an attempt to clarify outstanding disputes and to explore the options for resolving them in settings that are less sensitive than those associated with formal negotiations. The participants usually include scholars, senior journalists, former government officials, and former military officers. They must be in close contact with national leaders and the secretariat of international organizations such as the UN who may be able to help in the peace process.

(C) SIWI/Shared Waters Partnership

As a study of Track Two efforts points out “Track Two talks can be defined by what they are not: neither academic conferences nor secret diplomacy conducted by government representatives… Track Two talks are convened specifically to foster informal interaction among participants regarding the political issues dividing their nations and to find ways of reducing the conflict between them… The purposes of Track Two talks vary, but they are all related to reducing tensions and facilitating the resolution of a conflict. At a minimum, Track Two talks are aimed at an exchange of views, perceptions, and information between the parties to improve each side’s understanding of the other’s positions and policies.” (1)

By informing contacts within government of the insights they have gained, participants may indirectly contribute to the formation of new national political priorities and policies. Much depends on the caliber and dedication of the participants and their relations with governmental leadership.

As Kenneth Boulding, the Quaker economist who often participated in Track Two efforts, wrote,

“When Track One will not do,
We have to travel on Track Two.
But for results to be abiding,
The Tracks must meet upon some siding.” (2)

Notes

(1) Hussein Agha, Shai Feldman, Ahmad Khalidi, Zeev Schiff, Track II Diplomacy: Lessons from the Middle East (Cambridge, MA: The MIT Press, 2003, 225 pp.)

(2) Quoted in John W. McDonald with Noa Zanolli, The Shifting Grounds of Conflict and Peacebuilding: Stories and Lessons (Lanham, MD: Lexington Books, 2008, 341 pp.)

Prof. René Wadlow is President of the Association of World Citizens.

UN Security Council Focus on World Hunger

In Africa, Being a World Citizen, Conflict Resolution, Current Events, Human Rights, NGOs, Social Rights, Solidarity, Sustainable Development, The Search for Peace, Track II, UKRAINE, United Nations, World Law on May 8, 2023 at 12:00 PM

By René Wadlow

On May 23, the United Nations (UN) Security Council will hold a special briefing to address the issue of food insecurity under the chairmanship of Mr. Alain Berset, President of the Swiss Confederation. During May, the rotating chairmanship is held by Switzerland led by the Swiss Ambassador to the UN in New York, Ms. Pascale Baeriswyl. The meeting will have as background a May 3 report of the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) concerning early warning on areas facing acute food insecurity. The report highlights that some 250 million persons are living in this situation of acute food insecurity with the Democratic Republic of Congo leading the list with some 27 million persons due to armed violence and the breakdown of governmental structures. The Congo is followed by Ethiopia, largely due to fighting in the Tigray area. The war in Ukraine is also having a negative impact limiting production and export of food goods – a principal export of Ukraine. In addition to armed conflict, there is the growing impact of the consequences of climate change.

Today, cooperation on food insecurity is needed among the UN family of agencies, national governments, nongovernmental organizations, and the millions of food producers to respond to this food crisis. These measures will have to be taken in a holistic way with actions going from the local level of the individual farmer, the national level with new governmental policies, to measures at the multi-State regional level such as the European Union and the African Union, and at the world level with better coordinated action through the UN system.

(C) Feed My Starving Children

There is a need for swift, short-term measures to help people now suffering from lack of food and malnutrition due to high food prices, inadequate distribution, and situations of violence. Such short-term action requires additional funding for the UN World Food Program and the release of national food stocks. However, it is on the longer-range and structural issues on which we must focus our attention.

The Association of World Citizens has taken a lead in the promotion of a coordinated world food policy with an emphasis on the small-scale farmer and a new awareness that humans are part of Nature with a special duty to care and respect for the Earth’s inter-related life-support system. As Stringfellow Barr wrote in Citizens of the World (1952), “Since the hungry in the world community believe that we can all eat if we set our common house in order, they believe also that it is unjust that some die because it is too much trouble to arrange for them to live.”

A central theme which Citizens of the World have long stressed is that there needs to be a world food policy and that such a world food policy is more than the sum of national food security programs. John Boyd Orr, the first Director General of the FAO, proposed a World Food Board to stabilize food prices and supplies. He resigned as Director General when the food board proposal was not accepted and then devoted much of his energy to the world citizen movement.

For World Citizens, the emphasis must be placed on creating a world food policy which draws upon improving local self-reliance while not creating nationalistic policies which harm neighbors. Food is a key aspect of deep structural issues in the world society and thus must be seen in a holistic framework. The briefing and debate of the UN Security Council may give us strong elements on which to promote a world food policy.

Prof. René Wadlow is President of the Association of World Citizens.

Benjamin Ferencz, Champion of World Law, Leaves a Strong Heritage on Which to Build

In Africa, Being a World Citizen, Conflict Resolution, Current Events, Europe, Human Rights, International Justice, NGOs, The Balkan Wars, The Search for Peace, Track II, United Nations, United States, War Crimes, World Law on April 18, 2023 at 7:11 AM

By René Wadlow

Benjamin Ferencz, champion of World Law and World Citizenship, died on April 7, 2023 at the age of 103, leaving a strong heritage of action for world law. He was particularly active in the creation of the International Criminal Court (ICC) located in the Hague.

He was born in March 1920 in what is now Romania, close to the frontiers of Hungary and Ukraine. In the troubled period after the end of the First World War, the parents of Ferencz, who were Jews, decided to emigrate to New York with the help of the Hebrew Immigrant Aid Society. They settled in New York City, and Ferencz changed his Yiddish name Berrel to Benjamin and studied in the New York school system. He did his undergraduate work at City College and then received a scholarship to Harvard Law School, a leading United States (U. S.) law school.

(C) United States Holocaust Memorial Museum

At the end of his law studies at Harvard, he was taken into the U. S. Army and in 1944, he was in Europe with the Army legal section, the Judge-Advocate General Corps. By conviction and interest, he began to collect information on the Nazi concentration camps. He was able to find photos, letters, and other material that he later was able to use as one of the prosecution team in the Nuremberg trials of Germans accused of war crimes. He was also a staff member of the Joint Restitution Successor Organization concerned with the restoration or compensation of goods having belonged to Jewish families. Thus, he developed close cooperation with the then recently created state of Israel.

(C) Leit

From his experiences with the German trials and the many difficulties that the trials posed to be more than the justice of the victors and also the need not to antagonize the recently created Federal Republic of Germany, Ferencz became a strong advocate of an international legal system such as the Tribunals on ex-Yugoslavia of 1993 and on Rwanda (1994). Much of his effort was directed to the creation of the ICC, a creation that owes much to efforts of nongovernmental organizations, such as the Association of World Citizens. It was during this effort for the creation of the ICC that we came into contact.

Benjamin Ferencz leaves a heritage on which we can build. The development of world law is often slow and meets opposition. However, the need is great, and strong efforts at both national and international levels continue.

(C) Adam Jones

(1) See Benjamin B. Ferencz, A Common Sense Guide to World Peace (Dobbs Ferry, NY: Oceana Publications, 1985).

Prof. René Wadlow is President of the Association of World Citizens.

Yemen: Positive Action Still Needed

In Being a World Citizen, Conflict Resolution, Current Events, Humanitarian Law, Middle East & North Africa, NGOs, Spirituality, The Search for Peace, Track II, United Nations, War Crimes, Women's Rights, World Law, Yemen on April 16, 2023 at 9:07 AM

By René Wadlow

March 25 is the anniversary date of the start of 28 days on continued bombing of Yemen in 2015 by the Saudi-Arabia-led coalition (Bahrain, Egypt, Jordan, Kuwait, Morocco, Qatar, Sudan, United Arab Emirates helped by arms and “intelligence” from the USA and the UK). The aggression by the Saudi coalition turned what had been an internal struggle for power going on from the “Arab Spring” of 2011 into a war with regional dimensions which brought Iran into the picture. The role of Iran has been exaggerated both by the Iranian government itself and by those hostile to Iran. Nevertheless, the Iranian role is real.

Yemeni children play in the rubble of buildings destroyed in an air raid. (C) Peter Biro/European Union

Since the Association of World Citizens (AWC) had been following possible constitutional developments in Yemen after the 2011 change of government, a couple of days after the March 25, 2015 bombing, the AWC sent to governmental missions to the United Nations (UN) an AWC Appeal for four steps of conflict resolution and negotiations in good faith:

1) An immediate ceasefire ending all foreign military attacks;
2) Humanitarian assistance, especially important for hard-to-reach zones;
3) A broad national dialogue;
4) Through this dialogue, the establishment of an inclusive unity government open to constitutional changes to facilitate better the wide geographic- tribal structure of the State.

While the constitutional form of the State structures depends on the will of the people of Yemen (provided they can express themselves freely), the AWC proposes consideration of con-federal forms of government which maintain cooperation within a decentralized framework. In 2014, a committee appointed by the then President, Abdu Rabbu Mansur Hadi, had proposed a six-region federation as the political structure for Yemen.

Until 1990, Yemen was two separate States: The People’s Democratic of Yemen in the south with Aden as the capital, and the Yemen Arab Republic in the north with Sana’a as its capital. In 1990, the two united to become the Republic of Yemen. The people in the south hoped that the union would bring the economic development which had been promised. Since, even before the Saudi-led war began, there had been very little economic and social development in the south, there started to grow strong “separatist” attitudes in the south. People of all political persuasions hoped to develop prosperity by ending unification and creating what some have started calling “South Arabia” Today, these separatist attitudes are very strong, but there is no agreement on what areas are to be included in a new southern state, and the is no unified separatist political leadership.

Very quickly after March 25, 2015, many governments saw the dangers of the conflict and the possible regional destabilization. Thus, there were UN-sponsored negotiations held in Geneva in June 2015. The AWC worked with other nongovernmental organizations (NGO) so that women should be directly involved in such negotiations. However, women have not been added to any of the negotiations and are largely absent from any leadership role in the many political factions of the country. There have been UN mediators active in trying to get ceasefires and then negotiations. There have been some temporary ceasefires, but no progress on real negotiations.

Today, the war continues with the country’s fragmentation, continued internal fighting and impoverishment leading to a disastrous humanitarian crisis. There is a glimmer of possible conflict resolution efforts due to the recent mutual recognition of Saudi Arabia and Iran under the sponsorship of the People’s Republic of China. However, creating a national society of individuals willing to cooperate will not be easy. Regional divisions will not be easy to bridge. There have already been divisions within the Saudi-led Coalition. Thus, positive action is still needed. NGOs should seek to have their voices heard.

Prof. René Wadlow is President of the Association of World Citizens.

Israel-Palestine: Tension-reduction Measures Urgently Needed

In Being a World Citizen, Conflict Resolution, Current Events, Human Rights, Middle East & North Africa, NGOs, Solidarity, The Search for Peace, Track II, United Nations, World Law on April 11, 2023 at 7:05 AM

By René Wadlow

The Association of World Citizens (AWC) calls for urgently needed tension-reduction measures in the Israel-Palestine-Lebanon area.

Tensions have led to a barrage of missiles from Gaza and Lebanon and rapid Israeli missiles in return aiming at weakening Hamas and Hezbollah.

Growing tensions had led to Israeli police attacking Palestinian worshipers celebrating the holy month of Ramadan within the Al-Aqsa Mosque compound on April 5-6, 2023. The images of Israeli police firing teargas and beating worshipers were widely seen on social media outlets and other media.

Tensions in the area have been growing since the formation of the Netanyahu-led government with right-wing ministers. Government proposals for changes concerning the court system and the appointment of judges have led to strong and widespread protest demonstrations. However, Palestinian issues were not directly addressed by these demonstrations.

Tensions between Israel and Iran and Iranian-backed groups in Syria have also been growing. The dangers of further violence have been raised in the United Nations Security Council, but no positive actions were undertaken. United Nations peacekeeping forces in Lebanon are on “high alert”.

For the moment, there are no high-level public negotiations underway or planned. Thus, tension-reduction measures must be undertaken as unilateral measures by the government of Israel, the Palestinian Authority, and the government of Lebanon. Such tension-reduction measures are urgently needed but may be unlikely. Thus, the AWC calls upon civil society organizations and persons of good will to consider what measures can be taken immediately and what structures may be established so that tension-reduction processes continue. This is an urgent call for creative and courageous actions.

Prof. René Wadlow is President of the Association of World Citizens.

Confidence-building Measures in Asia-Pacific: Reversing the Slide to Violence

In Being a World Citizen, Conflict Resolution, Current Events, NGOs, Nonviolence, Solidarity, The Search for Peace, Track II, World Law on April 9, 2023 at 6:22 PM

By René Wadlow

With the United States (U. S.) and Chinese military engaged near Taiwan, a miscalculation could lead to armed violence. The armed conflict in Ukraine has heightened the debate on the possibility of armed conflict between China and Taiwan. Tensions between the two Korean states remain high. The border clash between Indian and Chinese forces in June 2020 has highlighted residual tensions between the two countries. One could add other tensions in the Asia-Pacific area to the list.

Less obvious are the possibilities of confidence-building measures that would reduce these tensions and might open doors to cooperation in the security, economic and social spheres.

There are confidence-building measures that can be undertaken by governments. Whereas we, outside of governmental positions, can make suggestions as to steps that governments could take, we nevertheless have little possibility to oblige action by them. Thus, we have to consider what confidence-building measures we as academics and nongovernmental organization activists can undertake.

Fortunately, we have long experience of working to reduce the tensions between the USA and the Soviet Union (NATO and the Warsaw Pact) which led to the Helsinki Agreements and finally the end of the Cold War. Much of the analysis is still of value such as Mary Kaldor (Ed), Europe from Below (London: Verso: 1991). Many of the peace organizations that were involved are still in existence and could focus on Asia-Pacific issues.

There have also been efforts on confidence-building in the Israel-Palestine conflict and in the wider Middle East. Repeated efforts concerning tensions between India and Pakistan often focused on the tensions in Kashmir.

Today, there is a need to draw upon these experiences to impart conflict resolution skills to new individuals and groups, thereby building and expanding the constituencies working for conflict reduction measures. New participants can have backgrounds in psychology, religion, law and communications with experience in social movements and community action programs.

There is also a need to draw upon categories of people who were not directly involved in earlier efforts. Often women were marginalized not only in government negotiations but even in nongovernmental efforts. These processes of dialogue have a value in deepening understanding of a situation. However, the emphasis should be on developing proposals for confidence-building measures.

Tensions in the Asia-Pacific area are growing, and there is a need for concerted action to reduce the slide to violence. As Don Carlson and Craig Comstock point out in their book, Citizen Summitry: Keeping the Peace when it Matters Too Much to be Left to Politicians (Los Angeles: Jeremy P. Tacker, Inc. 1986),

“Nobody made a greater mistake than he who did nothing because he could only do a little.”

Prof. René Wadlow is President of the Association of World Citizens.