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RELIGIOUS PERSPECTIVES ON HUMAN RIGHTS

E-Newsletter
Vol.2 No.31
July 31, 2000


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Religious Perspectives on Human Rights is now available online at: http://www.rghr.net

Religious Perspectives on Human Rights is a weekly e-newsletter issued by Buddhist, Muslim, Catholic and Christian Groups on Human Rights, initiated by the Asian Human Rights Commission.

Dear friends

REMEMBER AUGUST 6!  This week's e-newsletter is PACKED with ideas for actions you can take in conjunction with many others around the world to end the scourge of nuclear weapons.  The most important action is to join in prayer with people of all faiths as we mark the anniversary of the dropping of the atomic bomb on Hiroshima, AUGUST 6.  We also have a comment from Jubilee 2000 on the outcomes of the G8 meeting.

1) AUGUST 6 - JOIN IN A DAY OF PRAYER TO RID WORLD OF NUCLEAR WEAPONS

The year 2000 is the UN International Year for the Culture of Peace August 6th is "Hiroshima Day" - a day to commemorate the loss of so many lives to nuclear power and to work and pray for a world void of nuclear weapons.

The following info is from the Nuclear Age Peace Foundation:

On August 6, 2000 (the memorial day for the atomic bomb), a World Peace Prayer Ceremony will be held in front of the Hiroshima Atomic Bomb Dome in which people will join in the prayer for the peace of more than 190 countries in the world. This ceremony will be transmitted simultaneously all over the world through Internet. 

Date: Sunday, August 6, 2000 from 9:00 a.m. to 10:30 a.m. (Japan time)
Place: On the east side of the Hiroshima Atomic Bomb Dome

You will be able to view the ceremony live and get more details about the simultaneous prayer event at the following internet address: http://www.aqu.com/hiroshima-wppc-12e.htm

2)  HOW COULD THE WORLD GIVE UP ITS ADDICTION TO WEAPONS OF MASS DESTRUCTION?

A Twelve Step Program To End Nuclear Weapons Addiction by David Krieger, President of the Nuclear Age Peace Foundation.

The following steps should be taken by the nuclear weapons states to assure a full commitment to ending the nuclear weapons threat that now hangs over the heads of all humanity and clouds our future: 

1. Commence good faith negotiations to achieve a Nuclear Weapons Convention requiring the phased elimination of all nuclear weapons, with provisions for effective verification and enforcement.
2. Publicly acknowledge the weaknesses and fallibilities of deterrence: that deterrence is only a theory and is clearly
ineffective against nations whose leaders may be irrational or suicidal; nor can deterrence assure against accidents,
misperceptions, miscalculations, or terrorists. 
3. Publicly acknowledge the illegality of the threat or use of nuclear weapons under international law as stated by the
International Court of Justice in its 1996 opinion, and further acknowledge the obligation under international law for good faith
negotiations for nuclear disarmament in all its aspects.
4. Publicly acknowledge the immorality of threatening to annihilate millions, even hundreds of millions, of people in the name of
national security. 
5. De-alert all nuclear weapons and de-couple all nuclear warheads from their delivery vehicles.
6. Declare policies of No First Use of nuclear weapons against other nuclear weapons states and policies of No Use against non-nuclear weapons states.
7. Establish an international accounting system for all nuclear weapons and weapons-grade nuclear materials.
8. Sign and ratify the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty, cease laboratory and subcritical nuclear tests designed to modernize and improve nuclear weapons systems, cease construction of Megajoule in France and the National Ignition Facility in the US and end research programs that could lead to the development of pure fusion weapons, and close the remaining nuclear test sites in Nevada and Novaya Zemlya.
9. Re-affirm the commitments to the 1972 Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty and cease efforts to violate that Treaty by the deployment of national or theater missile defenses, and cease the militarization of space.
10. Support existing nuclear weapons free zones, and establish new ones in the Middle East, Central Europe, North Asia, Central Asia and South Asia.
11.Set forth a plan to complete the transition under international control and monitoring to zero nuclear weapons by 2020, with agreed upon levels of nuclear disarmament to be achieved by the NPT Review Conferences in 2005, 2010 and 2015.
12. Begin to reallocate the billions of dollars currently being spent annually for maintaining nuclear arsenals ( billion in the U.S. alone) to improving human health, education and welfare throughout the world.

3) ACTIONS YOU CAN TAKE FOR PEACE

The following information and action ideas are from Abolition 2000

Background

There are still more than 36,000 nuclear weapons in the world in spite of the fact that the cold war is supposed to be over.

At the recent nuclear nonproliferation treaty review conference, the nuclear weapons countries as well as every other country on the planet except India, Pakistan, and Israel agreed to the total and unequivocal elimination of nuclear weapons. In addition, country after country said weapon states have agreed to do that. Ballistic Missile Defence has been strongly criticised by all the US's allies as well as by Russia and China, and much of the United Nations.

Russia has offered the US in upcoming negotiations on START-III, warhead numbers as low as 1500 warheads. However, the US in response has actually tried to persuade Russia to go for higher numbers of nuclear warheads. This again violates the committment made so recently, to the total and unequivocal elimination of nuclear arsenals.

The following link has some sample letters you can write to call for an end to nuclear weaponry. http://www.abolition2000.org/action/preventnewarmsrace.html

....MORE ACTIONS YOU CAN TAKE....

10 Things You Can Do to Ensure a More Peaceful World.

[These suggestions are available at the internet site: http://www.abolition2000.org/action/12action.html 
The petition referred to is printed below]

1. SIGN THE PETITION ONLINE!
For individuals (Abolition 2000 Petition): English | Francaise | Deutsch | Espaniol | Italiano.
For organizations: Organization's Pledge.
For municipalities (Resolution For Municipalities): English | German.
For colleges and universities: Campus Resolution

2. EDUCATE YOURSELF AND OTHERS.
Monitor Nuclear News on the Web and check out The Nuclear Files on ethical and policy dilemmas in the Nuclear Age.

3. KEEP IN TOUCH. 
Sign up for a free subscription to our monthly grassroots newsletter.
Post a Message.
Join a working group: Subscribe to Abolition Global Caucus abolition-caucus archive Hosted by eGroups.com

4. SPREAD THE WORD: 
Write to your Senators and Representative. 
Write to the U.S. President. Write to the leader of a nuclear weapons state.

5.  SUPPORT THE 111 STATES of the Non-Aligned Movement, 
representing the majority of humankind, in calling for the elimination of nuclear weapons within a time-bound framework.

6.  FOCUS ATTENTION ON ACHIEVING A NUCLEAR WEAPONS CONVENTION 
by the year 2000 that would set forth a step-by-step program to eliminate nuclear weapons within a time-bound framework.

7.  USE THE ABOLITION 2000 STATEMENT, prepared by the Abolition
Caucus at the Non-Proliferation Treaty Review and Extension
Conference, as a guideline for the steps that need to be taken.

8.  EDUCATE KEY REPRESENTATIVES OF THE NEWS MEDIA to better
understand the issues, subtleties, feasibility, and benefits of abolishing nuclear weapons.

9. CONTINUE TO NETWORK among the growing number of citizen action
groups throughout the world committed to achieving a world free of nuclear weapons.

10. PREPARE TO MOUNT COORDINATED PUBLIC OUTREACH throughout the world
on nuclear weapons abolition at key upcoming international events, such as the Non-Proliferation Treaty Review Conferences scheduled for 1997, 1998 and 1999, the 50th anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights in 1998, and the 100th anniversary of the first Hague Peace Conference in 1999.

4) PETITION SIGNED BY MANY WORLD LEADERS TO END NUCLEAR THREAT

Abolition 2000 has prepared the following petition, signed by many Nobel Peace Prize laureates and other famous people:

End the Nuclear Weapons Threat to Humanity!
March 2000
We cannot hide from the threat that nuclear weapons pose to humanity and all life. These are not ordinary weapons, but instruments of mass annihilation that could destroy civilization and end all life on Earth.
Nuclear weapons are morally and legally unjustifiable. They destroy indiscriminately - soldiers and civilians; men, women and children; the aged and the newly born; the healthy and the infirm. 

The obligation to achieve nuclear disarmament "in all its aspects," as unanimously affirmed by the International Court of Justice, is at the heart of the Non-Proliferation Treaty. 

Ten years have now passed since the end of the Cold War, and yet nuclear weapons continue to cloud humanity's future. The only way to assure that nuclear weapons will not be used again is to abolish them.

We, therefore, call upon the leaders of the nations of the world and, in particular, the leaders of the nuclear weapons states to act now for the benefit of all humanity by taking the following steps: 

• Ratify the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty and reaffirm commitments to the 1972 Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty.
• De-alert all nuclear weapons and de-couple all nuclear warheads from their delivery vehicles.
• Declare policies of No First Use of nuclear weapons against other nuclear weapons states and policies of No Use against non-nuclear weapons states.
• Commence good faith negotiations to achieve a Nuclear Weapons Convention requiring the phased elimination of all nuclear weapons, with provisions for effective verification and enforcement.
• Reallocate resources from the tens of billions of dollars currently being spent for maintaining nuclear arsenals to improving human health, education and welfare throughout the world.

SIGNED:
-Tadatoshi Akiba, Mayor of Hiroshima
-Muhammad Ali, World Champion Boxer and Humanitarian
-Isabel Allende, Author
-Oscar Arias, Nobel Peace Laureate and Former President of Costa Rica
-Jimmy Carter, Chair, The Carter Center & Former President of the - United States
-The XIVth Dalai Lama, Nobel Peace Laureate & Spiritual Leader of  Tibetan People
-Michael Douglas, Actor& UN Peace Ambassador
-Adolpho Perez Esquivel, Nobel Peace Laureate
-Harrison Ford, Actor
-Arun Gandhi, founder of M. K. Gandhi Institute for Nonviolence
-Admiral Noel Gayler, Former US Commander in Chief Pacific
-Father Theodore Hesburgh, President Emeritus, Notre Dame University
-Iccho Itoh, Mayor of Nagasaki on behalf of the citizens of Nagasaki
-Admiral Gene R. LaRocque, Founder of the Center for Defense Information
-Bernard Lown, Founder, International Physicians for the Prevention of Nuclear War, a Nobel Peace Laureate Organization
-Mairead Corrigan Maguire, Nobel Peace Laureate
-Rigoberta Menchu Tum, Nobel Peace Laureate
-Paul Newman, Actor
-Jose Ramos-Horta, Nobel Peace Laureate
-Joseph Rotblat, Nobel Peace Laureate
-Meryl Streep, Actress
-Barbra Streisand, Singer and actress
-Archbishop Desmond Tutu, Nobel Peace Laureate
-Elie Wiesel, Nobel Peace Laureate

5) JUBILEE 2000 DIRECTOR RESPONDS TO G8 FINAL COMMUNIQUE: "THE SQUANDERED SUMMIT"

Jubilee 2000 UK Director, Ann Pettifor, commented on the final communiqu?of the Okinawa G8 Summit as follows:

"This will be known as the Squandered Summit. While the G8 leaders have enjoyed Japan's 0 million hospitality, they have squandered an historic opportunity to cancel the unpayable debts of the poorest countries. They have squandered the hope of a fresh start for the world's poorest people in this new millennium. Their failure to act on third world debt cancellation was the defining moment of the summit.

"The final communiqu?offers no response to the public outrage at the G8's failure to produce a new deal on debt. They have merely repeated their promises of a year ago. They did not keep their promises then. 
Why should we believe them now?

"There are strong signs of the divisions between G8 leaders this weekend over debt cancellation. It is clear that in Okinawa, those who want to turn their backs on the poorest have won the day. If other G8 leaders feel they should have gone further, they can show that now with a unilateral pledge to stop taking the money from the poorest countries - and ensure that it is invested to fight diseases like AIDS.

"The G8 have committed themselves to ambitious targets to reduce deaths caused by malaria, AIDS and TB. As Kofi Annan has said, these kinds of targets are no more than a pipedream without debt cancellation. If the G8 were interested in a new deal on debt, they would agree much deeper and faster cancellation to match the firm commitments already made by President Obasanjo and forty African leaders to spend this money on fighting disease.

"The 0 million announcement by President Clinton to open a fund to provide free school lunches is a small step. However, this food will be squandered if children are not a school because their families cannot afford IMF user fees. But as long as countries are bound by debt payments and the IMF's conditions, this will not change. 

"The debt crisis is an emergency that cannot wait. We will be going over the heads of the G8 to the UN Millennium Summit of 130 Heads of State in September. From there, we will march to Prague to intensify pressure on the IMF to release these poor countries from the slavery of debt in this millennium year."

[NOTE: Last year in Cologne, the G8 announced a plan to cancel 0 billion in debt. On current progress, they will reach no more than billion by the end of 2000. For more information, contact Lucy Matthew in Japan on + 81 (0) 90 7717 7701 or Sarah Finch at the Jubilee 2000 Press Office in London on 020 7739 1000 ext 229 or 07977 470309.]

For more info on the Debt crisis and what you can do, visit: http://www.jubilee2000uk.org/main.html

6)  PRAYERS FOR THE MOLUCCAN PEOPLE

While you are praying for an end to the Nuclear Age, please also pray for the people of Maluku who are still suffering terror, suspicion, exhaustion and grief.  Pray that the leaders of the international community will find ways to offer assistance to those genuinely striving for peace in the region!