The Biden administration has reestablished America’s global standing. The Administration has empowered the State Department and its mission of promoting democracy globally. It has renewed the American commitment to humanitarian efforts worldwide. It withdrew from America’s longest war in Afghanistan, rejoined the Paris Climate Accord, and provided assurances to the United Nations and other NATO members that the United States values its leadership role and will not turn its back on its allies. And it led its NATO allies in support of Ukraine in the face of unprovoked Russian aggression.
California Democrats recognize that all human beings are entitled to freedom, peace, and justice and are committed to a properly staffed and funded foreign service that promotes democracy and human rights around the world.
Many places in the world remain closed to democracy and have leadership repressive of the most basic civil rights. Terrorism is a plague, but wars are not the solution. Even for the most powerful nation on earth, eradicating terrorism solely through a strategy of war, brute force, and attempts at regime change is an impossibility. Foreign intelligence combined with effective foreign aid programs better supports our nation’s fight against terrorism and our commitment to democracy and human rights around the world.
We must believe that the American people will support truth over the fear mongering by our political adversaries. We must be truthful with our allies and with ourselves. We must be firm with those who threaten the American people and our democratic ideals, whether at home or abroad. And we must take the moral path as we strive to promote world peace.
To create a more secure and peaceful world, California Democrats will:
- Build upon the Biden administration’s success in reestablishing America’s position as a world leader, one that recognizes and upholds the rule of law and the role of multilateral treaties and opposes aggression against sovereign nations;
- Reaffirm the War Powers Act by working to return the authority to declare war to Congress and specifically including a requirement that any first use of nuclear weapons be preceded by a formal declaration of war by Congress and a specific authorization to use nuclear weapons;
- Demand that our policies and our aid to other governments be based upon respect for basic human rights;
- Affirm the right of all people to live free from invasion, persecution, discrimination, dehumanization, and human rights abuses;
- Resist any movement in the world that curtails basic rights and civil liberties or undermines democratic principles and freedom of expression;
- Combat external threats through increased participation in, support for, and cooperation with the United Nations, other international agencies, and regional organizations;
- Support greater participation in peacekeeping to help prevent mass atrocities and renewed international collaborations to build government structures in states that are failing or emerging from conflict;
- Oppose regime change strategies as a pretext for war and/or occupation;
- Cooperate with other nations to eliminate terrorism, increase literacy and child survival rates, combat poverty disease and malnutrition, bolster existing and new democracies and developing nations, and reduce the support and demand for narcotics;
- Embrace the Biden Administration’s continuing support for the United Nations as an essential institution for the pursuit of peace and justice employing diplomacy under international law and for the crucial worldwide efforts to end poverty and prevent climate catastrophe;
- Support ratification and adherence to the terms of the key treaties that advance the causes of peace and human rights, including the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty, the Chemical Weapons Convention, the Biological and Toxins Weapons Convention, the Landmine Treaty, the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court, the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women, the International Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, the Convention on the Rights of the Child, and the International Convention on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights;
- Advocate for negotiations toward full implementation of both the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty and the U.N. Programme of Action on Small Arms and Light Weapons and support the United Nations Treaty Prohibiting Nuclear Weapons;
- Support ratification of the United Nations Arms Trade Treaty to which the United States is a signatory;
- Support the advancement of programs around the world that will end the cycle of violence to ultimately promote peace, rule of law, and human rights for increased security and prosperity at home;
- Promote establishing national institutions based on organizing principles of violence prevention and non-violent conflict resolution, using and developing a network of “best practice” peace-building policies and programs among U.N. member states and nonmember nations;
- Urge universal adherence to the Geneva and Hague Conventions; no torture; no extraordinary renditions; no exceptions;
- Work to enhance the U.N. and regional organizations and commit to the objectives of the U.N. Sustainable Development Goals, including eradication of extreme hunger and poverty, achievement of universal primary education, and promotion and empowerment of women;
- Observe both U.S. and international law and adhere to the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and U.N. Convention to the Status of Refugees in granting asylum and support the dignified treatment of refugees everywhere no matter their race, religion, or country of origin;
- Support pursuant to the Universal Declaration of Human Rights Article 13, the right of individuals to leave and return to their own country consistent with negotiated treaties and pursuant to Article 14, the right to seek asylum and be free from persecution;
- Work toward achieving global nuclear disarmament by urging the continuation of international negotiations regarding the reduction and elimination of weapons of mass destruction throughout the world, a recommitment to arms control agreements, and opposition to any first use of nuclear weapons and pre-emptive nuclear strikes;
- Support reallocating defense expenditures in a manner commensurate with actual threats;
- Support enhanced efforts to deprive terrorists of weapons of mass destruction by moving multilaterally to diminish weapons stockpiles, and moving back the hands of the Doomsday Clock published by the Bulletin of Atomic Scientists as it relates to nuclear weapons and the threat of nuclear war;
- Urge tailoring our foreign policy to eliminate poverty, starting with allocating an additional one percent of our budget to aid and development;
- Work to promote population-planning worldwide through education and support for family planning organizations without restricting a woman’s autonomy over her body as part of responsible family planning;
- Make the United States a global leader in healthy and democratic economic development by designing policies that prioritize worker rights, preserve the environment, fight the climate crisis, and channel the benefit of globalization to ordinary people in all countries;
- Structure fair trade agreements that require countries to adopt and enforce internationally recognized labor standards such as the right to associate and bargain collectively and prohibitions against child labor, forced labor, and discrimination in employment;
- Stand in solidarity with the citizens of those countries who speak out to protect their democracies, marginalized communities, women’s, labor and LGBTQ rights in their countries and to protect an independent judiciary;
- Oppose the use of military drones for “targeted killings” in countries with which the United States is not at war;
- Urge that where sanctions are warranted to target their use to limit impacts on local populations;
- Condemn the Russian government’s war crimes resulting from its ongoing and unprovoked invasion of Ukraine and support continuing economic sanctions targeting the Russian government as well as individuals complicit with Russian leadership in its aggression against the Ukranian people;
- Proactively seek durable peace in the Middle East, including opposing Turkish repression and aggression against Kurdish civilians in Northern Syria which has undermined years of cooperative security work to stop ISIS and Syria from terrorizing innocent citizens and rejoining the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (2015 Iran nuclear agreement) with the ultimate goal of preventing Iran from obtaining a nuclear weapon or a mechanism for delivery of nuclear weapons, and discourage the further proliferation of nuclear weapons in the region, encourage democratic forces in Iran, and strive to restore normal U.S.-Iran relations;
- Continue to work toward a solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict directly negotiated by the parties that guarantees equality, security and democracy for all; recognizes Israel’s future as a secure and democratic Jewish state with recognized borders; and, provides Palestinians with independence, sovereignty, and dignity;
- Support efforts among representatives of Israel, Gaza, and the West Bank to de-escalate tensions through good- faith negotiations that recognize Israel’s future as a sovereign, secure, and democratic Jewish state and that can lead to security and independence for Palestinians;
- Recognize that Israelis and Palestinians deserve security, recognition, and a normal life free from terror and incitement and respectively should be free to govern themselves, each in their own viable states in peace and with dignity;
- Continue to support an end to the teaching and use of antisemitism and Islamophobia in discourse throughout the Middle East and beyond and support the Biden Administration’s National Strategy to Counter Antisemitism and efforts to work with the Muslim-American community to define and counter Islamophobia;
- Support the creation of a special envoy who will monitor and combat Islamophobia;
- Oppose the genocide committed by the Burmese military and support peaceful actions to restore democracy to Burma;
- Encourage dialogue with the People’s Republic of China to address issues, including: climate change; a peaceful resolution of issues between China and Taiwan that is consistent with the will of the people of Taiwan; and, the return of democratic freedoms to the people of Hong Kong;
- Unequivocally continue to condemn the genocide of Uyghurs and all other human-rights violations and insist that China release all religious and ethnic minorities from all forms of detention;
- Support de-escalating a nuclear arms competition between the U.S. and China and support and encourage fair trade between the two nations;
- Support direct talks with North and South Korean leaders toward denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula; and,
- Promote diplomatic actions to restore citizenship equality in India, regardless of religion, race, caste, gender, or employment, or other factors.
