Chapter 1

In the 21st century it has become necessary to abolish war itself as an accepted means of settling international disputes, much in the same way as we have abolished slavery in the 19th century and colonialism in the 20th century. 

 

“Reaffirming further that the provisions of the Geneva Conventions of 12 August 1949 and of this Protocol must be fully applied in all circumstances to all persons who are protected by those instruments…”

Chapter 2

 

Chapter 3

 

... the uncertain combination of human fallibility and nuclear weapons carries a high risk of a potential catastrophe. Is there a military justification to accept that risk? The answer is no.

The technological revolution applied to information technology, has been diffusing power away from governments and empowering individuals and groups to play roles in world politics — including wreaking massive destruction — that were once reserved for the governments of states...

Chapter 4

 

Chapter 5

The 20th Century will go down as the bloodiest century in all of human history. We will have lost 160 million people, killed at conflict... If we want to avoid repeting this tragedy in the 21st Century, it is high time to start...

Do not bombard Buenos Aires, we cannot defend ourselves. 
The guys in my neighbourhood hid inside the pipes, 
They spy the sky, wear hemmets, smoke crack, while listening to Clash. 

 

Chapter 6

 

Chapter 7

 

The possibility of integrating all the countries in the region to advance on the declaration “LATIN AMERICA: REGION OF CITIES FOR PEACE” is based on the search of consensus with a view to decide on a regional policy to banish war, terrorism and armed conflicts of any origin whatsoever from the continent. 

 

Chapter 3 - The War

 

 

Human beings are fallible. We all make mistakes.
In our daily lives, mistakes are costly but we try to learn from experience. In times of conventional war, mistakes cost lives, sometimes hundreds of thousands of lives. But if mistakes were to affect decisions relating to the use of nuclear forces, they would result in the destruction of whole societies. Therefore, the uncertain combination of human fallibility and nuclear weapons carries a high risk of a potential catastrophe. Is there a military justification to accept that risk? 

The answer is no.

obert S. McNamara, In Restrospect.

 

 

In accordance with statistics from the United Nations Infancy and Children´s Emergency Fund (UNICEF), two million children have died as a consequence of wars in the last ten years. Many millions more, in uncountable number, have been forced to abandon their homes destroyed by bombardments. Being separated from their parents and relatives - most of whom, have deceased or are missing- children are abandoned at the mercy of multiple, varied forms of violence, including kidnapping, sexual abuse and recruitment as combatants. In this respect, statistics are devastating as well: only in 2006, more than 250,000 children suffered exploitation from terrorist groups and armed forces all around the world.  

 

However, notwithstanding the fact that children are those victims of war conflicts most deeply regretted for –and the most valuable ones, inasmuch as in the protection of their lives resides the chance for humanity to continue writing their history- they are not the sole victims. Their families, dwellings, schools, cities and all other surrounding areas acting as scenarios for human development become the victims of violence. 

 

So, not only does war attempt against life but also against the whole of human constructions. What a man is and what he has created become victims and such victimization even reaches one of the foundation values of human thought and creation: Truth.

 

What ways can we otherwise find to explain that peculiar imperiousness of “everything is allowed” which admits, from an absurd wide range in the death toll accepted by different parties, to the “sacrifice” of a whole city so as to conceal the fact that the enemies’ enigma code has been deciphered? 

 

There are a lot of organizations fighting war in different parts of the globe and from different angles. The United Nations Millennium Declaration clearly reaffirms its commitment to settle “peace, security and disarmament” when pointing them out as the first of seven objectives to which all signing heads of states and governments have committed: “We will spare no effort to free our peoples from the scourge of war -either inside or between States-, which claimed more than 5 million lives during the past decade. We will also seek to eliminate the dangers posed by weapons of mass destruction” (II,8), is the announcement of the Declaration before outlining a number of specific objectives with a view to carry out joint actions. Furthermore, it emphasizes the issue of helping the victims of armed conflicts in point VI, relative to the protection of the vulnerable.