To: His Excellency Mr António Guterres, Secretary-General of the United Nations
CC: Relevant UN institutions
Re: The UN mandate must be enforced against the most rapacious power today, the USA
Dear Sir,
We the undersigned, write to demand the United Nations take any and all measures to fulfil its foundational mandate:
o To keep peace throughout the world;
o To develop friendly relations among nations;
o To help nations work together to improve the lives of poor people, to conquer hunger, disease and illiteracy, and to encourage respect for each other’s rights and freedoms;
o To be a centre for harmonizing the actions of nations to achieve these goals.
All of these noble aims, and the last vestiges of legitimacy the United Nations and its bodies have, are under imminent threat due to the rapacious actions of the United States.
• Generational violence and the escalation of the current times
The damage done by the US’ violence and hybrid warfare against other states is not new. Its employment of soft power narratives, and with all due respect, a total failure of courage from your predecessors to challenge the false narratives underpinning the US’ egregious actions since 1945, are well documented. The impact of this violence is lived daily in the aftermath of violence: poverty, social breakdown, immiseration of whole populi, mass health and environmental degradation: from the effects of Little Boy and Fat Man on the millions devastated by the atomic bombs in Japan, to the generations deformed (in the US as well as Vietnam and it surrounds) by Agent Orange and other chemical agents, to the ongoing degradations of social, political and environmental life in West Asia, the genesis of these crimes can clearly be laid at the US’ door.
Not least among these crimes is the cover and material support provided to the Israeli regime to undertake a genocide, wherein at least 70,000 are recorded as killed, and where the possible actual death toll (according to medical experts, and announced by your own rapporteur) can be as high as 680,000, of which 380,000 are estimated to be children under the age of five. The UN’s impotence in the face of this genocide and the US’ cover for it, have already lowered your credibility to unprecedented levels. The failure to do more than speak whilst a genocide occurs, and fail to countermand in any meaningful way the attacks on the International Criminal Court and its personnel for attempting to pursue perpetrators through international channels of justice, as well as your own staff and rapporteurs who have taken any stance condemnatory of the genocide, has exposed your office and the United Nations per se to humiliation in the eyes of the peoples and nations of this world who yearn for the peace and harmony your mandate claims to uphold.
• Violation of international laws and norm
From Vietnam to Iraq, Afghanistan to Nicaragua, Syria, Libya, Iran and Venezuela, there are so many examples of the US’ violation of the UN’s prescription on the ‘threat or use of force against the territorial integrity or political independence of any state, or in any other manner inconsistent with the Purposes of the United Nations’ (in fact, so numerous are the violations that a full list cannot be compiled for the purposes of a short statement). In doing so, the US has repeatedly ridden roughshod over the mechanisms available to the Security Council to prevent such abuses, oftentimes manipulating the process to serve its nefarious interests and at other times simply ignoring it. Indeed, its own announcement of an ‘international rules-based order’ since 1991, was itself a promotion of the US as the sole international power, arrogating to itself powers that should be held only by the UN. We have seen only in these past few weeks that the US’ allies have now admitted that such an ‘order’ was simply a cover for US empire, one that the US no longer feels it is necessary to hold onto.
Sir, the pretence is over, admitted by the US itself, that it is anything other than a maniacal power-hungry, violent entity that oppresses its own citizens and inhabitants, and simultaneously wreaks havoc across the world in pursuit of power and resources. It brazenly sets out to commit the supreme international crime of war, almost daily.
There is no time left for the United Nations to tarry. The time for action is now. The responsibility is yours.
• The need for the UN to act
Sir, we live in a moment and age, where the need for such cover as has been provided by a client media in the US and its allies, has been dispensed with by this arrogant entity. In the last few weeks alone the US has kidnapped a head of state and his wife in Venezuela, all the while threatening other regional actors; bombed Nigeria in a new round of escalated violence in West Africa dubbed by regional actors as the ‘second scramble for Africa’; threatened with the full force of its military might another war on Iran, including the option of assassinating its heads of state; and even threatened to colonise an existing colony of one of its own allies, namely Greenland.
Sir, despite the stymying of the United Nations by the US’s security council veto, many options remain on the UN’s table. These include all the necessary statements and actions from your various bodies, required to isolate this regime of terror on the international stage. Whether by General Assembly resolution, the investigation into genocide and other crimes by the UCJ, or (through the relationship with the UN) the investigative actions of the ICC, or any of the other measures in the UN’s gamut, the US can be made an actual pariah, and the environment within which the other nations of the world can take the relevant actions, such as the imposition of sanctions on the US, to curtail its freedom to wanton violence, occupation and the various colonial ills and crimes it continues to undertake.
If the will exists there can be more ways that the UN can bring the weight of the moral authority resting in its charter to bear on the US and those who still support its crimes.
• UN Complicity in some of the worst crimes
There can be no shying away from action now. Whether by words or actions, the UN’s history regarding US power has helped create the situation we are in today. The UN has hitherto complied with or buckled to the US’ agenda to the extent that state’s rights to self-defence as enshrined in the UN’s charter, have been condemned and curtailed in the service of the US’ diktat or interests. Your recent rebuke of the US in the case of Venezuela was too little too late when thirty years of repeated US backed coup attempts have elicited little in the way of condemnation. Accordingly, the scene was set for more aggressive action directly by the US, as we have seen in the last few weeks,
We saw this in the numerous resolutions making an equivalence between Iran and Iraq during the eight-year war in the 1980s, which the UN eventually held Iraq to be the instigator of. Those words have hidden the true nature of war crimes committed against the Iranian forces and people, and have helped foment a false narrative around the Islamic Republic of Iran that is currently feeding the US-led march to war. We saw this in the arms embargo on the republics of the former Yugoslavia which prevented the newly formed Bosnian state in the 1990s from defending itself against the military might of the Serbian forces who had retained Yugoslavia’s military hardware. The genocide that ensued remains a stain on the UN’s reputation.
The UN’s sanctions regimes have brought untold misery to millions of civilians worldwide. Yet, the US, its elites, the administration and its backers comprising arms manufacturers, oil companies and others who feed on the wars and violence the US brings in its wake, have felt little or no effect, not even words of condemnation from your offices.
This cannot continue. For the UN to survive, it must relinquish all vestiges of thraldom to the US. Urgent action is required to stop the world we live in from being plunged into more violence and mayhem by the actions of this most arrogant of its states.
The failure of the UN to act now will be its end. It will also herald a new epoch of grand lawlessness. We demand you act now, or forever be associated with the nightmare that will inevitably come through your inaction.
Yours faithfully,
1. Sheikh Ibraheem Zakzaky (Nigeria)
Founder and Leader of the Islamic Movement in Nigeria
2. Pr. Richard Falk (USA)
Professor Emeritus of International Law at Princeton University and former UN Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in the Palestinian territories occupied since 1967 (2008 – 2014)
3. Pr. Avi Shlaim (UK)
Professor Emeritus of International Relations and Historian at St Antony’s College of the Oxford University
4. Pr. Yanis Varoufakis (Greece)
Former Minister of Finance, economist and professor at the Universities of London, Sydny and Athens
5. Christopher Williamson (UK)
Former Shadow Minister for Communities and Local Government (2010 to 2013), Former member of Parliament for 7 years, former leader of Derby City Council
6. Iurie Roșca (Moldova)
Former Deputy Prime Minister and former member of parliament for almost 2 decades
7. Pr. Hamid Algar (USA)
Professor Emeritus of Persian studies at the University of California, Berkeley
8. Pr. Boaventura de Sousa Santos (Portugal)
Professor Emeritus of Sociology at the School of Economics of the University of Coimbra, Distinguished Legal Scholar at the University of Wisconsin-Madison Law School
9. Pr. Ramón Grosfoguel (USA)
Sociologist and Professor Emeritus at the Department of Ethnic Studies at the University of California, Berkeley
10. Pr. Halford H. Fairchild (USA)
Professor Emeritus of Psychology at Pitzer College and The Claremont Colleges
11. Pr. James H. Fetzer (USA)
McKnight Professor Emeritus of the Philosophy of Science at the University of Minnesota Duluth
12. Pr. Lawrence Davidson (USA)
Professor Emeritus of Middle East History at West Chester University
13. Pr. Saied Reza Ameli (Islamic Republic of Iran)
Professor of Communication, Founder and Dean of the Faculty of World Studies at the University of Tehran, Head of the UNESCO Chair on Cyberspace and Culture, Journal of Cyberspace Studies
14. Cynthia McKinney (USA)
First African American Congresswoman from Georgia (6 terms), professor at North South University
15. Saeed Mirza (India)
Renowned Scriptwriter, Director of 18 movies, winner of 6 movie awards
16. Saeed Naqvi (India)
Veteran Columnist who has written several publications for BBC News, The Sunday Observer, The Sunday Times, The Guardian, Washington Post, The Indian Express
17. Pr. Abbas Edalat (UK)
Professor of Computer Science and Mathematics at Imperial College London and founder of the Science and Arts Foundation (SAF) and Campaign against Sanctions, Military and Imperial Interventions (CASMII)
18. Tommy Sheridan (Scotland)
Former Member of the Parliament, Former Convenor of Solidarity, Former Convenor of Scottish Socialist Party, Former Glasgow City Councillor
19. Pr. Mazin B. Qumsiyeh (Palestine)
Biologist and Director of the Palestine Museum of Natural History and the Palestine Institute for Biodiversity and Sustainability at Bethlehem University
20. Pr. Jean Bricmont (Belgium)
Theoretical Physicist and Philosopher of Science, Professor at the Catholic University of Louvain
21. Pr. Haim Bresheeth (UK)
Retired Professorial Research Associate Professor of Film, Media and Cultural Studies, and Visual Culture at the School of SOAS, the University of East London, Campaign Against Misrepresentation in Public Affairs
22. Pr. Maria Poumier (France)
Former Professor at the University of Paris (Sorbonne), Professor at University of Havana
23. Sara Flounders (USA)
Co-director of the International Action Center and Secretariat Member of the Workers World Party
24. Pr. Antonio Carmona Báez (Puerto Rica)
President at University of St. Martin, Professor of International Relations and the Political Economy of Development
25. Pr. Achin Vanaik (India)
Former Professor at the University of Delhi and Fellow of the Transnational Institute (Amsterdam), author of numerous books and social activist
26. Pr. Gabriele Dietrich (Germany)
Sociologist, Philosopher and professor at the Tamil Nadu Theological Seminary, affiliated to the nation’s first University, the Senate of Serampore College
27. Zafrul Islam Khan (India)
editor of The Milli Gazette, Former chairman of Delhi Minority Commission, 113K twitter
28. Pr. Paulina Aroch Fugellie (Mexico)
Professor at the Department of Humanities, Metropolitan Autonomous University
29. Pr. Bruno Drweski (France)
Professor at the National Institute of Oriental Languages and Civilizations (Université Paris-Cité)
30. Pr. Guillermo Barreto (Venezuela)
Biologist and Retired full professor of the Organisms Biology Department of Simón Bolívar University
31. Dr. Jennifer Loewenstein (USA)
Retired professor and ex-Associate Director of Middle East Studies at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, author at The Journal of Palestine Studies and CounterPunch
32. Dr. Michael Springmann (USA)
Former Diplomat in Germany and KSA, Attorney and Counsellor at Law
33. Cindy Sheehan (USA)
“Peace Mom”, Antiwar Activist and author, 2012 vice-presidential nominee of the Peace and Freedom Party
34. Samu Tamás Gergő (Hungary)
Former Member of Parliament
35. Imam Suhaib Webb (USA)
Former imam of the Islamic Society of Boston Cultural Center, Former Resident Scholar of the Islamic Center of New York University, founder of Ella Collins Institute
36. Daniel Estulin (Lithuania)
Writer and international speaker, author of “The True Story of the Bilderberg Group”
37. Pr. Andrea Meza Torres (Mexico)
Professor at the Department of Anthropology, Metropolitan Autonomous University
38. Niranjan Takle (India)
Youtuber, Electronics Engineer by training and journalist, Youtube channel 222k
39. Massoud Shadjareh (UK)
Chair of Islamic Human Rights Commission-London, holding consultative status at the UN Department of Economic and Social Affairs
40. David Rovics (USA)
Singer and songwriter whose music concerns both topical subjects such as US imperialistic war in Middle East, anti-globalization, anarchism, and social justice issues, and also labour history
41. Dr. Yvonne Ridley (UK)
Candidate of the 2026 Scottish parliamentary elections, Secretary General of European Muslim League, ex-President of the International Muslim Women’s Union
42. Dr. Zakia Soman (India)
Former Professor of Business Communication at the University of Gujrat, Founder of Bharatiya Muslim Mahila Andolan (BMMA) an NGO on women’s rights, member of South Asian Alliance for Poverty Eradication (SAAPE)
43. Pr. Aftab Kamal Pasha (India)
Director of Gulf Studies Program Centre for West Asian Studies at the School of International Studies, Jawaharlal Nehru University, Former professor at Aligarh Muslim University, former Research Fellow at Cairo University
44. Dr. Mateusz Piskorski (Poland)
Former professor at University of Szczecin, Jan Długosz University, ex MP, Co-founder of the European Center of Geopolitical Analysis, ex representative of the Polish Parliament in the Assembly of Western European Union
45. Dr. Konrad Rekas (Poland – Scotland)
Lecturer at Nottingham Trent University
46. Shabnam Hashmi (India)
Social activist and Human Rights Campaigner, Cofounder of ANHAD (Act Now for Harmony and Democracy)
47. Dr. Cedric Prakash (India)
Visiting Professor, Priest, member of the Society of Jesus (Jesuits) of Gujarat, Founder of Jesuit Centre for Human Rights, Justice and Peace, named Chevalier of the Legion of Honor, Winner of various award for humanitarian activities
48. Dr. Revd. Stephen Sizer (UK)
Former Vicar of Christ Church of Virginia Water in Surrey and director of the Peacemaker Trust
49. Medha Patkar (India)
Co-founder of the National Alliance of People’s Movements (NAPM): an alliance of hundreds of progressive people’s organizations, focusing on injustice faced by tribals, dalits, farmers, labourers and women
50. Dr. E. Michael Jones (USA)
Former Professor at Saint Mary’s College (Indiana), founder of Culture Wars Magazine
51. Rev. Dave Smith (Australia)
Anglican priest, Social Educator, Boxer, 2022 Candidate in Federal Election from United Australia Party
52. Prashant Bhushan (India)
Public Interest Lawyer in the Supreme Court, member of the faction of the India Against Corruption (IAC) movement known as Team Anna
53. Dr. Kevin J. Barrett (USA)
Arabist-Islamologist Scholar, former Professor at the University of Wisconsin-Madison
54. Dr. Christian Bouchet (France)
Anthropologist, Former Politician and Antiwar Activist
55. Dr. Munyaradzi Mushonga (South Africa)
Director for the Africa Studies Program in the Centre for Gender & Africa Studies at the University of the Free State
56. Dr. Lorenzo Maria Pacini (Italy)
Head of the Department of Geopolitics at UniDolomiti of Belluno and professor at Libera Università
57. Javed Anand (India)
Founder of Indian Muslims for Secular Democracy (IMSD), Founder of Sabrang Communications, co-editor of the monthly Communalism Combat
58. Dr. Denijal Jegić (Lebanon)
Professor of communication in the Department of Communication at Lebanese American University
59. Dr. Yacob MAHI (Belgium)
Theologian and Islamologist, Professor of Islamic Studies
60. Dr. Saeed Khan (USA)
Associate Professor of Teaching in Near Eastern Studies at Wayne State University & Research Fellow at Center for Study of Citizenship
61. Pr. Soumya Dutta (India)
Assistant Professor of Computer Science and Engineering, Indian Institute of Technology, key coordinator of MAUSAM (Movement for Advancing Understanding on Sustainability And Mutuality) coalition of more than 40 organizations & networks
62. Dr. Ellen Cantarow (USA)
Journalist and author at The Nation, Counterpunch, ZNet, TomDispatch and Common Dreams
63. Amaresh Misra (India)
Author, Researcher, Scriptwriter, Expert on West Asian Affairs, winner of the Jasarat Award by the Urdu Press Club of India gave in 2007
64. Dr. Michael Spath (USA)
Executive Director of Indiana Center for Middle East Peace
65. Malaika Mathew Chawla (India)
Ecologist and Member of National Alliance for Climate and Ecological Justice (NACEJ)
66. Greta Berlin (USA)
Co-founder of the Free Gaza movement, Speaker of The 2010 Gaza Freedom Flotilla
67. Sandew Hira (Netherlands)
Founder of Decolonial International Network known for his Decolonial Theory, Director of International Institute for Scientific Research
68. B. G. Kolse Patil (India)
Social Reformer and Former Judge
69. Paul Larudee (USA)
Co-founder of the Free Gaza movement, Passenger of the 2010 Gaza Freedom Flotilla
70. Robert Fantina (Canada)
Board Member of Canadian Voices for Palestinian Rights
71. Dragana Trifković (Serbia)
Director General of the Center for Geostrategic Studies in Belgrade
72. Hafsa Kara-Mustapha (UK)
Journalist and Author, Expert of North Africa and UK relationship
73. Lalita Ramdas (India)
Human Rights and pro-Nuclear Disarmament campaigner, Board Chair of GreenPeace India, Supporter of of Alternative Education, Gender Sensitivity and Secularism
74. Caleb Maupin (USA)
Founder of Center for Political Innovation, Journalist
75. Tushar Gandhi (India)
President of Mahatma Gandhi Foundation, Trustee at Maharashtra Gandhi Smarak Nidhi
76. Sagar Dhara (India)
Founder of South Asian People’s Action on Climate Change (SAPACC) on energy transformations, risk analysis, environmental impacts of industry; ex Environmental Engineering Consultant to the UN Environment Programme
77. Margherita Furlan (Italy)
Journalist and director of Casa Del Sole TV
78. Zafar Bangash (Canada)
Director Institute of Contemporary Islamic Thought in Toronto
79. Eric Walberg (Canada)
Geopolitical Expert and Author
80. Jacob Cohen (France)
Academic, Novelist and Antiwar Activist
81. Gearóid O Colmáin (Ireland)
Paris-based Geopolitical Analyst and Author
82. Arnaud Develay (USA)
Lawyer Political consultant and human rights defender
83. Richard Haley (UK)
Chair of Scotland Against Criminalising Communities
84. José Romero Losacco (Venezuela)
Researcher at the Venezuelan Scientific Research Institute
85. Iqbal Jassat (South Africa)
Executive Member of Media Review Network
86. Gordon Duff (USA)
Vietnam War Veteran and Antiwar Activist
87. Thami Mortada (Belgium)
Director of Justice sans Frontières (JSF)
88. Feroze Mithiborwala (India)
Gen. secretary India Palestine Solidarity
89. Mick Napier (UK)
Spokesman for Scottish Palestine Solidarity Campaign
90. Lucien Cerise (France)
Author of Governing by Chaos, Antiwar activist
91. Dr. K. Babu Rao (India)
Retired Senior Scientist at Indian Institute of Chemical Technology
92. Pr. Abdullahi Danladi (Nigeria)
Professor at Polymer and Textile Engineering at Ahmadu Bello University
93. Pr. Isa H Mshelgaru (Nigeria)
Professor at Ahmadu Bello University
94. Pr. Aminu yabo (Nigeria)
Professor of Parasitology, Usmanu Danfodiyo University
95. Pr. Yahaya Sokoto (Nigeria)
Professor of Entomology at Usmanu Danfodiyo University Sokoto
96. Pr. Dauda Nalado (Nigeria)
Professor of Agricultural & Environmental at Bayero University of Kano
97. Dr. Lawal Dahiru Rogo (Nigeria)
Professor of Medical Laboratory Science at Bayero University of Kano
98. Dr. Maimuna Husain (Nigeria)
Associate Professor and Senior Lecturer at Bayero University Kano
99. Dr. Yushau Shaikh Uthman Esq (Nigeria)
Professor of Private and Property Law and Head of Department at University of Abuja
100. Dr. Fatima Ismail (Nigeria)
Associate Professor at Ahmadu Bello University
101. Muhammad Rabbani (UK)
Managing Director CAGE International, Cage Advocacy Group for Empowerment
102. Rajiv Sinha (UK)
Coordinator of Hindus for Human Rights
103. Meera Sanghamitra (India)
Representative of All India Feminist Alliance (ALIFA) and member of the National Alliance of People’s Movements (NAPM)
104. Rajesh Ramakrishnan (India)
Managing Director at Perfetti Van Melle India with over 25 years of experience in General Management, Sales and Marketing, member of the Indian Community Activists Network (ICAN)
105. Barrister Mohideen Abdul Kader (Malaysia)
Lawyer and Director of Citizens International
106. Dr. Leonid Savin (Russia)
Chief editor of Geopolitika.ru (from 2008), founder and chief editor of Journal of Eurasian Affairs
107. Kerem Ali (UK)
Spokesperson of Palestine Pulse
108. Sajjad Kargili (India)
Representative of Jamiat-ul-Ulama Isna Asharia, a socio-religious institution of Kargil
109. Abbas Ali (UK)
InMinds Human Rights Group
110. Manu Kaushik (India)
On behalf of IRMAns for India (75 alumni of the Institute of Rural Management Anand)
111. Ashraf Zaidi (India)
Editor of The Leaders Magazine
112. Dr. Tasleem Ahmed Rehmani (India)
Member of Social Democratic Party of India, Social Activist
113. Dr. G G Parikh (India)
Veteran Freedom Fighter and Chairman Yusuf Meherally Centre
114. Gurbir Singh (India)
Veteran Journalist and Former President of Mumbai Press Club
115. Ramchandra Rahi (India)
President of Gandhi Nidhi dedicated to commemorating Mahatma Gandhi and his ideals
116. Dr. Suresh Khairnar (India)
Former President of Rashtriya Sewa Dal & IPSF
117. Pr. Habib Danmalam (Nigeria)
Academician and Political Activist
118. Shyam Dada Gaikwad (India)
President of Progressive Republican Party of India (Secular Party)
119. Ravi Kanneganti (India)
Founder of Telangana People’s Joint Action Committee (TPJAC)
120. Faizul Hasan (India)
Director of International Democratic Rights Foundation (IDRF)
121. Binu Matthew (India)
Editor of Countercurrents.org
122. Pr. Anand Kumar (India)
President of Citizens for Democracy
123. Dave Cannon (UK)
Chair of Jewish Network for Palestine
124. Pr. Rakesh Rafique (India)
Mentor, Yuva Watan
125. Norma Hashim (Malysia)
treasurer of Viva Palestina Malaysia
126. Guddi S.L (India)
Managing Editor at Janata Weekly
127. Hananya Sunderraj (India)
Expert in International Law
128. Pr. Maigandi Usman (Nigeria)
Academician and Political Activist
129. Saidi Nordine (Belgium)
Co-spokesperson of Bruxelles Pantheres
130. Pr. Bala Abdullahi (Nigeria)
Academician and Political Activist
131. Mouhad Reghif (Belgium)
Co-spokesperson of Bruxelles Pantheres
132. Dr. Bdullah Buba (Nigeria)
Academician and Political Activist
133. Qamar Agha (India)
Veteran Journalist and Expert on West Asian Affairs
134. Dr. Husaini Abdullahi Farawa (Nigeria)
Academician and Political Activist
135. Nikita Naidu (India)
Climate, Social and Political Activist and Social Worker
136. Dr. Magaji Manu (Nigeria)
Academician and Political Activist
137. Ram Dheeraj (India)
Veteran Sarvodaya Gandhian Peace Activist
138. Dr. Mukhtar Dunari (Nigeria)
Academician and Political Activist
139. Muhammad Nihad (India)
PhD Candidate at the Department of Humanities and Social Sciences, Indian Institute of Technology
140. Dr. Siraj Alqasim Kazaure (Nigeria)
Academician and Political Activist
141. Shashi Shekhar Singh (India)
General Secretary of Citizens for Democracy
142. Dr. Ahmad Kazaure (Nigeria)
Academician and Political Activist
143. Ram Dheeraj (India)
Veteran Sarvodaya Gandhian Peace Activist
144. Dr. Shuaibu Sara (Nigeria)
Academician and Political Activist
145. Dr. Abdulkareem Usama (Nigeria)
Academician and Political Activist
