2005 WILPF IEC Resolutions
Geneva, 1-4 September, 2005

• African Rights to African Resources
• Decolonization of French Polynesia
• Decontamination of Mururoa and Fangataufa
• Depleted Uranium
• East Jerusalem
• Few Women on the Commission for Africa
• On the United Nations Convention on the Prohibition of the Development, Production and Stockpiling of Bacteriological Weapons and Toxins
• Rapa
• Rejection of the Paramilitary Demobilization Laws in Colombia
• Struggle for the Right to Land and Demand for Return of Refugees in Nepal

African Rights to African Resources

The Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom meeting in its International Executive Committee, in Geneva on 4 September 2005believes that the wealth arising from the natural assets in Africa should remain in Africa and be used for the benefit of the African peoples.

Africa is a continent rich in resources. These resources have been plundered since colonial times and are still being exploited for the benefit of the rich nations of the world.

We call upon the G8 nations, the World Trade Organisation and the World Bank and the International Monitary Fund to recognise the principle of the rights of the people of the countries of Africa rights to local resources and to ensure that all actions to alleviate poverty in Africa take this into account.

Decolonization of French Polynesia

1. Recalling Chapter XII of the UN Charter, which outlines the basic objectives of the international trusteeship system; and

2. Recalling General Assembly resolution 1514 (XV) of 14 December 1960, which states that “All peoples have the right to self-determination; by virtue of that right they freely determine their political status and freely pursue their economic, social and cultural development.”;

3. WILPF recommends that French Polynesia be put back on the agenda of the Special Committee on the Situation with Regard to the Implementation of the Declaration on the Granting of Independence to Colonial Countries and Peoples (Special Committee of 24 on Decolonization).

4. WILPF members and sections in countries that are members of the Special Committee of 24 on Decolonization appeal to their governments to take necessary action and act accordingly.

Decontamination of Mururoa and Fangataufa

The islands of Mururoa and Fangataufa have been used by France for many years as testing sites of atmospheric and underground nuclear bombings. This has deeply affected the workers on the islands and has resulted in congenital disabilities of children over the past 30 years.

WILPF requests support to organizations collecting scientific evidences proving to the French government the adverse health effects on the people of the atmospheric and underground nuclear testing.

WILPF urges the French Government to take immediate action for the decontamination of Mururoa and Fangataufa.

Depleted Uranium

The Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom believes depleted uranium weapons are illegal under existing treaties, and calls for the immediate cessation of their manufacture, sale and use worldwide.

The International Executive Committee of the Women's International League for Peace and Freedom,

Deplores the use of depleted uranium munitions by NATO in Kosovo and Serbia and by the USA and UK in Afghanistan and Iraq that are pyrophoric and ignite on impact, are radiologically and chemically toxic weapons that are primarily alpha emitters with beta and gamma decay products with a half life of 4.5 billion years,

Understands that after impact with a hard target, DU weapons produce very small, volatile and "ceramic" particles of uranium oxide which release long term, low level radiation in the human organism and system (if exposed or ingested), in which they remain for many years;

Understands that of the three effects which DU has on biological systems - radiation, chemical and particulate - the particulate effect from nano-size particles is the most dominant one immediately after exposure, which targets the Master Code in the DNA, resulting in a phenomenon of multiple malignancies from seemingly unrelated causes, a new syndrome associated with internal DU exposure;

Believing that the use of these weapons is illegal under existing international humanitarian law because they fail the four main tests of weapons under international humanitarian law: temporal (continues after war), environmental (soil and water contamination), humaneness (unnecessary suffering beyond that required for military purposes) and affecting non-combatants under the Martens Clause;

Believing that because depleted uranium weapons are also chemically toxic, they are illegal under existing treaties against poisonous weapons;

Demands the immediate cessation of the manufacture, sale and use of DU weapons in maneuvers and in war situations worldwide;

Demands that countries that have used these weapons take financial and moral responsibility for de-contaminating the areas in which the munitions have been used;

Demands that the UN Sub-Commission on Human Rights take up the use of DU weapons as a blatant violation of human rights;

Demands also that those countries that have used DU weapons guarantee life-time health care for all those civilian populations in Afghanistan, Kosovo, Serbia and Iraq potentially affected, as well as veterans of several nationalities in both Gulf Wars and those active in Kosovo;

Deplores the denial by authorities of the danger caused by low-level radiation exposure to internalized radionuclides linked to depleted uranium, which only serves to perpetuate the nuclear power and weapons industry. Such denial is reinforced by the inability of the World Health Organization to properly investigate the health effects of radiation due to the 1959 agreement it has with the International Atomic Energy Agency;

Insists on the immediate provision of information on protective measures in the languages of those populations potentially affected, focusing on prevention of inhalation and ingestion of re-suspended radioactive insoluble particles;

Insists on the immediate commencement of long-term epidemiological studies of all affected populations, and biological studies on all plants and animals affected, paid for by those countries that have used DU weapons; and

Insists on the implementation of the Precautionary Principle to guide decisions about the use of all such weapons systems that potentially violate international law (thereby limiting or prohibiting their testing or use in combat).

East Jerusalem

The Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom, meeting in Executive committee from 1 to 4 September 2005 in Geneva, Switzerland, calls upon the Government of Israel to immediately halt and reverse the illegal steps it has taken that are harmful tot he Palestinian population of East Jerusalem :

• to reverse its annexation of the eastern part of the city ;
• to halt the demolition of Palestinian homes in occupied East Jerusalem ;
• to stop expropriating Palestinian neighborhoods for the Judaization of East Jerusalem ;
• to relocate the Jewish inhabitants of the ‘neighborhoods’ which are really settlements build int he past 38 years on annexed Palestinian land ;
• to restore to the Palestinians in East Jerusalem their full civil rights ;
• to refrain from steps that isolate the East Jerusalem Palestinians from the rest of the West Bank and the Palestinians of the West Bank from their metropoilian centre, East Jerusalem.

Bearing in mind the advisory opinion of the International Court of Justice, WILPF calls on the Government of Israel to dismantle the wall that separates Palestinian inhabitants from the West Bank land, resources and people, drastically limiting the movements of most of the Palestinian population. 

Few Women on the Commission for Africa

The Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom meeting at our International Executive Committee on 4 September 2005,  expresses concern that only three women (two of whom were African) were appointed to the Commission for Africa, out of a total of seventeen members

We bear in mind           

- the strength and leadership that African women have shown in facing disease, conflict, and other problems and that poverty in Africa impacts particularly on women;

- that the UN Secretary General, Kofi Annan has recently stated that the importance of involving women in decision making on development issues should be properly recognised,

We remind the UK Government of its commitment to UN Security Council Resolution 1325 and call upon it to ensure that any such future body contains a gender balance of at least 40% women. We call upon UN Member States involved in establishing advisory bodies in the future to ensure a gender balance of members. 

On the United Nations Convention on the Prohibition of the Development, Production and Stockpiling of Bacteriological Weapons and Toxins

Whereas:  The Womens’ International League for Peace and Freedom was founded to put an end to war and to secure peace and freedom for all humankind, and has since 1949 called repeatedly for the abolition of all research, production, storage and use of bio-weapons whether for offensive or allegedly defensive purposes

Whereas: Although the WILPF welcomed the bio-weapons treaty in 1972, it decried allowance of “defensive research” under the treaty, declaring there is no clear boundary between offensive and defensive research in the case of biological weapons

Whereas:  In 1995  nations party to the treaty -- recognizing that certain nations had indeed used the pretext of “defensive” research to create and stockpile large quantities of such weapons, and also recognizing that  the absence of inspection or monitoring (as provided in the case of nuclear and chemical weapons treaties) made it difficult to detect and counter treaty violations – mandated negotiation of a Bio-weapons monitoring and inspection protocol

Whereas:  The United States had already rejected the inspection protocol in July 2001, and when the negotiated Protocol was officially presented in November 2001 for signature and ratification, the United States forced abandonment of the effort, claiming  that inspection was not in its national interest. 

And Whereas:  Since then the US has allocated as much as $16 billion dollars  for university and Pentagon bio-defense research and development, including the bio-engineering of new pathogens not existing in nature, and whereas  there is strong evidence that certain other nations, including Russia, are now also engaging in such research.

1. The WILPF calls on the Bio-weapons Review Conference for renewed negotiations on the inspection and monitoring protocol,
2. The WILPF also urges expansion of the treaty to include an absolute ban on genetic engineering of new strains of deadly pathogens, not present in nature, for any purpose whatsoever.
3. The WILPF also repeats its long standing call for a complete ban on all forms of bio-weapons research, including both offensive and allegedly defensive.
4. In the meantime, in the absence of transparency, monitoring or inspection, and with the burgeoning of questionable bio-defense research, the WILPF International Executive Committee encourages all Sections:

• to be aware of possible violations of the existing Biological Weapons convention in their own or other countries, and to cooperate with other NGOs in the collection of evidence
• to promote transparency and open discussion of possible violations of the Bio-weapons treaty. This should include encouragement of investigative journalism and public investigation by parliamentarians or citizen groups.
• to report all such apparent violations to the to the UN Bioweapons Treaty committee meetings in November 2005 and Bioweapons Treaty Review Conference in 2006.
• to remind all scientists, and especially those in countries with active bio-weapons research, of the precautionary principle, and urge them to “do no harm” and, on the other hand, to reveal what they know of such programs and refuse to participate in them.
• to explore whether their own or another country might be willing to receive evidence of violation of the Convention by any nation, and if the evidence is sufficient, report possible violation to the Security Council for investigation and suitable action, as provided in the Convention.
• to propose suitable sanctions or other actions which might be taken that could effectively cause culpable nations to restrain from biological weapons research without unduly harming or restricting citizens of those countries.
• if the evidence warrants, also investigate possibilities of international or domestic court action against  high government officials responsible for violating a ratified treaty, or for criminal human rights abuses.

Rapa

RAPA is an island of South Pacific, the inhabitants of which have not signed the Royal Treaty imposed by France in 1880 to most Polynesian islands of the so-called “ French Polynesia”. In consequence, the Rapa Nation has been simply annexed to the French Polynesia and the rights of the RAPA Nation have been denied.

Recognizing that no evidence of agreement between the Rapa nation and France has ever been signed in the 19th Century and, that RAPA Nation today is entitled to ask for its independence.

WILPF requests France to fulfill its moral obligation and provide financial support for the economic, social and cultural development of the Rapa people. By doing so France helps their recovery from the effects of more than a century of invasive colonization. This includes alternative energy equipment, water and sanitation supply, medical staff with appropriate means, local education.

WILPF asks for the international recognition of RAPA Nation as a separate country to French Polynesia with recognition of their citizenship, customary rights and independent government.

WILPF calls upon the UN to put RAPA on the list of independent countries.

Rejection of the Paramilitary Demobilization Laws in Colombia

The Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom, meeting in its International Executive Committee, in Geneva on 4 September 2005,  rejects the paramilitary demobilization Law and the "reinsertion" process now underway in Colombia. The implementation of the demobilization law threatens to harm the very fabric of Colombian society. 

Illegal paramilitary forces, responsible for killing thousands of Colombian non-combatants in the countryside and small towns, are continuing their murderous activities even after supposedly demobilizing under President Alvaro Uribe administration's flawed framework for "reinsertion" of the paramilitary forces into Colombian society.

The Uribe administration's so called "Law of Justice and Peace" provides for virtual impunity of the paramilitaries for their crimes and for permitting them to retain lands and other wealth they obtained by forcing people from their lands or killing them, while placing these supposedly  "demobilized" troops in position of authority, such as policemen and local government leaders.

Many human rights organizations have criticized and rejected this defective and dangerous demobilization process, and the Inter-American Commission for Human Rights has also rejected the implementation of this plan.

We call on all UN member states to protest against the paramilitary demobilization Law and the "reinsertion" process now underway in Colombia.

Struggle for the Right to Land and Demand for Return of Refugees in Nepal

1. Nepal faces political uncertainties and crisis. Armed conflicts between governmental forces and the Maoist rebels, agitations by left and democratic political parties are continuing. These facts can disrupt the prospects of bringing about a peaceful political process.

2. About 120,000 Bhutanese refugees have been also camping in Nepal for more than 13 years, waiting for an honorable return to their homes.

3. WILPF International demands the government, as well as the Maoist rebel leadership immediately declare a cease-fire and take substantive action to foster a dialogue between them, involving all agitating political parties, so that a new political settlement can be found where the armed parties can enter into a peacemaking process.

4. WILPF asks for the goodwill and facilitating role of the UN in this peacemaking process.

5. WILPF asks the international community, including India, which has a vital role in this matter, to help for an early and safe return of the refugees to Bhutan.