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London: ‘We will continue protesting for Palestine, and we will win’

. TOLERANCE & SOLIDARITY .

An article by Shabbir Lakha from Counterfire

Amid the state clampdown on Palestine solidarity, hundreds of thousands marched through London in defiant opposition to the genocide, reports Shabbir Lakha

Recently, The Economist remarked that the “Starmerites thought they had defeated the politics of Palestine. It may defeat them.” To prove how correct this assessment is, on Saturday, [August 9] an estimated 300,000 people marched through central London for the 28th national demonstration for Palestine since October 2023.

Video of march

It was an objectively huge demonstration, but even more impressive considering it was called with two-weeks’ notice, in the middle of August, and despite the police’s best efforts to intimidate protesters and to delay the coalition from announcing the route.

The demonstration was emotionally charged, angry and militant. Along with the usual array of placards taking aim at Starmer and calling for action, there were noticeably more signs relating to the clampdown on our democratic rights and civil liberties. The huge number of banners of local groups from across the country showed the truly national character of the march. The one noticeable absence was any significant presence of trade union flags or banners.

Over 800 people also gathered in Parliament Square to defy the proscription of Palestine Action, and the Met Police arrested 466 people – including a blind man in a wheelchair and a 90-year-old woman. The Met Police had set up field arrest-processing sites at the top and bottom of Whitehall, and swarms of them and their reinforcements from forces around the country trotted about in stormtrooper formations throughout the day.

As Lindsey German, Convenor of Stop the War Coalition said in her speech,
“We are bitterly opposed to the proscription of Palestine Action. It is not terrorism to carry out direct action. It is not terrorism to support the Palestinians… There is something deeply, deeply wrong when a society allows Israel to commit genocide but cannot allow protests on the streets of London… We will continue protesting, and we will win.”

The weekend’s mobilisations come after weeks of horrifying images of Palestinian children starving to death, of seeing desperate Palestinians being shot dead while queueing for aid in cattle-pens, and following Netanyahu’s announcement of his plan to launch a full military invasion and total re-occupation of Gaza.

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Question related to this article:

How can we best express solidarity with the people of Gaza?

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Keir Starmer’s pathetic statement in response offers only the mildest criticism to an open declaration of intent to commit further war crimes and to ethnically cleanse the Palestinian people. His ‘threat’ of recognising a Palestinian state rings hollow while he continues to arm the genocidal Israeli state, train its soldiers on RAF bases and provide intelligence from RAF spy flights.

But his meek words are nonetheless a departure from his October 2023 claim that Israel ‘has the right’ to cut off food, water and electricity for Gaza’s civilian population. Starmer is reacting to the persistent groundswell of opposition his government is facing over its role in facilitating genocide.

The backbone of this has been the consistent mass mobilisations that have repeatedly brought hundreds of thousands of people onto the streets of the capital. Polling shows that a growing majority of the population back a ceasefire, arms embargo and sanctions on Israel. In recent weeks, there has been a noticeable sea change in the coverage and editorial lines of mainstream media outlets, including the Daily Express, the Financial Times and The Economist.

This is coupled by a rapidly expanding list of celebrities and cultural figures speaking out in all forums against the genocide and the British government’s actions. Saturday’s national demonstration was addressed by Bafta-nominated actor Denise Gough, comedian Ivo Graham, and Danni Perry, a dancer who held up a Palestinian flag at the Royal Opera House and successfully campaigned to get the Royal Ballet and Opera to cancel its production in Tel Aviv.

Denise Gough told Counterfire,
“I’m here at the rally because if I don’t spend my time in spaces where people have care for the rest of the world then I feel very, very alone. It’s important for all of us to come here so that we can get re-energised, because genocide is exhausting.”

When the situation in Palestine is as dire as it is, when there is growing support among some of the most influential figures in society for an end to British support for Israel, and when the government is on the backfoot, is precisely the time to escalate the movement to put an end to Starmer’s support for genocide and to defend our right to protest.
Upcoming mobilisations:

Saturday 16 August: Stop Arming Israel – protest at RAF High Wycombe

Saturday 6 September: National demonstration for Palestine – central London

Saturday 27 September: National demonstration at Labour Conference – Liverpool

Sunday 5 October: International Meeting against the War – Paris

Shabbir Lakha is a Stop the War officer, a People’s Assembly activist and a member of Counterfire.

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August 11, 2025Europe, Mideast, TOLERANCE & SOLIDARITYEurope, MideastCPNN Coordinator

Australia: Pro-Palestine demonstration shuts down Sydney Harbour Bridge

. TOLERANCE & SOLIDARITY .

An article by Nick Dobrijevich from the Peoples Dispatch (Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 (CC BY-SA) license.

Hundreds of thousands rallied on Sunday, August 3, calling for an end to Israel’s genocidal war against the Palestinian people marking one of the largest political mobilizations in Sydney for decades. Organized by the Palestine Action Group (PAG), organizers estimated that 300,000 people marched across the Sydney Harbour Bridge – one of the most recognizable landmarks in Australia.

video of the march

The State Premier of New South Wales (NSW), Chris Minns, publicly opposed the action earlier this week saying it would, “allow Sydney to descend into chaos”. The NSW police also attempted to shut the protest down by challenging organizers in the Supreme Court. NSW has one of the harshest restrictions on the right to protest introduced under recent anti-protest laws.

Starting in Lang Park in Sydney’s CBD, the rally was addressed by Palestinian writer and academic Randa Abdel-Fattah and refugee rights advocate, Craig Foster. Wikileaks founder Julian Assange was also in attendance.

Federal Greens Senator Mehreen Faruqi told the rally, “they [the government] parroted Israel’s propaganda. They demonized anyone who stood up and spoke out…Now because of your pressure, because of you protesting week in, week out, they are moving inch by inch. We cannot stop now.”

Jewish writer and journalist Antony Loewenstein said, “we are the majority, not the people who support what is happening in Palestine today. The only way this will stop is isolation for Israel. There is only one way: sanctions, boycotts and divestment.”

Growing opposition to Israel

Since October 7, 2023, there have been weekly rallies in Sydney and across Australia. Yet Sunday saw broadener sections of the population mobilize in support of Palestine. Historic numbers of community groups, trade unions and political organizations endorsed the action while a number of NSW politicians – including from the Minns government – backed the historic “March for Humanity”.

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Question related to this article:

How can we best express solidarity with the people of Gaza?

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In the lead-up to Sunday’s action, images of Israel’s deliberate starvation of Palestinians in Gaza featured regularly on Australian mainstream media. The government’s staunch and ongoing backing of the Israeli regime further pushed a groundswell of support for Palestine.

Earlier in the week, Prime Minister Anthony Albanese and Foreign Minister Penny Wong made minor criticisms of Israel and followed other imperialist countries in backing a future Palestinian state. Finance Minister Jim Chalmers was widely quoted saying, “from an Australian point of view, recognition of the state of Palestine is a matter of when, not if.”

This came after minor sanctions on far-right extremist politicians Itamar Ben-Gvir and Bezalel Smotrich in June. However, the Australian state has so far failed to adopt any of the movement’s demands including an end to all military ties with Israel, immediate sanctions, an end to weapons manufacturing – particularly deals with Elbit Systems and production of parts for F-35 fighter jets – and the expulsion of Israel’s ambassador.

Pushing forward

In recent decades, Australia has seen large mobilizations in support of progressive causes at home and against imperialism abroad. Some of these campaigns have forced the government to capitulate to the demands of the movement.

The 1960s and 1970s Moratorium Movement, for example, forced an Australian military withdrawal from Vietnam while the movement for East Timor’s independence forced the Australian state to abandon its decades-long backing of the Indonesian military government in the 1990s. Large rallies against the US invasion of Iraq and Australian involvement in that, however, did not succeed.

It remains unclear whether the Australian state can be pushed to abandon its unequivocal support of Israel’s genocidal war and force Wong and Albanese to adopt concrete action instead of empty slogans. Sunday’s rally is a clear indication of the broadening opposition to Israel’s genocide among broader sections of the Australian population This growing momentum could force further political changes.

Nick Dobrijevich is an Asia Pacific solidarity activist, translator and researcher based in Sydney, Australia.

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August 11, 2025East Asia, Mideast, TOLERANCE & SOLIDARITYEast Asia, MideastCPNN Coordinator

How can we best express solidarity with the people of Gaza?

Although the nation states of the world and the United Nations have failed to stop the Israeli genocide of Gaza, the people of the world are increasingly finding ways to express solidarity.

See the following related discussions:

Presenting the Palestinian side of the Middle East; Is it important for a culture of peace?

How can a culture of peace be established in the Middle East?

Israel/Palestine, is the situation like South Africa?, Would a Truth and Reconciliation Commission help?

How can war crimes be documented, stopped, punished and prevented?

. . . . . Articles posing this question . . . . . .

The Global Sumud Flotilla: Over 50 ships will set sail for Gaza

Israel: Tens of thousands of protesters at Hostages Square call for an end to the Gaza war

The Hague: Rally against Gaza genocide June 15

Global March to Gaza

Gaza Floatilla Ship Madleen Begins Voyage to Gaza

18 Years of BDS. 18 Years of Impact in Turning Darkness into Light

August 11, 2025d-human rights, d-toleranceMideastCPNN Coordinator

English bulletin August 1, 2025

THE GLOBAL SOUTH AS AN ALTERNATIVE TO THE CULTURE OF WAR

Last month, it was the people of Europe, North America and the Middle East who took to the streets in protest against the wars and militarism of their countries.

This month, it is the countries of the Global South who provide an alternative to the culture of war of the North.

President Lula da Silva of Brazil opened the summit of the BRICS countries by urging countries to shift spending away from military efforts and toward the implementation of the United Nations’ 2030 Agenda—not toward war.

He criticized explicitly the decision of NATO to increase military spending.

“We are before an unprecedented number of conflicts since World War II. NATO’s recent decision feeds the arms race. It is easier to designate 5% of the GDP to military spending than to allocate the 0.7% that has been promised for Official Development Assistance. This demonstrates that the resources for the implementation of the 2030 Agenda do exist; however, they are not available due to a lack of political priority. It is always easier to invest in war than in peace.

Lula called for a deep transformation of the UN Security Council: “To overcome the trust crisis we are immersed in, we must promote deep transformations in the Security Council. Increase its legitimacy, representativeness, effectiveness, and democratic character. Include new permanent members from Asia, Africa, Latin America, and the Caribbean.

The final declaration of the BRICS summit reflected the same approach: “The leaders express concern over the current trend of sharply rising global military expenditures at the expense of adequate financing for the development of emerging countries. . . . The document also calls for the increased participation of developing countries, particularly those in Africa, Latin America and the Caribbean, in global decision-making processes and structures.”

Another important summit meeting took place in Bogota, Colombia, on July 15, bringing together ministerial delegates from more than 30 nations to end Israel’s U.S.-backed genocide in Gaza. The final declaration, calling for the prevention of the transfer of arms to Israel, was signed by 12 countries from the Global South, including Colombia, Indonesia, and South Africa.

Leadership of the Global South was also evident last month in the new coalition to tax the super-rich launched by Brazil and South Africa, along with Spain. The announcement was welcomed by Oxfam, who said “Taxation of the super-rich is a vital tool to secure sustainable development and fight inequalities. The wealth of the richest 1% has surged $33.9 trillion since 2015, enough to end annual poverty 22 times, yet billionaires only pay around 0.3% in real taxes.”

Brazil, Colombia and South Africa come from regions that have declared themselves to be nuclear-free zones, and South Africa is the only country in history to have made nuclear weapons and then renounced them. If they were to become permanent members of the UN Security Council, as suggested above, it would provide some balance to its domination by the nuclear powers with their culture of war.

FREE FLOW OF INFORMATION

Lula opens BRICS Summit with call for investment in peace and security

SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT

BRICS Summit signs historic commitment in Rio for more inclusive and sustainable governance

DEMOCRATIC PARTICIPATION

Niger: Agadez Mobilizes Its Traditional Chiefs for Peace

WOMEN’S EQUALITY

Violence Against Women: West Africa at a Time of Decisive Choices

TOLERANCE & SOLIDARITY

United States: Indivisible, the team that organized the No Kings demonstrations

EDUCATION FOR PEACE

Mexico: Civil Society in Juárez Promotes Law on a Culture of Peace and Reconciliation in the Country

DISARMAMENT & SECURITY

CPNN in the Peace Wave 2025

HUMAN RIGHTS

Colombia: At Hague Group Emergency Summit, 30+ Nations Seek to ‘Halt the Genocide in Gaza’

August 1, 2025d-informationenglish bulletinCPNN Coordinator

CPNN in the Peace Wave 2025

DISARMAMENT AND SECURITY .

Here at CPNN we have contributed to the Peace Wave 2025 with a video based on last month’s CPNN bulletin and concluding with the Peace Manifesto 2025..

Click on the following image to see our contribution:

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Question related to this article:

The Peace Wave: Its history and effects

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And here are the links for the full 24 hours of the Peace Wave:

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July 29, 2025DISARMAMENT & SECURITY, globalglobalCPNN Coordinator

United States: Indivisible, the team that organized the No Kings demonstrations

TOLERANCE & SOLIDARITY .

Text from an article by Brad Reed from Common Dreams

Progressive advocacy organization Indivisible is launching an ambitious new campaign aimed at training more than one million organizers to oppose the policies of U.S. President Donald Trump and his administration.

Indivisible’s national team offers strategic leadership, movement coordination, and support to Indivisible activists, and also directly lobbies congress, builds partnerships, runs media campaigns, and develops advocacy strategies.

Over the next several weeks, Indivisible will be hosting online organizing sessions as part of its One Million Rising initiative, which it describes as “a national effort to train one million people in the strategic logic and practice of non-cooperation, as well as the basics of community organizing and campaign design.”

Indivisible this year has already organized high-profile nationwide protests this year including the “Hands Off” and “No Kings” events that were attended by millions of Americans. However, it says that its aim with One Million Rising is to go beyond big one-day mobilizations to create more sustained local campaigns throughout the United States that would fight the Trump agenda on a daily basis.

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Questions related to this article:

Is there a renewed movement of solidarity by the new generation?

The struggle for human rights, is it gathering force in the USA?

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In its message promoting the event, Indivisible emphasizes that “it’ll take all of us” to mobilize against the Trump administration and added that this effort “is how we build people power that can’t be ignored.”

Indivisible held its first One Million Rising session last Wednesday and a recording of the session is available to watch on YouTube. The next session will be held on Wednesday, July 30 and will focus on “how you can lead a discussion with others and get them on board with taking action in your community” and will also help attendees organize their first “community resistance gathering” in the span of two weeks or less.

The third and final session, scheduled for Wednesday, August 13, will have attendees “onboarded to basic campaign design” where they will “learn how to implement it locally as well as get plugged into our next national campaign work.”

Gloria J. Browne-Marshall, a professor at John Jay College of Criminal Justice, recently told publication Axios that Indivisible’s new campaign shows that it’s entering a second stage in its approach to organizing.

“That outrage is still there, but now it’s going to be funneled and channeled into strategies and tactics on how we actually make change in the government,” she explained. “As more and more protests happen, local, state, and federal elected officials will feel uncomfortable maintaining the stance they have.”

(Editor’s note: Click here to see Indivisible’s support for local election candidates.)

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July 21, 2025HUMAN RIGHTS, North AmericaNorth AmericaCPNN Coordinator

Colombia: At Hague Group Emergency Summit, 30+ Nations Seek to ‘Halt the Genocide in Gaza’

. . HUMAN RIGHTS . .

An article by Brett Wilkins in Common Dreams (reprinted according to Creative Commons CC BY-NC-ND 3.0)

Ministerial delegates from more than 30 nations gathered in the Colombian capital Bogotá Tuesday [July 15] for an emergency summit focused on “concrete measures” to end Israel’s U.S.-backed genocide in Gaza and other crimes against occupied Palestine.

(Editor’s note: According to a followup article, “On the second and final day of an emergency summit in Bogotá, Colombia—which co-chairs the Hague Group with South Africa—the coalition announced a six-point plan for “coordinated diplomatic, legal, and economic measures to restrain Israel’s assault on the occupied Palestinian territories and defend international law at large.”)

Francesca Albanese, United Nations Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in the Palestinian territories, speaks during the emergency conference of The Hague Group at the San Carlos Palace in Bogotá on July 15, 2025. (Photo: Luis Acosta/AFP via Getty Images)

The two-day Hague Group summit ultimately aims to “halt the genocide in Gaza” and sois led by co-chairs Colombia—which last year severed diplomatic relations with Israel—and South Africa, which filed the ongoing genocide case against Israel at the International Court of Justice (ICJ) joined by around two dozen countries. Progressive International first convened the Hague Group in January in the eponymous Dutch city, which is home to both the ICJ and International Criminal Court (ICC), whose rulings the coalition is dedicated to upholding.

“This summit marks a turning point in the global response to the erosion and violation of international law,” South African Minister of International Relations and Cooperation Ronald Lamola said ahead of the gathering. “No country is above the law, and no crime will go unanswered.”

Colombian Deputy Foreign Minister Mauricio Jaramillo Jassir said before the summit: “The Palestinian genocide threatens the entire international system. Colombia cannot remain indifferent in the face of apartheid and ethnic cleansing. The participating states will not only reaffirm their commitment to opposing genocide, but also formulate concrete steps to move from words to collective action.

That action includes enforcement of ICC arrest warrants issued last year for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Yoav Gallant, his former defense minister, for alleged crimes against humanity and war crimes in Gaza including murder and forced starvation in a war that has left more than 211,000 Palestinians dead, maimed, or missing since October 2023, according to the Gaza Health Ministry.

Hague Group members Bolivia, Cuba, Honduras, Malaysia, Namibia, and Senegal will attend the summit. Algeria, Bangladesh, Botswana, Brazil, Chile, China, Djibouti, Indonesia, Iraq, Ireland, Lebanon, Libya, Mexico, Nicaragua, Oman, Pakistan, Palestine, Qatar, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, Uruguay, and Venezuela will also take part.

Notably, so will NATO members and U.S. allies Norway, Portugal, Slovenia, Spain, and Turkey. Like Israel, the United States denies there is a genocide in Gaza, despite growing international consensus among human rights defenders, jurists, and genocide experts including some of the leading Holocaust scholars in Israel and the United States.

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Question related to this article:

How can war crimes be documented, stopped, punished and prevented?

How can a culture of peace be established in the Middle East?

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A spokesperson for the U.S. State Department—which has sanctioned ICC judges and United Nations Special Rapporteur on the Occupied Palestinian Territories Francesca Albanese for seeking accountability for Israeli crimes—told Jewish News Syndicate Monday that the United States “strongly opposes efforts by so-called ‘multilateral blocs’ to weaponize international law as a tool to advance radical anti-Western agendas.”

The spokesperson added that the Trump administration “will aggressively defend our interests, our military, and our allies, including Israel, from such coordinated legal and diplomatic warfare,” even as U.S. allies take part in the summit.

Undaunted by U.S. sanctions, Albanese is among several U.N. experts who spoke at the summit, which she hailed as “the most significant political development in the past 20 months.

In prepared remarks, Albanese—who earlier this month said that “Israel is responsible for one of the cruelest genocides in modern history”—told attendees that “for too long, international law has been treated as optional—applied selectively to those perceived as weak, ignored by those acting as the powerful.”

“This double standard has eroded the very foundations of the legal order,” she argued. “That era must end.”

According to Albanese:

The world will remember what we, states and individuals, did in this moment—whether we recoiled in fear or rose in defense of human dignity. Here in Bogotá, a growing number of states have the opportunity to break the silence and revert to a path of legality by finally saying: Enough. Enough impunity. Enough empty rhetoric. Enough exceptionalism. Enough complicity. The time has come to act in pursuit of justice and peace—grounded in rights and freedoms for all, and not mere privileges for some, at the expense of the annihilation of others.

The Israeli Mission to the United Nations told Jewish News Syndicate that “what the event organizers, and perhaps some of the countries attending, forget is what triggered this conflict—namely, the butchering of 1,200 innocent souls on October 7, and how 50 Israelis remain in brutal captivity to this day by Hamas in Gaza.”

“Attempting to exert pressure on Israel—and not Hamas, who initiated and are prolonging this conflict—is a moral travesty,” the mission added. “The war will not end while hostages remain in Gaza.”

In addition to the ICC warrants for Netanyahu and Gallant, the ICJ—whose ruling in the genocide case is not expected for years—has ordered Israel to prevent genocidal acts in Gaza, to stop blocking lifesaving humanitarian aid from entering the strip, and to halt its assault on Rafah. Israel has ignored all three orders.

“The choice before us is stark and unforgiving,” Colombian President Gustavo Petro wrote in The Guardian last week. “We can either stand firm in defense of the legal principles that seek to prevent war and conflict, or watch helplessly as the international system collapses under the weight of unchecked power politics.”

“While we may face threats of retaliation when we stand up for international law—as South Africa discovered when the United States retaliated for its case at the International Court of Justice—the consequences of abdicating our responsibilities will be dire,” Petro continued. “If we fail to act now, we not only betray the Palestinian people, we become complicit in the atrocities committed by Netanyahu’s government.”

“For the billions of people in the Global South who rely on international law for protection, the stakes could not be higher,” he added. “The Palestinian people deserve justice. The moment demands courage.”

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July 16, 2025global, HUMAN RIGHTS, Latin America, MideastEurope, global, MideastCPNN Coordinator

Mexico: Civil Society in Juárez Promotes Law on a Culture of Peace and Reconciliation in the Country

… EDUCATION FOR PEACE …

An article by Jonathan Álvarez in Yo Ciudadano (translation by CPNN)

Organized civil society in Ciudad Juárez is promoting the national consolidation of the General Law on a Culture of Peace and Reconciliation, which will be presented to the Senate of the Republic in the next legislative session in September.

This Wednesday (July 9), a series of dialogues and working groups began at the State Commission on Human Rights (CEDH), with the participation of nearly 25 civil society organizations that contributed their proposals to enrich the law’s content.

The working groups included the topics of disability, gender violence, childhood, youth, and security and justice.

The initiative for the law was promoted by organized civil society in Ciudad Juárez and aims to “inject a culture of peace into the country,” said one of its main promoters, Silvia Aguirre Lomelí, director of the Family Center for Integration and Growth (CFIC).

“With this law, we will educate from preschool to postdoctoral levels in peace strategies such as mediation, restorative justice, rebuilding the social fabric, and emotional literacy,” she explained.

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(click here for the original version in Spanish).

Questions for this article:

Is there progress towards a culture of peace in Mexico?

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Aguirre Lomelí recalled that the idea and need for the creation of the General Law for a Culture of Peace and Reconciliation initiative arose from the effects of one of the most violent periods in Juárez, 2008-2009.

She added that, since the formation of the CFIC association 15 years ago, the need to promote this law was identified after meeting people affected by violence and the pain it generates.

After knocking on several doors with federal public servants, this year the bill was revived by Senator Juan Carlos Loera de la Rosa (Morena), who organized discussions to strengthen the bill.

“This law aims to reach the deepest reaches of society and institutions to foster, from the roots, the establishment of a culture of peace and reconciliation in our country in schools and other institutions,” he stated in an interview.

Loera de la Rosa said the law would be introduced in the next legislative session, which runs from September to December of this year.

For her part, Sandra Ramírez, director of the civil association Colectiva Arte, Comunidad y Equidad, believed the new law should articulate other laws that have justice as a cross-cutting theme.

“Justice must come first to put victims at the center, and with this comes a state of peace (…) it must reflect a state of peace, but not understood as the absence of conflict, but rather as the administration of justice,” she emphasized. She added that the expectation is that the dialogue and promotion of this law will bring the issue of peace and justice back into the public eye.

On the other hand, Leslie Molina, director of the Somos Autistas Juárez association, which serves children with neurodivergences, considered it essential that the law consider the eradication of all forms of discrimination as an important attribute for peace.

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July 15, 2025EDUCATION FOR PEACE, Latin AmericaLatin AmericaCPNN Coordinator

The damage foreign military bases do in 2025

DISARMAMENT AND SECURITY .

A report from World Beyond War

A new report by World BEYOND War finds that military bases used by foreign militaries are growing in number, as are public protests and advocacy against those bases. Of 1,247 foreign military bases in the world, 877 of them, by latest count, are U.S. bases outside of the United States. Eighteen other nations, combined, have 370 bases outside their borders.

The full report is available below or as a PDF here.

While U.S. bases are in 95 foreign countries all over the globe and virtually encircling the borders of Russia and China, the nation with the second-most foreign bases, Türkiye, has them all near Türkiye, with the exception of one base in Somalia, and the majority of them in Syria and Iraq where Türkiye has been waging wars. During U.S. wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, the United States added, and later closed, hundreds of bases. Türkiye and the U.S. are allied members of NATO and weapons traders, and the United States maintains a military presence at nine bases within Türkiye, at one of which it keeps nuclear weapons. The only other nation on Earth with even a tenth as many foreign military bases as the United States is the United States’ very closest military ally, the United Kingdom, some of whose bases are joint U.S.-UK operations.

The combined foreign military bases of the top three nations on the list, NATO members all, total 1,127. The fourth nation on the list, NATO’s raison d’être, Russia, has 29 foreign military bases. These are all found in 10 countries, all of which are near Russia, apart from one base in Sudan.

Foreign bases are catching on in a minor way with other nations. And governments like that of Djibouti that host bases for numerous nations for a fee increase the risk of sparking conflict. But foreign bases remain primarily and uniquely a U.S. enterprise, with no other foreign basing approaching in scale that of U.S. basing in nations such as Germany, Japan, and South Korea. The biggest change in U.S. bases in the past three years is the creation of dozens of new bases in Norway, Sweden, and Finland. The U.S. has also opened new bases in Western Asia, Somalia, South Africa, Panama, Puerto Rico, and Peru, and significantly in the parts of the world southeast of China: Taiwan, the Philippines, Guam, the Northern Marianas, Papua New Guinea, and Australia.

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Question related to this article:

Can foreign military bases be shut down?

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People have built popular movements to prevent planned bases and to close existing bases at many locations around the world, and increasingly they are in touch with each other. On February 23, 2025, and surrounding days, individuals and organizations around the world took coordinated action to call for the closure of all military bases as part of the Global Day of Action to Close Bases. In over 60 locations people protested the foreign bases of various countries, including the United States, the UK, and Russia. See https://DayToCloseBases.org

Bases are often on stolen land and often perpetuate systems of segregation and colonialism. They do incredible environmental damage, tend to increase sexual violence and drunkenness, cost a financial fortune, prop up brutal governments, and facilitate drone attacks and wars.

In some places, movements against bases have achieved official support. The Governor of Okinawa has repeatedly visited the United States to insist that military bases be closed. Almost 20 years ago, the Government of Ecuador evicted the U.S. military and banned foreign bases. More recently, the Ecuadorian government has violated its Constitution to allow foreign bases in the Galapagos Islands and proposed to do the same on the mainland, despite opposition from members of Parliament.

In some places, bases have been prevented or closed. In 2024, after years of struggle, supported by World BEYOND War and others, the Save Sinjajevina campaign met with the Prime Minister of Montenegro and gained his promise that there would be no military training ground built at Sinjajevina in Montenegro. This was to have been a massive and destructive project for the benefit of NATO and the U.S. military. In 2006, people in the Czech Republic learned of plans to create U.S. bases in their country. They organized and prevented those bases from being built. In 2007 localities in the Czech Republic held referenda that matched national opinion polls and demonstrations; their opposition moved their government to refuse to host a U.S. base. In Colombia, a popular movement has prevented construction of a base for use by the U.S. military on Providencia Island, and a new movement to prevent such a base on Gorgona Island is drawing on the lessons from that success.

As shown in the new report, complaints against foreign military bases are numerous. Bases deny sovereignty, make nations into targets, make wars more likely, support unpopular governments, do extensive environmental damage, proliferate nuclear weapons, provide criminal immunity to occupying troops, and create a segregated structure in which people do not all have the same rights.

The U.S. public, and as far as can be determined, every other public whose government has foreign bases, has never been asked to decide on creating or closing such bases, and very rarely if ever even been surveyed in an opinion poll on the matter.

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July 14, 2025DISARMAMENT & SECURITY, global, North Americaglobal, North AmericaCPNN Coordinator

Violence Against Women: West Africa at a Time of Decisive Choices

. . WOMEN’S EQUALITY . .

An article from Burkina 24 (translation by CPNN)

The adoption last February of the African Union Convention on the Elimination of Violence against Women and Girls was hailed as a major milestone for women’s rights on the continent.

However, the Alliance Droits et Santé, a regional collective committed to defending women’s human rights and health, warns that this progress risks remaining symbolic without rapid, effective, and funded implementation.

The organization particularly calls on the governments of Benin, Burkina Faso, Côte d’Ivoire, Mali, Niger, and Senegal (members of the alliance), as well as all African countries, urging them to translate this continental commitment into concrete national actions.

“Every day of delay exposes more women and girls to unacceptable violence. The time for promises is over, but for action,” the Alliance insists.

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(click here for the original article in French.)

Question related to this article:

Protecting women and girls against violence, Is progress being made?

What role should men play to stop violence against women?

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To prevent the Convention from remaining a dead letter, the organization makes three strategic recommendations to policymakers and civil society actors:

1. Strengthening legal frameworks and survivor protection: This involves harmonizing national laws with regional and international standards, criminalizing all forms of gender-based violence, and ensuring simplified and secure access to justice.

2. Sustainable financing for the fight against gender-based violence: Alliance Droits et Santé calls for the allocation of multi-year national budgets, the involvement of the African private sector through corporate social responsibility, and the creation of dedicated, transparent, and rigorously monitored funds.

3. Strengthened coordination and data sharing: The establishment of inter-stakeholder cooperation mechanisms, the digitization of data, the strengthening of specialized centers, and the training of field professionals are essential to ensure a coherent and effective response.

The organization emphasizes the need to build a collective response. Governments, technical and financial partners, feminist movements, civil society and the private sector must work hand in hand to guarantee every woman and girl a free, safe and dignified life.

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July 14, 2025Africa, WOMEN'S EQUALITYAfricaCPNN Coordinator