G8: Women's Summit Says No to Violence and Militarism

On the eve of the annual meeting of the G-8 leaders, to be held in Okinawa, July 21-23, 2000, ninety-one members of the East Asia-US Women's Network Against Militarism, coming from the Philippines, Puerto Rico, South Korea, Japan, U.S., mainland Japan, and Okinawa, convened the International Women's Summit to Redefine Security (Naha, Okinawa, Japan, June 22-25, 2000). We are activists, teachers, students, researchers, elected officials, survivors of physical, sexual, and emotional violence; we are daughters, mothers, and wives.

The purpose of this meeting was to challenge the principle of "national security" on which the economic policies of the G-8 are based. These economic policies can never achieve genuine security. Rather, they generate gross insecurity for most peoples of the world and devastate the natural environment. These economic policies are inextricably linked to increasing militarization throughout the world. Militaries reap enormous profits for multinational corporations and stockholders through the development, production, and sale of weapons of destruction.

Moreover, militaries maintain control of local populations and repress those who oppose the fundamental principles on which the world economic system is based. The current economic system depends on deep-seated attitudes and relationships characterized by greed, fear, domination, and the objectification of "others" expressed through racism, sexism, imperialism, and the desire to control the physical environment. Vested interests, routine ways of thinking, prejudice, ignorance, and inertia also play their part in maintaining entrenched systems of economic, social, and political inequality.

This Women's Summit builds on the earlier meetings of the East Asia-US Women's Network in Naha, Okinawa (1997) and Washington, DC (1998) which sought to build a strong international network of women who oppose militarism and are working to define an agenda for true global security and peace. Throughout our four-day gathering, we affirmed that genuine security is based on the following four key tenets:

• the environment in which we live must be able to sustain human and natural life

• people's basic survival needs for food, clothing, shelter, health care, and education must be met;

• people's fundamental human dignity and respect for cultural identities must be honored; and

• people and the natural environment must be protected from avoidable harm.

By these standards, there are no truly secure societies in the world and none that are fully committed to achieving genuine security. Yet many detailed alternative proposals to creating and maintaining true security have been developed by international peace and human rights organizations. These include specific proposals for non-violent conflict resolution, early-warning procedures, mediation services, and the restoration and re-building of devastated lands and communities. Development for genuine security must be economically and environmentally sustainable.

Participants in the International Women's Summit shared our experiences of the impact of this militarized economy on our lives. We see demilitarization as a process of incremental steps by which governments must reduce military operations, expenditures, and cultures while simultaneously expanding non-military alternatives. Toward our goal of achieving true security, we issue the following demands to the leaders of G-8 nations and to the leaders of nations that we represent:

• Stop the bombing on Vieques, Puerto Rico; cease the war in Mindanao, Philippines; end the Korean War and support efforts to reunify Korea; stop plans for new or replacement bases in Okinawa, e.g. the proposed heliport at Henoko. These immediate steps would be the basis for ultimate removal of military presence from these communities and return the land to local control.

• Revise the unequal Status of Forces Agreements (SOFA) and Visiting Forces Agreement (VFA), a first step toward the total removal of US bases from Okinawa, mainland Japan, Korea, and the Philippines.

• Oppose the new US-Japan Defense Guidelines that require Japan to provide facilities and personnel to support US military activities in the region. The Guidelines constitute a violation of Article 9 of the Japanese constitution.

• Ratify the International Criminal Court, which will provide a mechanism for ordinary people to take action against military crimes.

• Compensate host countries and individual victims and survivors of military toxic waste and of violent acts against women and children that are results of the US military presence. Specifically:

1. adopt the Host Country Bill of Rights as ratified in the International Grassroots Summit for Military Toxics (October 1999, Washington, DC);

2. provide full accountability and compensation for violence against women that includes violence against women in host communities, sexual harassment of women in the military, and domestic violence in military families.

1. eliminate Japan's "Sympathy Budget" that supports US presence in Japan;

2. commit to ongoing cumulative reduction of military spending -- for example, 5% per year) and reallocate these resources toward compensation and redress for victims and survivors of military operations

3. develop alternatives to military conflict resolution

4. provide housing, food, shelter, health care, and education, which are basic survival needs

We conclude that military security is a contradiction in terms. The present militarized international security system is maintained at the expense of the natural environment, the economic and social needs of many people, and fundamental human rights. This is a price we refuse to pay.

• 116 Human Rights