MANIFESTO
BOGOTÁ FOR WORLD PEACE
October 4th, 2009

If we had to observe a minute of silence for each human life ended from worldwide violence so far this year, we would be in silence for hours. If we considered the deaths caused by violence annually, we would have to be silent for several days. One decade of worldwide violence would force us into months of silence. Perhaps we should remain silent for years and centuries to honor these deaths; perhaps, that it is exactly what those who commit violence want of us.

As "Doctors Without Borders" in the acceptance of the Nobel Prize said: "we are not sure that words save lives, but we are sure that silence can kill".

Because Action Is Urgent

The Bogota World Peace Summit is the beginning of a global dialogue; it is the stage that allows us to create a new pacifist political agenda. During the summit, proposals and demands from diverse actors were gathered in order to create this document. These different groups are willing to take the first influential steps towards the creation of a peaceful society and a nonviolent culture.

Men and women attended this meeting and committed themselves to pursuing the points decided on in this manifesto.

The Bogota World Peace Summit Participants manifest that:

1. Peace is the recognition of Human Rights in its broadest definition, whereas war constitutes the greatest political failure and the denial of the concept of humanity.
2. It is necessary and urgent to understand that exploitation, discrimination, inequality, and armed and/or economic invasion has led humanity to unsustainable conditions. If these conditions are not urgently changed, there will be catastrophic consequences for all of us without distinctions.
3. The violence exerted on a single person denigrates humanity as a whole. In a time of change and global challenges, it is important to recognize that Peace is a universal responsibility with implications for individuals and entire communities (collectives).
4. We consider it vital to maintain the inheritance of the aborigine communities, recognizing their rights to lands, and their efforts and contributions toward a non-violent culture. A humble approach must be taken towards the ethnic groups around the world in order to learn their worldview and their respect for nature. Thus, humanity will learn and recover non-aggressive ways to interact with one another and their environment.
5. We must recognize the right of the victims of violence to seek the truth and to obtain justice, thus opening suitable emotional spaces for societies.
6. It is only by reconstructing a collective memory that we can reach a real reconciliation between the actors of the conflict, and it is then that the fundamental condition for a peaceful society can be created. The memory of the victims must be the engine for dialogue, and for not repeating atrocities anywhere in the world.
7. We reject not only armed violence, but also economic violence, cultural violence, sexual violence, ethnic and religious violence, as well as structural violence that allows the existence of inequalities and injustices leading to divisions and therefore to conflicts of all natures and levels of severity.
8. It is an arduous process to retrace the road of war. It demands honest commitments, willingness to yield, and proposals with attainable goals. According to the people signing this document, the only way to open spaces for dialogue and end all forms of violence is to give up arms entirely.
9. We reject the militarization of politics and democracy. We condemn the armaments race, which is fomented and encouraged by the producer countries. It is necessary to resign from militarized economies; we demand a rigorous control on the commercialization of legal and illegal weapons. Moreover, we propose the creation of an ethics committee to control and oversee this industry.
10. We reject the concentration of wealth in a single segment of society as well as the extreme diversion of capital and land to a few hands, and we plead for the limitation of the wealthy.
11. The people signing this manifesto believe that the creation of politics for peace and against violence must be an urgent task of governments around the world. The democratic nations are required to undertake successful actions s to dismantle the economies of war, and lead the beginning of democracies based on non-violence, human rights and education in order to achieve peace.
12. In order to generate peace education, we must be dedicated to cooperation and solidarity. These are essential conditions to prevent children and youth from becoming actors or assets in violent scenarios. Therefore, we demand that conscientious objection is considered a right in those countries where military service is mandatory.

Peace education and investments in humanity will be impossible as long as current diplomacies are based on hypocritical speeches denying the facts. It is for this reason that from the Bogota World Peace Summit we want to denounce the following:

. The First World democracies and economies are the largest weapon exporters. As long as there is no evident change on these policies, there will not be a truly peaceful society.
. The countries controlling the UN Security Council are the same ones fomenting not only increasing armed violence, but also driving economic models based on the military economy.
. Access to justice, respect for individual and collective dignity, as well as the just restitution of resources and territories, must be basic conditions for a true structural change, which the world urgently needs.

Commitment of those signing this Manifesto

Those attending the first World Peace Summit undertake the commitment to work towards the achievement of the specific goals from each of our scopes of activity.

Those of us signing this document are committing ourselves to create and develop the Pacifists Without Borders International Network. This network will be responsible for the establishment and development of the World Peace Summit, and the endorsement and diffusion of its goals, commitments, processes and achievements.

We are responsible for showing the world and demonstrating to governments worldwide that the voice of peace can be heard and that it can even dismantle war manifestations. We are certain that those who inhabit this planet and want peace are more than those who allow or encourage wars.

Since urgent action is needed, and because it is time for each of us to become peace builders in an individual and collective sense, the World Peace Summit will evaluate the tangible advances of our initial effort during our next encounters.

Because we know that peace is much more than the absence of war,

and we know that to achieve peace we must do more than to talk of it.

Signature of the Consensus meeting participants where the Bogotá World Peace Summit 2009 Manifesto is generated

Traducción: Maya Muñoz