Responding to terrorism: guidelines for effective action. (20-Minute Peace Workout).

Please use this statement to send a letter to Prime Minister Jean Chretien with copies to John Manley, Minister of Foreign Affairs; Art Eggleton, Minister of National Defence; and your own Member of Parliament (House of Commons, Ottawa, Ontario, K1A 0A6, postage free. Email addresses are: [e-mail], Manley. [e-mail], and [e-mail]. For your Member of Parliament, use the email address form: [e-mail].) We would also appreciate receiving a copy of your letter at [e-mail].

I urge the Government of Canada to give careful consideration to the following seven guidelines in responding to the September 11 attacks in New York and Washington.

1. Accountability

The perpetrators of these horrific crimes must be brought to justice. This imperative is rooted in the principle of accountability, not revenge. Accountability requires that all who commit acts of terror and other crimes against humanity be brought to justice regardless of where they or their victims may be.

2. Observing due process

For reasons of justice, and political and moral legitimacy, "due process" is required in bringing the accused to justice. The United Nations and its Security Council are the primary custodians of "due process" in the international community. Actions against or within a sovereign state without the consent of that state require Security Council authorization. The internationalization of other legal proceedings would also strengthen the cause of "due process."

3. Making interdependence work

The world is interdependent. If the world itself is unsafe, it is impossible to build enduring islands of safety within it The long-term international effort to reduce and prevent terrorism will require a strong commitment to cooperative interdependence. Canada, with its longstanding multilateralism, can help the United States to understand the need for mutual cooperation, including support for a Comprehensive (nuclear) Test-Ban Treaty, the Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty, the Kyoto environmental protocol, an International Criminal Court, small arms controls, verification measures for the biological weapons ban, and other common security measures.

4. Addressing underlying issues

Canada must help the world to hear and address situations of injustice, protracted conflict and other grievances that may lie behind the acts of terror without thereby condoning terrorism. Just as a serious crime reduction effort must go beyond increased police work to address relevant economic and social conditions, so a campaign against terrorism must address the social, economic, and political conditions in which it takes root.

5. Restraining the resort to force

The surviving individuals responsible for the September 11 attacks are now fugitives from justice. They must be pursued according to international law, but this does not require, and must not include, broad military attacks.

6. Maintaining Canadian commitments

Canada must resist pressures to clamp down on refugees and immigrants, increase military spending at the expense of social programs, reduce access to information, or undertake measures that would erode fundamental rights and freedoms and needed social programs.

7. Deepening our global perspective

Tragically, such horrific attacks against civilians as those on September 11 are compounded by wars and conflicts in many parts of the world. Most of the victims of armed conflict are civilian non-combatants. In many instances they are killed with arms provided by northern democratic states. In some instances, they are killed by military attacks carried out by those states. The emerging campaign against terrorism should become a genuine effort to advance the safety and well-being of all people (human security) wherever they are threatened.

(NOTE: This statement is adapted from a September 21, 2001 letter from the Canadian Council of Churches to Prime Minister Chretien. Copies of the full text and related material are available on the web site of Project Ploughshares [www.ploughshares.ca].)