The great professor and philosopher Bajram Haliti’s thoughts on the pain of European Rome
INSTITUTE FOR EUROPEAN ROMA STUDIES AND INVESTIGATION OF CRIMES AGAINST HUMANITY AND INTERNATIONAL RIGHTS
Ladies and Gentlemen, Brothers and Sisters Honorable Academics, I strongly urged a representative of the NGO sector to publish my text on a draft text to be held by NGO sector ambassadors
CONGRESS OF THE AMBASSADORS OF PEACE
Introduction
The history of our civilisation throughout the 20th century was marked by two global conflicts leaving great devastation and millions of victims in their wake. Besides these two major conflicts, there were also numerous localised ones, no less bloody, such as the wars in Vietnam and Korea.
Faced with such developments, the international community responded by creating the League of Nations, which later evolved into the United Nations we know today, as an attempt at globally influencing such developments, preventing the outbreak of conflicts and providing the legal framework better known as international law, envisioned as binding for all parties concerned.
Various bodies and organs were formed with their jurisdiction precisely defined, beginning with the Security Council, through UNICEF, UNESCO, ECO SOFT and others. The work and activities of these organisations are more or less transparent, the effects of these activities are what they are and, as such, they are not the subject of this analysis. Besides these institutionalised processes, there exists an evident influence of individuals and non-governmental organisations. They have acted upon and accomplished their goals through non-violent means. Some who are worthy of mention are Mahatma Gandhi, Martin Luther King and Nelson Mandela. Many of them have paid the ultimate price for their actions but have still always appealed to their followers advocating peace and non-violent communication.
Besides the people previously mentioned, we also need to mention a number of globally famous and popular individuals from the world of film, popular music, art and science who, primarily guided by their own conscience, have declared themselves as fighters for peace and justice in the world, the protection of human and minority rights as well as the rights of endangered groups and individuals.
Desiring to integrate them into the system, the UN Secretary-General began appointing them as UN Peace Ambassadors, ensuring that all their future actions would be under the auspices of the UN. Such a practice has existed for almost half a century.
On the other hand, the part of our civilisation walking in the footsteps of Mahatma Gandhi and Martin Luther King had started to organise through forming both national and international non-governmental organisations advocating peace and peaceful coexistence on the planet. Some of them, the ones who have built a respectable international reputation, have also, taking the page right from the UN’s book, started recruiting distinguished individuals who possessed authority in their environments, nations or religious groups proclaiming them Ambassadors of Peace.
That way, a network of individuals, non-governmental organisations and institutions were formed possessing as common values their struggle for peace, equality and freedom of all people on the planet.
However, what can be said about their experiences throughout the last fifty years? What has changed and what have they experienced in the field? How has their work affected their personal lives and fates? What has made them proud and what would they rather forget?
They have never gathered in the same spot and the public has never seen them together.
THE CONGRESS OF THE AMBASSADORS OF PEACE
The basic idea is to gather all these ambassadors in one place, in a congress lasting three days, with the participation of UN representatives, the diplomatic and political core as well as the non-governmental sector and have them address each other and the world at large with the appeal to preserve peace at all cost, so that no woman, mother and child would ever again shed tears in mourning after the victims of armed conflicts.
They should also try and reach a consensus and suggest new instruments of implementing international law which is ripe for reform, as well as the UN organisation itself. It has become an obvious fact that the UN has become the hostage of precisely those countries which have often provoked instability and armed conflicts through their irresponsible policies.
We have gone through the period of the Cold War, the collapse of the bipolar world, all the attempts of the only remaining block to shape the planet after its own wishes through armed intervention, meddling in the internal affairs of sovereign countries, the assassinations of statesmen and aggression in general.
Today, we live once again in a multipolar world where even the smallest conflict can spread and quickly become a planetary war with far-reaching consequences for the environment, population and economy. Briefly put, the end of the civilisation as we know it.
The Ambassadors of Peace who can be found all over the planet are best equipped to present this to others for they are the ones who have witnessed all kinds of misery and suffering in the field, instructed propaganda, false histories, senseless ideologies as well as the dark side of man present in all of us which often becomes the dominant one whenever brute force attempts to overpower reason.
There is no one better acquainted with the feeling of powerlessness and helplessness when faced with absolute evil. This planet has already been too much exposed to the devastating influence of man, negligence, senseless exploitation and pollution resulting in both climate and biological changes we cannot predict the outcome of nor if mankind will be able to survive in new circumstances. If we also add the arrogance of the strong and the frustrations of the weak to the concoction, coupled with potential nuclear disaster, world peace becomes the foremost of all priorities when it comes to the survival of our civilisation as well as the basic assumption for a coordinated effort to repair the damage caused by man over the last fifty years.
The congress would have full media coverage and would result in a world appeal adopted by all those present giving additional incentive to the already tired and frustrated UN to persevere in delivering itself from the shackles thrust upon it by the rich and powerful who see themselves as exempt from all rules, the rules which should be equal for all. Unfortunately, the rich and powerful go so far to see themselves as the ones who set the rules, rather than the UN and the international community.
CONCLUSION
The initiative of the Institute for the Roma European Studies and Research into the Crimes against Humanity and International Law from Zemun, Serbia, requires a great deal of support at all levels in order to be realised in full capacity.
A letter of written support coupled with a brief explanation, not longer than three hundred words in English, would be a good starting point. Your consent to cover the expenses of your delegation and/or representative(s) would also be required. The expenses in question are the travel expenses and the expenses of sojourn at the location where the congress is to be held. That way, the organiser would be able to finance both the logistical and technical support out of the gathered funds, as well as the organisation of the congress itself together with full media coverage.
The aim is to gather a truly respectable number of NGO representatives who are also the Ambassadors of Peace, as well as the representatives of the political and diplomatic establishment of the majority of countries.
We are already in the process of requesting the opinion and support from the representatives of various institutions and governments throughout the world for, without such support, the Congress loses all meaning. We hope that such a thing will not happen for, it is our belief, the number of those who are both mentally and intellectually part of the 21st century far surpasses the ones who are still part of the dark ages. To the people we hope to turn to, it should be crystal clear what lies at the end of the road mankind is travelling on today.
In Belgrade, Academician Prof. Dr Bajram Haliti
30.07. 2019. Years
