Utrecht, September 19, 2024
United Nations
The United Nations Secretariat
The Secretary-General
Mr. António Guterres
New York, USA.
Subject: the forgotten invitation to the Guardians of the Food of Life for the Summit of the Future.
Dear Secretary General, dear Mr. Guterres,
Your Excellency,
It is a pleasure to greet you at this historical moment that you have made us aware of. Indeed for us, users of entheogenic substances, it is a privilege to meet in you the advocate of respect for the human rights of us all, as you have shown us in defense of our rituals during your years as the head of Portugal's government. Therefore we address you with hope at this crucial moment for the future of our living planet.
We understand that the United Nations holds a Summit of the Future coming September 22-23 where world leaders adopt the Pact for the Future, presenting a new consensus on how we deliver a better present and safeguard the future. We are reminded that, “this once-in-a-generation opportunity serves as a moment to mend eroded trust and demonstrate that international cooperation can effectively achieve agreed goals and tackle emerging threats and opportunities.” The result, you state, “will be a world that is better prepared to manage the challenges we face now and, in the future, for the sake of all humanity and for future generations”. To succeed, it is our mission to free ourselves from our divisions and to weave partnerships to attain the 2030 Agenda’s Sustainable Development Goals.
We, the consumers of nature’s entheogenic plants, Guardians of the Food of Life, were not informed about the existence of the Summit, nor were we invited to participate in its preparatory work or in the final Action Days. As victims of the global War on Drugs, the only war started and still being waged under the aegis of the UN, we are dismayed that this issue is not even on the Summit’s agenda as it is generally admitted that drugs peace is a prerequisite for the 2030 Agenda’s success.
Besides being an obstacle to achieving most of the 17 Sustainable Development Goals, the prohibition of theogenic substances is a flagrant repudiation of the fundamental human rights to freedom of religion, opinion, and expression of a large part of the global population.
Even though the preamble to the Universal Declaration of Human Rights states that: "Whereas Member States have pledged themselves to achieve, in cooperation with the United Nations, the promotion of universal respect for and observance of human rights and fundamental freedoms", the exclusion of the consumers of entheogenic substances and their traditional-medicine using companions from the Summit of the Future signals the continuation of the UN's and Member States' violation of their solemn pledge to defend our basic human rights.
We cannot but protest vehemently the ongoing policies of appropriation and eradication of our healing herbs and substances, and decry the intra-family ostracism, the social marginalization, the public persecution, and the genocidal consequences these policies of lèse humanité make us suffer.
We have lost our trust in the UN and its member states because of their deceitful ‘drugs’ policies. Only by concretely addressing the lies upon which these policies are based, the UNO can help foster the trust we and our global community need to shoulder the task of planetary rejuvenation.
No reasoning, be it called ideology or religion, has been capable to produce the unifying narrative humankind needs to reverse its self-inflicted extinction. We are forced to switch off human reason itself to capture planet Earth’s message, the mother we belong to and so desperately want to embrace. From the jungle dwellers to the alienated consumer society citizens, our consumption of what our forebears pointedly called “food of life” reminds us of nature within us and our bond with the surrounding nature in all its biodiversity. This bond is most intimately lived by the remnant of the planet's nature peoples, succinctly described in the words of the Amazonian Yawanawá chief Nixiwaka:
“We are the only people on this planet who still speak the language of the
water, the earth, the air, the stars, the animals, the forest and
all the Creation of the planet. We not only protect nature; we are nature
itself. We are the children who never left home, the home of the
Divine Creator.” |
If we give heed to these voices of nature, their feeling of personal belonging to one global home may kindle our common endeavor for global partnership and cooperation. This special partnership should include the UN as it aims to give every human being the opportunity to experience, beyond any domination, the unity of humanity and all of creation in absolute freedom of thought and feeling. This absolute freedom of the personal religion of the heart is what our Bill of Human Rights promises, but prohibition withholds from us.
Dear sir, we have the pleasure of presenting you with our contribution to the historical Summit of the Future, to be found in our background report “Entheogenic Response to the Summit of the Future – Our Partnership with Mother Earth.” Please view it as the rescue operation of the prohibited “Sustainable Development Goal 18 – The protection of the Food of Life”.
By cc. of this letter we invite all Guardians of the Food of Life to support the SDG-18.
We put our trust in you, the finest defender of people's rights and dreams we could have hoped for,
and do wish you and the United Nations a successful Summit.
Sincerely yours,
Adriaan Bronkhorst
Ex-PoWoD
President of the Drugs Peace Institute
Cc: UN Bodies, Country Representatives, NGO’s, Guardians of the Food of Life
Drugs Peace Institute – Foundation, Chamber of Commerce Utrecht, The Netherlands, KvK 41213130 www.drugspeaceinstitute.org
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