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CONFERENCE REPORT: INTERNATIONAL FORUM FOR PEACE 2025 (BRUSSELS,
23–24 JUNE 2025)  
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August 11, 2025
Transform!Europe
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_ The Forum gathered diverse voices advocating peace, climate
justice, and social justice, seeking to break Europe’s political
deadlock and avert its march to war. The Forum concluded with a common
declaration. _

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Just two days after the dynamic demonstration in The Hague against the
NATO Summit, the _International Forum for Peace 2025_ convened in
Brussels to advance a bold, urgent agenda for global peace. The NATO
meeting, which saw member states (with the exception of Spain) commit
to increasing defence spending to 5% of GDP, marked a dangerous
escalation in the militarisation of Europe. In response, the Forum
served as a vital counterpoint — politically, strategically, and
morally.

The Brussels event
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hosted by _transform! europe_ in partnership with the International
Peace Bureau, Progressive International, the Party of the European
Left, and the Rosa Luxemburg Foundation, followed a two-day
counter-summit on 20–21 June in den Hague, which brought together
400 activists from across Europe to resist the transformation of the
EU into a war-oriented global actor. The International Forum for Peace
gathered around 150 participants from around the world, with also a
strong European political presence signalled through the presence of
MEPs Özlem Demirel and  Marc Botenga, as well as the president of
the European Left Party Walter Baier and the leader of the Workers’
Party of Belgium (PTB-PVDA) Peter Martins.

Across two days of plenaries and workshops, the Forum provided space
for diverse voices advocating peace, climate justice, and social
justice. A common thread ran through the debates: the urgent need to
break the current political deadlock in Europe, which is accelerating
the march towards war, and to instead reorient resources and diplomacy
towards the real needs of people and the planet.

Participants called for a democratic, peaceful, and multilateral world
— one that overcomes colonial legacies and puts cooperation over
confrontation. From investing in climate resilience and socially
beneficial technologies to defending human rights and global
working-class livelihoods, the Forum reaffirmed the necessity of
building alliances for peace rooted in justice, solidarity, and
internationalism.

The IFFP concluded with a common declaration
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(below also in French and Spanish) and the affirmation to continue the
efforts for a future of peace and justice and to be active on during
the International Day for Peace on the 21st of September 2025.
_transform!_ will remain committed to IFFP and to all efforts of our
network for peace.

 

Final Declaration of the International Forum for Peace

For a World in Peace

Stop the increase in military spending and the militarization of our
societies!

The world stands at a crossroads. On one side, the global capitalist
system and imperialism insist on maintaining a unipolar order, rooted
in centuries of colonial domination, with NATO acting as the
military, political, and ideological arm of this outdated and unjust
international order.
 

On the other side are the forces striving to forge a new multilateral
order, committed to the principles of the UN, based on peaceful
coexistence, mutually beneficial cooperation, social progress, and
solidarity.

The NATO Summit on June 24–25, with its proposal to increase
military spending at the expense of social spending, deepens the arms
race, which in 2024 amounted to a global military expenditure of 2.718
trillion dollars.

We believe that the Atlantic Alliance is part of a security system
that has repeatedly violated the UN Charter and is generating greater
insecurity in a global scenario marked by a multidimensional crisis
that threatens humanity and the planet.

We are deeply concerned about the resurgence of fascism and the
multiple crises threatening life on the planet, taking us further away
from the goal of achieving a peaceful world. These crises are causing
intensified exploitation, growing inequality, increased poverty in
significant regions of the world, climate change, and escalating
global violence.

The growing conflicts worldwide—including the genocide perpetrated
by Israel in Gaza, the war in Ukraine, conflicts in the Democratic
Republic of Congo, Western Sahara, Sudan, the recent Israeli
aggression against Iran, and many others—are flagrant violations of
international law and the purposes and principles of the UN Charter.

We recognize that these wars are economically driven, aiming to seize
natural resources for profit.

The consequences of these crises manifest in death, suffering,
destruction, and denial of the most basic rights of peoples. Wars
especially affect the millions of human beings who lose their lives or
are forced to flee their homes, particularly women—who are raped as
spoils of war or trafficked—alongside children, the elderly, and
people with special needs.

We also denounce the continued interference in the internal affairs of
other countries by the United States and its allies, such as the
European Union, as well as their manipulation campaigns and attempts
to destabilize sovereign nations that do not bow to their interests.

We explicitly condemn the economic, commercial, and financial blockade
imposed on Cuba, as well as its unilateral inclusion on the list of
so-called state sponsors of terrorism, from which it must be
immediately removed. These policies are unjust, inhumane, and contrary
to international law.

We also condemn the recent U.S. bombing of facilities in Iran, which
violates Iran's sovereignty and international law, posing a direct
threat to global peace and stability.

Reducing security to merely a matter of armaments and military
confrontation poses immense dangers for all peoples.

The growing militarization and increasing geopolitical tensions
obstruct the multilateral cooperation urgently needed to solve global
problems created by the current unjust international order—poverty,
inequality, patriarchal violence, hunger, lack of housing, climate
change, limited access to health and education, genocide, armed
conflicts, and the nuclear threat.

The ongoing increase in military budgets diverts resources urgently
needed to ensure real security for people and the planet.

History shows that many of the international security problems stem
from a lack of respect for rights and sovereignty, often accompanied
by the promotion of fascist forces, and rooted in socioeconomic and
ecological disruptions, unbridled exploitation of resources, and the
absence of diplomacy and multilateral mechanisms for collective
security.

In response to the belligerent escalation proposed at the 2025 NATO
Summit in The Hague— which seeks more military spending, more
rearmament, and a globalized NATO serving the dominance of a few—we
emphasize the relevance of the Helsinki Accords, signed 50 years ago,
which established essential principles such as respect for the
sovereignty of peoples, peaceful conflict resolution, and
non-intervention. We also highlight the Proclamation of Latin America
and the Caribbean as a Zone of Peace, which offers a cooperative model
to be replicated in other regions of the world.

Now more than ever, we must move towards a multilateral, just,
democratic, and equitable international order based on peaceful
coexistence, solidarity, and international cooperation.

We, the organizers of this International Forum for Peace, believe that
to build peace, we must unite, cooperate, and organize in all our
diversity to support the struggles of the working class and the
efforts of social movements—especially involving youth—in the
project of constructing a common security architecture based on
multilateralism and adherence to the purposes and principles of the UN
Charter.

This must focus on diplomacy, disarmament, social justice, equality,
and environmental sustainability, placing life at the center of all
government actions, and rejecting power structures that fuel war,
perpetuate poverty, and destroy the planet. We stand in solidarity
with all those who fight for a dignified future in every corner of the
world.

Therefore, we call to action:

1. Work to stop the genocide in Gaza and the military conflicts
unfolding in various regions around the world.

2. Reject any increase in military spending that may be approved at
the NATO Summit, and challenge the logic of the "new Cold War," which
divides humanity into hostile blocs. We call instead for global
cooperation and solidarity beyond political and cultural differences.
 
3. Support and promote campaigns demanding reduced military spending
and greater investment in social welfare, gender equality, education,
healthcare, etc., with particular attention to the “Stop Rearm
Europe” campaign.

4. Prioritize diplomacy, de-escalation of belligerence, and mutual
security guarantees.

5. Propose organizing actions in every region on September 21,
International Day of Peace, to highlight the defense of peace and
solidarity among peoples.

6. Support a shift at the 2025 UN General Assembly towards a truly
just and multilateral international order and reaffirm the founding
principles of the UN Charter aimed at preserving humanity from war.

7. Propose expanding the “Group of Friends of Peace” within the UN
to include social movements and political parties as a broader
“Group of Organizations for Peace.”

8. Demand the elimination of nuclear weapons and the closure of
foreign military bases worldwide, as well as an end to policies of
blockades and interference.

9. Call for increased aid to civilian victims of war, with special
attention to the protection of children, women, the elderly, and
people with special needs who suffer the most from armed conflict.

10. Condemn the use of unconventional or fourth-generation warfare
methods used to subdue countries and political processes that do not
comply with imperial domination.

Finally, the organizations gathered in this International Forum for
Peace consider it essential to maintain this framework for
collaboration, cooperation, and information exchange that
brings together social movements, unions, parties, and other
organizations and networks in the fight for peace, against war, and
to tackle its structural roots.

Brussels, June 24, 2025

_TRANSFORM! EUROPE is a network of 38 European organisations from 22
countries, active in the field of political education and critical
scientific analysis, and is the recognised political foundation
corresponding to the Party of the European Left (EL)._

_This cooperative project of independent non-profit organisations,
institutes, foundations, and individuals intends to use its work in
contributing to PEACEFUL RELATIONS AMONG PEOPLES and a TRANSFORMATION
OF THE PRESENT WORLD._

 
 

* peace movement
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* NATO
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* imperialism
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* Gaza
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* Cuba
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* Europe
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