Keeping the fourteen points of Woodrow Wilson, the former president of the United States, as the preamble, the emminent speakers opined that the peoples of the world wanted peace not war and tried to prove they deserved it.
The Peace moot was organized by Sindh Sufi Institute. The institute’s chairperson, Khadim Soomro, said that Wilson’s 14 points, given in 1918 for post-Great War peace in Europe, were still relevant.
“The 14 points are not only relevant in the literal way but symbolic too since they laid down the basis for German surrender and establishment of peace in Europe and also served as the criteria to judge the peace treaties that followed the war,” he said.
The points or the work plan, then welcomed by the people of Europe, Soomro said, played a key role in the post-war reconstruction of Europe.
Two guest speakers Professor Shabana Fayyaz from Quaid-i-Azam University and Professor Adeel Khan from International Islamic University Islamabad agreed that Wilson’s points were the guidelines for establishing a lasting and sustainable peace.
“We need to get rid of hypocrisy from our society at both the individual and the national level to be able to speak truth and listen to our adversaries’ opinions and voices,” Professor Adeel said. Replying to a question, he said conflict resolution was essential for bringing a positive change and establishing peace.
The speakers were of the opinion that the world needed to distance itself from wars and weapons and concentrate on strengthening the economy and reducing poverty and making the earth peaceful.
Woodrow’s Fourteen Points
Originally a speech delivered Woodrow Wilson on January 8, 1918, some 10 months before the armistice with Germany, the 14 points became the basis for the terms of the German surrender. The points, experts believe, are still valid today:
Open covenants of peace, openly arrived at.
Absolute freedom of navigation upon the seas, outside territorial waters, alike in peace and in war, except as the seas may be closed.
The removal of all economic barriers, and establishment of equality of trade.
Guarantees that national armaments will be reduced.
Adjustment of colonial claims, that in determining all such questions of sovereignty, the interests of the people concerned must have equal weight with the claims of the government whose title is to be determined.
Russian territory should be evacuated, and Russia welcomed into the society of free nations.
Belgium should be evacuated and restored.
All French territory should be freed and the invaded portions restored.
The frontiers of Italy should be readjusted along clearly recognizable lines of nationality.
The peoples of Austria-Hungary should have the freest opportunity to independent development.
Romania, Serbia, and Montenegro should be evacuated and restored, Serbia should have free and secure access to the sea, and the relations of the several Balkan states to each other should be determined by friendly counsel, and political and economic independence and territorial integrity of the several Balkan states should be internationally guaranteed.
The Turkish portion of the Ottoman Empire should have a secure sovereignty, but the other nationalities which are under Turkish rule should have an undoubted security of life and an opportunity of independent development, and the Dardanelles should be permanently opened as passage to the ships and commerce of all nations.
An independent Polish state should be erected including the territories inhabited by Polish populations, which should have free access to the sea.
The League of Nations should be formed
Source: Wikipedia
Published in The Express Tribune, February 4th, 2011.
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