Months ago, we launched the Call for a World Conference on Reconciliation, Peace and Disarmament, scheduled for 30 May 2027. We have already received more than twenty endorsements \u2014 particularly from associations in the Democratic Republic of the Congo \u2014 and will participate in the Assembly of Peace Messenger Cities in Limassol, Cyprus, in early December.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
However, most of those we approach do not respond. Others do not commit themselves, even though they understand and warmly appreciate two of the three foundations of the Call:<\/p>\n\n\n\n
1. Its objective:<\/strong> Inclusive decision-making seeks the common good. It is incompatible with the intention to cause harm and is therefore the appropriate means to achieve disarmament.<\/p>\n\n\n\n 2. Its condition:<\/strong> Seeking peace while maintaining the intention to cause harm is not merely contradictory but absurd. We therefore call not only for an end to the use of weapons \u2014 a ceasefire \u2014 but also for an end to their development, since developing them expresses that same intention to cause harm and provokes a corresponding defensive reaction from others.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The third point, however, often goes unnoticed or is misunderstood:<\/p>\n\n\n\n 3. Who convenes:<\/strong> We, all human beings, every person and every entity, call upon one another and upon the armed units \u2014 the States \u2014 to disarm.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Those who overlook this point find it difficult to believe that the Conference can take place, given geopolitical tensions, distrust between States and political conflicts. But these relationships are not independent of weapons: they are constituted by their existence and by the struggle over their possession. Weapons introduce a threat that is subsequently invoked to justify them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n These people view the world “from outside”, confined within their own idea or theoretical representation of it. They overlook what is essential about our time: today, we no longer need to presume the will of others; we can address them directly. In the past, in an unknown and disconnected world, there was no way to address others without making assumptions about their will. Today there is. Yet our way of thinking has still not incorporated this change in our reality.<\/p>\n\n\n\n If we do not call upon the world’s roughly 200 armed units \u2014 armed to the teeth \u2014 to attend the Conference, we cannot say that “they do not want to”. Rather, we are renouncing our own word and accepting continued subordination to one particular armed unit, thereby keeping ourselves artificially disconnected from one another.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Let us not deceive ourselves: weapons, whose purpose is destruction, do not arise from any human need or any need inherent in our coexistence. Nevertheless, their existence shapes our social relationships, subordinates resources and sustains structures of imposition. As long as we accept the capacity to cause harm as the ultimate authority governing our coexistence, we will remain subject to weapons. The intention to cause harm \u2014 evil \u2014 embodied in weapons enslaves us. Our world is a consequence of the weapon, which already exists in nature, rather than the weapon being a consequence of some aspect of our world.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Certainly, the will to cause harm is one of the possibilities inherent in human freedom. But today it can be publicly excluded through the word and mutual commitment. This is the meaning of the World Republic we propose: “the public affair of us all”, which, by its very logic, dissolves the intention to cause harm.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Those who refuse the word fail to understand that, by calling upon one another, we constitute ourselves as interlocutors, bring violence to an end, and assume mutual responsibility for coexistence free from harm.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Yes, we call upon the armed units to disarm. But, in reality, we call upon all of us to free ourselves from our subordination to them, because we can only do so together.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Do you consider it possible to will peace and, at the same time, to will harm? <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n If your answer is no, what practical consequence does this have for you, individually and in association with others, starting with your own city?<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" THE WORD OR VIOLENCE<\/p>\n Some people do not believe this Conference can take place and therefore withhold their support, because they do not understand who is convening it.<\/p>\n Discover why in this new reflection.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":12006,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"off","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[92,1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-12029","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-reconciliation-peace-and-disarmament","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/human-unity.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12029","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/human-unity.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/human-unity.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/human-unity.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/human-unity.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=12029"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/human-unity.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12029\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":12032,"href":"https:\/\/human-unity.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12029\/revisions\/12032"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/human-unity.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/12006"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/human-unity.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=12029"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/human-unity.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=12029"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/human-unity.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=12029"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}