DOCUMENT: MOSCOW93.TXT [Ed. Note: This article may be reproduced for electronic transfer and posting on computer bulletin boards in part or full, provided that no profit is made by such transfer and that full credit is given to the author, the Center For World Indigenous Studies and The Fourth World Documentation Project.] Center For World Indigenous Studies P.O. Box 2574 Olympia, Washington 98507-2574 U.S.A. Telephone: 206/705-2079 Fax: 206/956-1087 Remarks Before the Moscow Conference on Indigenous Peoples' Rights September 13 - 18, 1993 Moscow, Russian Federation T O W A R D T H E C O E X I S T E N C E O F N A T I O N S A N D S T A T E S Rudolph C. Ryser, Chairman Center for World Indigenous Studies Copyright 1993 CWIS A new era is emerging where nations and states must seek early accommodation and cooperation to avoid a future of conflict that would plunge nations and states into a period of darkness. It is no accident that after the collapse of several of the worlds' more prominent states long persistent bedrock nations re-emerge to claim their responsibility as full members of the international community. The lessons we must collectively learn from the experience of political events over the last three years include these: [1] The State system is not perfect, it is an experiment of human problem- solving that does not always lend itself well to solving problems for all of humanity. [2] Nations are natural human organisms which persist and must have an acknowledged place as active participants in international intercourse coexisting with states. [3] Where States exist and serve the needs of human society they should be nurtured and celebrated, but where States fail to serve the needs of human society, they should be allowed to disassemble in a planned process which permits the nations within to systematically reassume their governing responsibilities. [4] If a State is no longer viable politically and economically and it does not have distinct nations within, its structure should be replaced temporarily with international supervision followed by the formation of an internationally recognized variant of human organizational structures deemed appropriate to the extant human cultures and geography of an area such as a trust territory, freely associated state, commonwealth, or other configuration established for a protected population; such a non-self- governing status must have the potential of being changed to a self- governing status in the future. Finally, [5] Nations which do not wish to remain within an existing state, must have the logical option of changing their political status through peaceful negotiations. As of the present date, there are 192 States that comprise the members of the world's state system of governments. Of these states, 183 are members of the United Nations, fewer are members of the International Court of Justice, the World Bank, the International Monetary Fund, and the International Labour Organization. The "State" is a rational organizational construct created to solve specific social, economic and political problems, and it is made legitimate by virtue of recognition extended to it by other established states. All established States are said to be sovereign political personalities having the recognized capacity to protect their own borders, carry out political intercourse with other states and perform those necessary activities (economic, social and political in character) sufficient to maintain the loyalty of an established number of human beings. Not all of these States can be accurately described as politically and economically viable. Indeed, no fewer than thirty States are in a condition of perpetual disarray, collapse, or they are essentially defunct political and legal organisms. International institutions and neighboring states which deem the continuity of even defunct states as essential to their own stability are obliged to provide support politically, militarily and financially. Instead of strengthening the state system, this process tends to further weaken an increasingly fractured system. More to the point of my dissertation, however, is that the economic and sometimes political instability of some states and the efforts to prop up crumbling states is bringing other states into direct conflict with nations inside these states. United Nations joint forces are at this moment militarily fighting nations inside several collapsed states. So committed are statists to the continuity of the State System that they insist that a failed state must continue even though there is no will or capacity to ensure its normal operation. The nations which often make the soul of a state become the objects of derision and attack. States denounce and fear "nationalism," or the commitment one has to the persistence of a nation. Nationalism is regarded as a primitive; emotionalism that undermines efforts to achieve "higher forms of human civilization." In reality, properly respected, the nation stands as the foundation of human organization essential for human survival. Without the nation, the State could have never come into existence, The State could not long survive without national forbearance -- and, so, recent events would seem to bear this view out. There are between six thousand and nine thousand bedrock nations in the world. They are culturally diverse and that diversity reflects the ecological diversity of the Earth. Human nations, located in their particular places demonstrate the success of natural adaptation and human creative energy. They persist because nations satisfy human spiritual, social, economic, and political (cultural) needs. Nations are evolved human organisms, self-identified, including members who share a common culture, heritage, language and geographic place. Their existence is not dependent on size, and their identity is essentially determined by their culture. The culture of each nation is determined by the relationship between the people and the land. A nation is large enough to ensure the needs of its constituents, but small enough to ensure consistency with human scale. The nation, the human organism from which all humans originate, is the parent of the state. It is from the heart of nations that the concept of the state arose. The rational state is another of the many experiments attempted to constructively advance the human condition. As the parent from which the state springs, each nation is obligated to ensure that the state fulfills its purposes. But, when the experiment fails, there is no obligation to force the continued existence of a state. The nation, is more than adequate to serve as an independent international personality on its own. It is quite realistic that the world's political landscape contain both nations and states as independent political entities. While states will continue to perform their function and nations will continue to function within the framework of individual states, some states cannot continue to exist. Many nations do not chose to become states or remain within state structures. Given these realistic conditions, we must seek to ensure the peaceful means for a world in which both states and nations coexist. We must establish new international institutions, new international tools for providing the transition from a world of states to a world of nations and states. We must provide the means for nations to resolve long-standing disputes between them -- most will be concerned with unresolved land and natural resource questions. We must also provide the means for nations and states to resolve disputes between them after the collapse of a state. Finally, we must create new transitional structures between nations, and nations and states to replace crumbling state structures to minimize violent conflicts and maximize systematic peaceful change. There is room for new international institutions along side the United Nations as clearly indicated by the existence of the Commission on Security and Cooperation in Europe which came into being as a result of the Helsinki Final Act. New institutions which permit the direct, coequal participation of nations and states are now essential for the construction of a new international political order. The breakup of states like Yugoslavia need not result in the terror that is now being experienced in Croatia, Bosnia and Serbia. Sustained, long-term conflicts like the war between the Burmese state and the Karen, Kachin and Shan nations are remnants of a failed British colonial policy and should be brought to a swift end by internationally sanctioned peace negotiations. The war between the Jumma Peoples and the government of Bangladesh should be ended through peaceful negotiations, mediated and sanctioned internationally. The expansion of states into national territories like the Peoples Republic of China's occupation of Tibet must be halted and brought to a negotiation table for peaceful disengagement. The war in Guatemala continues and the wars between the Indonesian government, the peoples of West Papua, East Timor and South Molucca continue unabated -- all demanding internationally sanctioned intervention. These are not civil wars, but conflicts between states and nations. They are conflicts which result from the failure of the state to perform its function. They are conflicts resulting from a failure of states to ensure the full sharing of political power by all nations within the framework of the state. The Geneva Conventions of 1949 provide the initial context within which new international institutions and mechanisms can be fashioned to directly address the conflicts between states and nations and between nations after the collapse of a state. Protocols I and II of the Geneva Conventions directly address conflicts between states and between nations and states. The Moscow Conference on Indigenous Peoples Rights can be the spark that provides for nations and states to mutually established new international mechanisms for peaceful conflict resolution based in part on the Geneva Conventions and particularly on Protocols I and II. The new political era of nations and states into which we are now passing demands that the world's nations resume their duty as active participants in the formulation of international rules of conduct. What we now call indigenous nations, must become co-equal partners with states as international political personalities. They must assume their responsibilities as mature political personalities with a full commitment to the restoration of mutual coexistence between nations and states. Nations must fully commit themselves to the advancement of human rights and the democratization of international relations. Nations must also adopt existing international instruments for the promotion of peaceful relations between peoples, and they must work to establish new international instruments for the establishment of peaceful relations between nations and between nations and states. States governments are obliged to recognize that they do sometimes fail to adequately serve the peoples for which they were established. States governments must embrace the changing world which includes many kinds of political personalities -- not just states. The state system is useful for some purposes, but not all peoples in the world must live within a state structure. Where there are no mechanisms for nation and state cooperation, states must reach out to the nation and seek accommodation. States governments must rework their foreign policies to recognize that nations are a part of the international fabric -- an essential element of the international arena. They must learn the courage to seek constructive new relations with nations to maximize cooperation and mutual benefit. In a new age unfolding we are confronted by our greatest hopes and wishes. We hope for accommodation in Europe and accommodation becomes the practical, daily demand. We hope for peaceful settlements in the Middle East, and the State of Israel and the Palestinian nation engage in fourteen fateful days of negotiations for peaceful accommodation. In North America, the South Pacific Ocean and in Africa, new measures of courage are being realized as representatives of nations and representatives of states have begun to move toward peaceful accommodation, coexistence and cooperation. But, as these hopes are now being realized, we are also discovering the need for new courage and new creativity in diplomatic relations. Things are not as "perfectly orderly" as we would want. The tendency is to move swiftly to an "authoritarian order" instead of a condition of mutual equality and cooperation. Diversity is sloppy and uncomfortable at times, but the new political era of nations and states is necessarily a mirror of the cultural diversity of humanity. We are looking at reality when we see many thousands of nations and scores of states. We are seeing the success of human beings in their many nations. We are seeing the experiments of the human spirit when we see the scores of states. Reality demands that we stretch our minds to find ways to creatively accommodate the many differences we see among human beings. Reality demands that we accept the challenge of human success. I propose that the world's states governments join with the governments of the world's nations to form a temporary Congress of Nations and States to develop new international protocols which provide for new approaches to dispute resolution between nations, and nations and states. I propose that the Moscow Conference serve as the spring board for the organization of a world congress to permit nations and states to instruct each other on the appropriate structures for peacefully resolving old and new conflicts between nations within and outside existing states. New structures, perhaps based in the Geneva Protocols I and II, for resolving existing conflicts between nations and nations and states should also be developed. The Congress of Nations and States should build on the constructive discussions among many nations and many states that have been continuing at non-government conferences and within the United Nations under the direction of the Economic and Social Council for the last twenty years. The opportunity exists now like never before in history for nations to fulfill their obligations as mature members of the international community to work toward a peaceful world. States, the children of nations, must turn now to realistically work with nations to build a democratized international community which ensures broad support by all of the peoples of the world. This is not simple idealism. The means exist for representatives of nations and states to begin the process of constructively re-ordering the world. A new political order is before us. We need now only to understand ourselves and our purpose to establish a peaceful and creative political climate for human development. We must put aside our fears and exercise maturity and courage to take the next step in the new era of nations and states. A Congress of Nations and States is that next logical step. -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- ::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::: :: -= THE FOURTH WORLD DOCUMENTATION PROJECT =- :: :: A service provided by :: :: The Center For World Indigenous Studies :: :: www.cwis.org :: ::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::: Originating at the Center for World Indigenous Studies, Olympia, Washington USA www.cwis.org © 1999 Center for World Indigenous Studies (All Rights Reserved. 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