WUNRN
GENDER & MILITARISM - https://www.womenpeacemakersprogram.org/assets/CMS/May-24-gender-/May-Pack-2014-web.pdf
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WILPF - Women's International League
for Peace & Freedom
Military Expenditures vs. Spending for Women's Human
Rights
WILPF
recently submitted a completed questionnaire to
the Independent Expert on the Promotion of a Democratic and
Equitable International Order about military expenditures.
The Independent Expert has now the findings from NGOs at the 27th
Session of the Human Rights Council in September.
Direct Link to Full 39-Page WILPF
Questionnaire
Given
the context of human insecurity generated by weapons, the lack of transparency
surrounding the international arms trade at the base of most countries’
military spending, WILPF urges states to stop investing in weapons and start to
invest in people’s real needs, such as health care, social welfare, education
and gender equality programmes. It is imperative to move the money from the
military sector in order to invest in human development.
Investment
in the military sector is also a reflection of patriarchal budgeting, for it
represents the allocation of funds to an extremely masculine and indeed
masculinised sector.
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http://www.ohchr.org/EN/NewsEvents/Pages/DisplayNews.aspx?NewsID=15007&LangID=E
DISARM & DEVELOP - REPORT OF THE UN INDEPENDENT EXPERT ON THE PROMOTION OF A DEMOCRATIC & EQUITABLE INTERNATIONAL ORDER
Direct Link to Independent Expert Full 41-Page 2014 Report:http://www.ohchr.org/EN/HRBodies/HRC/RegularSessions/Session27/Documents/A-HRC-27-51_en.doc
Inependent
Expert Website:
http://www.ohchr.org/EN/Issues/IntOrder/Pages/IEInternationalorderIndex.aspx
Disarm and Develop – UN
Expert Urges Win-Win Proposition for States and Peoples
GENEVA (10 September 2014) – Governments should be transparent and upfront in publishing details of their military expenditures so the public can participate in deciding budget priorities, United Nations Independent Expert on the promotion of a democratic and equitable international order Alfred de Zayas said today.
Mr. de Zayas
also called for a meaningful reduction of military spending with funds
reoriented towards education, health care, the creation of employment in
peaceful industries, strengthening of the rule of law and administration of
justice, and to enable the realization of the right to development and the
post-2015 development agenda.
“Disarmament
for Development is a win-win strategy for States and Peoples. It is time
to reduce the spiral of military expenditures and to invest in research into
the root causes of conflicts and in the development of strategies of
conflict-prevention and resolution,” Mr. de Zayas said. “The cost in human
lives of every armed conflict is staggering, but the economic cost of wars can
continue for generations.”
According to
World Bank figures, military expenditure can consume 20%, 30% or up to 40% of
national budgets. “This frustrates any hopes of properly addressing global
problems including extreme poverty, climate change, environmental pollution,
desertification, and pandemics,” the UN expert added.
In his third
full-length report* to the Human Rights Council, the Independent Expert
addresses the adverse effects of military spending on the enjoyment of civil,
cultural, economic, political and social rights and makes concrete
recommendations to move towards a peaceful and people-centred international
order.
A key problem, according to Mr. de Zayas, is the consistent under-reporting of
governmental expenditures for the military-industrial complex, which are often
media taboos or treated as national security secrets, and the international
ramifications of militarization. “Even a cursory review of the situation worldwide
reveals that, in many countries, accurate and understandable information on
military expenditures is not available. In some countries, military activities
are concealed by placing them under different rubrics such as energy, research
or homeland security,” the Independent Expert said.
“Participation
by the public in decision-making, which requires full information, transparency
and accountability, is essential to the democratic order. Parliaments
have a special responsibility to oversee the adoption of national budgets and
to monitor the actual use of appropriations so as to ferret out corruption,” he
stressed.
The
continued research into new weapons that may be used to deter, threaten, attack
and occupy adversaries is particularly shocking, Mr. de Zayas said. These
include lethal autonomous weapon systems, killer robots, radiological weapons,
unmanned combat aerial weapons and cluster munitions.
“Excessive
military expenditures have their own logic and their own dynamic. The
profit-driven character of the armaments industry may well undermine the
otherwise legitimate aim of protecting the population from outside threats,” he
said.
In his
report, the Independent Expert urged all States to engage in good faith
disarmament negotiations and commit themselves to reduce military expenditures
and redirect the released funds to the promotion of all human rights. In
this regard, he commended the last session of the UN Conference on Disarmament
and welcomed the convening of a civil society forum in December 2014.
“As Ban
Ki-moon has repeatedly said, ‘the world is over-armed and peace is
under-funded’. A major shift in priorities is vital for both States and
peoples,” Mr. de Zayas said.
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