For Use by World BEYOND War Chapters
To Be Modified as Needed for each location; this is just a place to start.
World BEYOND War does not endorse or support electoral candidates, but does provide the public with information. A survey of electoral candidates should be sent to every candidate from every political party or no party, and all answers (or failure to answer) should be reported fairly and accurately.
The following is simply a framework to start with, to be modified radically or slightly as required by a particular location. There are some notes to WBW chapters in brackets below.
For National Candidates for Political Office
- What percentage of government spending per year should this government spend on its military, and what is the highest percentage you would vote for?
- If elected would you introduce any program of conversion from war industries to nonviolent industries, any plan to shift resources, retool factories, and retrain workers?
- If elected would you act to end participation in any of the following wars / interventions / military operations: [list those wars the nation is participating in]?
- Which of these treaties would you urge this government to sign and ratify? [You might want to list specific treaties your government is not yet party to, such as (if this is the case) some of these: the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court, the U.N. Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons, the Kellogg-Briand Pact, the Convention on Cluster Munitions, the Land Mines Convention, the Convention on the Rights of the Child, the International Convention on Economic, Social, and Cultural Rights, the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights optional protocols, the Convention Against Torture optional protocol, the International Convention Against the Recruitment, Use, Financing, and Training of Mercenaries, the Convention on the Non-Applicability of Statutory Limitations to War Crimes and Crimes Against Humanity. Here’s one tool for finding which treaties your nation has ratified.]
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- If elected, what would you do to support a global ceasefire?
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For Regional or Local Candidates for Political Office
- Would you introduce and vote for a resolution to divest all public funds controlled by your government from weapons producers?
- Do you accept that local or regional governments have a responsibility to represent their constituents to regional or national governments? In other words, will you consider resolutions focused on national or global topics on their merits, or will you reject them out of hand as not your responsibility?
- Would you introduce and vote for a resolution urging the national government of ________ to shift resources from militarism to human and environmental needs?
- Would you introduce and vote for a resolution urging the national government of ________ to support a global ceasefire?
