June 6, 2024, Presentation to Portland City Council, Slides (Precepts and Goals) and Video (starting at minute 35)
PREAMBLE
With deep respect for the Russian people, and acting in accordance with the purpose for which the Portland-Khabarovsk Sister City Association (hereinafter “the Association”) was organized thirty-six years ago, to wit:
to foster and promote cultural, social, educational, and economic relations and to further international understanding, friendship, and goodwill between Portland, Oregon and Khabarovsk, Russia, and to promote the well-being of the public at-large
the Board of Directors of the Association declaims this Platform for Peace to articulate a basis for the end of hostilities between Russia and Ukraine that is consistent with international law, that recognizes the preeminence of human rights over the juridical rights of nation-states, that is culturally equitable, and which ensures the well-being of the Russian and Ukrainian peoples in perpetuity.
The Board of Directors of the Association hereby recommends to its Members and to all others who may wish to endorse this Platform for Peace the following Articles.
ARTICLES
Art. 1. We understand the history of the region in which Russia and Ukraine coexist but believe that present-day circumstances require adherence to, and mutual respect for, their shared international boundary in the interests of peace and prosperity.
Art. 2. We recognize Russia and Ukraine, individually and equally, as nation-states with all rights afforded under international law, including but not limited to the inviolability of their territorial limits as declared in the Belovezha Accords and as later affirmed by acts of lawfully authorized representatives of the former Union of Soviet Socialist Republics.
Art. 3. We believe that militarily imposed “spheres of influence” are antithetical to the sovereignty of modern nation-states and that in an age of long-range missiles, satellites and nuclear armaments that such attempts at hegemony are counterproductive. Fair competition for the affinity and cooperation of neighboring nation-states should be encouraged.
Art. 4. We oppose any aggression that imperils the Russian people or Russia’s sovereignty. We oppose any aggression that imperils the Ukrainian people or Ukraine’s sovereignty. We understand that some Russian people (or “peoples”) live in Ukraine and that some Ukrainian people (or “peoples”) live in Russia. Nevertheless, we reject irredentism as irreconcilable with the concept of a modern nation-state. Likewise, we call on both Russia and Ukraine to protect all peoples living within their territorial limits without discrimination and irrespective of their claimed nationality, heritage or cultural affinity. Cultural norms and practices, so long as they do not infringe upon basic human rights or substantially impair the rights of nation-states, must be protected wherever they exist.
Art. 5. As a corollary to the rights of nation-states as juridical persons (e.g., as a practical legal construct dating back to the Peace of Westphalia), we believe that emigration and immigration across territorial boundaries must be recognized as a basic human right subject only to balancing against the territorial rights of nation-states.
Art. 6. We understand that the military power of nation-states can be usurped by individual and/or corporate actors to advance their private interests. We urge all nation-states to enact and enforce such statutes as necessary to ensure that private interests falsely purported to be national interests are not advanced by the military power of nation-states.
Art. 7. We understand that some defensive postures can be fairly perceived as aggression and urge all nations to mutually and cooperatively disarm and stand down as necessary to assure peace among all nation-states.
RECOMMENDATION
Recommended to the Members of the Portland-Khabarovsk Sister City Association by consent of its Board of Directors by action at its regularly scheduled meeting on October 24, 2023.
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