Luarca declaration
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Luarca Declaration on the Human Right to Peace
On 30 October 2006 a group of Spanish professors of International Law and human rights experts adopted a "Declaration on the Human Right to Peace". The declaration was officially presented through an oral statement to the plenary fourth session of the United Nations Human Rights Council on 15 March 2007 by Professor Carlos Villán Durán, President of the Associacion Española para el Desarrollo y la Aplicación del Derecho International de los Derechos Humanos (AEDIDH), an independent non-governmental organization with headquarters in Oviedo, Asturias. Furthermore, the AEDIDH and UNESCO Etxea presented a written statement about the process of the Luarca Declaration, which is before the United Nations Human Rights Council as official document of in fourth session in 2007.
The 18-point Declaration represents the result of many meetings of Spanish intellectuals and professors of international law and international relations in the years 2004-2006. In October 2006 fifteen members of the Spanish Association for the Development and Application of the International Law of Human Rights signed the declaration and opened it for signature by other members of civil society. The Association is currently organizing regional meetings in Africa, North and South America, Asia, and Europe and the Arab world.
On 15-16 March 2007 round tables were held at the Palais des Nations in Geneva, with the participation of member States of the UN Human Rights Council. Professor Villán Durán chaired the meetings. Other podium members were Dr. Federico Andreu, Deputy Secretary-general of the International Commission of Jurists, Dr. Carmen Rosa Rueda Castañón, and Professor Alfred de Zayas of the Generva School of Diplomacy.
At the round tables Professor Villán Durán explained the history of the Declaration, as well as its legal content and the calendar of the process of consultantions around the world. Dr. Andreu spoke on previous United Nations General Assembly Resolutions on the Right to Peace, including Res. 39/11 of 12 November 1984 and referred to its regional codification, e.g. in article 23 of the African Charter of Human and Peoples’ Rights, which affirms the right of all peoples to national and international peace, and the duty to strengthen solidarity and friendly relations among peoples. Finally, Dr. Zayas presented a paper (an article for the Macmillan Encyclopedia of Genocide) on the “crime of aggression”, stressing that the human right to peace is but the positive expression of the negative jus cogens prohibition of the use of force.
Regional meetings have been held in Colombia and Addis Abeba (March 2007) and are scheduled to be held in Caracas, Venezuela (April 2007), Mexico (May 2007), Washington D.C. (June 2007), Dakar, Senegal (July 2007), Geneva (August-September 2007),etc. The purpose of these meetings is to take into account the approach of different cultures in relation to the human rights to peace, and to focus on the mutual relationship between peace and human rights. Further meetings with civil society are under preparation in Tunisia, Amman (Jordan), Bangkok and Sarajevo. Ultimately the Luarca Declaration should be adopted by the UN Human Rights Council and by the UN General Assembly.
The international prohibition of aggression contained in article 2, paragraph 4, of the UN Charter was reaffirmed and strengthened in many UN Security Council and General Assembly resolutions, notably GA Resolutions 2625 (Friendly Relations) and 3314 (Definition of aggression). The prohibition of aggression is but the negative expression of the universal human right to peace.
Among the so-called third generation rights, the right to peace is paramount, because, unless humanity enjoys peace, it cannot exercise its first and second generation rights, namely its civil, political, economic, social and cultural rights, as was noted by the first United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights José Ayala Lasso.
On 12 November 1984 the United Nations General Assembly adopted Resolution 39/11 annexing the Declaration on the Right of Peoples to Peace, which reaffirms “that the principal aim of the United Nations is the maintenance of international peace and security” and the “aspirations of all peoples to eradicate war from the life of mankind and, above all, to avert a world-wide nuclear catastrophe”. By virtue of operative paragraph 2, the declaration proclaims “that the preservation of the right of peoples to peace and the promotion of its implementation constitute a fundamental obligation of each State.” In paragraph 3, the declaration “demands that the policies of States be directed towards the elimination of the threat of war, particularly nuclear war, the renunciation of the use of force in international relations and the settlement of international disputes by peaceful means.”
The General Assembly declaration has been reaffirmed in countless resolutions, including by the United Nations Commission on Human Rights. In its resolution 2002/71 of 25 April 2002, the Commission links the right to peace with the right to development, affirms “that all States should promote the establishment, maintenance and strengthening of international peace and security and, to that end, should do their utmost to achieve general and complete disarmament under effective international control, as well as to ensure that the resources released by effective disarmament measures are used for comprehensive development, in particular that of the developing countries” and urges “the international community to devote part of the resources made available by the implementation of disarmament and arms limitation agreements to economic and social development, with a view to reducing the ver-widening gap between developed and developing countries.”
The Luarca Declaration builds on prior United Nations resolutions and is inspired by the motto of the peace of Westfalia (1648): Pax optima rerum. Peace is the most important of all things.
Links:
For the text of the Declaration see: http://www.alfreddezayas.com/Law_history/Luarca_Declaration_English_revised%5B1%5D.pdf
Site of the Spanish Society for the Advancement of the International Human Rights Law http://www.aedidh.org/
Site of journals
"Current Concerns" (english): http://www.currentconcerns.ch/index.php?id=287 "Zeit Fragen" (german): http://www.zeit-fragen.ch/ausgaben/2007/nr9-vom-532007/das-menschenrecht-auf-frieden/ "Horizons et Debats" (french): http://www.horizons-et-debats.ch/0708/20070302_20.htm
Site of radio
United Nations Radio (interview in Spanish from Palais de Nations, Geneva, 26 March 2007): http://radio.un.org/es/
ONGs members of the International Civil Society Alliance for the Human Right to Peace
- International Interfaith (London, United Kingdom) - International Society for Human Rights (Internationale Gesellschaft für Menschenrechte, Frankfurt a.M., Germany) - Millenium Solidarity (Geneva, Switzerland) - Unesco Etxea (Bilbao, Spain)
For any enquiry or suggestion about the Luarca Declaration, please contact with the representative of the AEDIDH in Geneva: david.fernandez-puyana@orange.fr
