Toward the Coexistance of Nations and States, remarks by Rudolph C. Ryser before the Moscow Conference on Indigenous Peoples' Rights Sept. 13-18, 1993
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DOCUMENT: MOSCOW93.TXT
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Center For World Indigenous Studies
P.O. Box 2574
Olympia, Washington 98507-2574
U.S.A.
Telephone: 206/705-2079 Fax: 206/956-1087
Remarks Before the
Moscow Conference on Indigenous Peoples' Rights
September 13 - 18, 1993 Moscow, Russian Federation
T O W A R D T H E C O E X I S T E N C E O F
N A T I O N S A N D S T A T E S
Rudolph C. Ryser, Chairman
Center for World Indigenous Studies
Copyright 1993 CWIS
A new era is emerging where nations and states must seek early
accommodation and cooperation to avoid a future of conflict that would
plunge nations and states into a period of darkness. It is no
accident that after the collapse of several of the worlds' more
prominent states long persistent bedrock nations re-emerge to claim
their responsibility as full members of the international community.
The lessons we must collectively learn from the experience of
political events over the last three years include these: [1] The
State system is not perfect, it is an experiment of human problem-
solving that does not always lend itself well to solving problems for
all of humanity. [2] Nations are natural human organisms which
persist and must have an acknowledged place as active participants in
international intercourse coexisting with states. [3] Where States
exist and serve the needs of human society they should be nurtured and
celebrated, but where States fail to serve the needs of human society,
they should be allowed to disassemble in a planned process which
permits the nations within to systematically reassume their governing
responsibilities. [4] If a State is no longer viable politically and
economically and it does not have distinct nations within, its
structure should be replaced temporarily with international
supervision followed by the formation of an internationally recognized
variant of human organizational structures deemed appropriate to the
extant human cultures and geography of an area such as a trust
territory, freely associated state, commonwealth, or other
configuration established for a protected population; such a non-self-
governing status must have the potential of being changed to a self-
governing status in the future. Finally, [5] Nations which do not wish
to remain within an existing state, must have the logical option of
changing their political status through peaceful negotiations.
As of the present date, there are 192 States that comprise the
members of the world's state system of governments. Of these states,
183 are members of the United Nations, fewer are members of the
International Court of Justice, the World Bank, the International
Monetary Fund, and the International Labour Organization. The "State"
is a rational organizational construct created to solve specific
social, economic and political problems, and it is made legitimate by
virtue of recognition extended to it by other established states. All
established States are said to be sovereign political personalities
having the recognized capacity to protect their own borders, carry out
political intercourse with other states and perform those necessary
activities (economic, social and political in character) sufficient to
maintain the loyalty of an established number of human beings. Not
all of these States can be accurately described as politically and
economically viable. Indeed, no fewer than thirty States are in a
condition of perpetual disarray, collapse, or they are essentially
defunct political and legal organisms. International institutions and
neighboring states which deem the continuity of even defunct states as
essential to their own stability are obliged to provide support
politically, militarily and financially. Instead of strengthening the
state system, this process tends to further weaken an increasingly
fractured system.
More to the point of my dissertation, however, is that the
economic and sometimes political instability of some states and the
efforts to prop up crumbling states is bringing other states into
direct conflict with nations inside these states. United Nations
joint forces are at this moment militarily fighting nations inside
several collapsed states. So committed are statists to the continuity
of the State System that they insist that a failed state must continue
even though there is no will or capacity to ensure its normal
operation. The nations which often make the soul of a state become
the objects of derision and attack. States denounce and fear
"nationalism," or the commitment one has to the persistence of a
nation. Nationalism is regarded as a primitive; emotionalism that
undermines efforts to achieve "higher forms of human civilization."
In reality, properly respected, the nation stands as the foundation of
human organization essential for human survival. Without the nation,
the State could have never come into existence, The State could not
long survive without national forbearance -- and, so, recent events
would seem to bear this view out.
There are between six thousand and nine thousand bedrock
nations in the world. They are culturally diverse and that diversity
reflects the ecological diversity of the Earth. Human nations,
located in their particular places demonstrate the success of natural
adaptation and human creative energy. They persist because nations
satisfy human spiritual, social, economic, and political (cultural)
needs. Nations are evolved human organisms, self-identified,
including members who share a common culture, heritage, language and
geographic place. Their existence is not dependent on size, and their
identity is essentially determined by their culture. The culture of
each nation is determined by the relationship between the people and
the land. A nation is large enough to ensure the needs of its
constituents, but small enough to ensure consistency with human scale.
The nation, the human organism from which all humans
originate, is the parent of the state. It is from the heart of
nations that the concept of the state arose. The rational state is
another of the many experiments attempted to constructively advance
the human condition. As the parent from which the state springs, each
nation is obligated to ensure that the state fulfills its purposes.
But, when the experiment fails, there is no obligation to force the
continued existence of a state. The nation, is more than adequate to
serve as an independent international personality on its own. It is
quite realistic that the world's political landscape contain both
nations and states as independent political entities.
While states will continue to perform their function and
nations will continue to function within the framework of individual
states, some states cannot continue to exist. Many nations do not
chose to become states or remain within state structures. Given these
realistic conditions, we must seek to ensure the peaceful means for a
world in which both states and nations coexist. We must establish new
international institutions, new international tools for providing the
transition from a world of states to a world of nations and states.
We must provide the means for nations to resolve long-standing
disputes between them -- most will be concerned with unresolved land
and natural resource questions. We must also provide the means for
nations and states to resolve disputes between them after the collapse
of a state. Finally, we must create new transitional structures
between nations, and nations and states to replace crumbling state
structures to minimize violent conflicts and maximize systematic
peaceful change.
There is room for new international institutions along side
the United Nations as clearly indicated by the existence of the
Commission on Security and Cooperation in Europe which came into being
as a result of the Helsinki Final Act. New institutions which permit
the direct, coequal participation of nations and states are now
essential for the construction of a new international political order.
The breakup of states like Yugoslavia need not result in the terror
that is now being experienced in Croatia, Bosnia and Serbia.
Sustained, long-term conflicts like the war between the Burmese state
and the Karen, Kachin and Shan nations are remnants of a failed
British colonial policy and should be brought to a swift end by
internationally sanctioned peace negotiations. The war between the
Jumma Peoples and the government of Bangladesh should be ended through
peaceful negotiations, mediated and sanctioned internationally. The
expansion of states into national territories like the Peoples
Republic of China's occupation of Tibet must be halted and brought to
a negotiation table for peaceful disengagement. The war in Guatemala
continues and the wars between the Indonesian government, the peoples
of West Papua, East Timor and South Molucca continue unabated -- all
demanding internationally sanctioned intervention.
These are not civil wars, but conflicts between states and
nations. They are conflicts which result from the failure of the
state to perform its function. They are conflicts resulting from a
failure of states to ensure the full sharing of political power by all
nations within the framework of the state. The Geneva Conventions of
1949 provide the initial context within which new international
institutions and mechanisms can be fashioned to directly address the
conflicts between states and nations and between nations after the
collapse of a state. Protocols I and II of the Geneva Conventions
directly address conflicts between states and between nations and
states. The Moscow Conference on Indigenous Peoples Rights can be the
spark that provides for nations and states to mutually established new
international mechanisms for peaceful conflict resolution based in
part on the Geneva Conventions and particularly on Protocols I and II.
The new political era of nations and states into which we are
now passing demands that the world's nations resume their duty as
active participants in the formulation of international rules of
conduct. What we now call indigenous nations, must become co-equal
partners with states as international political personalities. They
must assume their responsibilities as mature political personalities
with a full commitment to the restoration of mutual coexistence
between nations and states. Nations must fully commit themselves to
the advancement of human rights and the democratization of
international relations. Nations must also adopt existing
international instruments for the promotion of peaceful relations
between peoples, and they must work to establish new international
instruments for the establishment of peaceful relations between
nations and between nations and states.
States governments are obliged to recognize that they do
sometimes fail to adequately serve the peoples for which they were
established. States governments must embrace the changing world which
includes many kinds of political personalities -- not just states.
The state system is useful for some purposes, but not all peoples in
the world must live within a state structure. Where there are no
mechanisms for nation and state cooperation, states must reach out to
the nation and seek accommodation. States governments must rework
their foreign policies to recognize that nations are a part of the
international fabric -- an essential element of the international
arena. They must learn the courage to seek constructive new relations
with nations to maximize cooperation and mutual benefit.
In a new age unfolding we are confronted by our greatest hopes
and wishes. We hope for accommodation in Europe and accommodation
becomes the practical, daily demand. We hope for peaceful settlements
in the Middle East, and the State of Israel and the Palestinian nation
engage in fourteen fateful days of negotiations for peaceful
accommodation. In North America, the South Pacific Ocean and in
Africa, new measures of courage are being realized as representatives
of nations and representatives of states have begun to move toward
peaceful accommodation, coexistence and cooperation. But, as these
hopes are now being realized, we are also discovering the need for new
courage and new creativity in diplomatic relations. Things are not as
"perfectly orderly" as we would want. The tendency is to move swiftly
to an "authoritarian order" instead of a condition of mutual equality
and cooperation. Diversity is sloppy and uncomfortable at times, but
the new political era of nations and states is necessarily a mirror of
the cultural diversity of humanity. We are looking at reality when we
see many thousands of nations and scores of states. We are seeing the
success of human beings in their many nations. We are seeing the
experiments of the human spirit when we see the scores of states.
Reality demands that we stretch our minds to find ways to creatively
accommodate the many differences we see among human beings. Reality
demands that we accept the challenge of human success.
I propose that the world's states governments join with the
governments of the world's nations to form a temporary Congress of
Nations and States to develop new international protocols which
provide for new approaches to dispute resolution between nations, and
nations and states. I propose that the Moscow Conference serve as the
spring board for the organization of a world congress to permit
nations and states to instruct each other on the appropriate
structures for peacefully resolving old and new conflicts between
nations within and outside existing states. New structures, perhaps
based in the Geneva Protocols I and II, for resolving existing
conflicts between nations and nations and states should also be
developed. The Congress of Nations and States should build on the
constructive discussions among many nations and many states that have
been continuing at non-government conferences and within the United
Nations under the direction of the Economic and Social Council for the
last twenty years.
The opportunity exists now like never before in history for
nations to fulfill their obligations as mature members of the
international community to work toward a peaceful world. States, the
children of nations, must turn now to realistically work with nations
to build a democratized international community which ensures broad
support by all of the peoples of the world.
This is not simple idealism. The means exist for
representatives of nations and states to begin the process of
constructively re-ordering the world. A new political order is before
us. We need now only to understand ourselves and our purpose to
establish a peaceful and creative political climate for human
development. We must put aside our fears and exercise maturity and
courage to take the next step in the new era of nations and states. A
Congress of Nations and States is that next logical step.
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