People’s Charter on Peace for Life (Project Proposal) — Peace Charter : Projects @ PEACE for LIFE

Peace for life has become the most comprehensive and integral issue in the 21st century, as the Global Market Regime and its correlate the Global Empire are effecting great and profound changes not only in Asian geo-political situation but in the global situation as well in military, political, economic, cultural and religious terms. This situation breeds various forms of conflict and violence among social and cultural groups as well as wars among peoples and nations of Asia and world.

Since the disintegration of the Soviet military alliance, the geo-politics of the world has been drastically transformed. The bi-polar structure of East and West confrontation has been dismantled, and a global mono-polar hegemony of a truly global empire has been taking its decisive shape. This has entailed a radical shift in geo-political relations in Asia. Wars in Afghanistan and Iraq are only immediate manifestations. Geo-political tensions are rising around the Korean peninsula in the Northeast Asia as well, just as in the West Asia.

Since the 9.11 incident in 2002, the US military hegemony is building up at ever-accelerated speed and broader scope. The new Bush administration has been anew pushing the National Missile Defence program in spite of criticism from around the world. The “War on Terror,” declared by the United States, has changed the very nature of war into a total and ubiquitous war. Thus, the military posture of the US has profound implications around the world. It poses grave dangers of increasing tensions, and possibly leading to renewed conflict in Northeast Asia, Southeast Asia and South Asia as well as other parts of the world.

It should be concerned that the geo-political questions are not merely affecting the issue of international peace, but are decisive for the total life of peoples, nations and the ecosystem. The global economic regime and the global empire are intertwined closely, and their symbiotic cohabitation threatens the security of all living beings on earth.

In the globalization process, for example, convergence of cybernetics, technetronics (IT), hi-tech communication (CT), high-speed transportation and satellites as well as biotechnology (BT), nanotechnology (NT), and artificial intelligence (AI) is bringing about complex transformations in military strategy and weapons systems as well as a total transformation of the context of all living beings. Especially, hi-tech war strategies such as cyber warfare are now an integral component of the global military order. Such unprecedented and unpredictable changes in relation to the US war on terror and in the military strategy of the global empire are taking place in and around Asia.

In spite of these developments, there are only antiquated notions of peace being entertained by international institutions in international relations. There is an upsurge of peace movements in civil society and people’s movements, challenging inadequate concepts and institutional arrangements among nation states and international institutions.

The global governance for peace has been discussed around the United Nations and its related organizations since the WW II. However, the development of Cold War geopolitics has marred its role due to the polar structure of global geopolitics. Wars in Korea and Viet Nam are only a few manifestations, which demonstrated limitations of the UN. The entire global military order is plunged into an order of geo-political and military confrontation with the weapons of mass destruction and with the total war strategy.

Hitherto existing military alliances among nation states in terms of security have generated a really different course of history of the world in a new geopolitical situation, and this breeds a violent global military order on earth. The global military order under the hegemony of the global empire thrusts nation states into a hierarchical alliance of domination, under which peace on earth is only precarious.

In the midst of this situation, we witness to an immense eruption of peoples aspiration of peace for life. Indeed peace is the core of the issue of life of all living beings. It is the issue in which the people have a direct and immediate stake. The people must participate in the peacemaking; they cannot leave the issue to the political institutions of the nation states and international organs.

The issue of peace and security is not merely that of the nation states. Definitely it is not the matter only assigned to the global empire. It is the issue of all living beings, including human beings and their community. It is the issue of the cosmic order of all living beings.

There is a great need to discern the global geo-political and military situation from the perspective of the victims, human and cosmic. There is urgency to articulate alternative visions of peace and security for all living beings. The people’s movements, civil society movements, academic and professional communities and some government think tanks must engage themselves for this task.

PEOPLE’S CHARTER ON PEACE FOR LIFE

A need to articulate the people’s vision for peace for life

Historic empires have had their visions of global peace. They have been closely connected to their dominant universal positions. Nation states, too, have their own visions of national security. Furthermore, peoples have their unique visions of peace. Often these visions of peace and movements clash with those of nation states due to the power relations and interests of empires and nations. It is to be recognized various and rich visions of peace rising out of the bosom of the struggling peoples. They have been often neglected by the nation states, their global alliances and international institutions of global governance. But at the present geopolitical situation we believe that the vision of the people on peace for life of all living beings has primacy, for the nation states and international institutions exist to serve the life of all living beings in peace and to enhance the fullness of life on earth. The reverse is not the case. The current international agreements, multi-lateral and bi-lateral, are not adequate to deal with the issues of peace for life.

Existing charters such as UN-related charters, covenants and agreements manifest a part of this situation. Existing treaties on security, bi-lateral and multilateral, need close scrutiny in the light of various visions and wisdoms of peace for life among the people and their movements.

There is a need for a critical assessment of the existing security arrangements and their implications for a true global peace.

People’s movements, social movements and civil society movements have been articulating their own visions of peace for life in recent years. This is the emergence of the vision of peace for life from below. Ecumenical movements have been closely associated with these developments throughout its history. They occupy a unique place and entertain very good opportunities to catalyse and facilitate the above mentioned process. In reality, it is the mandate of the ecumenical mission.

In this situation an ecumenical initiative to articulate an integral and genuine vision of peace for life is clear.

1. Why a peace charter?

Current UN charter, international instruments and many interstate agreements, e.g., defence treaties, are limited and not reflecting the people’s aspirations for peace for life. Existing treaties do not address the menacing nature of total war today.
New dimensions on the question of peace are emerging in the context of the emergence of the global empire which, unlike past empires, seeks a ubiquitous totalistic global hegemony. Peace can no longer be understood in a fragmented way. For example, the ecological question cannot be separated from the question of peace. The total life of all living beings is at stake for their security.
War today under the global empire, unlike past wars, has no beginning or end. War today has no borders. With military weapons systems that are capable of more intensive extermination, wars today are not only genocidal, but omnicidal; they destroy everything. The symbiosis of hi-tech weaponry and cyber warfare are capable of destroying systems of life as well as human society.
Hegemony by the empire invades every aspect of human life, including culture, communication, micro- and macrocosmic dimensions of life.

2. What kind of peace charter?

Not Pax Romana or Pax Americana but “peace from below”; peace of the people.
The charter will draw from various philosophical traditions and wisdoms of religious/cultural communities, and from visions emerging from those victimised by the war.
The Asian Human Rights Charter is one example that can be studied.
The peace charter can serve as a people’s protocol on peace on local, national and global levels

Objectives

The main objective is to clarify and redefine the issue of peace for life in Asia as well as throughout the globe. It should be informed by the perspectives of people’s movement, citizens’ participation and ecumenical action, including perspectives on specific issues related to the impact of the war on terror in South East Asia, peace and security in North East Asia, reunification of the Korean people, and resolution of nuclear issues in Asia. The global powers have different strategic concepts and policies with regard to peace and security in Asia and in the world, different from the people’s own hopes and visions of peace and security for life. Against this background, the specific goal of this project is to draft the People’s Charter on Peace for Life as a result of the clarification and consolidation of visions of peace movements. It will be a basis for the enhancement of the peace movement and a basis and an instrument to challenge visions of peace, which is imposed upon the people.

Framing a global people’s vision of peace for life

With Asian faith groups and social movements, initiate a global collective process of drafting a people-initiated international people’s charter on peace and security for life.

Process of Drafting and Adopting

Organise consultations with active and committed scholars’ groups and civic and social movements, aimed at developing the basis and framework of a “People’s Charter on Peace and Security for Life.”
Collaborate with faith groups and various movements (at the local, national and international levels) in an interfaith, intercultural and interdisciplinary study of cultural, religious, philosophical and ethnic traditions and visions of peace.

Work for an integrated process of drafting the “People’s Charter”

The Drafting Committee should be organized as the project carrier. It should be initiated by representatives of organizations and participating groups and institutions.

Develop a “Proposal to Draft a People’s Charter on Peace and Security for Life” to be circulated to other faith groups and social movements, in the form of a comprehensive document and popular brochure.

Study process
Develop guidelines and a monitoring scheme that will initiate the following study process at the local and national levels: [1] review of international charters and instruments on peace and security; [2] review of expressions of alternative visions by social movements and faith communities; [3] studies on peace traditions/visions in various cultures, religions and contexts.
Drafting the charter
Preparation of the text of the Draft Charter through coordinated efforts of the drafting committee

Hearings at various levels and areas on the Draft Charter could take place. Feed back on the Draft Charter from the concerned groups, especially those affected by the wars.
Presentation, deliberation and approval of the Draft Charter
This could be done in a major macro-ecumenical conference and it should be followed by adoption by various movements and groups.

Working Group: How do we go about making a peace charter?

A working group will be formed that would catalyse the process. A “mothering process” involving the WCC and CCA, with the Asian ecumenical movement as the catalysing group, is desired. This working group will initiate a Drafting Process, which will be disseminated. How to and who will compose the drafting committee will be a major task. An international conference will be convened to adopt the charter. The charter will be offered to other groups for adoption. These groups may revise the draft for their own use.

Proposed Working Group on People’s Charter on Peace for Life

It is recognized that WCC and CCA has initiated a mothering process on this task, in close relationship with the People’s Forum on Peace for Life. The ecumenical movement has a long history of commitment on the question of peace, a heritage of becoming a witness to victimisation, e.g., the CCIA. The CCA and WCC can thus be a catalyser of the peace charter process. They can provide both financial and political support.

Muslims, Buddhists and Asian religions should be involved in the thinking of this project. The Asian ecumenical movement would catalyse the process, but the basis of solidarity of all religions will has to be deepened.

Women and children are primary victims of the war. The gender question should play prominently in the process. Working Group should be composed in the light of this question as well as ecumenical and geopolitical consideration.

The following is a provisional proposal for the working group:

WCC-CCIA Clement John, Chris Ferguson, DOV Deenabandu Manchala, CCA

Coordinating Office: Kim Yong-Bock