We, the
signatories, call on the world leaders meeting at the General Assembly of
the United Nations*, to dramatically reduce military spending in favour
of healthcare and all social and environmental needs.
*Signatures will be
brought to the United Nations General Assembly on the 1st day of the next
session opening on September 15th 2020
Health Care Stress
Together with the International Peace Bureau, the world’s oldest peace
organization and Nobel Prize winner, we are witnessing the consequences
of irresponsible political decisions that have led to dramatic
under-investment in healthcare. All over the world, health systems are
reaching the limits of their strength and heroic front-line staff are
under massive pressure. The coronavirus emergency shows the weakened
state our societies find themselves in: a world driven by
financialization, shareholder value, and austerity has weakened our
ability to defend the common good and placed human life in danger on a
global scale.
Employees fearful of job and income loss
are tempted to go to work sick. The elderly are vulnerable and need help.
The virus hits the weakest hardest. Privatization, austerity measures,
and the neoliberal system have brought local, regional and national
health services to the brink of collapse.
We can already draw lessons for the future – healthcare is a
human right for young and old, for all people in all parts of the world.
Healthcare must never be slashed or subordinated in the pursuit of profit
through privatization.
Time for a global social
contract
The ILO
reports on the labour market consequences with a potential loss of 25
million jobs, more than during the 2008 financial crisis. Working poverty
is expected to increase significantly, up to an additional 35 million
individuals.
We support the efforts of the trade union
movement globally and locally, in their call for a new social contract.
We support their call for economic measures and resources to protect
jobs, incomes, public services, and welfare.
Prioritize Disarmament
The world
spends US$1.8 trillion on military expenditure every year and is
scheduled to spend 1 trillion dollars on new nuclear weapons in the next
20 years.
Militarization is the
wrong path for the world to take; it fuels tensions and raises the
potential for war and conflict. It aggravates already heightened nuclear
tensions.
World leaders must put
disarmament and peace at the centre of policy making and develop a new
agenda for disarmament that includes banning nuclear weapons. We
reiterate our call for governments to sign up to the TPNW treaty.
Disarmament is a major
key to the great transformation of our economies, to ensure that human
beings and not profit are most valued; economies in which ecological
challenges will be solved and global social justice will be pursued.
With disarmament, the
implementation of the SDGs, a global social contract, and a new global
green peace deal, we can address challenges such as the coronavirus
pandemic.
We are calling the world
leaders, meeting at the United Nations General Assembly in September
2020, to act for a culture of peace. A peaceful path means that we need a
global strategy, a global social contract, and global cooperation to
ensure planet-wide support for people. This will be the human solidarity
of the 21st century – for and with the people.
Sign the petition and spread the message here.
Do not forget to share it on your social
media channels. Join us in this petition, which is part of the Global Days of Action on
Military Spending 2020.
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