[E-rundbrief] Info 1860 - IPB on SIPRI Report on Military Spending

[Matthias Reichl]

E-Rundbrief Info 1860 - IPB Statement on the SIPRI Report on Military 
Spending.

Bad Ischl, 30.4.2019

Begegnungszentrum für aktive Gewaltlosigkeit

www.begegnungszentrum.at

================================================

IPB Statement on the SIPRI Report on Military Spending

https://www.ipb.org/ipb-statements/ipb-statement-on-the-sipri-report-on-military-spending/

29.4.2019

On April 29th, the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute 
(SIPRI) released its report on global military spending in 2018.

According to the report, the global military budget rose in 2018 by 
2.6%, and is now estimated at $1.822.000.000.000 ($1,822 trillion.)

This is a tremendous setback for IPB and its partners. More 
importantly, it is a direct assault against people who are in urgent 
need of humanitarian aid and development assistance. IPB, which 
focuses its resources on lobbying and campaigning for the reduction of 
military spending in order to benefit social development, is greatly 
alarmed by this increase of 2.6% military spending increase. To put 
this in perspective, it should be remembered that humanitarian aid and 
development assistance amounted to $ 26.4 billion in 2017, according 
to the Development Initiatives´ Report on the Global Humanitarian 
Assistance[1]. Each dollar invested in war is causing multiplying 
physical and emotional damage, far more than $ 26.4 billion in 
humanitarian assistance can ever repair or compensate.

We, as active members of global civil society, need to combine our 
voices and efforts with others to name, protest and change this 
injustice and win reductions of the world’s military budget through 
legal means and with high moral standards. Only in this way can we 
free up the financial and human resources essential to not only 
treating the symptoms of the global epidemic called “poverty,” but to 
address issues such as hunger, homelessness, migration, racial and 
gender inequality and environmental deterioration.

Lisa Clark & Reiner Braun

Co Presidents of the International Peace Bureau (IPB)

Florence and Berlin, 29th of April 2019

[1] 
http://devinit.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/06/GHA-Report-2018-Executive-summary.pdf


-- 

     Matthias Reichl, Pressesprecher/ press speaker,
     Begegnungszentrum fuer aktive Gewaltlosigkeit
     Center for Encounter and active Non-Violence
     Wolfgangerstr. 26, 4820 Bad Ischl, Austria,
     fon: +43 6132 24590, Informationen/ informations,
     Impressum in: http://www.begegnungszentrum.at