Cora Weiss, President Hague Appeal for Peace

Happy International Women’s Day to everyone, to all the women here and the woman in every man.  And to those of you who represent Governments here, I would like to introduce you in this very august chamber to the unarmed super power, we, members of civil society. It’s a very great honor for us to be together, listening and exchanging views with each other.

I remember when Resolution 1325 was unanimously adopted by the Security Council where it became law, international law. Ever since October 2000 many of us have been monitoring the implementation of this landmark resolution. The reason that I mention that here is because it’s a great opportunity for us to bring the potential of the full implementation of that international law to the Conference on Disarmament. No one in the entire United Nations system should be exempt from considering and implementing 1325 in all of the work that we do, that you do.

Now I maybe repeating a few things that you have heard from Felicity and Rebecca, but I long ago learned that repetition is the best form of advertising. It does us all a little good to hear something more than once.

Many messages have been filling the internet today on the occasion of International Women’s Day. They are not messages conveying news of sending gifts of flowers, perfume or chocolate. They are messages condemning violence against women which has reached levels beyond our imagination, beyond tolerance, levels that are insupportable and it seems to me that when women are violated, frequently under the power of a gun, it becomes important for people at the disarmament desk at the United Nations to consider again and take more seriously greater controls and reductions of that simple little instrument called the gun which is causing so much violence against women, so  much violence against people, so much destruction against humanity.  I think there is lots of room for stronger resolutions on the control and reduction of guns. We cannot live under the fear of and threat from the National Rifle Association and its various incarnations. It’s never too late to take gun violence more seriously. 

We’re going to be coming up to another non proliferation treaty review conference again and we still have not seen the full implementation of the NPT and especially of Article 6. Today I read that Sam Nunn, who was a Senator from the state of Georgia in the south of United States and who chaired the Senate Armed Services Committee for many, many years has said,
“We’re moving to a nuclear nightmare with more enrichment, more nuclear materials, more know how around the world. We ought to make nuclear weapons less relevant and eliminate nuclear weapons as a threat to the world.”

Frequently people make laws after the accident happens and we can’t afford to wait for that accident. The CD here, the whole system, has to speak up loudly and clearly with one voice that the time for nuclear weapons to go has come. It’s extremely serious. Everyone is talking about the threat of climate change, what’s going to happen when the ice melts and the waters rise and the islands sink. Well, a nuclear bomb can do it faster! Much faster! I am not putting down climate change, we have to worry about that too, but it seems to me that we are here with a very simple message on two or three points and getting rid of nuclear weapons is very high the list. 

Now both Felicity and Rebecca have referred tot the cost of weapons, in particular Article 26 of the United Nations Charter.  Our job as members of the United Nations and members of humanity is to carry out the Charter of the United Nations. We have heard that the world is now spending $1.2+ trillion a year on weapons and the preparation for war and I maintain, as a non lawyer that is illegal under Article 26.  And so what are we going to do about it?

I would like to propose that we look at the mandate of the CD, that we look at the vision of what the United Nations should be doing in the 21st century, following the most violent century in history and see if we should be broadening our thinking and our doing. Why not have a resolution that says “no nation in the world should have a budget where military spending is more than the budgets for health and education combined”.  The country of Colombia already has that in its constitution. Why shouldn’t the 192 other countries follow suit? Why shouldn’t that idea come from here, carrying out Article 26 of the Charter of United Nations? I think that it is time for the world to cut its spending on killing.

I have another gift you can give us for International Women’s Day. This is gift giving time. That gift is the full implementation of Security Council resolution 1325 on Women, Peace and Security. In English it has three Ps; the Participation of women at all levels of decision making, the Protection of women from violence; and the Prevention of violence.

A copy of 1325 should be on everybody’s wall in everybody’s office.  I think that the best way to prevent violence, the best way to protect women and children and other living things from violence is to prevent war altogether.  Now you will say, but the United Nations has already outlawed war. Tell that to the women in Darfur, in the Congo, in Sri Lanka; pick a country, any country, among the 40 countries where there is violence right now. The United Nations has not done a very good job of outlawing war and so the 21st century vision for the CD, it seems to me, has got to be to start the world on the road to the end of war as a legitimate institution. Just remember that humanity once paid for, legalized, embraced, and honored slavery and we abolished slavery. Humanity once loved colonialism; some of you must come from countries that loved to own other countries.  That was the thing to do. We have basically abolished colonialism and so too apartheid, it’s not nice today to own a slave, to own a country or to keep people in second class citizenship. It’s done but it’s not legal.  So why not war? What’s to keep us from deconstructing from de-legitimizing this institution which has a whole set of humanitarian laws supporting it?

The time for war to go has come and the 21st century is the perfect time to do it. I think all of us now know what the experience of war means.  We’re not just killing people, we’re not just torturing people, we’re not just destroying homes and land, but we’re also leaving a toxic dangerous destructive air behind on this little tiny planet earth. So think about what the role of militarism means to the future. 

David Hay-Edie wrote a very good paper about the effect of militarism on the environment.  We should all study that.  And we should study the effects of militarism on climate change, and the effect of militarism on women. Its time to seriously begin the work on eliminating war as a legitimate institution and that work can begin at the United Nations.

I want to commend you for the work that you do and encourage you to do more for the sake of humanity, for the sake of yourselves, your families, and your great grandchildren. Because a lot of that future depends on you, so thank you for your work.