Our Europe is founded on peace and our security is common and interdependent
I. Principles
Our Europe (1) repudiates war as a means for solving international conflicts
and recognizes peace as a fundamental right of human beings and peoples.
It acts as an active subject for the defense and promotion of the universal
values which are the conditions for peace: human social and democratic
rights, human dignity and social justice, freedom and social responsibility,
based on cultures which recognize their diversity.
It commits itself to build peace through the struggle against any form of
injustice, exploitation, exclusion and threat using international law,
politics and diplomacy as its main tools.
It recognizes the right of human beings and peoples to resist oppression and
injustice (2) using any means which does not produce another oppression and
violation of universal human rights, by trying to involve the international
community in the defense of the claims for freedom and social justice of the
victims.
For this reason it supports the International Penal Court (3), as a first
step towards an international justice system which allows to sanction State-
and war crimes independently of who turns out to be the winner.
It works for the active commitment of the international institution against
any form of military, social, economic oppression using peaceful means and
excluding by principle the use of military force.
It opposes the so-called “humanitarian” and preemptive war (4) considering
that war can never heal, with its inhumanity and violations of international
law and universal rights, but only produces new violations.
It contributes to the construction of a peaceful and democratic
international order, opposing the unilateralism of States, of power politics
and any form of imperialism and colonialism. (5)
It respects the existing international right of peace and justice, starting
from the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, and promotes its development
and improvement.
It is committed to promote and develop the democratization of international
institutions (6) dedicated to assure peace and justice among the peoples,
and works for an international system of institutions which guarantee equal
dignity and equal power to all the peoples of the planet.
For this purpose, it commits itself to abolish all the obstacles existing in
the present system of international institutions, nowadays subjugated to the
interests of the big powers and strong economies controlled by transnational
companies and financial institutions.
It considers that human beings and communities have the right to live free
from aggressions, dangers and threats, considering its own security as an
effect of the security of others. For this reason it promotes a common and
interdependent security.
In the name of these principles, it abstains from the use of any menace or
offensive attitude working for conflicts’ prevention, peaceful solutions and
the humanization of international relations.
It repudiates nuclear arms and all arms of massive destruction as well as
torture and degrading treatments. It commits itself to disarmament and
demilitarization promoting an open and welcoming world and society which
assures the free circulation of human beings.
II. Policy measures
Therefore we, the citizens of Europe, want a Europe of peace and want that
this peace should be recognized as a fundamental value. Europe has to be a
subject of peace and justice not only for the peoples of Europe, but for the
entire planet.
In particular we call on the European Union, its Member States and networks
of civil societies to implement the following measures:
* Stop immediately the proliferation of US military bases around the
world.
* Use the military budget of the European Union and its Member States
for peacekeeping missions and international cooperation in order to
contribute to the social needs of the endangered population in the regions
affected by wars and internal conflicts.
* Establish an International Peoples Tribunal (see 3) to pursue the
perpetrators of war and foreign occupation with a team of international
prosecutors and judges and the active participation of the affected civil
societies.
* Establish a worldwide peace-network capable to detect the roots of
international and internal conflicts and to guarantee any group or people in
conflict a “Right for Mediation” (7) on the local, regional, national and
international level.
* Fully respect in the existing and future conflicts of the people’s
right for self-determination (particularly of the oppressed and
discriminated minorities) (8) and their just claims for local and regional
autonomy within the framework of the existing States (9), committed to
promote intercultural relations and a sustainable development of all peoples
of the world.
* Counteract the so called anti-terrorist laws and repressive measures
of public and private security forces through the establishment of
mechanisms of democratic control by parliaments, communities and
peacekeeping networks of civil society.
* Substitute as much as possible the centralized public and private
security forces by an interactive network of community vigilance on a local
and regional level.
III. Open questions and dissident remarks for further discussion:
1) What is “Our Europe”: is is a State or a network of peoples? Do we want
the abolishment of all (national and supranational) armies? Are we against
the construction of a European army? Some think that a Social Europe needs a
collective system of defense without specifying whether it should be military
or not.
2) Should there be a “Right to revolt”? Or to mention "the right to
resistance" against injustice is enough? . Should there be explicitly stated
that the right to revolt and to resist does not imply “terrorist actions”?
3) Should we press for a reform of the existing Penal Court in the Hague or
go for the establishment of another Tribunal, e.g. following the rules of a
Peoples Tribunal?
4) Some think there should be a possibility for “humanitarian intervention”.
What does the international community have to do in order to defend peoples
and community which are suffering because of armed attack?
5) Some think we should explicitly mention the social classes and the
fact that in order to have peace we have to abolish capitalism through
revolution.
6) Should we specify the “democratic international institutions”? Do the
United Nations, in principle, belong to them? Should our Europe fight inside
the structures of the UN or do we want a new UN as an instrument to prevent
and solve military conflicts?
7) Which should be the “structure for mediation” in order to prevent armed
conflict?
8) Is still self-determination of people a positive value in itself (after
the Balkan wars and other ethnic conflicts)? Must we submit the right of
self-determination to some conditions -like the respect of minorities? In
order to break with the Eurocentric view we should state explicitly that our
Europe is going to defend the struggle for self determination of all the
peoples of the world. Some expressed problems with the term “minorities”.
Others want a “right to fight back” which would imply the use of force in
order to achieve a separate State and not only autonomy.
9) Should we refer ourselves to a “Sovereignty of People(s)” instead of a
“Sovereignty of States”?
(ed. by R. Bolini-L. Gabriel)