Right to Peace is a Human Right!
1 September, the day when Germany invaded Poland starting World War II, is celebrated as World Peace Day by millions of people who are against war.
United Nations has reminded all member states that the right to peace is a human right by adopting and declaring the Declaration on the Right to Peace on 19 December 2016. Likewise, the United Nations Human Rights Council underlined with its resolution dated 22 June 2017 that “the right to peace must be supported by all member states.”
Today, as we celebrate the World Peace Day, regional and local wars and conflicts continue in many parts of the world. The Israel-Palestine war, the ongoing war with Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, the ongoing wars and conflicts in Sudan, Myanmar, Burkina Faso, Mali and Libya and civil war in Syria and conflict atmosphere in Rojava have caused the lives of thousands of civilians. It is reported in the United Nations reports that the use of heavy arms is increasing and one fifth of civilian deaths due to indiscriminate and disproportionate attacks are “female deaths”.
The extent of the deaths and destruction due to Israel-Palestine war is revealed in the UNDP (United Nations Development Programme) reports, indicating that the reconstruction of the Gaza cannot be completed by the year 2040. The destruction of war could only be remedied through a restorative justice and peace.
Forced migration due to wars and destructions, leads to problems in accession of fundamental rights and grave human rights violations in this multi-crisis era we live in.
Turkey, instead of burning and evacuating villages as it was in practice in 1990s, persists its insistence on solving the Kurdish issue with extreme pro-security policies under the name of security policies through border walls, security dams, fortified border patrols called “kalekol” and police stations and the use of economic and ecological pillage as a tool of war. During forty-year of conflict process, the most fundamental human rights, the right to life in particular, have been permanently and systematically violated. As a result of this polarization, an environment of conflict in Kurdistan geography still persists.
The Republic of Turkey, has pursued policies excluding all ethnic, religious and gender groups of the society, the Kurds in particular, for a period of one-century, since its foundation. As a result of these policies, it is still a country that has failed to established a social peace.
Although we, as human rights defenders, have been suggesting peaceful solutions and making demands against the conflict environment that has directly affected everyone’s lives in recent years, the political power continues to maintain its attitude of non-solution. Unfortunately, the environment of conflict, stalemate and war, which the state continuously promotes, also brings pressure on the society. Freedom of association and freedom of expression are under pressure. People are being intimidated by the state’s judicial and coercive mechanisms just for expressing their opinions.
Kurdish civilian politicians, human rights defenders, journalists, artists and many others are imprisoned or forced to leave the country simply because they think differently from the state.
Council of Europe Commissioner for Human Rights has underlined that “journalists, human rights defenders and civil society are carrying their activities in a quite hostile environment which become clearer with systemic and judicial sanctions and freedom of expression is under risk in Turkey”.
The demand for peace is related to civil and political rights (right to life, prohibition of torture, right to liberty and security of person, right to a fair trial, freedom of religion and conscience, freedom of expression, freedom of association, etc.) as well as economic, social and cultural rights (right to work, right to housing, right to health, right to education, language rights). Failure to establish peace in any country simultaneously violates many human rights.
The main approach of the Human Rights Association about the peace is that peace is based on human rights and freedoms. All kinds of inequalities between people, denial of rights and freedoms are the main causes of wars and conflicts. İHD, therefore, believes that peace can only be built on rights and freedoms under all circumstances and everywhere in the world.
The discriminatory and marginalising language of the established authoritarian regime in Turkey imposes a culture of hierarchy and subservience in social relations. It also feeds the hatred discourse and we see that this situation leads to further militarisation of the society and the rise of racism and nationalism. This language used by the political power returns as violence to marginalised groups and other living beings, especially women, LGBTI+ persons, asylum seekers, children and animals. The solution and only option to the reality of unlimited and countless violations produced by discriminatory practices and policies of violence is policies depending on peace.
As human rights defenders, on the occasion of the World Peace Day on 1 September, we once again loudly express our desire for peace. We call on the government to implement peaceful policies based on human rights and to abandon the policy of isolation that thwarts Turkey’s social peace in order to end monism, racism, nationalism, marginalization and hatred language imposed on society. As human rights defenders, we announce to the public that we will continue to struggle until peace is established.
HUMAN RIGHTS ASSOCIATION