Women's Action Forum - Participation in The Peace Movement

Participation in The Peace Movement

The WAF works closely with the national, South Asian and global peace movement. The The WAF advocates peace with India, accompanied by bilateral decreases in military expenditures, as well as demilitarisation and de-nuclearisation.

On June 3, 1998, the Women's Action Forum, Lahore, issued a statement expressing deep distress by the explosion of nuclear devices in India and Pakistan. WAF condemned India for starting the nuclear race in South Asia, and were saddened that Pakistan responded in kind and lost its moral high ground in the process. In addition, WAF criticised the imposition of Emergency rule and found the suspension of fundamental rights in Pakistan following the explosions is extremely perturbing.

WAF also continues to work against superpower interference in Pakistan’s internal and regional affairs, the impunity with which Pakistan’s sovereignty and territory continues to be attacked, the government’s misplaced politico-economic alliances, and its acceptance of unfair terms of trade under the WTO.

In 1996 WAF apologized for the Pakistani military's War Crimes of 1971 and said that "the state and the people of Pakistan must reflect on the role played by the state and the Pakistani military in the unprecedented and exceptionally violent suppression of the political aspirations of the people of Bangladesh in 1971. Continued silence on our part makes a mockery not only of the principles of democracy, human rights, and self determinations which we lay claim to, but also makes a mockery of our own history."

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