H.R. 1414 Organizational Sign-on Letter

Distributed by:
Citizens for Global SolutionsPhone: (202) 546-3950
Refugees International Phone: (202) 828-0110

October, 2003

Dear Member of Congress:

We, the undersigned organizations and individuals, urge you to cosponsor and support H.R. 1414, the McGovern-Houghton "International Rule of Law and Antiterrorism Act of 2003." This bill calls for the creation of a United Nations Civilian Police Corps (UNCPC) that would help address the post-conflict security gap, and establish and maintain the rule of law in post-conflict societies. As evident in Afghanistan and Iraq, the need to establish security in post-conflict settings is critical to the success of other activities. Furthermore, the restoration of the rule of law, despite its importance, remains one of the greatest weaknesses of today’s international peace operations.

The current UN Civilian Police (CIVPOL) system results in deployment delays of months and sometimes years. UN CIVPOL contingents are made up of individual police officers from dozens of countries, with widely different policing cultures and training. This system tends to produce inadequately trained police who are barely able to communicate with each other or conduct police operations effectively. Finally, UN CIVPOL operates with little accountability.

All of us witnessed with dismay the violent looting, destruction, and sabotage that followed coalition military action in Iraq. If an effective and impartial police force had been deployed on the heels of coalition forces, many of these problems might have been avoided. Yet, even though lessons learned during the 1990s in Kosovo, East Timor, Haiti and elsewhere taught us that the inability to quickly reestablish the rule of law in war-torn nations can be as dangerous and destabilizing as the wars themselves, a professionalized international CIVPOL still does not exist.

If the U.S. does not want to bear the cost and risk of being the world’s policeman, it must work to develop and train other police forces. If the U.S. does not want to turn its armed forces into police forces, it must help find alternatives. The UN is a logical place to start. With U.S. help and leadership, the UN can develop an international police force that can fill security vacuums quickly without imposing new burdens on U.S. forces.

We are convinced that the UN should have an improved and professional capacity to deal with the post-conflict security gap and the need to restore the rule of law. The UN is the only international body that represents all of the nations of the world. It already has the infrastructure and institutional learning that, with improvement, could administer a professional civilian police corps. A force of well-trained international civil servants would complement the UN's core capacity to deliver humanitarian aid and reconstruct war-torn nations.

The need to restore the rule of law in failed states and post-conflict societies is critically important to the strategic foreign policy goals of the United States. Today’s wars spawn refugees and terrorism, and precipitate worldwide public health crises. They retard development, costing American companies and civil society millions of dollars a year. Conflicts create costly environmental destruction in some of the world’s most ecologically sensitive areas. The costs for humanitarian aid to rebuild after conflicts are soaring ever higher, and far exceed the costs of preventing conflict in the first place. Most importantly, failed states can become safe havens for organized criminal networks and terrorist organizations. The only way to stop this from happening is to go beyond the mere absence of conflict. We must also create the opportunity for peace and democracy, and that requires the rule of law.

Our organizations support H.R. 1414 for many reasons. Some are alarmed with the way our military forces have been stretched thin and given jobs they have not been trained to do, and that should be done by specially trained police officers, not combat soldiers. There is great concern that humanitarian workers in Iraq, Afghanistan, and elsewhere are working in areas where a basic level of security is not present. Still others see the important need to provide citizens and refugees in post-conflict nations a safe environment in which citizens can return to work and school, and rebuild their nations.

While H.R. 1414 does not stipulate a specific framework for a UN CIVPOL Corps, it does require the United States to begin negotiations at the UN to establish a UNCPC and report back to Congress. We believe this is a good first step. We hope you will take this step with us by supporting H.R. 1414.

Sincerely,

Aaron Knight
CEO
Citizens for Global Solutions

Ken Bacon
President
Refugees International

Other signatories on right hand panel.
 

Jerome C. Glenn
Executive Director
American Council for the United Nations University

Peter Gubser
President
American Near East Refugee Aid (ANERA)

Frida Berrigan
Senior Research Associate
Arms Trade Resource Center

Dr. Ian Davis
Director
British-American Security Information Council

Richard Hudson
Executive Director
Center for War/Peace Studies

John Isaacs
President
Council for a Livable World

Lelei LeLaulu
President and Chief Executive Officer
Counterpart International

Joe Volk
Executive Secretary
Friends Committee on National Legislation

Maurice Paprin
Co-Chair
The Fund For New Priorities in America

Dr. Gregory H. Stanton
President
Genocide Watch

Saul Mendlovitz
Global Action to Prevent War

Virginia Swain
Director
Institute for Global Leadership

Doug Brooks
President
International Peace Operations Association

Dr. Arthur B. Keys, Jr.
President
International Relief and Development, Inc. (IRD)

Dr. George Rupp
President and CEO
International Rescue Committee

John Burroughs
Executive Director
Lawyers' Committee on Nuclear Policy

Nancy Lindborg
Vice President
MercyCorps

Esther Pineda
Acting National Coordinator
NETWORK, A National Catholic Social Justice Lobby

David Krieger
President
Nuclear Age Peace Foundation

Richard Walden
President & CEO
Operation USA

Raymond C. Offenheiser
President
Oxfam America

Sarah Newhall
President and CEO
Pact

Kevin Martin
Executive Director
Peace Action Education Fund

Edie Wilkie
President
Peace Through Law Education Fund

Robert K. Musil, Ph.D., MPH
Executive Director and CEO
Physicians for Social Responsibility

Beverly L. Blum
Executive Director
Solar Cookers International

Ambassador (ret.) Jonathan Dean
Adviser on International Security Issues
Union of Concerned Scientists

Jaydee Hanson
Assistant General Secretary
United Methodist General Board of Church and Society

Irving Stolberg
President
Connecticut Division
United Nations Association, USA

Trevor Findlay
Executive Director
Verification Research, Training, and Information Centre (VERTIC)

Katie Verlin Laatikainen*
Professor
Departments of International Studies and Political Science
Adelphi University

Charles T. Call, Ph.D.*
Director
Governance in War-Torn Societies Project
Brown University

Thomas J. Biersteker*
Director
Watson Institute for International Studies
Brown University

Kathryn C. Lavelle*
Assistant Professor
Department of Political Science
Case Western Reserve University

Bill Rose*
Chair, Department of Government
Connecticut College

Michael J. Kelly*
Assistant Professor of Law
Creighton University

Martha Finnemore*
Director of Graduate Studies
George Washington University

Ian Hurd*
Assistant Professor of Political Science
Northwestern University.

Chadwick F. Alger*
Professor of Political Science
Ohio State University

David T. Ives*
Executive Director
Albert Schweitzer Institute
Quinnipiac University

Robert A. Rubinstein*
Director
Program on the Analysis and Resolution of Conflicts
The Maxwell School
Syracuse University

Michael J. Struett*
School of Social Sciences
University of California, Irvine

Isebill V. Gruhn*
Professor of Politics, Emerita
University of California, Santa Cruz

Joseph P. Baratta*
Assistant Professor
History and Political Science Dept.
Worcester State College

* institution included for identification purposes only