Campaign Europe repudiates war
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| Name: | Campaign Europe Repudiates War |
| International Organization: | European Union |
| Active: | No |
| From: To: | 2003 |
| Promoters: | Peace Round Table - Movimento Federalista Europeo |
| Supporters: | |
| Aim: | |
| Official web site: | http://www.tavoladellapace.it/ |
| Focus: |
Background
During the national meeting "United for Peace" held in Assisi on the 7th December 2002, Movimento Federalista Europeo introduced the document "Never again wars in Europe, never again wars in the world" (www.mfe.it/peace), approved by the Italian branch of Union of European Federalists during its executive board on the 30th November 2002, asking for support of all other pacifists movements. The document is a request to the European Convention to introduce a first article in the European Constitution about peace, similar, as to the content, to Article 11 of the Italian Constitution. The "Tavola della Pace" adopted the Campaign Europe Repudiates War on Mfe's proposal.
The appeal
This is the text of the Campaign:
We citizens, organizations and European institutions, more united than ever in the name of peace and human rights, justice and solidarity between peoples, ask that in the European Constitution is affirmed, as Article 11 of Italian Constitution that
"Europe repudiates war as a means of settling international disputes and recognizes peace as a fundamental right of human beings and of all the peoples. Europe contributes to build up a pacific and democratic international order; to reach such a goal it promotes and favours the strengthening and the democratization of the United Nations and the development of the international cooperation."
The supporters
The Campaign is promoted by the "Tavola della Pace" (Peace Round Table) (www.tavoladellapace.it), an Italian network composed of hundreds of pacifist, catholic and environmental movements, trade unions and local authorities engaged in the developing of the peace process. The Campaign has been supported also by the large peace demonstration held in Rome on the 15 February 2003 and organized by the "Stop The War" Committee, with more than 3 million participants.
List of supporting organizations and individuals (update on February the 13th, 2003)
Giulio Cozzari, Presidente Coordinamento Naz. Enti Locali per la Pace e i Diritti Umani
Flavio Lotti, Coordinatore Nazionale Tavola della Pace
Alex Zanotelli, missionario comboniano
Alessandra Mecozzi, FIOM
Antonio Papisca, Direttore Master Europeo “Diritti Umani e Democratizzazione”
Armando Dito, Portavoce Nazionale Studenti.Net
Carlo Gubitosa, PeaceLink
Cesare Taviani, Fivol
Claudia Pratelli, Presidente Uds
Claudio Martini, Presidente Regione Toscana- Convenzione europea
Don Albino Bizzotto, Presidente di Beati i Costruttori di Pace
Don Luigi Ciotti, Presidente Libera
Don Tonio Dell’Olio, Direttore Pax Christi
Edo Patriarca, Portavoce Nazionale Forum del Terzo Settore
Enrico Paissan, Presidente Forum Trentino per la Pace
Ermete Realacci, Presidente Legambiente
Fabio Alberti, Presidente Un Ponte Per
Fabio Salviato, Presidente Banca Etica
Giampiero Rasimelli, Portavoce Nazionale Forum del Terzo Settore
Gianni Rocco, Portavoce Nazionale Associazione per la Pace
Gigi Bobba, Presidente Acli
Gino Barsella, Sdebitarsi
Gino Strada, Emergency
Giulietto Chiesa, Megachip
Giulio Marcon, Presidente ICS
Giuseppe Giulietti, Portavoce Articolo 21
Grazia Bellini, Presidente Agesci
Graziano Zoni, Presidente Emmaus Italia
Guglielmo Epifani, Segretario Nazionale CGIL
Guido Montani, Presidente Movimento Federalista Europeo
Laura Cappelli, Portavoce Nazionale Associazione per la Pace
Leopoldo Piraccini, Centri per la Pace di Forlì/Cesena
Lino Lacagnina, Presidente Agesci
Luciana Castellina, NoWar Tv
Luciano Ardesi, Presidente Lega per i Diritti e la Liberazione dei Popoli
Marco Braghero, Presidente PeaceWaves
Marco Mascia, Responsabile Polo Europeo Jean Monnet, Univ. di Padova
Mario Gay, Presidente Cocis
Massimo Pilati, Rete Lilliput
Nella Ginatempo, Basta Guerra
Rosario Lembo, Presidente Cipsi
Sabina Siniscalchi, Manitese
Savino Pezzotta, Segretario Nazionale CISL
Sergio Marelli, Presidente Associazione delle ONG italiane
Stefano Fancelli, Presidente Sinistra Giovanile
Tom Benetollo, Presidente Arci
Vittorio Agnoletto, Cons. Int. Forum Sociale Mondiale
The launch
The campaign "Europe repudiates war" was officially launched at the end of January 2002 from the 3rd World Social Forum held in Porto Alegre, Brasil, during a meeting on the role of Europe in the world, organized by Peace Round Table.
Since 1995, "Tavola della Pace" organizes the March for Peace, from Perugia to Assisi, and the "Peoples' United Nations Assembly" every two years. Flavio Lotti, the national coordinator of "Tavola della Pace", during the meeting in Assisi on Dec. 7th 2002, declared that the pacifist movement must primarly focus on Europe for at least the following two years. The construction of a united Europe speaking with a single voice is the only possible alternative for restoring international legality, justice and democracy in the world. Europe's political interests and conceptions of international right are totally opposite to the American ones. Europe, also thanks to its geographic position, tries to establish and consolidate rights at an international level, creating a different relationship with the rest of the world, becoming a very important reality to refer to.
Lotti insistited also on the "creation of a European network" starting from the Campaign "Europe repudiates war". At present, this is particularly easy to get in Germany, where the red-green coalition won the last political elections, making the defense of the value of Peace one of their main goals. Anyway, all over Europe we can witness a greater and greater interest around the document "Never again wars in Europe, never again wars in the world", which is a good starting point to realize such a network. In Frankfurt and Lyon, for example, several events have been organized and hundreds of signatures have been collected. A great deal of the positive support obtained by the document has come also from the web site www.mfe.it/pace translated in 4 languages. More than 1,200 people from Italy, Germany, France and the United States signed the document.
The results
The Campaign had a positive effect, thanks to the amendments proposed by some members of the European Convention, namely Elena Paciotti and Valdo Spini. But the proposal was refused by Italian government with a specific amendment signed by Gianfranco Fini (*) suppressing every reference to peace in the first articles of European Constitution.
(*) http://european-convention.eu.int/Docs/Treaty/pdf/3/Art%203%20Fini%20IT.pdf