On June 20, 2013, a petition signed by a diverse group of former ambassadors, foreign policy experts and peacebuilders, including former President Jimmy Carter, was sent to Secretary of State John F. Kerry asking that he exempt peacebuilding activities from the ban on engagement with groups on the terrorist list. It was delivered the day before the third anniversary of a Supreme Court ruling that upheld federal restrictions on peacebuilding activities that are conducted with listed terrorist organizations.
In its June 21, 2010 decision in Holder v. Humanitarian Law Project, a divided U.S. Supreme Court upheld a federal statute that prohibits many forms of speech-based engagement with listed terrorist organizations. Even training programs in conflict mediation aimed at getting terrorists to lay down arms could result in criminal prosecution. This means that the kinds of peace processes that led to the Oslo and the Good Friday Accords are unavailable to today’s peacebuilders.
“Pursuing peaceful resolutions to violent conflict should be encouraged, not criminalized,” said Kay Guinane, Director of the Charity & Security Network. This does not have to be the case. When Congress passed the law barring “material support” to terrorists, it also gave the Secretary of State authority to waive some prohibitions in the law to permit specific types of non-tangible technical assistance and services, such as peacebuilding activities carried out by civil society groups.
Melanie Greenberg, President and CEO of the Alliance for Peacebuilding, said “Secretary Kerry can open the door for professional peacebuilders to help to end armed conflicts and suffering around the world. This work is needed now more than ever, as we move to end wars and take a more comprehensive approach to addressing the scourge of terrorism and make the U.S. safer.”
This renews a request made to former Sec. of State Hillary Clinton by faith-based leaders, and former diplomats, peacebuilders and foreign policy experts to reconcile peacebuilding with national security policy, but not completed before she left office.