The Hague Appeal for Peace Conference was held in The Hague, The Netherlands during May 11-15, 1999. The last one was convened in 1899.  The main foci of the conference were the promotion of human rights and the abolition of war. The vision statement of the conference described the 20th century as “the worst of centuries and the best of centuries” and concluded that, “The past 99 years have seen more death, and more brutal death, from war (200 million war deaths), famine, and other preventable causes than any other time span in history.  Ninety percent of war casualties are children and two million children have been killed in war in the past ten years. But these years have also witnessed the power of the people to resist and overcome present oppression as well as age-old prejudices of gender against gender, race against race, religion against religion and ethnic group against ethnic group”.

 The elements constituting the vision include abolishing nuclear weapons, land mines and inhumane weapons (780 billion dollars spent on arms and 13 billion for health care); abolishing or significantly reducing the arms trade; strengthening humanitarian law; examining the causes of conflict and developing creative ways of preventing and resolving it; and overcoming colonialism which perpetuates poverty, oppression, and the destruction of the environment.

 The six main conference themes, under which hundreds of workshops were presented, included Disarmament and Human Security; The Prevention, Resolution and Transformation of Violent Conflict; International Humanitarian and Human Rights Laws and Institutions; Root Causes of War/Culture of Peace; Youth Program; and Gender Program.

 There were approximately 8000 people from 100 countries attending the conference which included numerous Nobel prize winners such as Jody Williams (Vermont), Archbishop Desmond Tutu (South Africa), Jose Ramos-Horta (East Timor), Rigaberta Menchu Tum (Guatemala), and Daw Aung San Suu Kyi (Burma) who provided a smuggled video message due to her being under house arrest. Other notables included Kofi Annan,Secretary General of the U.N/; Queen Noor of Jordan; Graca Machel, First Lady of South Africa; Sheikh Hasina, Prime Minister of Bangladesh; Sir Peter Ustinov; Judy Collins and many others.

 I was invited to participate in a panel on Personal Disarmament by Professor Joseph Fahey, Director of the Peace Studies Program at Manhattan College in New York. Our panel members presented personal accounts as to how we have abolished war in our personal lives and how we arrived at our current perspectives on peace and war.

 The conference itself was a powerful testament to the possibility of the abolition of war and the institutions that maintain it. I saw many children and adults with missing limbs due to landmines as well as survivors of the atomic bomb from Hiroshima and Nagasaki, still showing kiloid scars from the burns they had received. There were numerous languages spoken and various forms of dress specific to the countries represented. I also learned that the people of the world are more alike than different and that their differences were something to be marveled rather than maligned. In effect, we all spoke the language of peace and justice and we all worked for these in different ways  from teaching in peace studies programs to lobbying against land mines.
 While at the conference, I attended numerous workshops that went from 9:30 AM until 7:00 PM with only a half hour between them. Most had 100 people in them and were very lively with audience participation.  I attended the following workshops:

 Improving the Effectiveness of the United Nations

 This workshop discussed such issues as the need for reconciliation training, more harmonization of nations, problems with national pride and dehumanization, the problem of U.S. world domination, the need for more involvement of people in the solution of their own problems, the need for professional mediators and reconciliation leadership training, and the need to find common ground and “win-win” outcomes. The U.N. was seen as being increasingly by-passed in world events as well as having a constitution that is too rigid to prevent future wars. One suggestion for improvement was one state/one vote and no Security Council veto power. One dilemma mentioned was how to reform the Security Council without dissolving it. There was also a suggestion that the U.N. recruit its own peacekeeping force and that such a force be adequately funded. The unpaid debt of the U.S. was noted as an obstacle to international peacekeeping.

 Success Stories in Peace building

 In this workshop, high school students from Finland, Lithuania, Estonia, and Latvia spoke about and gave theatrical performances on ways they were promoting peace in their schools and communities. It was mentioned that paternal, maternal, and parental leave in Finland consisted of 105 days per year. Other actions included cultural diversity practices, anti-bullying campaigns, student participation in school governance and in conflict resolution and peer mediation programs. The democratization of schools was seen as a major impetus to good student-teacher relationships and the successful resolution of problems. Slogans included “freedom sought is freedom won” and “use dialogue not weapons”.

 The International Campaign to Ban Landmines: The Next Steps

 It was noted in this workshop that 81 countries had signed the Comprehensive Landmine Treaty including 40 out of 48 SubSaharan countries but that the U.S., Turkey, Finland, China, Russia, and Cuba have not. The treaty involves disarmament,  assistance for victims, mine clearance, and followup monitoring meetings. Mozambique has the largest number of mines; Angola has signed the bill but still uses mines; and Yugoslavia is using mines.
 

 Developing an International Campaign for a Global Ban on Depleted Uranium

 This workshop reported that depleted uranium was used in weapons in the Gulf War and in Kosovo and that upon impact, the uranium forms small dust particles which are then ingested by everyone in the vicinity of the impact. Depleted uranium is a waste product  of nuclear weapons production. Using it in weapons provides for an outlet for nuclear waste and makes weapons more penetrable. The U.S. has billions of tons of this material which is used for the core element (not coating) of bullets, tank covering, and as a counterbalance in aircraft because it is heavier than lead. Russia and India have also used it and 17 nations in all have access to it. It is pyropholic and is a powerful weapon against tanks because it incinerates all the gases found inside tanks. It is currently classified as a conventional weapon despite its having a half life of 400 billion years or “contamination in perpetuity”. Nuclear dumping in Australia has been seen as causing the Aborigines to have “jellyfish”  babies. In Canada uranium has been mined from indigenous people’s lands for 40 years with no direct benefit to the inhabitants. On the contrary, all the lakes in the area are polluted and there is a high incidence of cancer and thyroid problems. Depleted uranium had a high toxicity level in the Gulf but no veterans were tested for its effects despite earlier predictions about its effects being realized. There are 900 grams of poison dust in one shell whereas .002 mil. is toxic. Civilians and soldiers are exposed to these shells that are launched by planes, ships, and tanks. The Pentagon has persistently denied any toxic effects of these weapons.
 Twenty-five out of 26 persons tested were contaminated. The length of time the material remains in the body is the main problem. It has 10 years of half-life in the body. It takes 6-10 electronic volts to break a DNA strand and there are 400 such volts in depleted uranium which has been found in the semen of Gulf veterans. Four hundred thousand veterans have been exposed; 200,000 have some symptoms and 115, 000 have the Gulf War Syndrome. Depleted uranium is cheap and free, and despite the term “depleted”, it is highly toxic. One cruise missile in the Gulf war had 30 kilograms of it. While depleted uranium violates International Law, it continues to be used.

 Are Universities Educating for Peace?: A Roundtable of Graduate Students

 The student presenters were from Teachers College at Columbia University. They spoke about the importance of inquiry and questioning the values that drive our behavior, for example the western view versus the indigenous people’s views of the earth (dominion over the earth versus being in concert with it). They spoke of the need to engage in “deep dialogue” - to really hear others’ points of view and to learn practices that connect to theories. Paulo Freire was mentioned with regard to the latter. Listening with both heart and mind was stressed as well as the need for enduring cognitive dissonance. “Cooperative debate” , “supportive inquiry” , “teaching on process” and “shared learning” were phrases used. The students saw university classroom practices and governance structures to be incompatible with authentic learning.

 Transnational Social Movements in Global Politics: Aiming at Solidarity Beyond the State

 The last two decades have shown a large increase in the number of peace organizations which have also become more grassroots and more decentralized. Also, several people belong to more than one peace group. The new e-mail community has facilitated this growth. The peace movement is becoming more global and building more north-south identification and cooperation and interface with established political structures such as the U.N.. They help mobilize efforts to promote human rights such as banning capital punishment. The non-governmental organizations (NGOs) in the U.N. have done much to promote citizen involvement. For example, this activism has led to the development of the Comprehensive Landmine Treaty. The major obstacles to peace and human rights are transnational corporations which make policies that impact the global situation.
 Anti-nuclear groups have made a difference in constraining the use of nuclear weapons but the Abolition 2000 campaign has had a limited effect as new members have been added to the nuclear club. The Star wars defense system is being developed. The nation-state system is viewed as pathological. The anti-nuclear movement must strengthen its transitional aspect to become really effective.
 The current world financial systems are much involved in what is termed the “shadows” within which trillions of dollars are laundered. Diamonds and gold are used to get hard currency in order to pay for war efforts. Much money is being made in the process, e.g. Silicon Valley profits from the Angola war. One third of the U.S. economy is seen as being in the “shadows”. Big money buys political power and business people are involved in the transnational process.

 Indigenous Cultures’ Gift to World Peace

 Speakers at this workshop represented Indigenous people from Alaska (Innu), New Zealand (Aotearoa), Hawaii (Ka Pae’aina), Australia (Malera Bunjala), West Papua, and French Polynesia (Te Ao Maohi), North America, and Tibet. The Indigenous people in the world are united by their spirituality and love of the Earth. They are also among the most oppressed and exploited people in existence. Copper and gold are mined from their lands without compensation while nuclear waste is dumped there. The mining has caused water pollution resulting in cancer and deaths, as well as species eradication. Many native people have been tortured and killed, and their sacred burial grounds have been violated in the name of progress.

 From Hiroshima to Baghdad-Global Hibakusha: Testimonies and Calls for Nuclear Weapons Abolition

 One speaker, Claudia Peterson from Downwinders of Southern Utah, lost her 3 year old daughter, husband, father,  and uncles to cancer. She believes this was caused by nuclear waste but the government attributes it to coincidence. Other speakers from Hiroshima, Nagasaki, Kazakhstan, the Marshall Islands, the U.S., and Tahiti all reported the results of nuclear weapon use or production. Wherever nuclear business has been done, high rates of cancer and pollution follow as well as official government denial.

 If Women Rule the World

 This panel was represented by women parliamentarians from such countries as Sweden, Finland, Kenya, Rwanda, Zambia, Japan, and Peru. While Sweden has 50% of women in power with 40% in parliament, the world average is 11%. The goal is to have 50% of women in all decision-making bodies everywhere. One speaker suggested that 60% would be better because 10% of the women would be more like men. There was also a perceived need to get more “good” men in power who would support women. The emphasis of the panel was that women should rule with men as opposed to being in conflict with them. The oppression of women was described as a low intensity war. The patriarchy and women need to see that their interests are the same.

 The conference was an eye-opener and served as an inspiration for me to continue to use education as an instrument of peace. I came away realizing that for real change to occur, it was going to have to be from the bottom up through people power rather than from governments which are tied to vested interests. The major powers in the world are also the ones that supply the world with weapons, thereby fueling the 30-40 wars that occur on a regular basis. It also seems to me that having large established militaries representing nation-states with their “national interests” will never result in world peace. As long as governments prepare for war, there is likely to be war. War is also profitable. Arms manufacturers and dealers always win while children mainly lose. Just in preparing for war, we significantly degrade the environment. We need to imagine peace and actively prepare for it the same way as we prepare for war. If the military system is not abolished, then the human race may be exterminated. For more information on the continuing work of the Hague Appeal for Peace, visit its web site at http://www.haguepeace.org/