The massacre in Gaza must immediately stop, the international legality with the active role of the United Nations must prevail. Appeal by the Human Rights Interdepartmental Centre of the University of Padua, Italy.
The conscience of the members of the human family recoils from the pitilessness of those who are acting, on both sides, in the barbaric logic of homo homini lupus.
The “security” the Israeli and the Palestinian peoples undelayably need has to be a “human security” internationally guaranteed.
In obedience to the principle of the “responsibility to protect”, the International Community, being represented by the United Nations and the other legitimate multilateral institutions in cooperation with the UN, must immediately intervene in Gaza with an adequate interposition force bearing a clear mandate and with all the legitimation coming from the International Law in force, based on the Charter of the United Nations and on the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, which assumes as its own basis “the inherent dignity and the equal and inalienable rights of all members of the human family”, that is the binomial life/peace.
If the UN is late, the responsibility falls on those determining its will, that is its member states, in particular those using and abusing the power of veto.
“Evil always has a name and a face: the name and face of those men and women who freely choose it”(John Paul II, Message for the World Day of Peace, 2005).
We strongly condemn the behaviour of those leaders who violate the international legality and the universal ethic involving whole peoples in war operations, terroristic behaviours and escalations of hatred.
The leaders declaring themselves in support of legality are under the juridical, political and moral obligation to put the United Nations in condition to fulfil its own mandate in accordance with its Charter, which is fully valid and relevant. They must come into the open and assume the noble responsibility-legitimation of being peace-builders to the end.
We do insist: the International Community must immediately operate on the ground in Gaza.
No government, in particular those violating the legality, can appeal to national sovereignty and to non-interference in internal affairs in order to prevent the UN from promptly acting for the protection of populations and the creation of the fertile soil for diplomacy, dialogue and cooperation, finally for politics.
The UN Charter itself, under Article 2.7, establishes that the UN authority prevails over the states sovereignty with regard to peace and security maintenance.
We are in the 60th anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, in the 20th of the International Covenant on the Right of the Child, in the 20th of the fall of the Berlin wall and the International Year of Human Rights Learning, promoted by the UN, has started. Those are all signals of a humancentric process which have to spur everyone, starting from those leaders bound to lead by example in getting ahead with the construction of a world order of peace and social justice, in accordance with the principles of the International Law in force.
In 2007 the world military expense amounted to 1,399 billion dollars, in the period between 1998 and 2007 the increase was of 45% on a world scale, with peaks around 53-63% in some regions of the world. The International Law in force requires to disarm and to operate an effective and efficient international collective security system under the authority of the United Nations with the collaboration of the legitimate multilateral regional institutions, especially of the European Union.
The path of unilateralism, self justice and imposing the law by force, foolishly pursued in the latest years, has been demonstrating to be a no way out. The world is on the brink of a precipice.
In order to halt this drift and to resume the path of building peace according to what is claimed in Article 28 of the Universal Declaration – “Everyone is entitled to a social and international order in which the rights and freedoms set forth in this Declaration can be fully realized”: peace in justice –, there is an urgent need of enlightened leaders – their names and their faces uncovered – who come forward, spend their probity and capacities, certain of the support of multitudes of people of upright conscience and goodwill in every part of the world.
It is an opportunity, in particular for the leaders of the European Union who have promoted the Union for the Mediterranean, to take the path of the “unique voice” in order to claim the role of EU as a peace global actor worldwide.
The Interdepartmental Centre brings to notice the Appeal by the "Tavola della Pace" and the Appeal endorsed by the World Congress on “Preventive System and Human Rights”, organized in Rome by the Congregation of Salesians from 2 to 6 January 2009.