Universal Declaration of Peoples without a State (Draft 1)

We, Peoples without a State, have come to the conclusion that seventy years after the founding of the United Nations in the aftermath of World War II, the right of self-determination of Peoples has been disregarded and even made impossible by this very same system.

As a consequence, the oppression of people, dictatorial and authoritarian regimes, extreme poverty with an ever growing gap between poor and rich, ethnic conflicts, genocides, annexations, environmental degradation, exploitation of natural resources, hidden slavery, a lack of respect for cultural identities, (State-) terrorism, forced displacements, diseases and other dramatic effects continue to proliferate.

A system that does not live up to its main objective to fulfil the right of self-determination of Peoples, but primarily pursues the survival of itself as a system, becomes corrupt in its decision-making, very costly (also in lives) and inefficient in achieving results, and in the long run, it is arbitrary and arrogant in its conduct.

The current biased international political and legal order, embodied by the system of the United Nations, that as its first aim should pursue the fulfilment of the right of self-determination of Peoples, has reached its limits.

This alliance of more or less strongly centralized (neo-colonial) Nation States is no longer equipped to handle the aforementioned global challenges, due to increasingly imposed global cultural assimilation, dominated by neo-liberal capitalism and reckless profit seeking based on the exploitation of Peoples and their natural resources.

Despite strong commitments on ensuring universal equal opportunities, respect for human rights and democratic political participation, we discern that the dominant ethno-cultural elites, in addition to concentrating economic power and wealth in favor of their own group, deprive other cultural groups from enjoying their rights and freedoms and live in dignity.

Irrespective of the dominant socio-economic ideologies, persistent discrimination based on ethnic origins has not only created a worldwide economic but also a political Ponzi scheme with the same ethno-cultural winners on the one hand and the same losers on the other hand.

The system of the United Nations with nuclear force of superpowers at its core, and especially its current decision-making mechanisms based on Statehood result into the consolidation of well-established and vested interests of ethno-cultural dominant groups and the complete undermining of the realization of the right of self-determination of Peoples.

We, as Peoples without a State, stand against this.

We wish to regain political control over our ancestral territories, put in place a democratic  representation of their populations, manage our natural resources and choose ourselves with whom we engage in international relations. Our main objective is for concerned Peoples to take their own decisions based on the principles of decentralization, subsidiarity, autonomy and self-determination. This also includes decisions on their sovereign representation and with whom they want to cooperate or merge beyond the existing national borders.

Seventy years after the establishment of the UN-system, Peoples are still being oppressed by royal rulers and their entourage as well as (neocolonial) dictators or illicitly elected politicians, whose main aim is the survival of undemocratic constitutions and party systems to ensure the concentration of economic and political power for a small elite, which results into overall dramatic situations.

In absence of fulfilling primary collective rights and maintaining the focus on individual rights, a fundamentally unbalanced and biased world order that safeguards the privileges of the few, is being violently imposed on all people.

This UN system of  “too little, too late” for the losers on the one hand and the continued violence and reckless exploitation by the winners on the other hand, is characterized by an expensive and powerful ruling political class and their bureaucracies for whom the consolidation of the power of the ruling ethnic-cultural elites is an aim in its own right.

Instead of having ethnic politico-bureaucratic elites in place who plan and unilaterally take decisions in faraway capitals, we want - in accordance with the universal human rights that are inherent to every individual - to bring policymaking closer to the concerned Peoples and provide them with actual guardianship over their lands and ownership over their economic, social and cultural development.

To start we demand the full respect for the right of self-determination of Peoples, as stated in the UN Charter and specified in our ‘Declaration on the right of self-determination’ (infra).

In view of this, we will engage in an international alliance of Peoples that will strive for the implementation of this Declaration. By no means will ethnic nationalism be a goal of this alliance, especially as we take a positive stance on migration, participation and diversity.

In this way, the current challenges concerning democracy, development, migration, environment, cultural emancipation and ethnic conflicts could be solved more effectively and in the interest of all concerned Peoples, not only in the interest of the ruling elites.

Instead of a policy of unfettered globalisation, we opt for the perspective of ‘glocalisation’, which will encourage  local sovereignties to cooperate better amongst themselves globally.

Through a more coherent convergence of political governance and open cultural societies we will create a more efficient United Nations of Peoples that will guarantee a universal wealth tax and a universal basic income for every adult to partially bridge the enormous inequality that has been created by the current UN-system.

In order to achieve these goals we wish to enter into constructive dialogue with the present system of States, and considering their veto right, especially with the 5 permanent members of the United Nations Security Council, so as to give Peoples a real voice and propose thorough democratic reforms, including inter alia:

•             Participation, with a right to vote of Peoples without a State in the General Assembly of the UN.

•             Abolition of the Permanent Members, including their veto right, and a guaranteed representation of Peoples without a State in the UN Security Council.

•             Access for Peoples without a State to the International Court of Justice and the International Criminal Court.

•             Immediate banishment and dismantling of all weapons of mass destruction.

•             Creation of a United Nations Peoples Assembly and Secretariat that will closely collaborate with Peoples to prepare and realize the actual self-determination of Peoples, and to implement this within a reasonable period of time. 

•             Reform of the IMF and the World Bank in order to guarantee as a priority a universal wealth  tax and a universal basic income.

In order to ensure that all Peoples are equally represented in all international bureaucracies, the ethno-cultural background of the current officials should be made public so as to enable the development of a policy of equal opportunities and non-discrimination in recruitment and policymaking.

We, Peoples without a State, wish to end with the words of Mahatma Ghandi:

“What you do for me, without me, you do against me.”

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