To all organizations of international civil
society,
and to lovers of peace throughout the world,
Greetings. |
The Nomura Center for Lifelong Integrated
Education is an international non-governmental
organization based in Tokyo. We are committed
to a human renaissance for the new century;
that is to the establishment of new relations
of order founded in authentic and peaceful
coexistence, and to the creation of a new
civilization founded on universal values
and human rights. Although allusions are
frequently made to a “clash of civilizations”
or “wars between religions,” we all know
that civilizations do not clash and religions
do not fight with one another. It is always
human beings who compete and fight in the
name of civilization and religion. This is
evidenced now in the new gulf war.
Please study the universal appeal below and
seek the approval of your governing body.
If you agree with it,
1) please endorse and forward this appeal
to Mr. Kofi Annan, Secretary General of the
United Nations Organization. The address
is: [email protected]
2) please send a separate e-mail with the
appeal to the President of the 57th General
Assembly of the United Nations Organization:
Ambassador Jan Kavan of the Czech Republic.
The address is [email protected]
3) as the UN is a world organization, and
if you have the capacity, please endorse
and send the appeal to all member delegations
of the United Nations. Contact by e-mail
each UN delegation separately.
Go to UN Homepage www.un.org, select “language”, select “member states”,
select “home pages of permanent missions”,
select “click here to search all websites”,
enter the word “Email” in search box. You
will get the e-mail addresses for most of
the UN delegations (191 permanent member
states and others). Ask that the appeal be
shared with all appropriate members of the
member delegation. If you have the capacity,
the same message can be sent to each of many
addressees with only the one address showing
on the message. Otherwise, your e-mail will
begin by listing all the addresses and this
will be ineffective;
4) please share the appeal with all your
members and appropriate contacts in your
address book and/or data base.
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| March 27, 2003 |
Sincerely yours,
Yoshiko Nomura
Director General
Nomura Center for Lifelong Integrated Education |
Universal Appeal for an Immediate Truce in
Iraq
The failure of diplomatic efforts to prevent
war in Iraq should not end the struggle of
the world's peoples to stop it. Surely, the
most fundamental of human rights is life,
and the most essential of universal values
is peace. Violence at all levels of human
existence gives birth to counter violence
and the malignancy of hate. The claim that
wars are fought to end future wars is an
ancient and discredited golden lie. The nature
of war is the depraved organization of violence,
and the endless recreation of conflict. War
is a confession - of abject and utter failure;
it is a foolish and naive expression of the
darker side of human nature embodied in the
higher terrorism of states.
Therefore, WE THE PEOPLES OF INTERNATIONAL
CIVIL SOCIETY HEREBY PROCLAIM:
that the United Nations Organization now
faces a profound legitimation crisis, testing
whether any such project for international
peace and security may now endure, or whether
the peoples of the world shall be captive,
now and tomorrow, to martial force, and
that the role of the United Nations must
not be reduced to simple humanitarian assistance
in the aftermath of massive violence, and
that it is time for all workers for peace
to reaffirm the opening words of the Charter
of the United Nations: "We the peoples
of the United Nations, determined to save
succeeding generations from the scourge of
war...," and
that all members and affiliates of the UN
have the proactive duty to eradicate the
causes of wars, not merely to pick up the
pieces of shattered lives and broken dreams,
and
that it is not sufficient for this crisis
to be debated only by official voices, representing
the unequal power of states,
AND FOR THESE ENDS, WE FURTHER AFFIRM:
that it is a universal moral imperative for
the organizations of international civil
society to mobilize and to speak with a single
voice, and
that given the antidemocratic power of the
veto, the Security Council is not always
the appropriate forum to register the collective
will of the world community, and
that for this reason, and in due course,
the General Assembly must do its sacred duty
in emergency session to take up the question
of an immediate truce in Iraq, and
that NGO's must immediately contact and encourager
states of the United Nations Organization
to convene such a session, for
to stand silent when confronted with the
scourge of war is an ethical crime against
humanity.
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Nomura Center for Lifelong Integrated Education
