THE KUALA LUMPUR INITIATIVE TO CRIMINALISE WAR
17 December 2005
The Kuala Lumpur Global Peace Forum of concerned peoples from all five continents:
UNITED in the belief that peace is the essential condition for the survival and well-being of the human race;
DETERMINED to promote peace and save succeeding generations from the scourge of war;
OUTRAGED over the frequent resort to war in the settlement of disputes between nations;
DISTURBED that militarism has become a permanent feature of many states;
TROUBLED that use of armed force increases insecurity for all;
TERRIFIED that the possession of nuclear weapons and the imminent risk of nuclear war will lead to the annihilation of life on earth;
To achieve peace we now declare that:
- Wars increasingly involve the killing of innocent people and are therefore, abhorrent and criminal.
- Killings in war are as criminal as the killings within societies in times of peace.
- Since killings in peace time are subject to the domestic law of crime, killings in war must likewise be subject to the international law of crimes. Thisi should be so irrespective of whether this killings in war are authorised or permitted by domestic law.
- All commercial, financial, industrial and scientific activities that aid and abet war should be criminalised.
- All national leaders who initiate aggression must be subjected to the jurisdiction of the International Criminal Court.
- All nations must strengthen the resolve to accept the purposes and principles of the United Nations Charter and institute methods to settle international dispute by peaceful means and to renounce war.
- Armed force shall not be used except when authorised by a Resolution passed by two-thirds majority of the total membership of the General Assembly of the United Nations.
- All legislators and all members of Government must affirm their belief in peace and pledge to strive for peace.
- Political parties all over the world must include peace as one of their principal objectives.
- Non-Governmental Organisations committed to the promotion of peace should be set up in all nations.
- Public servants and professionals, in particular in the medical, legal, educational and scientific fields, must promote peace and campaign actively against war.
- The media must actively oppose war and the incitement to war and consciously promote the peaceful settlement of international disputes.
- Entertainment media must cease to glorify war and violence and should instead cultivate the ethos of peace.
- All religious leaders must condemn war and promote peace.
To these ends the Forum resolves to establish a permanent Secretariat in Kuala Lumpur to:
- IMPLEMENT this Initiative.
- OPPOSE policies and programmes that incite war.
- SEEK the cooperation of NGOs worldwide to achieve the goals of this Initiative.
Signed by:
Tun Dr. Mahathir Mohamad
Imam Feisal Abdul Rauf
Prof Francis A. Boyle
Dr. Helen Caldicott
Mr Matthias Chang
Prof. Michel Chossudovsky
Prof. Shad Saleem Faruqi
Mr Dennis J. Halliday
Dato’ Mukhriz Mahathir
Dr. Chandra Muzaffar
Dato’ Michael O.K. Yeoh.
Speakers
YBhg. Datuk Dr. Mohd Ghazali Md Noor
PGPF Trustee
Topic: Chronology of Events – Criminalising War
Datuk Dr. Mohd Ghazali Md. Noor joined the Malaysian Civil Service in 1973 before continuing Masters in Public Administration at the Pennsylvania State University (Penn State) in 1982-83. He holds MPA and a Ph.D. from University of Southern California, U.S.A. (1990). He has served as Deputy Director (1) Service & Career Division in the Public Service Department. Prior to his assignment as Special Assistant to the Deputy Prime Minister of Malaysia (1994-95), Dr. Ghazali had worked at INTAN. He moved up his career ladder, as the Head of the Office of Scholarship Programme, IsDB based in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia (December 1996) before he was appointed as the Director of Strategic Planning Office, of IDB Group in January 2005 till 22nd July 2009 (29th Rajab, 1430H). He retired from the IsDB service on 16th December 2009. He was Head of Secretariat to the “IDB 1440H Vision” Commission, (model upon Malaysia Vision 2020), chaired by H. E. Tun Dr. Mahathir Mohamad. He has been bestowed with esteemed awards due to his diligence, dedication, and invaluable commitment. He is currently serving as the Senior Advisor of Tindakan Strategi Sdn Bhd a renowned strategic consultancy firm and Independent Director of Awqaf Holdings Berhad a Corporate Waqaf development company.
In February 2021, he was appointed as Council Member to the Majlis Agama Islam Wilayah Persekutuan (Federal Territory Religious Council) and in September 2021 as Chairman of Pusat Wakaf MAIWP Sdn Bhd and served until April 2022. In December 2021, he was unanimously elected as the Deputy Secretary General of the World Zakat and Waqf Forum. In 2022, FELDA (Federal Land Development Authority) appointed Datuk Dr. Mohd Ghazali as a Board Member of Waqaf FELDA.
In the 2023 World Zakat and Waqf Forum in Kedah, Malaysia he was elected as the new Secretary General of WZWF for the term 2023 – 2026.
In 2024 successfully led the WZWF 13th Annual Meeting and International Conference in Jakarta Indonesia with the theme New Zakat-Waqf Global Order: United Global Community Grounded in Justice, Compassion and Shared Prosperity with the presence of 15 countries and over 300 delegates. Dr. Ghazali is also now serving as a Trustee on the Board of Perdana Global Peace Foundation.
YBhg. Tan Sri Dato’ Seri Utama Dr. Rais Yatim
Former Minister of Foreign Affairs
Topic: Current Geo Politics and Prospect of a Peaceful World Order
A Malaysian politician and lawyer who served as the 18th President of the Dewan Negara from September 2020 to June 2023, 8th Menteri Besar of Negeri Sembilan from 1978 to 1982 and the Member of Parliament (MP) for Jelebu from November 1999 to May 2013. Tan Sri Rais was the Minister of Land and Regional Development (1982–1984), Minister of Information (1984–1986), Foreign Minister (1986–1987 / 2008-2009) and Minister for Information, Communications and Culture (2009-2013).
He became the President of the International Islamic University Malaysia (IIUM) from 2013 to 2018. He is also an author and has written extensively on the subject of law, politics and the community where a total of 19 books have been produced by him to date. Last year Tan Sri Rais was on the panel of speakers of the Colloquium Coalition of Malaysian NGOs: Free Palestine coorganised by PGPF, Muslim Care Malaysia (MCM) and Humanitarian Care Malaysia (MyCARE).
Prof. Dr. Mohd Mizan Aslam
PGPF Trustee / Universiti Pertahanan Nasional Malaysia
Topic: ASEAN Role in Maintaining Peace & Its Challenges
Mohd Mizan holds a position as Professor in Security & Strategic Studies at the National Defence University of Malaysia (NDUM). Mizan also a Senior Fellow at the Global Peace Institute (GPI), London, United Kingdom. Prof. Mizan holds a position as National Panel for Deradicalization, a special task-force unit for rehabilitation program to terrorist’s inmates. Mizan also works with Prime Minister Office & Ministry of Home Affairs of Malaysia in field research and developing programmes on deradicalization program (PCVE). Mizan was a former professor in Counter Terrorism Studies at the Naif Arab University for Security Sciences (NAUSS), Riyadh Saudi Arabia where he established the Centre for Terrorism & Extremism Studies (CTES). He holds a position as Board of Trustee of Perdana Global Peace Foundation (PGPF). Mizan also work with Middle Eastern Institute (MEI), Washington USA as Country Expert in analysing terrorism and extremism issues in SEA & MENA. He was a visiting scholar at University of Hawaii at Manoa USA, Ibnu Haldun Universitasi, Istanbul, and Universitas Sultan Yusoff, Jakarta.
Mr James Corbett
The Corbett Report
Topic: The Current Role of the American Administration in Promoting World Peace
An award-winning investigative journalist, James Corbett grew up in Canada, earning his B.A. (First Class Honours) in English Literature from the University of Calgary and an M.Phil. in Anglo-Irish Literature from Trinity College Dublin. He has lectured on geopolitics and open-source journalism at the University of Groningen’s Studium Generale, The French Institute for Research in Computer Science and Automation’s fOSSa conference, at TedXGroningen and at Ritsumeikan University in Kyoto.
He started The Corbett Report website in 2007 as an outlet for independent critical analysis of politics, society, history, and economics. Since then, he has written, recorded and edited thousands of hours of audio and video media for the website, including a podcast and several regular online video series. He is the author of REPORTAGE: Essays on the New World Order.
Prof. Datuk Dr. Gurdial Singh Nijar
Rapporteur General for the Panel Discussion of the KL Initiative to Criminalise War 2025
Gurdial Singh Nijar is an advocate and solicitor and presently a legal consultant at the law firm Sreenevasan, UNDP-GEF Project of the Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment, and UNDP-GEF Project of the Sarawak Biodiversity Centre. He holds an LLB (Hons) degree from King’s College London and a Masters Law degree from the University of Malaya. He was a Law Professor at University of Malaya’s Law Faculty for 16 years. Presently the Vice President of HAKAM, the Malaysian Human Rights Society, he is also the Founder-Director of the National Centre of Excellence for Biodiversity Law, Senior Research Fellow at the South Centre, Geneva; Legal Expert for the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, Rome; and former member of the Compliance Committee, UN Cartagena Protocol on Biosafety. Gurdial led Malaysia and developing countries in international negotiations that led to the adoption of three international treaties, namely The Nagoya Protocol on Access to Genetic Resources and Benefit Sharing (ABS) arising from their Utilisation (2010); The Nagoya-Kuala Lumpur Supplementary Protocol on Damage Resulting from Living Modified Organisms (2010); and The Paris Agreement on Climate Change (2015). Gurdial has authored several books including Patenting Life Forms: Law & Practice; Civil Trial Advocacy; and Drafting for Lawyers. Gaia worked closely with Gurdial in the 1990’s to stop patents on life and defend community rights, and later on Earth Jurisprudence. Datuk Gurdial was the Chief Prosecutor of the Kuala Lumpur War Crimes Tribunal organised by PGPF and KL Foundation to Criminalise War in 2011, 2012 and 2013.
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