WE INVITE YOUR ORGANIZATION TO ENDORSE
THE CAMPAIGN FOR A WEAPONIZED DRONE BAN TREATY
FOLLOWED BY THE CAMPAIGN STATEMENT AND
A LIST OF INTERNATIONAL ENDORSERS TO DATE
Dear Friends:
The Weaponized Drone Ban Treaty Campaign is seeking organizational endorsements of its statement calling upon the United Nations General Assembly to enact a treaty to ban weaponized drones. Please find the statement and growing list of 65 international endorsers attached, representing peace and social justice organizations in countries as far and wide as Armenia and Wales.
Launched in June at the International Peace Bureau Summit for Peace in Ukraine in Vienna, the Campaign continues to galvanize support. Our goal is to reach 300 endorsers and then present the UN General Assembly with the demand that a treaty be enacted banning killer drones.
Drone warfare by state and nonstate actors has led to the extrajudicial murder, maiming and/or forced displacement of millions of people across the globe, primarily in the Global South. Also, there is the looming threat that autonomous drones can be loaded with depleted uranium and launched at nuclear power plants and other facilities with devastating consequences. This horrific and readily accessible weapon of death and destruction must be declared illegal by the United Nations.
We demand a total ban on placing weapons of any kind on drones. Regulating when and where drone killing can occur and permitting drone killing if humans are involved in control still leaves us with drone killing and terror. Humanity cannot and will not tolerate drone killing of any kind. We are fighting for the world that we must have.
Many thanks.
In peace and solidarity, Susan H. Smith, International Fellowship of Reconciliation (IFOR), in collaboration with:
Kathy Kelly, World BEYOND War
Nick Mottern, BanKillerDrones.org
Susan H. Smith, International Fellowship of Reconciliation (IFOR)
Ann Wright, CODE PINK, Veterans for Peace
CAMPAIGN FOR A GLOBAL BAN ON WEAPONIZED DRONES
CALL FOR INTERNATIONAL ENDORSERS
The following statement sets forth the demand by organizations in many countries, including international organizations and organizations of faith and conscience, for the United Nations to adopt a Treaty on the Prohibition of Weaponized Drones. It is inspired by the Biological Weapons Convention (1972), the Chemical Weapons Convention (1997), the Mine Ban Treaty (1999), the Cluster Munitions Convention (2010), the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons (2017), and in solidarity with the ongoing campaign for a United Nations treaty to Ban Killer Robots. It upholds the values of human rights, internationalism, representation from and protection of the Global South from neocolonial exploitation and proxy wars, the power of grassroots communities, and the voices of women, youth, and the marginalized. We are mindful of the looming threat that weaponized drones could become autonomous, further extending the potential for death and destruction.
Whereas the use of weaponized aerial drones over the past 21 years has led to killing, maiming, terrorization and/or displacement of millions of people in Afghanistan, Iraq, Pakistan, Palestine, Syria, Lebanon, Iran, Yemen, Somalia, Libya, Mali, Niger, Ethiopia, Sudan, South Sudan, Armenian regions in Azerbaijan, Western Sahara, Kurdish regions in Turkey and elsewhere, Ukraine, Russia and other places;
Whereas numerous detailed studies and reports regarding casualties resulting from the deployment of weaponized aerial drones indicate that the majority of people killed, maimed, and displaced, or otherwise harmed, have been non-combatants, including women and children;
Whereas entire communities and wider populations are terrorized, intimidated and psychologically damaged by the constant flight of weaponized aerial drones over their heads, even when they are not struck by the weapons;
Whereas the United States, China, Turkey, Pakistan, India, Iran, Israel, the United Kingdom, France, Germany, Italy, Spain, South Africa, South Korea, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Kazakhstan, Russia and Ukraine are manufacturing and/or developing weaponized aerial drones, and a growing number of countries are producing smaller, inexpensive single-use loitering munitions, known as „suicide” or “kamikaze” drones;
Whereas some of these countries, including the United States, Israel, China, Turkey and Iran are exporting weaponized aerial drones to an ever-increasing number of countries, while manufacturers in additional countries are exporting parts for weaponized aerial drone production;
Whereas the use of weaponized aerial drones has included numerous violations of international human rights and international humanitarian law by states and non-state armed groups around the world, including violations of international boundaries, national sovereignty rights and UN agreements;
Whereas the materials necessary to build and arm rudimentary weaponized aerial drones are neither technologically advanced nor expensive so that their use is proliferating at an alarming rate among militias, mercenaries, insurgencies and individuals;
Whereas a growing number of non-state actors have conducted armed attacks and assassinations using weaponized aerial drones, including but not limited to: Constellis Group (formerly Blackwater), Wagner Group, Al-Shabab, the Taliban, the Islamic State, Al-Qaeda, Libyan rebels, Hezbollah, Hamas, the Houthis, Boko Haram, Mexican drug cartels, as well as militias and mercenaries in Venezuela, Colombia, Sudan, Mali, Myanmar, and other countries in the Global South;
Whereas weaponized aerial drones are often used to prosecute undeclared and illegal wars;
Whereas weaponized aerial drones lower the threshold to armed conflict and can expand and prolong wars, because they enable attack without physical risk to ground and air force personnel of the weaponized drone user;
Whereas, apart from the Russian-Ukrainian war, most weaponized aerial drone strikes so far have targeted non-Christian people of color in the Global South;
Whereas both technologically advanced and rudimentary aerial drones can be weaponized with missiles or bombs carrying chemical weapons or depleted uranium;
Whereas advanced and rudimentary weaponized aerial drones pose an existential threat to humanity and the planet because they could be used to target nuclear power plants, of which there are hundreds in 32 countries, primarily in the Global North;
Whereas due to the reasons stated above, weaponized aerial drones constitute a tool for violating the integrity of national and international law, thus creating an expanding circle of enmity and increasing the likelihood of internecine conflict, proxy wars, larger wars and escalation to nuclear threats;
Whereas the use of weaponized aerial drones violates basic human rights as guaranteed by the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (1948) and the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (1976), particularly with respect to the rights to life, privacy and fair trial; and the Geneva Conventions and their Protocols (1949, 1977), particularly with respect to its protection of civilians against indiscriminate, unacceptable levels of harm;
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We urge the UN General Assembly, UN Human Rights Council, and relevant United Nations committees to immediately investigate violations of International Law and human rights by state and non-state actors perpetrating aerial drone attacks.
We urge the International Criminal Court to investigate the most egregious instances of aerial drone attacks on civilian targets as war crimes and crimes against humanity, including attacks on aid workers, weddings, funerals and any strikes that occur in countries where there is no declared war between the perpetrator country and the country where the attacks occurred.
We urge the United Nations General Assembly to investigate the actual casualty counts from drone attacks, the contexts in which they occur, and to require reparations for noncombatant victims.
We urge the governments of every country around the world to ban the development, construction, production, testing, storage, stockpiling, sale, export and use of weaponized drones.
AND: We strongly urge the United Nations General Assembly to draft and pass a resolution banning the development, construction, production, testing, storage, sale, export, use and proliferation of weaponized drones throughout the world.
Initiated: May 1, 2023 , PDF: WDBT Campaign & Endorsers 8-12-23
INITIATING ORGANIZATIONS (in alphabetical order)
- Ban Killer Drones, USA
- Bund fuer Soziale Verteidigung (Germany)
- CODEPINK: Women for Peace
- Drohnen-Kampagne (German Drone Campaign)
- Drone Wars UK
- International Fellowship of Reconciliation (IFOR)
- International Peace Bureau (IPB)
- Veterans for Peace
- Women for Peace in Upstate New York
- World BEYOND War
Beginning in early June 2023, the appeal has been presented to organizations in several countries. The following list of signatory organizations (as of June 9th) was presented at the Peace Summit in Vienna on June 10-11, 2023 and at the War Resisters International Conference in London on June 16-18, 2023. Since then, additional organizations have signed the appeal.
The Campaign will periodically publish an updated list of supporting organizations.
SUPPORTING ORGANIZATIONS as of September 19, 2023: https://tinyurl.com/WDBT-Campaign-and-Endorsers
SUPPORTING ORGANIZATIONS:
- International Fellowship of Reconciliation (IFOR)
- International Peace and Research Association (IPRA)
- International Peace Bureau (IPB)
- International Sanctuary Declaration Campaign and Network
- Justice for All
- No to NATO Network
- Pax Christi International
- Transform Europe
- World BEYOND War
ARMENIA:
- Democracy Today
AUSTRALIA:
- War Resisters International – Australia
AUSTRIA:
- Pax Christi International – Austria
BELGIUM:
- Vrede
CANADA:
- Canadian Sanctuary Network
DENMARK:
- Peaceweb
FINLAND:
- Women for Peace Women
- Women Against Nuclear Power
FRANCE:
- Déclic Femmes
- Mouvement pour la Paix
GERMANY:
- Arbeitskreis gegen bewaffneten Drohnen
- Berlin Peace Festival
- Bundesausschuss Friedensratschlag
- Bundesverband der Deutschen Friedensgesellschaft (DFG-VK), German Section of War Resisters International (WRI)
- Bund für Soziale Verteidigung (Germany)
- Deutscher Friedensrat, German Section of World Peace Council
- Drohnen-Kampagne (German Drone Campaign)
- Forum InformatikerInnen für Frieden und gesellschaftliche Verantwortung (FIfF e.V.)
- Freiheit statt Angst
- Friedensbuero Hannover, e. V.
- Friedensforum Lahr
- Friedensglockengesellschaft
- Friedens Initiative, Isni
- Hamburg Forum fuer Voelkerverstaendingung und weltweite Abruenstung, e. V.
- International Physicians for the Prevention of Nuclear War (IPPNW), German Section
- Koelner Friedensforum
- Kooperation fuer den Frieden
- Netzwerk Friedenskooperative
- Pax Christi, German Section
- Zivile Zeitenwende
HUNGARY:
- Association for the Taxation of financial Transactions and Aid to Citizens (ATTAC)
- Hungarian Social Forum
ICELAND:
- Campaign Against Militarism
IRELAND:
- Action from Ireland
ITALY:
- Comitato no Guerra No NATO, Italy
JAPAN:
- Nakano Action Recuperation Project for Fukushiman
- Children Nakano Appeal
- Society of the Article 9•Nakano
- Tokyo Area Network
UKRAINE:
- Ukrainian Pacifist Movement
UNITED KINGDOM:
- Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament
- Drone Wars UK
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA:
- Baltimore Nonviolence Center
- Ban Killer Drones
- Beloved Community Center
- Brandywine Peace Community
- Campaign for Peace, Disarmament and Common Security
- CodePink
- Concerned Families of Westchester
- Council on American Islamic Relations, New York Chapter (CAIR-NY)
- Disciples Peace Fellowship
- Felician Sisters of North America
- Fireplace Community
- Flowers and Bombs: Stop the Violence of the War Now!
- Franciscan Action Network
- Friends of Ben Salmon
- InterReligous Task Force on Central America (IRTF)
- Martin Luther King Center
- Maryknoll Fathers and Brothers of the US
- Muslim Peace Fellowship National Council of Elders
- Nevada Desert Experience
- Occupy Bergen County
- Pax Christi, New York State
- Pax Christi, USA
- Peace Action New York State
- Quaker House of Fayetteville
- Ramapo Lunaape Nation
- Shut Down Drone Warfare
- Sisters of Mercy of the Americas, Justice Team
- Wespac Foundation
- San Luis Obispo Mothers for Peace
- Syracuse Cultural Workers
- Traprock Center for Peace and Justice
- Veterans for Peace
- Westchester Coalition Against Islamophobia (WCAI)
- Westchester Political Action Committee Foundation (WESPAC)
- West Suburban Peace Coalition
- Women Against War
- Women for Peace in Upstate New York
- Women’s Islamic Initiative in Spirituality and Equality
- World Can’t Wait
WALES:
- Gwynedd Friends Meeting