The Executive Committee meeting of the World Peace Council was held successfully in Kathmandu, Nepal, on 9-10 November, 2024. The meeting was hosted by the Secretariat Member of the WPC, “Nepal Peace and Solidarity Council”. After the presentation of the speech of the President, and the Reports of the General Secretary, Executive Secretary and the regional reports, a fruitful discussion took place, including a special session on the situation in the Middle East. The WPC Executive Committee discussed the international situation regarding peace and security and expressed its serious concern about the growing imperialist aggressiveness and tensions in many parts of the world.
Below is the communiqué of the meeting. Two resolutions adopted by the Executive Committee are attached.
Communiqué of the Meeting of the Executive Committee
Kathmandu/Nepal, 9-10 November 2024
The Meeting of the WPC Executive Committee successfully took place in Kathmandu on 9th and 10th November 2024. The meeting was hosted by the Secretariat Member of the WPC, “Nepal Peace and Solidarity Council”.
After the presentation of the speech of the President, and the Reports of the General Secretary, Executive Secretary and the regional reports, a fruitful discussion took place, including a special session on the situation in the Middle East.
The WPC Executive Committee discussed the international situation regarding peace and security and expressed its serious concern about the growing imperialist aggressiveness and tensions in many parts of the world.
The WPC Executive Committee met a time when the world is facing serious dangers, including the possibilities of generalized war of global dimensions.
The imperialist powers, led by the United States, are using every violent means-including that of war and genocide in order to maintain their hegemony.
The Executive Committee declared their full-hearted solidarity with the suffering people of Palestine, who are facing for more than one year the brutal attack of the Israeli occupation regime and its army, with almost 43.000 Palestinians killed, one third of them children of minor age. The ongoing cruel massacre of the Palestinian people, including the use of starvation as a weapon of war, is being accompanied by the cynical support of the US administration, the U.K., the European Union, and toleration by many Arab regimes, who claim for Israel the right to “self-defense” while the right to self-determination and self-defense against the occupation are being denied to the Palestinian people. In this context, the WPC expressed its support for the initiative of the South African government to file a case against Israel at the International Court of Justice for the crime of genocide against the Palestinian people and the respective court measures.
This unending slaughter in Palestine must end immediately. The Palestinian Gaza strip has been converted from an “open air prison” into a graveyard for children. The EC demands the end of the occupation of Palestine and declares its support for the establishment of an independent and viable State of Palestine within the borders of pre-4th June 1967 and with East Jerusalem as its capital. The United Nations must adopt the affiliation of Palestine as full Member State. We demand the release of all Palestinian prisoners from Israeli jails and support the right of return for the Palestinian refugees to their homes, as provided in the UN resolution 194. The WPC also demands the end of the occupation of all other Arab territories, in particular the Syrian Golan Heights and the Lebanese territories.
The Executive Committee likewise denounced the Israeli attacks and invasion of Lebanon, the bombardment on Lebanese cities, including Beirut with more than 3.000 people killed and more than 13.000 injured, as well as the airstrikes against Iran by Israel. The WPC condemned the assassination of Palestinian and Lebanese political leaders by Israel, which constitutes state terrorism. The EC of the WPC condemned the attacks Israel has been carrying out against Syria and Yemen for the last several years.
The Executive Committee discussed the NATO-Russia war on the Ukrainian soil, which has been escalating for more than two and half years, and expressed its deep concern about the bloodshed, casualties, and destruction on all sides, particularly about the dangers for a further escalation, which could extend into a war of global dimensions with the possible use of Nuclear Weapons, which would lead to the destruction of humanity. This started in 2014 with the US-NATO-EU-backed Coup in Kiev, the attacks of the Ukrainian regime on the population in the Donbass, and the massacre at the Trade Union building of Odessa in May 2014. But its roots go even further back to the dissolution of the USSR in 1991, which occurred despite the fact that overwhelming majority in the Soviet Union, through a respected referendum, voted in favor of maintaining it.
The WPC took a firm position in February 2022, reaffirmed in its last Assembly, that while we do not agree as a matter of principle with any unilateral change of international borders, we denounce NATO and the governments of its member states for expanding its range eastward and encircling the Russian Federation militarily.
NATO has been fueling this war for more than two years with huge sums of money, military equipment, and political support to the regime of Kiev, which also has the support of neo-fascist and pro-Nazi forces in the Ukraine. The WPC denounces the affiliation of Finland and Sweden into NATO and the plans to deploy 300.000 troops close to the borders of Russia. The recent Ukrainian incursion into Russian soil in Kursk has further escalated the situation, while NATO is planning to deliver long range missiles to Ukraine to target Russian cities.
The WPC calls for an end of all hostilities in this conflict, de-escalation of all military actions, and a politically negotiated solution based on the International Law. The WPC supports the struggle of the peoples in the NATO states for disengagement from it and the dissolution of NATO at the global level. The WPC will continue its campaign “YES to Peace-NO to NATO” and shall explore possibility of our active presence against the next the NATO summit in the Netherlands in 2025.
The Executive Committee expressed its unconditional support to the people of Cuba and its revolution in defending their achievements for more than 65 years.
We express our solidarity with the Cuban people who are suffering from the shortage of electricity due to the economic blockade and the sanctions which do not allow the sufficient import of essential goods needed for the daily life. The WPC demands the lifting of the US blockade,which is the main factor affecting these shortages, and the removal of Cuba from the list of the States Sponsoring Terrorism. We salute the resolution of the UN General Assembly, which, for one more time and overwhelmingly, demanded the lifting of the US blockade against Cuba.
The WPC extends its solidarity to all the peoples struggling for their just causes, in particular with the peoples of Latin America — such as the peoples of Venezuela and Nicaragua — against the imperialist interference in their domestic affairs.
The meeting supported the just cause for the decolonization of Puerto Rico and condemned the multifaceted foreign interventions in Haiti.
The WPC salutes the people of Western Sahara, as the last colony in mainland Africa, in their desire and struggle for self-determination, and supports a free and fair referendum under the UN. We express our solidarity with the peoples of Sudan and DR Congo.
The Executive Committee expressed its serious concern and disagreement with the developments in the Asia Pacific, particularly the plans to form an “Asian NATO” involving the USA, Japan, South Korea, Australia, New Zealand and other countries. This initiative goes alongside the transformation of the QUAD and AUKUS into a military alliance.
The WPC expressed its solidarity with the people of Bangladesh and the recent massive popular protests. Concerns were expressed about the fact that the protests were hijacked by right-wing communal forces that could plunge the country into turmoil which serves objectively the Geo-strategical interests of the USA. The WPC supports the popular demand in Bangladesh for general elections aiming at the restoration of the principles of Democracy, Peace and Secularism, as the expressed values of the Independence struggle.
The EC meeting saluted the people of Sri Lanka for their significant popular uprising and electoral victory with the wishes for success for the sake of their people.
The WPC furthermore welcomed the efforts for reconciliation between India and China with the hope for a positive impact on the peaceful neighboring relations.
The WPC Executive Committee evaluated positively the multiple actions of the WPC member organizations in all regions after the successful 22nd Assembly in Vietnam, with the holding of regional meetings and events in four (4) regions and the respective plans for the coming period, underlining the special importance of:
- To observe in as many countries as possible solidarity actions and events on the International Day in Solidarity with the Palestinian People (29th November).
- An international event for the Cyprus Peace Award (organized by the Cyprus Peace Council) on the occasion of 50 years of the Turkish invasion of Cyprus in combination with the holding of the European regional meeting in December 2024 in Cyprus.
- An International Solidarity Mission to Palestine as soon as the conditions will allow, along with a special WPC poster for Palestine.
- To plan with the Japan Peace Committee the WPC presence and activity around the 80th anniversary of the bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki in August 2025
- To explore the possibility of a solidarity mission to Lebanon and Syria in cooperation with our members and the holding of a WPC [meeting]in Damascus.
- The Anti-NATO actions heading towards its summit in the Netherlands in June 2025 under the WPC campaign “YES to Peace – NO to NATO”.
- To explore the possibility of holding in combination with a WPC meeting also the next International Conference against US/NATO Military Bases.
Furthermore, the WPC underlines the importance of the anniversaries of historical events for the year 2025 such as:
- The 80th anniversary of the Anti-fascist Victory of the Peoples in May
- The 80th anniversary of the United Nations
- The 50th anniversary of the Final Act of Helsinki
- The 75th anniversary of the “Stockholm Appeal”
- The 75th anniversary of the Bandung Conference and the creation of the Non-Aligned Movement.
This year the WPC has celebrated its 75th anniversary with pride. This historical international anti-imperialist organization of the peace movements has written glorious pages in the history of the peoples and their noble struggles for national liberation and social emancipation, and for freedom and human dignity. The WPC has stood, and continues to stand, firm for 75 Years in the Struggle for a World of Peace and Social Justice, always on the side of the Poor and the Oppressed.
Kathmandu, Nepal
10th November 2024
