DEMOCRATIC WORLD FEDERALISTS
PEACEFUL | JUST | SUSTAINABLE | WORLD
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Articles for This Issue:
DWF NEWS
May 11, 2023
Call for UN Charter Review - The San Francisco Promise
ShahrYar Sharei Center for UN Constitutional Research
The US silence on Israeli nuclear weapons and the right-wing Israeli government
Victor Gilinsky Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists
Case Study: Honduras Seeks Freedom from US & Predatory Corporations
James Phillips
US not the Good Guy, but the (Very) Bad Guy
Caitlin Johnstone
Emmett Till Confronting White Supremacy
Michael Datcher
'It Makes Me Angry Just to Talk About It!'
Amira Hass
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Call for UN Charter Review - The San Francisco Promise
ShahrYar Sharei
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Subject: Call for UN Charter Review - THE SAN FRANCISCO PROMISE
Editor: THE SAN FRANCISCO PROMISE for Charter Review has unexpectedly emerged in mainstream foreign policy circles as reported in DWF NEWS ("Important Omen for Leadership India, UN Charter Review, and a 'New UN' " 4/27/23). A review of the Charter, legally required since 1945 under UN Article 109, has yet to be conducted. The obsolete Charter is a major reason why the world continues to suffer war after war.
The PROMISE is a "save the world" strategy advanced by three NGO think tanks: The Center for UN Constitutional Research (CUNCR), the World Constitution & Parliament Association (WCPA), and Democratic World Federalists (DWF). World federalists have recognized that the UN can't do its primary job (ending war) because the Charter itself is wrong. WCPA's brilliantly drafted Earth Constitution waits in the wings, ready to go.
Watch carefully the reaction in the UN General Assembly. There are 188 nations without voting rights. Will they join forces with the PROMISE think tanks to launch a review?
--Roger Kotila, Ph.D., DWF NEWS, San Francisco
Getting Attention- Article 109 Charter Review for UN Transformation! Thanks to the San Francisco Promise Team ShahrYar Sharei
[Dateline Brussels: May 6, 2023]
Dear CUNCR Supporters & Strivers for Peace:
One of our board members, Roger Kotila, gave me the news and of course Tim and Roger were two of our about 12 dozen members of our San Francisco Promise team where we presented Charter Review concept at the first Paris Peace Forum (PPF) in 2019. Global Challenges Foundation had generously sponsored our work group for the event. Anyway being able to publish in Foreign Affairs, a relatively conservative but widely read publication, and still saying what he said deserves a hearty congratulations.
Interestingly, Foreign Affairs had another article from the former Foreign Minister of India, Narasimha Rao, also calling for an overhaul of the Security Council and UN’s constitutional review. We had an amazing team in Paris that year, including honorable, Sukehiro Hasegawa, who is quietly but consistently working with the Diet, Japan Parliament, for transformational Security Council reform. Not to mention the young and energetic CUNCR fellows who were with us at the PPF Conference.
With the chaotic world since 2019 getting worse. With more wars and climate and human rights perils, it is time for us to get attention needed for system change. The Board has decided for us to start a citizens diplomacy with the countries that want UN constitutional change. I will be discussing feasibility with our partners in Africa, Asia, and Latin America and depending on funding and our human resources we might start this peace and justice journey soon.
With Very Best Wishes,
ShahrYar Sharei, PhD International Law
Executive Director
Center for UN Constitutional Research, Brussels
A REPLY FROM MEXICO:
Thank you very much for such important information and I would like to add that I had the honor to be part of CUNCR’s team, but also important is to mention that we were neighbors at the First Paris Peace Forum, Nov. 2018 with CEMERG from Mexico, which has been promoting as well the UN Charter Review Conference,(Art.109) since 2005 in NYC, and our fórmula, that instead of any proposals to “reform”, we have been insisting since then, to “transform the entity”, into a World Parliament with the same right used in 1945 by the Founders of the United Nations Organization. -- Francisco P. (Attorney at law)
AND FROM INDIA:
Big News! Just a few days ago Ruchira Kamboj, India’s UN ambassador called for urgent UN Charter review. (Reported in the Hindustan Times, an Indian English language newspaper.)
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The US silence on Israeli nuclear weapons and the right-wing Israeli government
Victor Gilinsky Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists
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EXCERPTS
The Israeli protests against its new right-wing government have now touched on Israel’s nuclear weapons. To underline what is at stake, former Israeli prime minister Ehud Barak cast aside Israeli ambiguity over whether it possesses nuclear weapons to warn his compatriots that Western diplomats are worried that a Jewish messianic dictatorship could gain control over Israel’s nuclear weapons.
One thing we can be sure of is that the United States was not officially represented among those Western diplomats. American diplomats—in fact all US government employees—are forced to pretend they know nothing about Israeli nuclear weapons. Since everyone knows it’s not true, the pretense hobbles America’s policy on restraining the spread of nuclear weapons in the Middle East. Barak’s acknowledgment of Israel’s weapons, backhanded as it was, should free the United States from this outdated omerta.
Who would have imagined that, just as we have been worrying about Pakistani weapons falling into the hands of Islamic fanatics, we would come to the point where we have to fear Israel’s nuclear weapons falling into the hands of Israeli fanatics, who, as Ehud Barak explained, are “determined to attack Islam.” Our government cannot deal with these issues if it ignores the existence of Israeli nuclear weapons.
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Case Study: Honduras Seeks Freedom from the US & Predatory Corporations |
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While Projecting a Friendly Face and an Extended Hand, the Biden Administration Has Continually Challenged the Initiatives of Honduras' New Progressive Government and Ignored the Voice of the Honduran People
EXCERPTS
In November 2021, Hondurans resoundingly elected a new government, headed by President Xiomara Castro, that pledged to end official corruption, reduce violence, and move away from reliance upon a destructive, extractive economy controlled by foreign corporations.
Castro’s government committed to moving the country toward an economy that allowed people to work for themselves, their families, and their communities instead of toiling for others while falling ever deeper into poverty and dependency. That election seemed a remarkable break, especially from the previous 12 years. But various dilemmas have plagued the new government’s attempts at change.
The former Honduran government of Juan Orlando Hernández, unwaveringly supported by the U.S., became a nationwide criminal enterprise that included gangs, drug traffickers and corrupt corporate interests—elements that continue today to foment daily violence and resistance within Honduras against any movement by the new government toward reform and renovation.
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US not the Good Guy, but the (Very) Bad Guy
Caitlin Johnstone
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EXCERPTS
The US alliance is indisputably encircling Russia and China in ways it would never permit itself to be encircled. The only way to defend this discrepancy is to say “Well it’s okay when we do it because they are Bad Guys while we are Good Guys,” which is an infant’s understanding.
Believing that “democracies” should be allowed to do things that “autocracies” shouldn’t be is just subscribing to an adult-sounding iteration of the “Good Guys vs Bad Guys” plot line of every children’s cartoon. It can’t withstand an instant of critical thought.
Even if you do subscribe to an infantile “Good Guys vs Bad Guys” worldview, all facts in evidence say the US should be considered the latter. Russia and China haven’t spent the 21st-century killing people by the millions in wars of aggression, for example. Russia and China haven’t been strangling entire nations around the world with economic warfare for the crime of disobedience. Russia and China haven’t been circling the planet with hundreds of military bases in order to rule the world. Russia and China haven’t been plotting to destroy any nation which disobeys them. Only the US is doing these things.
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Emmett Till: Confronting White Supremacy
Michael Datcher
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By seventh grade, I had heard of “white supremacy,” but I didn’t understand what it meant. Seeing a picture of 14-year-old Emmett Till’s open casket in our bathroom copy of Jet magazine provided some clarity. The face of the McCosh Elementary School seventh-grader had been beaten and disfigured into a grotesque mashup of broken Black flesh and American history. Beaten and disfigured by white supremacy.
In September 1955, Roy Bryant and Milam were brought to trial at the Tallahatchie County Courthouse. In Tallahatchie County, 63 percent of residents were Black. Under Mississippi state law, only registered voters qualified as jurors. At the time of jury selection, the state’s aggressive voter suppression and voter intimidation had resulted in no Black registered voters in Tallahatchie County.
On September 23, 1955, an all-white jury acquitted Roy Bryant and Milam in the murder of Till.
After deliberating for only 67 minutes.
Protected by double jeopardy prohibition, Bryant and Milam confessed to Till’s murder in the January 1956 edition of Look Magazine. While justifying the seventh grader’s killing, Milam said,...
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'It Makes Me Angry
Just to Talk About It!'
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At the end of a recent interview, Amira Hass, the well-respected Israeli journalist living in the occupied Palestinian territories, said about ever-increasing Israeli parliament and settler attacks on Palestinians, “It makes me angry just to talk about it.” She has been writing for decades about brutal Israeli policies toward Palestinians.
We too are angry, but we cannot let our anger paralyze us into non-action. We must continue to talk about it, to write about it and to organize against it. We must take action! We can, and do, make a difference.
Action: Our 2023 Gaza Freedom Flotilla is an action/opportunity to mobilize and educate our communities about the latest Israeli government and settler criminal actions against Palestinians in the West Bank, Gaza and Israel.
In 2023 the Gaza flotilla is focusing on increasing Palestinian solidarity in northern Europe. The flotilla ship Handala is already on her voyage along the coast of Norway with educational events in every town and city with the goal of pressuring the Norwegian government to challenge brutal Israeli policies toward Palestinians.
From mid-June to mid-August, Handala will sail to port cities in Scotland, Ireland, the United Kingdom, France, the Netherlands, Germany and Sweden. For security reasons, we are not posting the ports and dates of arrival.
We in the United States have an opportunity in join the Handala in person or virtually. If you will be in northern Europe, you can be on the ground crew or a passenger on one of the legs of the voyage.
If you will not be in Europe, you can join us virtually in various ports and participate in the marches and conferences that will be held in the ports we visit.
Check in with our website and Facebook for updates on where Handala is and what events are happening for solidarity with Palestine.
And for sure, continue to have events in your own community, write letters to the editor of your local newspaper and to your members of Congress.
Free, Free Palestine! End the Blockade of Gaza!!
Alex, Kit, Ellen, Ann & Sherri
Steering Committee, US BOATS TO GAZA
U.S. Boats to Gaza:
US Boats to Gaza is one of the ten national campaigns in the Gaza Freedom Flotilla coalition. The coalition includes campaigns from Norway, Malaysia, the United States, Sweden, Canada, France, New Zealand, Turkey, Spain, South Africa, and Australia, as well as the International Committee for Breaking the Siege of Gaza.
We welcome you to join the campaign to break the painful, damaging, illegal blockade of more than 2 million Palestinians in the open-air prison that is Gaza. Be a part of the journey. Contribute today!
DONATE
Or send a check to our fiscal sponsor, Nonviolence International, and put "Boats to Gaza" on the subject line. Mail checks to the new address for NVI:
US Boats to Gaza
c/o Nonviolence International
PO Box 39127 Friendship Station NW
Washington DC 20016 USA
+1 202 244 0951
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