Finance Peace, Defund War! 

A Feminist Call to
End Militarism and Uphold Justice for All

Peace and justice are not just the absence of war, but the presence of dignity, autonomy and the fulfilment of our collective rights. The root causes of conflict, especially in the Global South, lie in the systemic poverty, inequality and competition for resources. 

Without justice, there can be no real peace. 

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Women and human rights defenders from across Asia and the Pacific are standing at a critical juncture. We are currently living with at least 55 active conflicts in the world, the highest number since the Second World War – marking a new era of violence and insecurity. Across the region, governments are pouring billions of dollars into arms, surveillance and defence while communities and the people are confronting high levels of debt, deepening poverty, food insecurity, severe wildfires, floods and environmental disaster. In 2024, military expenditure in Asia and the Pacific region exceeded USD 600 billion – the steepest rise on record and nearly 50% higher than a decade ago. Globally, military spending has reached a historic USD 2.7 trillion, equivalent to USD 340 per person and 2.5% of the world’s GDP. 

Militarism in our region is a deliberate outcome of a global financial system designed to serve imperialist, patriarchal and corporate interests. Development loans are weaponised to deepen dependence and aid is increasingly militarised. Public funds, meant for social protection and to secure dignity for the people, are chained to servicing debt, austerity measures and redirected to military expansion – even when there is no war. As governments borrow to finance defence and repay external creditors, the cost of debt is passed on to women through cuts in public services, increasing their unpaid care burdens and loss of livelihoods. The military economy thrives on women’s labour while denying them security and justice. Across the region, nations are building their economies around war, shifting their resources to align with the ever-expanding geopolitical goals of US-NATO countries and other military priorities. As a result, our hospitals, our schools, our food systems, our veteran pensions, and our care infrastructures are on the brink of collapse. 

We are now living in the shadow of more than 800 U.S. military bases worldwide, encircled by NATO’s expanding reach and caught in the crossfire of imperial competition between global powers. The privatisation of national security has created a world where accountability is diminished, secrecy is institutionalised, and war becomes deeply profitable. The global arms industry is increasingly dominated by private equity and transnational corporations, many of which operate without public disclosure. Emerging technologies including artificial intelligence, drones, and cyber warfare have become the newest frontiers of profit. 

Militarism now infiltrates trade and climate agendas. Strategic competition over critical minerals, maritime and overland trade routes, and “renewable energy” technologies reinforces extractivism and corporate control, thereby deepening inequality and environmental destruction. 

Our lands are being occupied, our waters militarised, our skies surveilled and outer space encroached upon. From Guam to Okinawa, from the Philippines to Pakistan, from Sri Lanka to West Papua and Timor Leste, women and marginalised communities are living and witnessing daily how militarism is a tool to sustain colonial domination and fuels the extraction of our resources at the expense of our people and planet. 

This is, in essence, a structural war against the people, especially women, workers, rural and Indigenous peoples, and communities already burdened by the weight of economic, political, social and climate crises. 

Women and human rights defenders from across Asia and the Pacific affirm that peace cannot exist without justice and that finance is political and has to be directed to serve the people. Peace is lived and embodied experiences rooted in the struggles against patriarchy, capitalism, colonialism and authoritarianism. It cannot coexist with imperialism, militarism and capitalism. Financing peace without dismantling these structures is a contradiction in terms.

Our Collective Demands: Financing Peace through Feminist Development Justice

The following demands constitute our collective call to action:

1. Defund and Redirect Military Spending
   Governments must immediately reduce defence budgets and redirect resources to human rights, social protection, climate action, education, and care systems. Military spending must never exceed allocations for human security. Development and fiscal policy must serve people’s needs.
2. Ensure Transparency, Oversight, and Accountability
   Defence budgets and arms procurement must be subject to public scrutiny. Governments should disclose military expenditures and end the criminalisation of transparency. Independent oversight mechanisms including parliamentary bodies, anti-corruption agencies, and civil society organisations must monitor and audit military and security spending.
3. Dismantle the Military-Industrial Complex and End Foreign Military Presence
   Public financing and subsidies for arms production must cease. Foreign military bases must be withdrawn, and lands and seas must be restored to Indigenous and local communities. This includes the removal of all hazardous military wastes, remediation and/or decontamination, reparations for medical care for injuries and illnesses caused by military contamination. It’s also critical to ensure transparency, oversight and accountability on military sexual violence and justice for military sexual violence and rape as war crime.
4. Advance Debt Justice and Reparations
   Debt is a modern form of colonisation. We demand debt cancellation, reparations for centuries of resource plunder and militarisation, and the establishment of binding mechanisms for corporate and state accountability. Global North powers must pay back our debt by dismantling the structures that have been stolen from the Global South.

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APWLD is a leading network of feminist organisations and individual activists in Asia and the Pacific. Our 318 members represent groups of diverse women from 31 countries in Asia and the Pacific. Over the past 40 years, APWLD has actively worked towards advancing women’s human rights and Development Justice. We are an independent, non-governmental, non-profit, feminist organisation committed to enabling women in Asia and the Pacific to use law as an instrument of social change, equality and development.