The 24 of October is when we celebrate the UN Day, which must bring considerations about one of the peoples' most important instruments in their struggle for peace, and about the challenges ahead.

Celebrating the 70th anniversary of the United Nations demands an initial reflection on the peoples' resistance in their confrontation against Nazi-Fascism and the horrifying consequences. Seven decades ago, the planet was celebrating Victory and the end of the World War II, which killed over 3% of the world's population and brought inestimable costs to humanity.

National liberation movements gained depth and the struggles for de-colonization and independence were strengthened. Concepts such as sovereignty, the people's self-determination, human rights, justice and the International Law itself seemed to define what would be the post-war world, and we would move forward, counting on a structure based on those commitments. However, we still have outrageous and unresolved questions. Our agendas are still concerned with the struggle against one of the most backward forms of domination which is colonialism, and occupation. These are the cases of Western Sahara, Palestine, Puerto Rico, French Guyana, Islas Malvinas and many others.

The UN Charter and the Universal Declaration of Human Rights are essential tools for movements tirelessly struggling for Peace among peoples who, as well as the World Peace Council, esteem the principles set forth in those documents as humanity's common goals. Therefore, this is also a very important moment for us to recall UN's role and deficiencies, and denounce its instrumentalization by the empire to maintain its dominance over the world.

The interventionist policies substituting dialogue for brute force have imposed unimaginable costs on the peoples. Amongst the human and humanitarian dilemmas we live today is the condition of millions of refugees and other migrants dispossessed and with no shelter, victims of imperialist aggressions or interventions against their countries, from where they are forced to escape. Their life stories and the history of their nations are thus re-written by violence.

War may have seemed distant for countries of the so-called developed world, a remote place in History, but its consequences are knocking ever harder at their doors. US and European imperialism, reflected on the structure and the "strategic concepts" behind their war machine, NATO, has frequently run over the most essential principles established by the UN Charter.
Making biased use of humankind's most cherished principles, such as human rights and democracy, the imperialist powers again imposed destruction and death, devastating the former Yugoslavia, Afghanistan, Iraq, Syria, Yemen, and Libya, as well as a great portion of the African continent, in their neo-colonialist drive. This is unequivocal evidence of their disregard for UN principles of conflict resolution through dialogue, in total contempt for the people's self-determination. The war crimes and crimes against humanity in which this aggressive policies are sustained rely on impunity.

The determined endeavor for the UN reform is very important, since its configuration has already been proven as unfair. It needs more democracy, fairer representativity, and more commitment with the UN Charter. The protection of human rights, sovereignty and self-determination cannot keep being privileges, or instruments for the promotion of military, criminal imperialist interventions.

The year of 2015 brought even more challenges to the peoples in their struggle for peace and justice, while we watch the most brutal imperialist initiatives and disseminated aggressions all over the globe. The year is also of important symbolism exactly because of the historical facts that pushed our joint action forward and maintain us determined to resist against war and oppression. For that, the peoples also demand an international system built on cooperation, and not on threat or the "logic of deterrence" through weapons of mass destruction. Therefore, we keep fighting for the complete elimination of nuclear weapons, aiming to avoid a catastrophe of unimaginable proportions.

To build a safe world, of peace and justice, of equal rights for all, the peoples demand that UN's determinations are fulfilled, such as the unequivocal recognition of the State of Palestine and the de-colonization of Western Sahara, which are emblematic issues showing the disregard for the organization's resolutions by countries that either have the military power or that are allied with the empire.

The UN democratization is vital – it requires a thorough reform for its actualization as an organization for cooperation, solidarity and equality, in accordance with the Charter of its foundation. The peoples demand peace and justice built by all, free from imperialist interventions and aggressions.

Socorro Gomes

President of the World Peace Council