The Committee of Seven for World Peace Appeal
26 April 2004

The confusion keeps increasing in the conflicts of Iraq and Palestine. 　Many peaceful citizens are becoming the victims of these conflicts, including quite a number of children. Many citizens are coerced or interned for a long time. It is guilt to ignore this grave situation.
We, the Committee of Seven, address the following appeal to the people in Japan and in the World at large.

1. The Protection of the Security of Citizens to be Victims of the Use of Armed Forces in Antagonistic Situations:
We demand the immediate cessation of all military violence, whether by non-State actors or by States, causing indiscriminate killing, coercion and internment of peaceful citizens.
We strongly affirm that the principles of human security, including the protection of human rights, the rule of law and democratic governance should prevail. 　We demand that all concerned parties renounce national policies contradicting these principles.
We oppose especially the military intimidation and control policies of the Occupation Forces of Iraq led by the United States as is manifested in Falluja and elsewhere.

2. The Strengthening of the Role of the United Nations in the Peaceful Solution of Conflicts:
All the member States of the United Nations are required by Article 2.3 and 2.4 to settle their international disputes by peaceful means and to refrain from the threat or use of force. This is to follow the spirit of the Kellog-Briand Pact which banned wars and agreed to solve all differences through peaceful means in 1929.
Present confusion in Iraq shows that no military power can solve any dispute, international and national. We call upon all foreign occupation troops in Iraq to withdraw from the territory and upon the United Nations to come to help the people of the country.
We call upon the United Nations and upon all its member States to declare that they will renounce the use of armed force as a means to achieve their State policies, and to stop all wars, including internal wars, signing a new Anti-War Convention stipulating the penalization of all violating parties.

3. The Recognition of the pioneering Role of the Peace Constitution of Japan:
The Constitution of Japan denies to the State the possession of military force and the right to wage war. Costa Rica forbids itself to maintain a standing army. The pioneering role of these countries in line with the Kellog-Briand Pact must be recognized.
We call upon all the States of the world to follow their example, as was declared by the Citizen’s Conference on the Hague Peace Appeal.
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The Committee of Seven for World Peace Appeal was established in Japan in 1955. Since then 71 appeals were addressed to Japanese and World community. All appeals have been based on humanity and peaceful spirit of the Japanese Constitution. The past members include Hideki Yukawa (Nobel Laureate in physics in 1949), Sin-itiro Tomonaga (Nobel Laureate in physics in 1965) and Yasunari Kawabata (Nobel Laureate in literature in 1968).

Contact to:
Professor Michiji Konuma
Secretary General
The Committee of Seven for World Peace Appeal
fax : +81-45-891-8386
e-mail : mkonuma254@m4.dion.ne.jp