Women petition for peace.

• Author: Urdang, Stephanie
• Position: World Council of Churches; International Women's Tribune Centre; petition for global 5% military budget cuts to fund social programs - On The Line - Brief Article

New York

A women's peace petition, circulating worldwide by mail, fax, email, the Internet, and word-of-mouth, demands that all governments of the world transfer a minimum of 5 percent of their military budgets over the next five years to health, education, and employment programs. The signatures now number more than 100,000.

The petition began when women from the World Council of Churches met with women from the United Nations to discuss what they should do to commemorate the fiftieth anniversary of the U.N. Commission on the Status of Women. They decided on a petition, and the idea quickly took off The petition demands that "governments and civil society together develop new institutions that do not resort to violence for the settlement of disputes." It concludes, "We resolve that we will inaugurate a new century that rejects warfare and promotes well-being, justice, and human rights."

Most of the signatures collected so far have come from the Third World. They arrived from India in an eight-inch-thick carefully stitched linen wrapping. They came neatly bound in book form from Holland. They came from Turkey, where activists have collected signatures with utmost caution from the Kurdish conflict zones. A single signature came from Iran.

There...