Committee for Conflict Transformation Support |
CCTS
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The Ethics of Post War Intervention - dilemmas of conflict transformation practice: Panel PresentationsRoberta BacicRoberta explained that WRI exists to promote nonviolent action against the causes of war, and to support and connect people around the world who refuse to take part in war or in preparations for war. It was founded in 1921 (with the name Paco) based on the declaration that: "War is a crime against humanity. I am therefore determined not to support any kind of war, and to strive for the removal of all causes of war." It believes that even wars described as humanitarian military interventions (however 'good' the cause may seem) always serve political or economic interests, and always lead to suffering and destruction. It observes that, very often, the governments that involve themselves in war (whether politically, militarily, or economically) subsequently engage in setting up mechanisms to 'repair' what they have first destroyed, and that NGOs risk being caught up in this longer term war agenda and becoming accomplices if they accept government funding1. From this perspective, WRI consider that 'post war intervention' is in itself ethically unacceptable. Thus the range of activities that WRI undertakes is necessarily limited, but it is correspondingly less susceptible to the particular dilemmas under discussion in the seminar. WRI consists of a network of autonomous organisations, working at a grassroots level in many countries around the world, which are united under the declaration given above. Its policies and activities, which are decided by debate in a triennial conference, include political campaigning for nonviolent action, support of conscientious objectors (in a growing number of countries), and evaluating and learning from different experiences of dealing with war or dictatorship. It aims to support an alternative discourse, especially in countries where the political regime seems to offer no alternative, and to open up the possibility of new ways of acting in the future.
1. Roberta has subsequently clarified the fact that WRI has at times received government support, but only for projects that it has designed and developed internally.
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