Author: <span>Rene Wadlow</span>

Israel-Iran ceasefire Appeals

Israel-Iran Ceasefire: Peacebuilding Measures Needed.

Citizens of the World welcome the recently agreed to Israel-Iran ceasefire after 12 days of missile exchanges between Israel and Iran. This ceasefire is an important first step toward negotiations in good faith between the two countries which will have an impact on politics in the wider Middle East.

The Israel-Iran ceasefire is also a first step in a wider process of peacebuilding in the Middle East, an area of complex geopolitical dynamics.  The ceasefire is tenuous.  Thus we must see what role non-governmental organizations (NGOs) can play so that the ceasefire holds and that negotiations start.

    The path leading to the Israel-Iran ceasefire is complex.  President Trump, who  announced the ceasefire publicly, certainly played a vital role.  Both Russia and China have strong economic relations with Iran.  Their leades may also have played a less public role in advancing a ceasefire.  If Iran’s government and society fell into chaos, there is no telling the consequences.

    Now there is a need to build a momentum for peacebuilding measures.  The conflict between Israelis and Palestinians continues.  The reconstruction of Syrian society moves ahead very slowly.  Tensions in Lebanon and Iraq are still strong.  Thus there are stronger measures which NGOs must take.  There needs to be greater cooperation among NGOs working on Middle East issues as time for positive efforts may be short.

   René Wadlow, President, Association of World Citizens.

Tiananmen Square Appeals

4 June: Memories of Tiananmen Square.

4 June makes the security forces in China somewhat uneasy. Especially in Hong Kong where, in the past, there were large memorial meetings to remind people of 4 June 1989. When the military and police moved against those who had been protesting publicly for over a month in Beijing. 

However in 1989, students from colleges and universities, first in China’s capital. Initiated protests after the death on 15 April 1989 of the former General Secretary of the Communist Party, Hu Yaobang. Who was considered a liberal reformer. 

The protest movement spread over a number of weeks to most major cities. Students made numerous demands, among them were calls for an end to government corruption, for increased funding for education, and for freedom of the press.  As the movement went on, the students were increasingly joined by industrial workers.

Hu Yaobang (1986). By dati.camera.it, CC BY 4.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0, via Wikimedia Commons.

The Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev.

There were differences of opinion within the ruling government circle as to how to deal with the protests.  As the protests continued, there was more and more international media attention, especially as there were an increasing number of journalists in Beijing in advance of the visit of the Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev with a large delegation of Soviet officials.

Mikhail Gorbachev in The White House Library, 12/8/1987. By Unknown photographer, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons.

The Goddess of Democracy.

Students and intellectuals started writing petitions setting out demands that were signed by more and more persons.  The decentralized structure of decision-making among groups in Tienanmen Square allowed for tactical innovation as each group was free to act as it desired and to stress the symbols it wanted. 

Students and intellectuals started writing petitions setting out demands that were signed by more and more persons.  The decentralized structure of decision-making among groups in Tienanmen Square allowed for tactical innovation as each group was free to act as it desired and to stress the symbols it wanted. 

Thus, art school students created the Goddess of Democracy, largely based on the Statue of Liberty in New York harbor. The growth in support for the student-led protests drove the more anti-reformist faction in the government to order a crackdown by the military and the police. On 4 June 1989, the tanks started to move into Tiananmen Square.

Replica of the statue “Goddess of Democracy” from the Tiananmen square protests in 1989. Photo taken in Victoria Park, Hong Kong, during the commemoration event for the 21st anniversary of the massacre. Photo by MarsmanRom & Isa Ng, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons.

The Goddess of Democracy: 4 June 1989.

Democratization from Below.

Since 1989, there is among the political leadership a generalized fear of “Western Ideas” and modes of life, especially the impact on youth, intellectuals and artists.  “Never again” has been the government’s policy, no highly visible public protests.  “Stability” and “harmony” have been the stated government policy aims, a policy colored by the breakup of the Soviet Union and the fundamental changes in Eastern Europe. 

However, there are an  ever larger number of persons thinking for themselves, creating their own life styles and “thinking outside of the box”. Individualism can be a slow process, and repressive forces watch events closely.  Yet the spirit leading to 4 June lives on.

René Wadlow, President, Association of World Citizens.

Forests Appeals

Protection and Wise Use of Forests: An Agenda for…

With the consequences of climate change increasingly visible and having a profound impact on the way of life of people. There is growing attention being given to trees and forests.  There is a growing sense of the need for concerted efforts to protect forests and the many inhabitants of the forests. As well as people, animals, birds and insects of many kinds. 

However, forests and adequate forest management can contribute significantly to socio-economic development. Poverty eradication, and the achievement of internationally agreed upon development goals.

The Great World Tree (Yggdrasil).

    Forests and trees have long been part of humanity’s daily life. As well as an important part of its myths and symbols.  In Scandinavian mythology, the Great World Tree (Yggdrasil) is the tree of existence, the tree of life and knowledge. 

Therefore, care of the tree is entrusted to three maidens, named Urdhrd (Past), Verrandi (Present), and Skuld (Future).  On the topmost branch of this tree sits an eagle who symbolizes light. Whose keen eyes sees all things taking place in the world. 

This tree is the cosmic pillar that supports heaven. At the same time opens the road to the world of the gods.

The Tree is a living symbol.

    Nevertheless, in the myths and legends of other cultures as well. We also find the importance of the tree as a symbol of life with its roots underground. Its trunk in the world of humans, and its top branches touching the sku.  Branches are considered as a ladder by which the hero, through initiations, climbs to high consciousness.

    The loss of the leaves of a tree in Winter and their renewal in Spring has served as the symbol of death and regeneration.  Thus, the tree is a living symbol.  The grove of trees was often considered sacred and the sanctuary where religious rituals were carried out.

Dangers in efforts to protect forests.

    Today, there are many different aspects to the protection and wise use of forests. Measures which need to be taken within the United Nations system, by national governments, by local authorities, and by individuals. 

There are also many dangers facing forests with the uncontrolled cutting in the tropical rainforests and forest fires in many parts of the world.

There are also dangers in efforts to protect forests. In Malawi, Africa. It was reported that in 2024, eight forest rangers were killed by illegal charcoal producers.  Thus, we need a renewed  sense of responsibility for the protection and wise use of forests.

  René Wadlow, President, Association of World Citizens.

Tigers Still at the Gates Appeals

Tigers Still at the Gates.

The world citizen philosopher F.S.C. Northrop in his path-making book, “The Taming of Nations” (1953), likened nation-states to wild animals largely driven by instincts of power – the tigers at the gates. 

The task of the world society as expressed through the United Nations and the positive actions of world-minded intellectuals is to civilize that instinct by increasing the rationality of governmental decision-makers and by setting world-wide norms of conduct such as the Universal Declaration if Human Rights. 

As Northrop wrote.

“There is no orderly society except as a majority of the people in it agree upon at least some ideological principles – some specific economic, political, moral and legal rules that they are to use to order themselves normatively with respect to each other and to nature.”

Nations have become partly tamed, although the old instincts of the jungle are only slightly below the surface.  Nations are still dangerous and can easily crush us by their weight if they get out of political or economic control. 

Nations are still reluctant to develop policies for the greater good or to live according to the norms that they have themselves set.  The task of domestication still goes on to overcome the short-sighted cynicism and narrow national interest that is too often the working habits of states.

Fortunately, there are deeper currents at work in the world society that do not come from governments.

Spiritual, cultural and social currents flow across state frontiers with little help from governments – and sometimes against the will of governments. 

New values and a new awareness of the oneness of life have spread from person to person, from group to group across frontiers.  These currents of new values of an ecological perspective are transforming old institutions and helping to create new processes.   As non-governmental voices become more creative, more universal in outlook, more discerning of the deeper currents of the world society, such voices will grow in influence.

Looking at the armed conflicts and strong tensions in the world society today, we see that the tigers are still at the gates.  Our tasks of domestication are urgent.

______________________________________

René Wadlow, President, Association of World Citizens.

India-Pakistan Ceasefire Appeals

India-Pakistan Ceasefire: Negotiations Now Needed.

 After the 22 April 2025 attack and death of 26 Indian tourists at Pahalgam, in the Indian-administered area of Kashmir. Tensions between India and Pakistan grew quickly. Pakistan was accused by India of backing the terrorists who had carried out the attack. A charge which Pakistan denied.  Prime Minister Narendra Modi gave the Indian military “complete operational freedom”. 

A combination of bellicose rhetoric, domestic pressures, and political agitation led to daily exchanges of armed fire, and the shooting down of Indian jet fighters.  The frontiers between the two countries were closed and diplomats withdrawn.  The dangers of escalation between the two nuclear-armed countries was obvious to many.

Narendra Modi, Prime Minister of India. By Prime Minister’s Office, GODL-India https://data.gov.in/sites/default/files/Gazette_Notification_OGDL.pdf, via Wikimedia Commons.

Fortunately, outside voices called for an immediate India-Pakistan Ceasefire:

    President Trump and his Secretary of State Marco Rubio, Antonio Guterres, Secretary-General of the United Nations. And some member governments of the U.N. Security Council which met in closed session. As well as a good number of non-governmental organizations involved in conflict resolution efforts. Such as the Internationl Peace Bureau and the Association of World Citizens. One must now strive so that the ceasefire will hold.

    The next step is to facilitate negotiations between the Indian and Pakistani governments. A first step is to create a number of confidence-building measures so that the ceasefire holds.  Then there is a need to develop longer-range negotiations.  There are a good number of outstanding issues, such as Kashmir, which go back to the founding of the two countries.

    It may be that the current steps back from the nuclear brink will drive home the need for serious negotiations for India-Pakistan Ceasefire. Non-governmental organizations in both India and Pakistan may help to see on what issues progress may be made.  Those of us on the outside must do all we can to facilitate creative dialogue between Indians and Pakistanis.

President Donald Trump. By Shealeah Craighead, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons.

   

Official portrait of US Secretary of State Marco Rubio. By U.S. Department of State, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons.

René Wadlow, President, Association of World Citizens.

India-Pakistan Tensions Appeals

Kashmir Attack Creates Increased India-Pakistan Tensions: Track Two Measures Needed.

The India-Pakistan Tension increase on April 22, 2025, when four gunmen killed 26 people and injured others in the Kashmir tourist center of Pahalgam, Kashmir, India. The Resistance Front claimed responsibility for the Pahalgam attack, but the group is little known.

However, Indian officials have blamed Pakistan as being behind the attackers saying that Pakistan has a fundamentally criminal disposition in its deep state membership. Pakistan is host to Islamic militants that carry out terrorist raids in India but does not necessarily control them.

The closure of the border between Pakistan and India.

As a result of the Pahalgam attack. India has closed its border crossings into Pakistan and suspended India’s 1960 Water Treaty with Pakistan. Anti-Pakistan protests have erupted in India’s capital New Delhi and in several other cities. It raising fears that anti-Muslim sentiment will grow in India. Pakistan responded by closing its border crossings with India and closed its air space to Indian aircraft.

In 2019, India modified the special self-governing status of Jammu and Kashmir, and security measures have been very tight since. Nevertheless, Kashmir is an important location for tourism within India. Within 48 hours, 90 percent of the tourists in Kashmir left. It was a blow to farmers who sold their food to tourists and to handicraft makers.

The image of a young bride sitting beside her husband’s lifeless body has been viewed multiple times. This image is fixed into the Indian national consciousness as the symbol of the drama.

The India-Pakistan Dangerous Tensions.

As tensions within Jammu and Kashmir have led to armed conflicts between India and Pakistan in the past. The governments of Russia, China, Saudi Arabia and Iran have offered their good offices as mediators. On April 25, Abbas Araghchi, the Iranian Foreign Minister, said that both India and Pakistan are “brother nations” and that Iran was prepared to play a mediation role.

It may be that the governments of Russia, China, Saudi Arabia, and Iran are all too involved with advancing their own political interests in world politics to be taken as neutral mediators. Nevertheless, the India-Pakistan tensions are very dangerous and may easily grow worse if steps to reduce tensions are not taken very soon.

Abbas Araghchi, the Iranian Foreign Minister. By Tasnim News Agency, CC BY 4.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0, via Wikimedia Commons.

Association of World Citizens and construction of peace through dialogue.

As Citizens of the World, we are particularly called to help create a climate for negotiations in good faith and to reduce tensions. Therefore, we need to use our worldwide links in a creative way to reduce tensions. We devote ourselves to the safeguard, restoration, and construction of peace through dialogue, cooperation and reconciliation.

One approach in which World Citizens participate is called Track Two. Track One is official government-to-government diplomacy among instructed representatives of the State although there can be “back channels” and informal contacts among the representatives of governments.

Track Two. Non-official Diplomacy.

Track Two consists of discussions held among non-officials of conflicting parties in an effort to clarify outstanding disputes and to explore the options for resolving them in settings that are less sensitive and often less structured and with less media attention than those associated with official negotiations.

Those involved in Track Two talks usually include scholars, senior journalists, former government officials and businesspeople. Depending on the aims and styles of these meetings, the profile of Track Two participants will differ.

The specific purposes of Track Two talks vary, but they are all related to reducing tensions. By informing their respective publics, participants, may indirectly contribute to the formation of new priorities and policies.

Track Two is not the end of the story for insights gained must be incorporated into the positions of government negotiators. There is a little verse by the Quaker economist Kenneth Boulding who participated in many Track Two efforts,

When Track One will not do,
We have to travel on Track Two.
But for results to be abiding,
The Tracks must meet upon some siding.

Today, discussions among Nongovernmental Organizations with avenues of communication to Indian and Pakistani officials should begin now. Time may be in short supply.

Prof. René Wadlow is President of the Association of World Citizens.

gaza strip Appeals

Human Rights Focus on the Gaza Strip Situation.

Since the start of the current Israeli – Palestinian armed conflict in October 2023, an estimated 51,000 Palestinians have been killed in the Gaza Strip.

There is wide agreement among Citizens of the World that the United Nations must always stand for the rule of law in both international and domestic affairs. In order to reach this goal, there must be some universally accepted values, institutions, and practices.  There is a need to develop the rule of law with constant attention to human rights. Identifying the needs of the poor and vulnerable and to respond to these needs tangibly.

    The adoption of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights by the U.N. General Assembly in 1948 sets out the standards of respect for human rights and fundamental freedoms.  In the same way, the Geneva Conventions set out the framework for international humanitarian law. 

Violations of Human Rights in The conflict in the Gaza Strip.

However, today, there are situations with gross violations of human rights. As well as the displacement of people creating human suffering on a massive scale.  One such situation, on which the Association of World Citizens has drawn attention is the conflict in the Gaza Strip.

    Since the start of the current Israeli – Palestinian armed conflict in October 2023, an estimated 51,000 Palestinians have been killed in the Gaza Strip.  Medical facilities have been deliberately attacked and medical workers killed in violation of international humanitarian law. 

The Gaza Strip. Hunger and Fear.

Educational buildings have been destroyed, bringing education to a halt in many areas.  People have been repeatedly displaced and their homes destroyed.  Food, medicine, and other vital goods have been prevented from entry into the Gaza Strip. Although have entered in much too small amounts to meet the needs.  The relief convoys have been attacked by Palestinians in the Gaza Strip. Who have been pushed to extreme actions by hunger and fear.

Human rights respect for Israelis and Palestinians.

    There have been protests on Israeli military actions in a good number of countries. However some persons have spoken of Israeli actions as genocide according to the 1948 Genocide Convention.  The Association of World Citizens has stressed widely the need to respect international humanitarian law. 

There is also a need to prevent an increase in violence in the West Bank. As well as among Israeli settlers and Palestinian villagers.  Efforts must be made to start negotiations in good faith for a political solution that ensures freedom, human rights and the collective safety of  all Israelis and Palestinians.

   René Wadlow, President, Association of World Citizens.

Credits:

Featured Image: Israeli airstrike on Gaza Strip during Gaza War 23-25. By Jaber Jehad Badwan, CC BY-SA 4.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0, via Wikimedia Commons.
International Humanitarian Law Appeals

Strengthening International Humanitarian Law Needed.

Currently, there is a dangerous erosion of respect for international humanitarian law as codified in the Geneva Conventions.  One stark example is the fighting in the eastern area of the Democratic Republic of Congo where fighting is led by the armed militia M23 – short for the name Movement of March 23. 

There are serious violations of human rights and international humanitarian law with massive displacement of populations, plundering of villages, systematic rape of women, summary executions, and the use of child soldiers.

The Wazalendo.

    There are a number of different armed militias in the eastern Congo, each with its own interests and aims.  One grouping of militias, known as the Wazalendo, the term for “patriots” in Swahili, is opposed to the M23 but is not part of the regular military of the Democratic Republic of Congo.

    There have been discussions within the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) and humanitarian organizations as to the status of nongovernmental militias with respect to international humanitarian law such as the Hamas in the Gaza Strip and the Houthistes in Yemen where the danger of violence from outside forces grows.

Nongovernmental forces have become more frequent in armed conflicts, but only governments can sign the Geneva Conventions.

    The Association of World Citizens (AWC) played a key role in having a coalition of armed groups fighting in Burma sign the Geneva Conventions in January 1993.  The signatures were deposited with the Swiss Government which is the depository power for the Geneva Conventions. 

The signatures were considered as “symbolic” as the coalition of militias was not a government.  However, the signature by the coalition led to a mutual exchange of prisoners showing that the signature was taken seriously by the Burmese government, then as now under the control of the military.

Democratic Republic of Congo: Sky Getting Darker.

Increasing respect for International Humanitarian Law.

    This example shows that there is an important role that humanitarian nongovernmental organizations can play in increasing respect for international humanitarian law – a task which must be undertaken with urgency.

    René Wadlow, President, Association of World Citizens.

Credits:

Featured Image: Militiamen of the Congolese M23 movement. By Al Jazeera English, CC BY-SA 2.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0, via Wikimedia Commons.
Mother Earth Education of World Citizenships.

The Day of Mother Earth: Living in Harmony with…

Photo by Ben Tarver on Unsplash
Basaseachi Waterfall, Cuauhtémoc City, Mexico.

International Mother Earth Day on 22 April each year was established by the United Nations General Assembly in 2009.  Its aim is to promote living in harmony with Nature and to achieve a just balance among the economic, social and environmental needs of present and future generations.  The concept of living in harmony with Nature was seen by the U.N. delegates as a way “to improve the ethical basis of the relationship between humankind and our planet.” It is the biosphere we all belong to which is becoming the common heritage of mankind which we must defend.

Mother Earth

The term “Mother Earth” is an expression used in different cultures to symbolize the inseparable bonds between humans and Nature. Pachamama is the term used in the Andean cultures of South America. The Earth and the ecosystem is our home. We need to care for it as a mother is supposed to care for her children and the children to show love and gratitude in return. However, we know from all the folk tales of the evil stepmother as well as the records of psychoanalytic sessions that mother-children relations are not always relations of love, care and gratitude. Thus to really live in harmony with Nature requires deep shifts in values and attitudes, not just “sustainable development” projects.

The United Nations.

The United Nations began its focus on ecological issues with the preparations for the 1972 Conference in Stockholm and has continued with the 1992 Rio Declaration followed by the Rio plus 20 conference 20 years later.  However the concept of living in harmony with Nature is relatively new as a U.N. political concept. Yet it is likely to be increasingly a theme for both governmental policy making and individual action.

As Rodney Collin wrote in a letter “It is extraordinary how the key-word of harmony occurs everywhere now, comes intuitively to everyone’s lips when they wish to express  what they hope for.  But I feel that we have hardly yet begun to study its real meaning. Harmony is not an emotion, an effect.  It is a whole elaborate science, which for some reason has only been fully developed in the realm of sound.  Science, psychology and even religion are barely touching it as yet.”  (1)

Resolutions in the U.N. General Assembly can give a sense of direction. They indicate that certain ideas and concepts are ready to be discussed at the level of governments. However, a resolution is not yet a program of action or even a detailed framework for discussion. “Living in harmony with Nature” is at that stage on the world agenda. As Citizens of the World, we strive to develop an integrated program of action.

   Notes

1) His letters have been assembled after his death by his wife into a book:

     Rodney Collin. The Theory of Conscious Harmony  (Boulder, CO: Shambhala, 1958)

Rene Wadlow, President, Association of World Citizens

Civil Society Appeals

A Vibrant World Civil Society

Featured Image by  Kelly Lacy in Pexels.

The Term  Civil Society.

The term “Civil Society” came into extensive use;  especially in Europe in the mid -1970s;  as efforts to bridge the East-West divide and prevent the dangers of war in Europe. As Mary Kaldor writes “A group of us launched the European Nuclear Disarmament (END) Appeal for a nuclear-free Europe.

The Appeal attracted thousands of signatures;  from all over Europe and beyond and was one of the mobilizing documents of the new peace movement;  which sprang up in Western Europe in the early 1980s. The Appeal called for nuclear disarmament through unilateral, bilateral, and multilateral means;  but it was also an appeal to end the Cold War. It accorded responsibility in the Cold War to both the United States and the Soviet Union;  and insisted on the link between disarmament and democracy.” (1)

Mary Kaldor

Mary Kaldor. The World Transformed 2018 in Liverpool. By Kevin Walsh from Preston Brook, England, CC BY 2.0 <https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0>, via Wikimedia Commons.

The Idea of Institutional and Ideological Pluralism.

The END  Appeal looked to positive action from “Civil Society”  within the Soviet block;  which was starting to be vocal outside of the government-controlled peace organizations;  which largely reflected Soviet government policy in their interaction with Western peace-disarmament non-governmental organizations.

As Ernest Gallner writes “Civil Society is the idea of institutional and ideological pluralism;  which prevents the established monopoly of power and truth and counterbalances those central institutions;  which though necessary, might otherwise acquire such monopoly. The actual practice of Marxism had led;  wherever it came to be implemented to what might be called Caesaro-Papism-Mannonism to the near total fusion of the political, ideological, and economic hierarchies.

The state, the church-party, and the economic managers were all parts of one single nomenclatura… Civil Society is that set of diverse non-governmental institutions;  which is strong enough to counterbalance the state and; while not preventing the state from fulfilling its role as keeper of the peace and arbitrator between major interests;  can nevertheless prevent it from dominating and atomizing the rest of society.” (2)

The Importance Of The Spirit.

Vaclav Havel, athough he later became president of a State;  was a valuable symbol of the efforts to develop a civil society. “We emphasizd many times that the struggle we had taken on had little in common with what is traditionally understood by the expression “politics.”

We discussed such concepts as non-political politics;  and stressed that we were interested in certain values and principles and not in power and position. We emphasized the importance of the spirit;  the importance of truth and said that even spirit and truth embody a certain kind of power.” (3)

Václav Havel

Václav Havel during his speech at the Freedom and its adversaries conference held in Prague on 14th of November 2009. By Ondřej Sláma, CC BY-SA 3.0 <https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0>, via Wikimedia Commons.

Today  more than in the recent past;  we are faced with a revival of the Caesaro-Papism-Mannonism States,  whose interactions;  especially in the wider Middle East, could lead to armed conflicts. In addition to the Caesaro-led States;  the world society faces terrorism as movements with goals, gurus, ideologues, myths and martyrs. Thus there is a need to develop and structure a world-wide civil society.

The concept of civil society is probably the platform for future progressive action. The global civil society is a “power shift” of potentially historic dimensions with bonds of trust;  shared values and mutual obligations which cross national frontiers. With the war drums starting to beat, creative action is needed now.

Notes

1) Mary Kaldor (Ed.) Europe from Below (London: Verso, 1991)
2) Ernest Gallner. Conditions of Liberty: Civil Society and its Rivals(London: Penguin Books, 1996)
3) Vaclav Havel in Mary Kalder (Ed.) Europe from Below

Rene Wadlow, President  Association of World Citizens.