Sign the Call for a Global Ceasefire and Demand an End to Crippling Sanctions!
United for Peace and Justice and AVAAZ
On March 23, United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres declared:
“Our world faces a common enemy: COVID-19. The virus does not care about nationality or ethnicity, faction or faith. It attacks all, relentlessly. Meanwhile, armed conflict rages on around the world….
That is why today, I am calling for an immediate global ceasefire in all corners of the world. It is time to put armed conflict on lockdown and focus together on the true fight of our lives.”
In an April 3 update, Guterres reported that,“the global ceasefire appeal is resonating across the world,” noting that the call has been endorsed by some 70 United Nations Member States, numerous civil society organizations, all UN Messengers of Peace, religious leaders including Pope Francis, and more than a million people around the world through grassroots mobilization on line.
The Secretary-General reported that, “A substantial number of parties to conflict have expressed their acceptance for the call.” These include Cameroon, the Central African Republic, Colombia, Libya, Myanmar, the Philippines, South Sudan, Sudan, Syria, Ukraine and Yemen.
However, he warned:“there is a huge distance between declarations and deeds — between translating words into peace on the ground and in the lives of people.”
“And so,” he concluded, “we need to do everything possible to find the peace and unity our world so desperately needs to battle COVID-19. We must mobilize every ounce of energy to defeat it.”
The Guardian reported on April 3 that these efforts are having impact in some armed conflicts, but there is still a long way to go, and still resistance to the appeal by some key countries. This article, in Consortium News, (April 5) provides additional important information.
The global spread of COVID-19 has also exposed the devastating humanitarian impacts of unilateral coercive measures (economic sanctions) by the United States government against more than thirty nations. The economic war against those nations had already resulted in unimaginable suffering of the people in the targeted nations even before the COVID-19 pandemic.
With the onslaught of the global pandemic, the targeted countries — especially Venezuela, Cuba, Iran, Syria and Zimbabwe — are finding it prohibitively difficult to protect and save the lives of their citizens in the face of the ongoing global emergency. These sanctions constitute crimes against humanity.
United for Peace & Justice has joined with other groups to call for the lifting of these crippling sanctions.
ACTION: Add your name to the more than 2 million people who have signed the petition in support of the Secretary-General’s call for a global ceasefire. Please add your name to the Open Letter to the Government of the United States and the United Nations[see Open Letter below]demanding that all US and UN sanctions against the targeted nations be lifted, and all US military threats and actions against them be stopped immediately. The Open Letter is available in several languages.
(Feminist Perspectives Magazine)
Open Letter to the Government of the United States and the United Nations
Mr. Donald J. Trump
President of the United States
Mr. António Guterres
Secretary General of the United Nations
(April 6, 2020) — The global spread of COVID-19 has exposed the illegal and immoral practice of imposing unilateral coercive measures (economic sanctions) by the United States government against more than thirty nations. The government of the United States is now using the public distraction caused by the pandemic to intensify its military actions against the targeted nations.
The economic war against those nations had already resulted in unimaginable suffering of the people in the targeted nations even before the COVID-19 pandemic.
With the devastation of the global pandemic, the targeted countries — especially Venezuela, Cuba, Iran, Syria and Zimbabwe — are finding it prohibitively difficult to protect and save the lives of their citizens in the face of the ongoing global emergency. These sanctions constitute crimes against humanity.
As a concerned citizen of the world, I call upon the United States government to:
1. End its economic sanctions against all targeted countries immediately.
2. Unfreeze the financial assets and bank accounts of the targeted countries so that they can purchase and receive the necessary food, medicine and medical equipment and supplies needed to combat the pandemic.
3. Stop all military threats and actions against the targeted countries, including the removal of US Navy warships dispatched to Venezuela under the false pretense of “War on Drugs.”
4. Drop the baseless charge of “Drug Trafficking” against President Nicolás Maduro and other officials of the government of Venezuela.
5. Respect the call issued by the Secretary General of the United Nations, António Guterres, for a global ceasefire.
I call upon the Secretary General of the United Nations and the leading bodies of the United Nations to invoke the articles of the UN Charter to demand respect for international law by the government of the United States.
I also call upon the UN Security Council to lift all UN-imposed sanctions against those countries as well.
