for Peace and Freedom
Peace Disarmament Economic Justice Environment Racial Justice UN Human Rights Contact Join Donate
| Women's International League
for Peace and Freedom |
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Peace Disarmament Economic Justice Environment Racial Justice UN Human Rights Contact Join Donate |
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Dear WILPF Members and Friends,
As always, we welcome feedback and input to these mailings. If you have something to contribute to the next mailing, please send it to susi.snyder@wilpf.ch with “For International Update” clearly marked in the subject line. Warm greetings, Susi Snyder
****************************************************************** Dear WILPF members and friends, We in the Geneva office have been sweating through quite a heat wave during the last few weeks, with record high temperatures in town. Despite the surprising heat, we’re working away on a variety of key WILPF issues. Beijing +15
Nuclear Disarmament WILPF’s work has included participation in the nuclear Non Proliferation Treaty Preparatory Commissions and Review Conferences for years. The 2010 NPT Review Conference will take place from 3 – 28 May 2010 in New York. Due to renovations at UN Headquarters in New York, the Review Conference will mostly be held in temporary facilities currently being constructed. Unfortunately, the new facility will not have the capacity to accommodate side events. There will be no NGO room on UN premises. Alternative options are being explored and will be listed on this webpage as we gather the information, with instructions on how you will be able to reserve these spaces. Human Rights Council There are a number of WILPF sections who will be under various reviews in the coming several months. The deadlines for NGO submissions are as follows:
You can find more information about the Universal Periodic Review here. You can find more information WILPF’s Human Rights work here. The secretariat is also preparing for the next International Board meeting (see update below). The seminar and associated meetings should be quite interesting, and all WILPF members are welcome to attend. With best wishes, Susi Snyder
[back to top] Time is rapidly approaching towards our next IB meeting. Thank you for all of those who have commented on the draft agenda, and who have come back with ideas and recommendations to make this meeting a success. Agenda Additional Travel and Activities Registration Forms and Fees This is a working meeting, and to recognize the work that IB members do for their sections and for WILPF throughout the year, we are offering a slightly discounted registration for IB members to honour and recognize your service to WILPF. The registration fee structure is as follows; all figures are in US Dollars:
Your registration fee includes meals, accommodation and local transportation to off-site events. It also includes a contribution to the host section as well as offsetting some of the preparation costs. Everyone must register. Remember, the university is non-smoking and has a strict no alcohol and no meat policy. You can find more information on the location here. Travel Assistance & Fundraising Committee and Working Group Reports- due 10 October Section Reports- due 10 October WILPF Resolutions & Statements- due 10 October The secretariat looks forward to working with the International Board to make this meeting a success. As always, if you have questions or need help with these documents, please do get in touch. [back to top] Colombia & the Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination Large amounts of money are being spent on arms and military activities around the world. Only a small shift towards spending in social sectors can have a huge impact on people’s lives and human rights. United Nations’ Human Rights Treaty Bodies are the bodies that monitor and make recommendations regarding state’s fulfilments of their commitments to human rights. In order to address shortcomings in the areas of human rights in various countries government resources need to be adequately allocated to these areas. For this reason Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom tries to highlight the connections between military expenditures and the areas of concern addressed by Human Rights Treaty Bodies. On the 12th and 13th of August 2009 Colombia reported to the Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination (CERD) for the first time in ten years. The state report submitted by Colombia included the 10th to 14th periodic report, which should normally be submitted to the Committee every two years. The fact that Colombia reaffirmed its collaboration with the Committee was appreciated and members of the Committee expressed their hope that Colombia will not wait another ten years to submit its next report. In general, the Committee recognized the existing legal framework for combating racial discrimination in Colombia and the positive developments that have occurred within this area. The Committee felt a great concern however, that the implementation of this legal framework is slow and that affirmative actions to tackle discrimination is inadequate. When dealing with issues of racial discrimination the Committee emphasized the need to look at the whole Colombian society, beyond the conflict, and to direct activities towards the majority of the population. In its responses to the Committee however, the Colombian Delegation focused on the problems of illegal armed groups in Colombia, how it is affecting minority groups and what the government is doing to fight these groups. This is a clear sign that the government is focusing its efforts on the military sector, a sector that Colombia is spending over $6.5 billion on per year, while education, health and other sectors are in serious need of more resources. Instead of pouring more money into the armed forces resources need to be directed towards finding alternative means of solving the conflict and ensuring the protection of human rights in Colombia. For more information on WILPF’s work in Colombia, please see the website of WILPF-Colombia. [back to top] 2009 is a crucial year in the international effort to address climate change. A series of United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) meetings are taking place throughout the year, designed to culminate in an ambitious and effective international response to climate change, to be agreed at the United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP 15) in Copenhagen, 7-18 December. Governments are meeting to negotiate a new climate treaty that will be replacing the 1997 Kyoto Protocol. The Kyoto Protocol sets binding targets for the reduction of greenhouse gas emissions has been signed and ratified by 184 parties of the UN Climate Convention. The Kyoto Protocol sets targets for emissions from 2008 to 2012. At the 13th annual conference of member countries (COP13) in Bali it was decided to work towards a new agreement for the subsequent years. That new agreement is what governments will be meeting about in Copenhagen. Until now nuclear energy has been excluded from the efforts to counter climate change, but a number of facts indicate that the nuclear energy industry, in collaboration with some countries, is working hard to have this dangerous polluting technology declared “clean”. We’re asking all WILPF members to write to their foreign ministries, and copy their parliamentarians to make sure that the Copenhagen Summit doesn’t “Nuke the Climate”. To that end, we’ve provided the sample letter below. Dear Foreign Minister, I am writing today, in view of the upcoming UN Climate Change Conference in Copenhagen in December 2009, because of my grave concern about the possible resurgence of nuclear energy technologies. Nuclear energy is neither clean nor sustainable. It is not a solution to the challenges of global warming. Nuclear energy is dangerous and costly. According to the Nuclear Information and Resource Center the cost of building a new nuclear power reactor is today between $6000 and $7,500 per kW. In comparison, a commercial sized wind turbine costs between $1,200 to $2,600 per kW installed. The levelized cost of production for nuclear power is 12-15.4 cents/kWh while the cost for solar energy is around 11 cents/kWh and onshore wind energy 6-10 cents/kWh. A dollar invested in clean energy would thus yield more than five times more electricity than a dollar invested in nuclear power. In addition, nuclear power plants produce large quantities of radioactivity and cause by themselves dangerous impacts on our environment. The disaster at Chernobyl in 1986 gave proof of the dangers that this technology entails and the devastating effects it can have on people’s lives and health. Every dollar invested in nuclear energy will be directed from the development of a truly sustainable solution to the climate change. I look forward to hearing that our delegation emphasized the need for sustainable, clean and safe energy in the creation of a new global climate agreement. Thank you for your kind attention.
[back to top] The Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom endorses the People’s Summit - Sept. 19, 21-22, 2009 - and the Women’s Tent City to be held alongside the G20 meeting in Pittsburgh Pennsylvania, USA. WILPF believes that under systems of exploitation, peace and freedom cannot be achieved. Our mission is to further by non-violent means a transformation that would enable the establishment of economic and social systems in which political equality and social justice for all can be attained, and without discrimination on the basis of sex, race, religion, or any other grounds whatsoever. WILPF sees as its ultimate goal the establishment of an international economic order founded on the principles of meeting the needs of all people and not on those of profit and privilege. WILPF is concerned that the G20 is not moving in this direction. To many millions of people the great gains of science, medicine and technology, let alone access to the internet, might as well take place on another planet. Meanwhile, criminal groups take advantage of porous borders and powerful new technology for their own nefarious aims. Although we have more wealth and technology than ever before, the number of people living in poverty and dying of hunger is still growing. Many poor countries and poor people are increasingly marginalized. Increasing inequity is taking a particularly heavy toll on women. Peoples of color are experiencing old and new forms of xenophobia as races jostle for positions in the undemocratic new world order. Although the cold war has ended, we are facing new threats to humanity such as the terror of potential nuclear wars and the crisis of environmental sustainability. Corporate driven globalization puts the integrity of cultures at risk. We are lacking adequate global governance. Economic globalization, which allows corporations to make production, marketing and investment decisions relatively free of national constraints, has revealed a mismatch between current systems and institutions that are national or international and the global nature of economic activities. The criminal informal economy drives illicit drugs, money laundering and the trafficking in women and children and justifies the intervention of a global governance system. What passes for global governance is controlled by institutions with an agenda of deregulating trade rather than democracy, peace, human rights or environmental protection. Poor countries and poor people have little influence in today's international policy making. At the World Trade Organization, about 30 poor countries cannot afford to run permanent offices at its headquarters in Geneva, and are therefore excluded from shaping crucial trade agreements that affect their future. At the IMF and the World Bank, the prime mechanism of control is the size of rich countries' capital subscriptions, which gives them enormous voting power by comparison with the mass of developing countries. In the upcoming meeting in Pittsburgh, G20 members will use the opportunity to take stock of the progress made and discuss further actions to assure a sound recovery from the global economic and financial crisis. In fact, they are meant to review their priorities from the Washington summit, namely: strengthening transparency and accountability; enhancing sound regulation; promoting integrity in financial markets; reinforcing international cooperation; and reforming the international financial institutions. In our quest for an alternative economic and social world order to the present exploitative one, and to construct the necessary political system that will protect and further it, we must knit the vertical and horizontal interlinkages of economic, social environmental and political developments, we call on the G20 to recognize the interdependence of economic, social and political development and to foster agreements that are transparent and involve the voices of all stakeholders regardless of gender, race, or economic status. The world order we want – to serve the interests of the peoples inhabiting this globe and which is the only basis on which peace can be constructed – needs a strong democratic system locally and internationally which must be interlinked in ongoing communication. The United Nations’ Charter as it is today provides possibilities for developing a strong democratic political global system. The texts have to be developed into concrete, practical arrangements. But they will not amount to much if the necessary changes in our economic and social order are not fundamentally changed and systems for accountability are developed. This is the challenge we face. We must speak up at every opportunity, inform educate and influence change, wherever and whenever we can, and join forces with those who are working for the same goal. It is for this reason that WILPF endorses the Women’s Tent City and the People’s Summit taking place in the sidelines of the G20 meeting in Pittsburgh.
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