We, the women of the world,
Gathered at the United Nations
to celebrate the first International Women's Day of the 21st Century
under the theme of Peace,
call on the Secretary General of the United Nations,
and all member states
to make good the undertakings of the first resolution of this house.
The very first resolution of the
General Assembly unanimously called for the elimination from national armaments
of atomic weapons
and of all other major weapons adaptable to mass destruction.
Women
call for the implementation of this resolution because:
1.Nuclear weapons are suicidal, genocidal and ecocidal;
2.Women were, and are, excluded from nuclear science and the institutions
and practices it has inspired,
3.Nuclear weapons were created under conditions of absolute secrecy;
4. Nuclear weapons epitomize a most extreme form of militarism and
the erroneous concept of security as the ability to destroy others;
5. Nuclear weapons, due to the absolute nature of their destructive
capacity, make conventional or "lesser wars" seem less horrific
and therefore more justifiable;
6.Nuclear Weapon States, due to their permanent war economies, are
responsible for 80% of the trade in conventional arms;
7. Nuclear weapons violate international law and the cannon of values
the United Nations has evolved and enshrined through environmental,
women's rights and human rights, labor as well as humanitarian conventions;
8. Nuclear weapons have cost trillions of dollars and have caused
massive contamination of our environment, the food we eat and the
genes we pass on to the future generations.
9. The nuclear weapon has become a symbol of power in the political
structures and discourse of our world through the bestowing of prestige
on those states that are capable of mass murder and environmental
contamination.
We, the women of the world, reject this notion
of power and
we approach the international table in order to reset it.
The survival of this planet and all life on it requires a fundamental
shift in the concept of peace and security.
As we women pull up our chairs to finally sit at the international
table, we will create such momentous change.
Nuclear weapons and power through military force must no longer
be at the head of the international table.
Secretary General Annan, and all member states of this house, we
put you on notice that the women of the world approach the World
Conference on Nuclear Weapons that will bring together 187 governments
in April of 2000, with a determination that this meeting will be
the turning point in the Nuclear Age.
The five nuclear weapon states must reject nuclear weapons as the
corner stone of their security policies - a first step the majority
of the worlds' governments and people have been waiting for since
the dawn of the Nuclear Age.
Our patience is running out as the opportunities presented by the
end of the Cold War slip through our fingers.
The danger is that our generation of leaders will be remembered
as the ones who could have, but didn't, resolve the Cold War and
learn its lessons, redefine human security, and put the nuclear
threat behind us.
The Millennium Forum, Summit and Assembly will examine the future
of the United Nations.
For the UN to remain a revelant and effective body it must dispell,
through structural change, the perception that power in the international
community
is determined by the possession of nuclear weapons. We must all take heart
and be emboldened
by positive examples of change for peace
through the new diplomacy wherein NGOs, governments and the UN
system work in partnership such as:
the advances in the recognition of women's human rights;
the optional protocol to CEDAW;
the end of apartheid in South Africa;
the ban on landmines and
the establishment of the International Criminal Court.
At times these shifts and changes might seem impossible. In English,
the word "impossible" with the addition of just one apostrophe and
one space, becomes "I'm possible".
In any language, the inclusion of women is the missing apostrophe
in the international sentence.
The United Nations is the space, created by a generation that knew
war and wished to abolish it,
that recognized injustice on the grounds of race, sex and economic
class and wished to abolish it.
Let the women and men of the 21st century realize their vision
at this Peace House,
the United Nations, through the implementation of the promises
made in the Charter,
the treaties,
the World Conference documents
and the resolutions of the General Assembly,
beginning with the very first.
Sign onto this letter by emailing info@peacewomen.org
Check out our website
PeaceWomen.org
777 UN Plaza - 6th Floor - New York, NY - 10017 - Ph: 212.682.1265 - Fax: 212.286.8211 - info@reachingcriticalwill.org
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