What Does CPT Stand for?
By Latif Hars
[Note: Hars is a partner of the CPT Iraqi Kurdistan team from the Kurdish village of Gullan and was a member of the most recent Iraqi Kurdistan delegation.]
October 2014 delegation on visit to Kurdish villages facing exploitation of land by multinational oil conglomerates.
CPT is an international organization that works for peace and human rights. CPT is valuable, especially in our world today, which is so full of conflict. Some people believe that violence is the only solution to conflict, and beautiful cultures and ecosystems are the victims of these violent solutions. People, animals, and plants are destroyed for the benefit of a small group of powerful people. CPT should do more to search for the sources of violence, educate people about these sources, and publish this information for everyone to read. If people do not develop violent solutions, then we can stop violence.
CPT should also plant in all people’s souls the willingness to apologize, and this will over time become part of our culture. Planting this willingness is not easy work, but doing so will help us respect ourselves as human beings and have true freedom, where we are not divided by religion, culture, ideology, or racism. We are all equal in our time on earth and our trip to the sky, and we have freedom in what we do.
Members of CPT, and those who are working with CPT, should believe in human rights for everyone, regardless of the political borders created by politicians. They have to see the world as one big home, including in it people from all colors and mentalities. Every person should be accepted and have rights as long as those rights do not cause them to abuse others. The world is everyone’s home and human beings are one family.
When a child is born, the place, culture, and religion in which they are raised is beyond their control. A child born in the United States will be different from a child born in Kurdistan, Europe, or Australia. Right now when we look at a child, we do not see the human being; we see their religion or culture. CPT works to reduce the power of the most powerful countries, and to give more power to minority communities.
In my time as a CPT delegate, I learned many things. I believe that CPT has an important role to play supporting human rights around the world and presenting peaceful solutions to crises, especially here in Iraqi Kurdistan. They also connect human rights activists from around the world and help us get to know each other better.
CPT as a peace organization can benefit from the history of people working for peace and freedom. CPT can also use the research of people who study economics, government, religion, humanitarian issues, and cultures that live without weapons. All these different sources can provide a better life, and can be used as resources to help those who are asking for freedom. We can put more pressure on the authorities around the world that control decision-making and who use “national security” as an excuse to control finances and income in their country, without thinking about the general interest. These leaders can become the biggest criminals, and in the end, they will be the source of violence both inside and outside of their country.