To commemorate International Women’s Day on March 8, and in the middle of the ongoing war between Russia and Ukraine that has ruined cities and killed many innocent civilians, FODASUN hosted a webinar on “women and peace” to address the role that women can play in World peace processes as well as their role in disarmament and Nuclear Arms Control.
Foundation of Dialogue and Solidarity of United Nations based in Iran is a non-governmental organization dedicated to regional and international peace, tolerance, dialogue and the defense of human rights.
UN NGO Representative of the Nuclear Age Peace Foundation, Ms. Alice Slater made the remarks in Webinar addressing the current situation as well as the Cold War and the relentless competition of the great powers to build more destructive missiles and her efforts to organize a movement in New York for disarmament and nuclear arms control.
American writer mentioned: “We are facing a frightening escalation of hostilities in the unbearable invasion of Ukraine with rising slaughter and devastation, the whole western world is up in arms, hurling invective and punishing sanctions, nuclear saber-rattling and menacing military “exercises” on hostile borders. All this, as a raging plague covers the planet and devastating climate catastrophes and earth-shattering nuclear war threatens our very existence on Mother Earth. People all over the world are beginning to march against the outrages from the deaf, dumb and blind corporate patriarchy, driven by mindless greed and lust for power and domination”.
Stressing the brutality of the French in the Middle East and US support for them, especially in places like Vietnam, slater said: “the treaty of prohibition of nuclear weapons or non-proliferation treaty is hypocritical because Western nuclear States promised in the 1970s to give up their nuclear weapons but Obama was permitting $1 trillion programs for 30 years to build two new bomb factories. This dopey non-proliferation treaty which Iran is suffering from, everybody agreed not to get the bomb except the five countries that said they will make good faith to get rid of it and of course, there is no good faith and they are building a new one”.
Member of the Lawyers Alliance for Nuclear Arms Control, Referring to US and NATO efforts to expand in Eastern Europe and stand on Russia’s borders, added:” We are right up to their border now and I don’t want Ukraine in NATO. The Americans would never stand for Russia being in Canada or Mexico. We keep nuclear weapons in five NATO countries and that is another thing Putin is saying that get them out”.
Journalist and former regional politician, Ms. Liz Remmerswaal as our second speaker after giving a brief about woman’s movement and their engagement in world peace processes noted: “On 8 July 1996, the International Court of Justice delivered its historic Advisory Opinion, entitled “Legality of the Threat or Use of Nuclear Weapons.” Key highlights of the Opinion were that the Court by majority ruled that “the threat or use of nuclear weapons would generally be contrary to the rules of international law applicable in armed conflict and in particular the principles and rules of humanitarian law”
In response to a question from FODASUN’s expert of foreign affairs about the likely obstacles created in front of Iranian women to actively work for peace in the international sphere due to US sanctions, she said: “Applying economic sanctions is a warlike act, and often kills more people than actual weapons. Moreover, these sanctions hurt the poorest and most vulnerable sectors of society by causing hunger, disease, and unemployment. They are explicitly designed to do so”.
“The US government has also forced other countries to obey its sanctions regime against targeted states through the use of extraterritoriality, that is, by penalizing foreign corporations that dare to trade with countries which the USA has sanctioned. Humanitarian goods such as medical supplies, which are exempted from economic sanctions under international law, have consistently been denied to countries such as Iran and Venezuela. That the US government would actually increase the sanctions against those two countries during a pandemic is simply barbaric”, Activist and Co-ordinator Pacific Peace Network added at the final Part of her remarks.