Conor: This can be a good reminder {that a}) this battle could possibly be delivered to an finish if that wasn’t the very last thing the US and the UK wished, and b) when western media confer with the “worldwide neighborhood” they’re sometimes referring solely to US allies and omitting voices like the next.
By Medea Benjamin and Nicolas J. S. Davies. Medea Benjamin is the cofounder of CODEPINK for Peace, and the writer of a number of books, together with Inside Iran: The Actual Historical past and Politics of the Islamic Republic of Iran. Nicolas J. S. Davies is an impartial journalist, a researcher with CODEPINK and the writer of Blood on Our Arms: The American Invasion and Destruction of Iraq. Their guide Warfare in Ukraine: Making Sense of a Mindless Battle, obtainable from OR Books in October/November 2022. Initially printed at Widespread Goals.
We now have spent a lot of the previous week studying and listening to speeches by world leaders on the UN Common Meeting in New York. Most of them condemned Russia’s invasion of Ukraine as a violation of the UN Constitution and a severe setback for the peaceable world order that’s the UN’s founding and defining precept.
However what has not been reported in the US is that leaders from 66 international locations, largely from the World South, additionally used their Common Meeting speeches to name urgently for diplomacy to finish the battle in Ukraine by peaceable negotiations, because the UN Constitution requires. We now have compiled excerpts from the speeches of all 66 international locations to indicate the breadth and depth of their appeals, and we spotlight just a few of them right here.
African leaders echoed one of many first audio system, Macky Sall, the president of Senegal, who additionally spoke in his capability as the present chairman of the African Union when he mentioned, “We name for de-escalation and a cessation of hostilities in Ukraine, in addition to for a negotiated answer, to keep away from the catastrophic threat of a probably international battle.”
The 66 nations that referred to as for peace in Ukraine make up greater than a 3rd of the international locations on the earth, they usually symbolize a lot of the Earth’s inhabitants, together with India, China, Indonesia, Bangladesh, Brazil and Mexico.
Whereas NATO and EU international locations have rejected peace negotiations, and U.S. and U.Okay. leaders have actively undermined them, the leaders of 5 European international locations – Hungary, Malta, Portugal, San Marino and the Vatican – joined the requires peace on the Common Meeting.
The peace caucus additionally consists of lots of the small international locations which have probably the most to lose from the breakdown of the UN system that latest wars in Ukraine and the Higher Center East symbolize, and who’ve probably the most to realize by strengthening the UN and imposing the UN Constitution to guard the weak and restrain the highly effective.
Philip Pierre, the Prime Minister of Saint Lucia, a small island state within the Caribbean, advised the Common Meeting,
Articles 2 and 33 of the UN Constitution are unambiguous in binding Member States to chorus from the risk or use of power towards the territorial integrity or political independence of any state and to barter and settle all worldwide disputes by peaceable means.…We subsequently name upon all events concerned to instantly finish the battle in Ukraine, by enterprise instant negotiations to completely settle all disputes in accordance with the ideas of the United Nations.
World South leaders lamented the failure of the UN system, not simply within the battle in Ukraine however all through many years of battle and financial coercion by the US and its allies. President Jose Ramos-Horta of Timor-Leste instantly challenged the West’s double requirements, telling Western international locations,
They need to pause for a second to mirror on the obtrusive distinction of their response to the wars elsewhere the place ladies and youngsters have died by the 1000’s from wars and hunger. The response to our beloved Secretary-Common’s cries for assist in these conditions haven’t met with equal compassion. As international locations within the World South, we see double requirements. Our public opinion doesn’t see the Ukraine battle the identical means it’s seen within the North.
Many leaders referred to as urgently for an finish to the battle in Ukraine earlier than it escalates right into a nuclear battle that will kill billions of individuals and finish human civilization as we all know it. The Vatican Secretary of State, Cardinal Pietro Parolin, warned,
…the battle in Ukraine not solely undermines the nuclear non-proliferation regime, but in addition presents us with the hazard of nuclear devastation, both by escalation or accident. … To keep away from a nuclear catastrophe, it’s critical that there be severe engagement to discover a peaceable final result to the battle.
Others described the financial impacts already depriving their individuals of meals and fundamental requirements, and referred to as on all sides, together with Ukraine’s Western backers, to return to the negotiating desk earlier than the battle’s impacts escalate into a number of humanitarian disasters throughout the World South. Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina of Bangladesh advised the Meeting,
We wish the tip of the Russia-Ukraine battle. Resulting from sanctions and counter-sanctions, …your entire mankind, together with ladies and youngsters, is punished. Its impression doesn’t stay confined to at least one nation, reasonably it places the lives and livelihoods of the individuals of all nations in higher threat, and infringes their human rights. Persons are disadvantaged of meals, shelter, healthcare and schooling. Youngsters endure probably the most particularly. Their future sinks into darkness.
My urge to the conscience of the world – cease the arms race, cease the battle and sanctions. Guarantee meals, schooling, healthcare and safety of the kids. Set up peace.
Turkey, Mexico and Thailand every provided their very own approaches to restarting peace negotiations, whereas Sheikh Al-Thani, the Amir of Qatar, succinctly defined how delaying negotiations will solely convey extra dying and struggling:
We’re absolutely conscious of the complexities of the battle between Russia and Ukraine, and the worldwide and international dimension to this disaster. Nevertheless, we nonetheless name for a direct ceasefire and a peaceable settlement, as a result of that is finally what is going to occur no matter how lengthy this battle will go on for. Perpetuating the disaster is not going to change this consequence. It’s going to solely enhance the variety of casualties, and it’ll enhance the disastrous repercussions on Europe, Russia and the worldwide economic system.
Responding to Western strain on the World South to actively help Ukraine’s battle effort, India’s International Minister, Subrahmanyam Jaishankar, claimed the ethical excessive floor and championed peaceable diplomacy,
Because the Ukraine battle continues to rage, we are sometimes requested whose facet we’re on. And our reply, every time, is straight and sincere. India is on the facet of peace and can stay firmly there. We’re on the facet that respects the UN Constitution and its founding ideas. We’re on the facet that requires dialogue and diplomacy as the one means out. We’re on the facet of these struggling to make ends meet, at the same time as they stare at escalating prices of meals, gas and fertilizers.
It’s subsequently in our collective curiosity to work constructively, each throughout the United Nations and outdoors, find an early decision to this battle.
Probably the most passionate and eloquent speeches was delivered by Congolese International Minister Jean-Claude Gakosso, who summarized the ideas of many, and appealed on to Russia and Ukraine – in Russian!
Due to the appreciable threat of a nuclear catastrophe for your entire planet, not solely these concerned on this battle but in addition these overseas powers who might affect occasions by calming them down, ought to all mood their zeal. They need to cease fanning the flames they usually should flip their backs on this kind of self-importance of the highly effective which has thus far closed the door to dialogue.
Below the auspices of the United Nations, we should all commit directly to peace negotiations – simply, honest and equitable negotiations. After Waterloo, we all know that because the Vienna Congress, all wars end across the desk of negotiation.
The world urgently wants these negotiations to stop the present confrontations – that are already so devastating – to stop them from going even additional and pushing humanity into what could possibly be an irredeemable cataclysm, a widespread nuclear battle past the management of the good powers themselves – the battle, about which Einstein, the good atomic theorist, mentioned that it might be the final battle that people would combat on Earth.
Nelson Mandela, a person of everlasting forgiveness, mentioned that peace is an extended street, nevertheless it has no different, it has no value. In actuality, the Russians and Ukrainians don’t have any different selection however to take this path, the trail of peace.
Furthermore, we too ought to go together with them, as a result of we should all through the world be legions working collectively in solidarity, and we should have the ability to impose the unconditional choice of peace on the battle lobbies.
(Subsequent three paragraphs in Russian) Now I want to be direct, and instantly tackle my pricey Russian and Ukrainian mates.
An excessive amount of blood has been spilled – the sacred blood of your candy kids. It’s time to cease this mass destruction. It’s time to cease this battle. The complete world is watching you. It’s time to combat for all times, the identical means that you simply courageously and selflessly fought collectively towards the Nazis throughout World Warfare Two, particularly in Leningrad, Stalingrad, Kursk and Berlin.
Take into consideration the youth of your two international locations. Take into consideration the destiny of your future generations. The time has come to combat for peace, to combat for them. Please give peace an actual probability, at present, earlier than it’s too late for us all. I humbly ask this of you.
On the finish of the talk on September 26, Csaba Korosi, the president of the Common Meeting, acknowledged in his closing assertion that ending the battle in Ukraine was one of many predominant messages “reverberating by the Corridor” at this yr’s Common Meeting.
You may learn right here Korosi’s closing assertion and all of the requires peace he was referring to.
And if you wish to be taught extra in regards to the “legions working collectively in solidarity… to impose the unconditional choice of peace on the battle lobbies,” as Jean-Claude Gakosso mentioned, yow will discover out extra at https://www.peaceinukraine.org/.
