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The mission of the Interfaith Network of Concern for the People of Iraq (INOC) is to join together and to act out of the teachings of our faith traditions to end the economic sanctions and war against the people of Iraq in a nonviolent manner.
Given the war in 2003, nothing has occurred which has lessened INOC's concerns for the 24 million people of Iraq. INOC will work towards:
a. Having humanitarian needs met, e.g. water, electricity, and food.
b. Establishment of a legitimate government respectful of human rights.
c. Education of Americans on the health effects of wars and the unacceptability of bombing civilian infrastructure and economic sanctions.
d. Role for U.N. including meeting humanitarian needs and formation of a government.
INOC was formed in February 1999 when former U.N. Assistant Secretary-General Denis Halliday and Middle East foreign affairs expert Phyllis Bennis gave presentations in Seattle to faith group leaders. In January 2000, INOC formally became a program unit of the Church Council of Greater Seattle.
While INOC is related to a Christian organization, it is interfaith in that participants are from the Jewish, Muslim, and Buddhist faiths, as well as Catholic and Protestant. Non-religious participants are also welcome. INOC is a member of the Seattle International Human Rights Coalition and the National Network to End the War Against Iraq.
Some participants in INOC with invited speaker Hans von Sponeck (2001).
CCPI is a Seattle-based public awareness campaign and part of a nationwide and worldwide movement dedicated to ending the economic sanctions imposed on Iraq by members of the United Nations Security Council. The sanctions were an embargo on all trade, except for humanitarian shipments specifically approved by the Security Council, and were initiated in 1990. According to UNICEF, they have contributed to the deaths of half a million children under-five and continue to contribute to 'excess' deaths of over 5,000 children per month. The sanctions have been widely condemned as a form of warfare, a 'weapon of mass destruction', directed against the civilian population. After the U.S. invasion of Iraq, in May 2003, U.N. sanctions were lifted by the Security Council; but economic sanctions against Iraq remain in force under U.S. law.*
Updated on November 12, 2003.