Remembrance Day

As Canada commemorates November 11th, Remembrance Day, CCD would like to remind everyone that war is a major cause of disability. We are all aware of the Canadian soldiers who are killed in Afghanistan. In addition to those who are killed, there are those who are being disabled by the warfare in Afghanistan both Canadian soldiers, the soldiers of other countries and citizens of Afghanistan. We need to remember both those who have lost their lives due to war and those who have acquired a disability as a result of war.

CCD has endorsed the DPI Peace Statement which calls upon individuals and countries all over the world to work to end war and the destruction which it causes.
DPI adopted its Peace Statement in Hiroshima, Japan in 1982 and CCD adopted the Statement in 1985. The presence of terrorism on the world stage makes the concerns outlined in the Peace Statement as relevant today as they were in the Eighties.

The Peace Statement celebrates the sanctity of life, reminds us of the many people who have been disabled through warfare, calls for the resources used for armaments to be redeployed to support socially useful projects and encourages us all to support peace.

CCD encourages everyone to pause during this week of remembrance and review the international disability movement’s perspective on the devastation of war and its commitment to advancing peace.

DPI Peace Statement

Disabled people all over the world know from their deepest personal experience, the capacity of war to cast its mantle of death and destruction over life and limb. The ability of modern weapons of war to devastate a people, to sear human memory with permanent scars of personal tragedy, to shatter the dreams and hopes of children, to maim and injure, is nowhere more eloquently proclaimed than here, the Peace Memorial Park in Hiroshima.

Every day the absolute sanctity of human life is asserted by the aspirations of this planet's 500 million disabled people. The creation of disability and the ending of life by the waging of war is an abomination. Yet the accumulation of the engines of war gains pace.

The talents of human kind are turned from the satisfaction of people's needs to the invention of more and more horrific devices of destruction.

The products of human labors, wrested from the earth with all the ingenuity of generations of men and women, are dissipated in gigantic stockpiles of armaments which are of benefit to no one. The power of cooperation amongst individuals and the organizing capability of the human race are squandered in the creation of gigantic war complexes whose sole intent is the destruction of people.

HOW LONG CAN THIS OBSCENITY CONTINUE?

We, the representatives of the world's disabled people, have come to Hiroshima to make known our resolute condemnation of the arms race. We affirm, in the strongest terms, our determination to join with others and take our rightful place in the forefront of the worldwide movement for disarmament.

Disabled Peoples' International says:
 

LET ALL OF US JOIN TOGETHER IN A WORLDWIDE MOVEMENT FOR PEACE.

LET US CALL FOR ALL NATIONS' ECONOMIES TO BE TRANSFORMED FROM WAR ECONOMIES TO PEACE ECONOMIES.

LET US INSIST THAT THE $600 BILLION NOW SPENT ON ARMAMENTS IS DIVERTED TO SOCIALLY USEFUL PROJECTS.

LET US DEMAND THAT THE WORLD LEADERS NOW, IN THIS MOMENTOUS EPOCH, WHERE WE HAVE THE POWER TO DESTROY AND CRIPPLE, BEGIN THE ENORMOUS TASK OF REDIRECTING OUR RESOURCES, OUR PRODUCTIONS, OUR TALENTS AND OUR ABILITIES FROM THE CREATION OF THE WEAPONS OF WAR TO THE CREATION OF INSTRUMENTS OF LIFE.

The Disabled Peoples' International calls on all people to affirm this movement.