PETITION to

The President of the United States
House and Senate Majority and Minority Leaders, including the Speaker of the House and the President Pro Tem of the Senate.

WE, THE UNDERSIGNED, urgently concerned about the threat to human lives and global human security posed by extreme poverty and neglect of unmet human needs,

And in particular alarmed at appalling levels of child mortality,

Calling attention to the contrast between rising military spending vs. allocations to address non-military threats to human security: natural and environmental disasters, epidemics and extreme poverty, which take more lives than all other forms of violence,

RESPECTFULLY CALL UPON THE UNITED STATES to lead an international effort to address the question of child survival by increasing international spending in this area by at least $5 billion annually, and by meeting the Millennium Development Goals, in particular with respect to child survival.

In Support of the Petition, We Call Attention to These Observations:

The United Nations Human Development Report 2005 paints a stark picture of the lack of progress toward meeting the Millennium Development Goals aimed at reducing extreme poverty by 2015, particularly as it affects children. 

The inexcusable number of child deaths constitutes an international health emergency, and most child deaths are avoidable. As the Human Development Report put it, reducing child mortality is an area in which proper investments yield high returns.  A study in mid-2005 in the prestigious international medical journal Lancet, as noted by international organizations such as UNICEF, calculates that for about $5.1 billion, the lives of 6 million children under 5 years of age could be rescued each year, if the money is spent on proven methods of disease prevention and treatment in the world's poorest countries. This would represent about one-half of one percent of current levels of world military spending.

          Lawrence Korb, Assistant Secretary of Defense in the Reagan Administration, has long highlighted the issue of ill-conceived military spending, illustrating how funds needed for child survival and the Millennium Development Goals can be made available as vital investments in human security without adverse effects upon defense capabilities in the US and other nations.  Dr. Korb wrote in 2005 that 15 percent of the annual budget of the Pentagon can be eliminated without harming US defense capabilities. His statements are supported by high-ranking retired military officers in the United States.
 
The far-reaching consequences of the invasion of Iraq and the crisis in the Middle East have deepened the concern of many throughout the world over rising tensions and even violence between religions.  This petition for changed budget priorities is intended in part to foster a constructive platform upon which Muslims, Christians, Jews and others in both the international religious community and secular civil society can agree and collaborate.

GLOBAL PRIORITIES CAMPAIGN
P.O. Box 32307
Washington, DC 20007
Tel: 301-585-3229
E-Mail: globalpriorities@aol.com

 Global Priorities: An International Inter-religious Campaign to Change Budget Priorities is working to combat poverty by mobilizing religious as well as secular communities to alter national and global budget priorities. Global Priorities was launched on October 17, 2005, the International Day to Eradicate Poverty, at UNICEF House in New York. 

For a print and signable version of this petition Click here.

Copyright © 2006 Global Priorities