International Statement on Peace and Social Justice

The Issue

Whilst the threat of a nuclear holocaust has receded with the end of the Cold War, the reality remains that nuclear powers retain stocks of weaponry sufficient to kill every known human being in the world many times over. Expenditure on arms continues to grow. Less developed countries are diverting resources from urgently needed social development programmes to military build-up. In Africa and in Asia people starve while governments engage in military conflicts.

For social workers, the issues of peace and social justice are interlinked. Without a radical reappraisal of priorities throughout the world, millions will continue to live in extreme poverty. Such poverty is a denial of the human spirit. It limits the potential of human development. Physical poverty is matched by poor nutrition, poor health and poor education.

Each day social workers engage with the consequences of conflict - sometimes between two individuals, sometimes between groups and communities, and sometimes at national and international level. They know the destructive power of conflict and its capacity to bring heartache and despair in its wake. Social workers devote their energies to the peaceful resolution of conflicts. They are committed to social development and the achievement of social justice in which all living in a country are able to realise their full potential regardless of income, class, caste, religion, race or ethnicity.

The social work profession therefore at international and national level has to direct its energies to the realisation of a world free from conflict in which its vision of the future can be realised.

Background

Social work values assert the unique worth of the individual. The right to life is the most basic of human rights. Yet human history not yet progressed to the point where peaceful resolution of differences is universally accepted. the brave hopes in the United Nations as the embodiment of a commitment to world peace have not been realised. Military conflict is still the way in which member states of the UN seek to resolve serious differences over territory or national identity. And even those states not immediately involved in conflict invest heavily in armaments with stockpiles of weapons at a level to destroy the planet. The sophisticated technology now in use heightens, rather than reduces, the risk of nuclear accident because of the dangers of the hitherto unknown viruses or mutations destroying internal system safeguards.

The trade in arms is a major source of income for the advanced industrial societies. It cheapens life. The resources, the ingenuity and creativity, and the government support on arms could transform social development in the world. It could provide food, water supply, housing, health care and basic education.

Social justice requires a massive shift in resources from North to South. It requires redirection of investment into socially productive activities. It requires moral leadership asserting the need for redistribution between and within societies so that adequate living standards for all could be attained. In other words, it requires and inversion of the current concentration of wealth and resources in global multi-national enterprises which pursue shareholder value rather than social justice.

Policy Statement

IFSW will work in collaboration with the United Nations and international human rights organisations to promote peace and social justice.

IFSW will campaign for redistribution of resources from military usage to social development.

IFSW will promote the concepts of mediation and arbitration to secure the peaceful resolutions of conflicts between nations.

IFSW will work with the International Association of Schools of Social Work (IASSW) to promote curriculum development in social work schools to include conflict resolution techniques.

IFSW will collect information from its member associations to detail and document the impact on social development of excessive expenditure on arms.

IFSW reasserts its long-standing commitment to peace and non-violence, and its belief that the promotion of social justice can only be achieved through non-violent change.

IFSW calls upon member associations to press their national governments to pledge:
a) a reduction in arms expenditure
b) an increase in social development expenditure
c) renewed commitment to conflict resolution through the United Nations.


Adopted by the IFSW General Meeting in Montréal, Canada, July 2000