By the signers at bottom, October 23, 2024

PEACE, NATURE, COOPERATION IN THE BALTIC AND ARCTIC REGIONS

September 21 – 22, 2024

To:

• The governments and members of parliaments in the Baltic and Arctic regions
• The United Nations (UN)
• United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO)
• Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE)
• The Arctic Council
• The Inuit Circumpolar Council (ICC)
• Baltic Marine Environment Protection Commission (also known as the Helsinki Commission HELCOM)
• North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO)
• the Legislative Assemblies of St. Petersburg and the Leningrad Region

 

To mark the United Nations International Day of Peace, approximately 100 participants from Russia, European countries, the United States and Canada met in Saint Petersburg off- and online to discuss the current situation of the militarization of the Baltic and Arctic regions, the increasing risks of global military confrontation and the links to the worsening climate and other environmental crises.

The participants called for an immediate halt to the escalation of the war in Ukraine and urge the Western Powers to stop weapons deliveries to Ukraine as well as all parties sincerely to work for a permanent peaceful solution of the conflict.

Furthermore, the participants call for the following:

 

• Instead of the militarized concept of security, put emphasis on human and common security, prioritize peace, climate cooperation, environmental sustainability, equitable resource distribution as well as social, health and education security. Also prioritize United Nations initiatives, resolutions and treaties.
• Move the money from the military to urgent human and environmental needs.
• Russia must be included in all future Helsinki Commission (HELCOM) meetings to address the gravity of the environmental situation in the Baltic Sea. We call for joint large scale clean-up operations.
• The work of the Arctic Council must be restored and include Russia’s full participation. Furthermore, cooperation between Indigenous people across the Arctic borders should be encouraged.
• The elimination of the nuclear threat and that the Arctic and Baltic states sign and ratify the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons (TPNW); as a first step removal of nuclear weapons from high-alert status, extension of warning times and adoption of a policy of no first use of nuclear weapons; enhanced preparedness for potential radioactive emissions from nuclear-powered vessels in Arctic and Baltic waters and the exclusion of all military activities around civil nuclear facilities as well as establishing safety zones around them. The Arctic and Baltic regions should be made into nuclear-weapons-free and demilitarized zones of peace.
• Open borders, facilitation of interstate exchanges and restoring people-to people programs.
• Cultivation of a culture of peace. Implementing the UNESCO mandate to build peace through international cooperation within the fields of education, science, culture and communication which is vital to counter the present world tension and militarization. It is necessary to encourage renewed contact and cooperation with UNESCO and see the vision and program of a culture of peace as an important, comprehensive, humanistic framework for our common efforts to learn to live together peacefully.

 

Finally, the participants call for the restitution of the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE)’s inclusive mandate as a necessary framework for peace in Europe and the world.

We call for an OSCE Summit in 2025 to mark its 50th anniversary – and in the spirit of the Helsinki Summit in 1975 – to include Russia and a broad spectrum of civil society.

We believe in the indivisibility of security, which means that no one is secure until everyone is secure. Peace is achieved by diplomacy, cooperation, “cross-border activities”, active involvement of the diaspora and a feminist agenda counting on protection, meaningful participation and prevention in all phases of the conflict.

 

Signed by over 100  individual participants in the conference, members of Peace and Environmental organisations and other persons supporting the statement

Laila BAKKE – (International Women’s league for Peace and Freedom, WILP-Bergen) – Norway 

Pippa BARTOLOTTI – Global Women United for Peace Against NATO and United National Antiwar Coalition – USA

Janny BEEKMAN  – (peace active) –  the Netherlands

Palle BENDSEN –  (NOAH Friends of the Earth Denmark) – Denmark

Bruna BIANCHI  – (Scholar of pacifism and nonviolence) – Italy

Oleg BODROV – (Public Council of the Southern Coast of the Gulf of Finland) – Russian Federation

Magret BONIN – (Peace Cooperation Committee GER-SH) – Germany

Reiner BRAUN – (IPB, Berlin) – Germany

Ingeborg BREINES – (Former Chair of IPB and UNESCO Director) – Norway

Mikael BÖÖK –  (writer and and old-line peace activist) – Finland 

Karin UTAS CARLSSON – (Women for Peace) – Sweden

Isabelle CASEL – (Deutscher Friedensrat) – Germany

Sean CONNER – (Executive Director of IPB) – USA/Germany

Ria CONVENTS –  (Women in Black Leuven) –  Belgium

Marinella CORREGGIA  – (Italian eco-peace activist, association Peacelink) – Italy

Pirkko EZEWUZIE – (physician, retd – peace active) – Finland

Mary-Ellen FRANCOEUR – (peace active) – Canada

Esther FYK – (member of Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom) – Canada

Patsy GEORGE – (Co president, WILPF Canada, Vancouver,  BC) – Canada

Hevelyn GHIZZI – (Brazilian Action for Humanitarian Disarmament – DHESARME) – Brazil

Hannah HADIKIN – (Co-chair Canadian Voice of Women for Peace) – Canada

Conny HANSSON – (peace activist, member of Swedish Nature Protection organization)  – Sweden

Johanne Margrethe HARTWIG – (Hardangerakademiet, Nordic Center for Peace, Development and Environment) –Norway

Reinhard HAVERKAMP –  (The Hardanger Academy for Peace, Development and Environment) – Norway

Martha HENNESSY– (Catholic Worker, Kings Bay Plowshares 7) – USA

Tuulikki HIETIKKO – (peace active) –  Finland

Katja HIRVASAHO – (Ph.D.,  member of the Finnish Peace Committee) – Finland

Anna HOLLANDER – (peace active) – Sweden

Yury IVANOV –  (Russian Socio-Ecological Union) –  Russian Federation

Kristin JACOBSEN – (member of Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom –  WILPF) – Norway – 

Frederik JANSSENS – (Pax Christi Vlaanderen) – the Netherlands

Lena JARLÖV – (member of a group working for peace; Bottna för Fred) – Sweden

Kai JENSEN  –  (Boligaktionen – “Activism with a social policy agenda for social first housing – societal transformation and anti-war movement”) – Denmark

Tove JENSEN –  (Fredsinitiativet – Peace Initiative)  – Denmark

June KELLY – (?) Ireland

Lieve De KINDER – (Leuven Peace Movement, Belgian Coalition Stop Uranium Weapons) – Belgium

Ilya KISELEV – (head of St. Petersburg regional branch of faction “Green Russia” of the political party Yabloko) – Russian Federation

Sigrid KLEIN –  ( peace active) – Germany

Mechthild KLINGENBURG-VOGEL – (Kieler Friedensforum/Kiel Peace Forum) – Germany

Ulla KLÖTZER – (Women for Peace, Global Women for Peace United Against NATO- GWUAN) – Finland

Johnny KRISTOFFERSSEN –  (member of a group working for peace; Bottna För Fred) – Sweden

Lea LAUNOKARI – (Women for Peace, Global Women for Peace United Against NATO – GWUAN) – Finland 

Gil LIAN – (South Georgian Bay Chapter World Beyond War) – Canada

Matteo LORENZINI – (Researcher at Physics Department – University of Roma Tor Vergata)  – Italy

Tamara LORINCZ – (Canadian organization Women’s Voice for Peace -VOW) – Canada

Christer LUNDGREN – ( journalist, member of the Folket i Bild association, and the No to NATO Network) – Sweden

David MacKENZIE  – (Secure Scotland) – UK

Olga MANDRYKA – (PhD in Biology, St. Petersburg) –  Russian Federation

Eva BJÖRKANDER MANNHEIMER  – (phil.lic., peace activist) –  Sweden

Ellen MASS– (Global Women for Peace United Against NATO – GWUAN) – USA

Frank McENANEY  – (South Georgian Bay Chapter World Beyond War) – Canada

Gloria McMILLAN – (WILPF US DISARM Committee) – USA

Heidi MEINZOLT – (member of Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom –  WILPF and coordinator of a women’s WG in the OSCE area) – Germany

Sigyn MEDER – (peace activist, No to Nato) – Sweden

Åse MØLLER-HANSEN – (Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom, Norway) – Norway

Luigi MOSCA – (Abolition des Armes Nucléaires – Maison de Vigilance’ association) – France

Ingegerd MUNICIO – (Assoc. Prof. Emerita Political Science, member of Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom –WILPF)  – Sweden

Diane NAHAS – (anti-war activist associated with NukeWatch, Space4Peace, Molotov Club, Notdutdol) – USA

Helge NIVA – (peace active) – Finland

Christian NEIE-MARWEDE  – (active in the Protestant Church of Germany and in World BEYOND War) – Germany

Agneta NORBERG – (No to NATO, Global Network Against Weapons and Nuclear Power in Space) – Sweden

Bruna NOTA – (WILPF and Canadian Voice of Women for Peace) – Canada

Kristina OLSSON – (member of a group working for peace; Bottna För Fred) – Sweden

Guido OOGHE  – (Member of the board of the Antwerp Peace Chair, Member of the board of the Unesco Platform Flanders) –  Belgium

Nikolai ØSTGAARD – (Antiwar-Initiative) – Norway

Koohan PAIK-MANDER  – (Global Network Against Weapons and Nuclear Power in Space) – USA

Inga PALMÉR  – (Women for Peace, No to Nato) – Sweden

Irrenne PEIER  –  (Boligaktionen – “Activism with a social policy agenda for social first housing – societal transformation and anti-war movement”) – Denmark

Uta PFEFFERLE – (Freiburger Friedensforum, Netzwerk Friedenssteuer e.V.) – Germany

Nancy PRICE –  (Global Women for Peace United Against NATO) – USA

Sondof RABBE – (The Hardanger Academy for Peace, Development and Environment) – Norway

Helena RAEYMAEKERS  – (Women in Black Leuven) – Belgium 

Kyle Ann ROSS  –  (activist for peace) – USA

Beate RÜGER – (peace active) – Germany

Kristiina RYTKÖNEN – (Women for Peace) – Finland

Pirjo SAASTAMOINEN – (Naapuriseura, Tampere) – Finland 

Pat SANCHEZ –  (Rochdale and Littleborough Peace Group) – UK  

Hannele SALAVA – (Women for Peace) – Finland

Lisa SAVAGE – (Maine Natural Guard) – USA

Brigitte SCHRÖDER – (peace active) – Germany

Marjaliisa SIIRA – (peace active)  – Finland

Nani SNEYERS  – (Women in Black Leuven) – Belgium

Regine STEINVIK – (Norwegian Peace organisation) – Norway

Ken STONE – (Treasurer, Hamilton Coalition To Stop The War) – Canada

Mia STUBBENDORFF – (Network No to Nato-Sweden)  Sweden

David SWANSON– (World BEYOND War) – USA

Kerstin SYMMANK –  (Diplomatie statt Waffen) – Germany

Gunnar SÖDERBACKA – (peace active) – Sweden

Saara TALASNIEMI – (activist for peace) – Finland

Andrey TALEVLIN – (PhD in Law, Russian Social-Ecological Union, Chelyabinsk)  – Russian Federation

Olli TAMMILEHTO – (writer and an old-line activist in Finnish environmental and peace movements )- Finland

Liisa TASKINEN  – (Medical Doctor, retired; Peace WG of CP of Finland and European Left) – Finland

Eric TERCLAEVERS – (ICAN campaigner) – Belgium

Gudrun Tibbe TIBERG –  (FiFred, member group of Feministiskt initiativ) – Sweden

Olga TSEPILOVA – (Head of the Social Ecology Group at the Sociological Institute of the Russian Academy of Sciences, St. Petersburg)  – Russian Federation

Florina TUFESCU – (PhD, peace researcher, World BEYOND War – Romania,  and WILPF International) – Romania

Kerstin Tuomala – (Women for Peace) – Finland

Maria TYSYACHNTUK  – Russian Federation

Susanne URBAN – (Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom -WILPF) –  Norway

Ria VERJAUW – (Coordinator Leuven Peace Movement)  – Belgium

Evy WARHOLM – (Women for Peace) – Sweden

Veronika WILDNER – (peace active) – Germany

Kathrin WINKLER – (Nova Scotia Voice of Women for Peace) – Canada

Ellen WOODSWORTH – (Co President WILPF Canada) – Canada

Ann WRIGHT – (Colonel, Ret, US Army; Veterans For Peace) – USA

Doris WÜNSCHMANN – (Global Women for Peace United Against NATO–GWUAN and Diplomati statt Waffen – DsW)  – Germany – as well as (Ehrfurcht vor allem Leben –EVAL) – Germany/Austria 

Vera ZALKA – (peace and social activist, Social Forum, Global Women for Peace United Against NATO – GWUAN) – Hungary

Angie ZELTER –  (Trident Ploughshares, Extinction Rebellion Peace/XR Peace ) – UK