Department of Peacebuilding Act of 2017

Short title— This Act may be cited as the “Department of Peacebuilding Act of 2017”.

Table of contents— The table of contents for this Act is as follows:

On July 4, 1776, the Second Continental Congress unanimously declared the independence of the 13 colonies, and the achievement of peace was recognized as one of the highest duties of the new organization of free and independent States by declaring, “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.”.

The Constitution of the United States of America, in its preamble, further sets forth the insurance of the cause of peace in stating, “We the People of the United States, in Order to form a more perfect Union, establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common defence, promote the general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity”.

The United States has been at peace for only 21 entire years since its birth during the Revolutionary War. During the course of the 20th century, more than 100,000,000 people perished in wars. Many of our citizens today have never known a peaceful year in their lifetimes.

Thus far in the 21st century, nearly 1,000,000 people have died in conflict and war. In 2015 alone, 65.3 million people, or one person in 113, were displaced from their homes by conflict and persecution. The United States has been at war over 15 years, with more than 6,800 members of the Armed Forces and hundreds of thousands of civilians estimated to have been killed in the conflicts in Iraq, Afghanistan, and territories occupied by ISIL.

Every year 300,000 people are killed by gun violence around the world. In the United States, 100,000 people are shot each year in murders, assaults, suicides and suicide attempts, accidents, and police actions. Approximately 20 veterans a day commit suicide nationwide. Over 33,000 people die each year of gunshot wounds, 12,000 of whom are murdered. Every day, 50 children are shot, eight of whom are fatally shot, and each gun injury and fatality results in trauma to family members and loved ones. More people have died from guns in the United States since 1968 than on battlefields of all the wars in United States history.

A World Health Organization report estimates that interpersonal violence within the United States costs approximately $300 billion annually, not including war-related costs. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention states that an average of 34 people age 10 to 24 were murdered each day in the United States in 2014. The Pew Charitable Trust calculates that child abuse and neglect in the United States cost $103.8 billion in 2007.

On April 4, 2012, the Institute for Economics and Peace released the United States Peace Index, which assesses peacefulness at the State and city levels and analyzes the costs associated with violence and the socio-economic measures associated with peace. While violence within the United States has declined since the year 2015, violence and violence containment still cost the average taxpayer $6,417 per year. The total cost of violence to the United States—including lost productivity from violence—is conservatively calculated to be over $460 billion.

A 2015 study by the Institute for Economics and Peace reports conservative estimates that 12 percent of the gross domestic product of the United States was spent on containing violence. The study included government, corporate, and individual expenditures, regardless of whether the expenditure was related to international affairs such as offshore military activities, or domestic spending such as dealing with crime and the consequences of crime.

Violence prevention is cost effective. For every dollar spent on violence prevention and peacebuilding, thousands of lives and dollars are saved. Research indicates that investing early to prevent conflicts from escalating into violent crises is, on average, 60 times more cost effective than intervening after violence erupts. The philosophy and techniques of nonviolence and the science of peacebuilding provide tools and techniques that can be applied not only at the levels of individual and community growth, but also within the Federal Government and at national and international levels.

The United Nations recognizes that promotion of peace is vital for the full enjoyment of all human rights and the United Nations Declaration on the Right of Peoples to Peace mandates that preservation of the right to peace is a fundamental obligation of each country. In 1999, the United Nations adopted a Programme of Action on a Culture of Peace, stating that a culture of peace is an integral approach to preventing violence and violent conflicts, an alternative to the culture of war and violence, and is based on education for peace, the promotion of sustainable economic and social development, respect for human rights, equality between women and men, democratic participation, tolerance, and the free flow of information and disarmament. The United Nations declared the years 2001 through 2010 an International Decade for a Culture of Peace and Non-Violence for the Children of the World, and the United Nations supports a culture of peace. In 2015, the UN adopted 17 sustainable development goals, including promotion of peaceful and inclusive societies.

Peacebuilding is defined by the United Nations as a range of measures targeted to reduce the risk of lapsing or relapsing into conflict by strengthening national capacities at all levels for conflict management and to lay the foundations for sustainable peace and development. Peacebuilding is built upon research into the root causes of violence in the United States and the world, through promotion and promulgation of effective policies and programs that ameliorate those root causes of violence, and through providing all citizens, organizations, and governmental bodies with opportunities to learn about and practice the essential tools of nonviolent conflict resolution and peacebuilding.

In 2000, the Earth Charter Commission released the Earth Charter, an international declaration of fundamental values and principles created to build a just, sustainable, and peaceful global society. The preamble of the Earth Charter provides, “To move forward we must recognize that in the midst of a magnificent diversity of cultures and life forms we are one human family and one Earth community with a common destiny. We must join together to bring forth a sustainable global society founded on respect for nature, universal human rights, economic justice, and a culture of peace.”. Peacebuilding is working together with all countries to protect both life and land and hold the Earth in balance.