National Petition Against Sanctions on Iraq

This page was created for a petition which ran during 1999.

For up to date information, please see Upcoming Events on the CASI website, and also check the www.notinournames.org.uk and www.notinournames.org websites.

The remainder of this page is preserved for historical interest only!


The 1999 petition is now complete. For more information on the activities of UK groups campaigning for a lifting of the non-military sanctions on Iraq, see the list of UK groups on the website of the Campaign Against Sanctions on Iraq.


30 November 1999 update: PETITION COMPLETE

Thanks to everyone who worked to make the National Petition such a success. The total number of signatures to date tops the 16,000 mark.

Special thanks to Nikki van der Gaag and the New Internationalist team for including the petition as an insert (for free!) in the sanctions issue of the NI. Without this tremendous boost, the number of signatures would have been a fraction of what we achieved.

Please write to local, national, church, trade union and other media outlets to let people know that 16,000 signed a petition demanding the immediate and unconditional lifting of non-military sanctions.

The crucial points to make are that the British and US Governments continue to seek Iraqi disarmament by starving, or threatening to starve, Iraqi children, and that the solving of the humanitarian crisis must be de-linked from the solving of the inspection crisis.

Best wishes,

Milan Rai, voices in the wilderness uk


20 August 1999 update This petition was launched one week before the release of Unicef's Child and Maternal Mortality Survey 1999, the first independent survey of its kind since 1991. Unicef found that, under sanctions between 1991 and 1998, up to half a million more Iraqi children under five have died than would have if Iraq's child mortality rate had continued the decline that it had experienced in the 1980s. This figure is larger than that used in this petition. More information, including some discussion of causes, is provided in Unicef's accompanying press release.

On 6th August 1999 eleven diverse UK groups which oppose the non-military sanctions on Iraq launched a National Petition to Prime Minister Tony Blair, calling for the immediate and unconditional lifting of all non-military sanctions on Iraq. The petition is being distributed electronically, by post and as an insert in the 40,000 copies of the September issue of the New Internationalist , an issue devoted to Iraq. The petition will be submitted to the Prime Minister on Universal Children's Day, 20 November 1999.

The petition's original eleven sponsors are the British Afro-Asian Solidarity Organisation, Cambridge Campaign for Peace, Campaign Against Sanctions on Iraq, Institute for Independence Studies, Leicester CND, New Internationalist magazine, Sheffield Committee Against War in the Gulf, Socialist Democracy, United Nations Association (UK), voices in the wilderness uk, and Wokingham Peace Group.

A press release about the petition is here.

This page contains:

The petition

The petition takes the form of a double-sided A4 sheet. On the front is the petition text and space for signatures. On the back is more information about the situation in Iraq, in question and answer form.

To view the complete petition document (both sides), click here. There are also PDF and Word versions.

Further information about the anti-sanctions campaign movement

Information on other UK groups opposed to the sanctions (but not necessarily involved with this petition) may be found by following this link on the Campaign Against Sanctions on Iraq website. The CASI website is a good introduction to the large quantity of information about the situation in Iraq.

If you would like to be kept informed of future campaign work opposing sanctions on Iraq, you can add yourself to the Campaign Against Sanctions on Iraq email announcements list. Details here. Both the Campaign Against Sanctions on Iraq and Voices in the Wilderness UK also nationally distribute paper newsletters.

You can also use the National Petition contact details above to request more information.


This page, http://go.to/iraqpetition, created 2nd August 1999. Updated 16 May 2000. Printable copies of petition removed and some old URLs changed on 21 Sept 2002.

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