Peace Work 2009


WILPF


Scotland's For Peace



DECLARATION against the WAR IN LIBYA
"The thesis that wars are inevitable, is both, the denial of the sovereignty of the intellect, as well a betrayal of the deepest instincts of the human being"(International Women's Peace Conference 1915)

Stop the bombing immediately!
We women here in Germany but also in England, France and the United States are angry with our governments announcing, once again in concert with mainstream media, that the military "needs" to make war and make us understand that peaceful meanings are failure to render assistance.

We are united against this war!

We rely on the UN Charter, which clearly stipulates that all parties need to resolve their disputes peacefully, to ensure international peace, security and justice. Only when all peaceful means have failed, this can lead to operations under Chapter VII of the Charter. These actions include oil boycotts, embargoes especially on arms sales, blockades, diplomatic interventions - particularly and explicitly from the Arab League and the African Union. In the case of Libya the peace obligation, however, has been reversed with the massive military strike coming first, while boycotts and civilian measures are still being debated.

The UN principle of "responsibility to protect" should have initially set off a host of civil actions which should have included the principle of proportionality and the future perspectives conflict resolution. This has been wholly undermined by the military action of the Allies with the immediate impact on the right of asylum and the respective evacuation and reception of deserting soldiers and refugees.

The UN Security Council resolution is a fatal precedent because now the war against any governments appears possible if there is a respective majority in the UN Security Council and therefore a "humanitarian intervention" can always be justified. These will be decided in an even more selective way than ever before, and were clearly not valuable for the bombs of Israel to Gaza, nor the alliance operations in Afghanistan.

The bombing is sheer hypocrisy. Now it is all about oil, guaranteed defence against refugees and business - with a dictator, who was a personal friend and business partner in past years, all doors open. The abstention of Germany in the Security Council is hypocritical and not an anti-war stance. The "compensatory" bigger Afghanistan engagement that happened, with great backing of the German parliament, is scandalous. Germany giving free access to the Allies to use its military bases redners it responsible for the war. We agree with the demands of the Assiciation for Civil Conflict Management which requests the total ban on arms exports - even to the rebels. The existing restrictions on arms exports, as has been proven once again, are totally inadequate.