D. Foreign Policy
1. Foreign Policy -- Peace and Disarmament

1. As one of the initiators and primary authors of the United Nations Charter, the United States is obligated to conform to the stipulations of the U.S. Constitution, which identifies all such agreements as treaties that hold the authority of U.S. law. The U.S. government is pledged to abide by its principles and guidelines in the conduct of foreign relations and affairs.

2. We recognize our government's obligation to take disputes with other nations or foreign bodies to the U.N. Security Council and General Assembly forum for negotiation and resolution. The U.N. and international laws, treaties and conventions that the U.S. has signed are the framework that controls U.S. military actions abroad.

3. The U.S. must recognize the sovereignty of nationstates and their right of self-determination.

4. We recognize and support the right of the U.N. to intervene in a nation-state engaged in genocidal acts or in its persistent violation and denial of the human rights of an ethnic or religious group within its boundaries, and the right to protect the victims of such acts.

5. The U.S. is obligated to render military assistance or service under U.N. command to enforce a U.N. Security Council resolutions.

6. The U.S. must recognize and abide by the authority of the U.N. General Assembly to act in a crisis situation by passing a resolution under the Uniting for Peace Procedure when the U.N. Security Council is stalemated by vetoes.

7. We seek the permanent repeal of the veto power enjoyed by the five permanent members of the U.N. Security Council.

8. We urge our government to sign the International Criminal Court agreement and respect the authority of that institution.

9. Our government does not have the right to justify pre-emptive invasion of another country on the grounds that the other country harbors, trains, equips and funds a terrorist cell.

10. Our government should establish a policy to abolish nuclear weapons. It should set the conditions and schedule for fulfilling that goal by taking the following steps:
    • Declare a no-first-strike policy.
    • Declare a no-pre-emptive strike policy.
    • Declare that the U.S. will never threaten or use a nuclear weapon, regardless of size, on a non-nuclear nation.
    • Sign the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty (CTBT). Our pledge to end testing will open the way for non-nuclear states to sign the Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT), which has been held up by our refusal to sign the CTBT. Honor the conditions set in the NPT for nuclear nations.
    • Reverse our withdrawal from the Anti- Ballistic Missile Treaty and honor its stipulations.
    • End the research, testing and stockpiling of all nuclear weapons of any size.
    • Dismantle all nuclear warheads from their missiles.

11. We urge our government to sign the Toronto treaty banning the production, stockpiling, use and sale of land mines, and assist other nations in unearthing and disabling land mines buried in their lands.

12. We urge our government to end all stockpiling of chemical and biological weapons and all research, use, and sale of such weapons; and sign the convention that will establish the decrease and inspection of all nations' stockpiles of such weapons, which the U.S. abandoned.

13. The U.S. must allow foreign teams to visit the U.S. for verification purposes at least annually.

14. Our defense budget has increased out of all proportion to any military threat to the United States, and to our domestic social, economic and environmental needs. The United States government must reduce our defense budget to half of its current size. The 2005 defense budget is estimated at around $425 billion, and that does not take into account military expenditures not placed under the defense budget.

15. The U.S. has over 700 foreign military bases. We urge our government to phase out all bases not specifically functioning under a U.N. resolution to keep peace and bring home our troops stationed abroad, except for the military assigned to protect a U.S. embassy. Many of these bases are small and can be closed immediately. We advocate further reductions in U.S. foreign military bases at a rate of closure of 1/4 to 1/5 of their numbers every year.

16. Close the Western Hemisphere Institute for Security Cooperation, formerly known as the School of the Americas, in Ft. Benning, Georgia.

17. The U.S. is the largest arms seller and dealer in the world. We urge our government to prohibit all arms sales to foreign nations and likewise prohibit grants to impoverished and undemocratic nations unless the money is targeted on domestic, nonmilitary needs. In addition, grants to other nations may not be used to release their own funds for military purposes.

18. The U.S. must not be a conduit for defense contractors to market their products abroad and must shift our export market from arms to peaceful technology, industrial and agricultural products, and education.

19. The U.S. must prohibit all covert actions used to influence, de-stabilize or usurp the governments of other nations, and likewise prohibit the assassination of, or assistance in any form for the assassination of, foreign government officials.

20. We must build on the Earth Charter that came out of the 1992 U.N. environmental Earth Summit. New definitions of what constitutes real security between nations must be debated and adopted by the foreign policy community.

[Amendment from Jenefer Ellingston, incorporating language from amendments by Gloria Mattera, Kelly Sperling and David Schwartzman. The earlier version is available here.]

Chapter I Democracy, D. Foreign Affairs - Military; International Treaties; Terrorist Acts; Nuclear Weapons, Recognition of Palestine and Middle East Peace

FOREIGN AFFAIRS - MILITARY - INTERNATIONAL TREATIES

1. The US is the initiator and a primary author of the United Nations Charter, written after World War II, to create an international forum where nations resolve disputes by negotiation and mediation rather than war. The signal purpose of the UN is to spread the rule of law from nation states ruled by constitutional law to the whole world and thus supercede the need to declare war or militarily invade another nation.

2. As a signatory, the U.S. must conform to the tenets of the U.N. Charter. This obligation is affirmed by the U.S. Constitution which declares that treaties, signed by the president and ratified by the Senate, are the supreme law of the land.

3. The United States must recognize the sovereignty of nation-states and their right to self-determination.
   1. The US is prohibited under International Law and under the UN Charter to claim the right of pre-emptive invasion of another country when that country has committed no aggressive act against the US. Neither may the US claim the right of aggressive acts in response to its claim of a threat or imminent threat by another nation. The US executive may not go to war without a declaration of war by the the US Congress.
   2. The US has no legal or moral right to dominate any country or region either by military force or economic exploitation. Consequently, we demand immediate cessation of US combat operations in Iraq and Afghanistan, and complete withdrawal of all forces within a safe time schedule. The US may not keep military bases in Iraq or Afghanistan.
   3. Given the scale of destruction that the US military, its civilian contractors and allied corporate interests have visited on Iraq, Afghanistan and other countries in the region, the US must recognize its obligation to fund the reconstruction and rebuilding of institutions in those nations while the military and civilian personnel are drawn from the Arab League and other Muslim countries near by.

4. We recognize and support the right of the of the U.N. to intervene in a nation state engaged in genocidal acts or in its persistent violation and denial of the human rights of an ethnic or religious group within its boundaries, and the right to protect the victims of such acts.

5. The U.S. must recognize and abide by the authority of the U.N. General Assembly to act in a crisis situation by passing a resolution under the Uniting for Peace Procedure when the U.N. Security Council is stalemated by vetoes.

6. The U.S. is obliged to render military assistance or service under U.N. command to enforce a U.N. Security Council resolution.

7. The Green Party seeks
   1. permanent repeal of the veto power enjoyed by the five permanent members of the U.N. Security Council and the further democratization of the UN structure.
   2. universal collective security through the rule of international law under the auspices of the United Nations, regional international treaties and the international courts created to adjudicate among nations and between a nation and a society seeking independence from a nation state. The right of recourse to the UN and to international courts for negotiatin and resolution of conflicts between above named parties cannot be denied or vetoed.

8. We urge our government to sign the International Criminal Court agreement and uphold the authority of that institution. In so doing, the US must accept the court's jurisdiction over war crimes and terrorist acts committed by its citizens.

9. We reject the claim that war time permits the executive, without judicial authority, to infringe on our civil rights; deny our freedom of assembly, our use of public space: to spy on citizens with no evidence against them; or to arbitrarily deny citizens any Constitutional rights.

10. War on Terrorists - Those who put security above liberty will have neither.
    1. Definitions: A terrorist act is one that causes serious bodily harm or death to civilians or non-combatants, when the act intends to intimidate or compel a government or an international organization to do or to abstain from doing any act.

    2. Resistance: In contrast to terrorist acts, resistance is the right of citizens to struggle against imperial or illegal foreign occupation that seeks to enforce its military or economic control. Resistance may include violent acts against combatants, against covert operatives or military targets.

    3. Overview:. We reject US militarism, especially in the form of “global war on terror.” We believe this is a formula used to legitimize our foreign occupation, acts of aggression, support of dictatorship and economic exploitation.

    4. Reconciliation: We advocate that the US government form a war crimes tribunal to investigate, indict and prosecute past US war crimes. When found guilty, the US government will apologize to the victims, their families and nations and pay reparations determined by the court.
       1. We repudiate our government's claim to label any group "terrorist" and then claim the right to declare war on those so labeled, and on a country accused of harboring terrorists .
       2. "terrorist" is a loose term without legal definition applied by the US for political purposes to justify hostile acts against in another nation and toward an unidentified, ununiformed enemy.
       3. Any captured person or group labelled terrorist has the right to trial and evidence being brought before they are convicted of criminal acts or acts of war. The proper instrument for suppression or capture of suspected terrorists is police action, not attack by a military force.
       4. We demand repeal of the Patriot Act, Patriot Act II and the Military Commission Act - which includes the suspension of Habeas Corpus. We demand repeal of any law or executive order that permits the executive to detain, imprison, abuse and torture human beings all of whom are protected by the Human Rights Convention signed by the US and who are protected by the US Constitution.
       5. No non-military person may be detained and imprisoned without being charged; told what the charge is; allowed a lawyer and allowed to gather evidence to present in court. The right of trial must not be delayed to the extent that delay becomes justice denied. Rules covering the treatment of detainees and prisoners must be included in the manual of military justice and must be followed by all agencies of the US government..
       6. The Homeland Defense Dept. may not use high-tech methods for domestic spying and intruding into the legal and private lives of citizens in the US without a warrant from the FISA court.
       7. Without a judicial warrant from FISA, no agency of the US government may spy on or invade the privacy of an unidentified host of names on the grounds that they may be involved in terrorist acts.

11. The U.S. must prohibit all covert actions used to destabilize, subvert or usurp the governments of other nations. The US must renew the prohibition on assassination, or assistance, in any form, for the assassination of citizens of a foreign nation or officials of a foreign government.

Nuclear Weapons and Conventional weapons

12. The reduction of our nuclear arsenal and the abolition of nuclear weapons must be the irreversible policy of the United States. The following steps necessary to fulfill that goal are:
    1. Declare a no-first-strike policy.
    2. Declare a no-pre-emptive strike policy.
    3. Separate nuclear all nuclear warheads from delivery systems.
    4. Declare that the U.S. will never threaten or use a nuclear weapon, regardless of size, on a non-nuclear nation.
    5. Ratify the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty (CTBT). Our pledge not to test will raise the international level of trust and re-enforce our commitment to reduce our nuclear arsenal rather than strengthen it. We will gain security in proportion to gaining trust. Security for one nation depends on security for all nations.
    6. Our withdrawal from the Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty opened the door for the US to pursue missile defense research and to negotiate the installation of missile launch pads on foreign territory, despite their unproven operational status. Missile defense research profits military contractors, not the American national interest.
    7. End the research, testing and stockpiling of all nuclear weapons of any size. Permanently cut funding of the RRW - Reliable Replacement Warhead - a contrivance for building new nuclear weapons under pretense that they upgrade and replace old nuclear weapons. RRW violates the Non-Proliferation Treaty.
    8. Sign the Toronto treaty banning the production, stockpiling, use and sale of land mines, and assist other nations in unearthing and disabling land mines buried in their lands.
    9. Sign a pledge not to produce, stockpile, use or sell cluster bombs or depleted uranium in any form.
    10. End all stockpiling of chemical and biological weapons and all research, use, and sale of such weapons; and sign the convention that establishes UN inspection and reduction of all nations' stockpiles of such weapons.
    11. Allow UN teams to visit US nuclear research sites for verification purposes, on undisclosed dates, on an annual basis.

13. Our defense budget has increased out of all proportion to any military threat, or need by the United States. Defense spending is non-productive and undermines the funding of our domestic social, economic and environmental needs. Initially, the DOD budget must be reduced to one half its current size and the Congress must renew its oversight obligation of Defense Dept. budget and expenditure.

14. DOD subordination to defense contractors on decisions about the size of our arsenal and the need for new weapons systems must be reversed. The DOD does not take orders from private defense contractors; our defense policy and expenditure is determined by the executive in consultation with the US Congress.

15. The State Dept. must be returned to its rightful role of developing foreign policy, negotiating and implementing US policies in international relations and unilateral agreements. The State Dept. function has been displaced too often by placing military force ahead of diplomacy and international negotiation.

16. The U.S. has over 700 foreign military bases. Our government must phase out all bases not specifically functioning under a U.N. resolution to keep peace.

17. US troops abroad must be limited to those assigned to protect a U.S. embassy. Set a fixed schedule for the closure of these bases, and return the base property to the host country.

18. The US Guantanamo base in Cuba is a prison. It must be closedand the whole base returned to Cuba.

19. The Western Hemisphere Institute for Security Cooperation, formerly known as the School of the Americas, in Ft. Benning, Georgia must be closed in 2008.

20. The U.S. is the largest arms seller and dealer in the world. Our government should prohibit all arms sales to foreign nations. Furthermore grants and loans to impoverished and undemocratic nations is prohibited unless the money is targeted on domestic, non_military needs. In addition, grants or loans to other nations may not be used by those nations to release their own funds for military purposes.

21. The U.S. must not license or subsidize defense contractors who market their products abroad and must shift our export market from weapons to peaceful technology, industrial and agricultural products, and to education and technical training.

Recognition of Palestine and end of occupation by Israel

1. In 1948, the Jewish immigrants to Palestine declared the Jewish state of Israel within the Palestinian territory appropriated by Israelis up to that date.
2. Since 1948, the UN Security Council has passed many resolutions to guarantee the human rights of Palestinians, their right of self-determination and return to their homes (now within Israeli boundaries) and declaring that Israeli had defied international law by its abuse of Palestinians and the spread of Israeli settlements on Palestinian land.
3. The separation wall begun by Israel and continued, was declared illegal in 2004 by the International Court of Justice..
4. From the beginning, the US has vetoed UN Security Council decisions to protect the rights of the Palestinians, regardless of Israeli defiance of International Law.
5. Palestinians suffer from illegal Israeli military occupation, land confiscation and growth of Israeli settlements. In effect, Israel has set up an apartheid state both within Palestinian territories and within Israel, where the non-jews are second-class citizens.
6. The Green Party recognizes the need for extraordinary measures by the international community to reverse the inequality under the law in Palestine-Israel.
7. In keeping with non-violent conflict resolution, the Green Party supports divestment from and boycott of the State of Israel until the full individual and collective rights of the Palestinian people are realized.