Our mission at Citizens’ Climate International is to advance informed, engaged, good-faith climate civics. Our way of working focuses on sharing insights, developing trust and understanding, and building political will for effective climate solutions, with stakeholders and policy-makers working together for a better future. For us, as for most people, political violence is never acceptable.
The attempted assassination of Donald Trump was an attack on the rights and freedom of all people, and on democracy itself. We are grateful that the former president is safe. We extend our wishes for a speedy and full recovery to those more seriously injured, and we mourn the loss of a volunteer firefighter, who died shielding his family from gunfire.
We reiterate our firm position, as stated in 2022 when former Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe was killed:
Citizens’ Climate International condemns all forms of violence. Political violence—whether against stakeholders, advocates, dissidents, or public officials—is a crime against all people’s right to remain free from terror and tyranny.
No matter your political views, violence cannot be allowed to interfere with the proper administration of the law, or of democratic process. The two most immediate effects of political violence are:
- To cause good-hearted people to think twice before getting involved in political life;
- To cause public authorities to tighten constraints on access to our shared civic spaces.
Political violence increases threats to the free exercise of open self-government and undermines the faith of good people in their ability to make change in the right way, with the right intentions, in collaboration with people who hold a diverse range of views. We cannot afford to let fear, division, and violence, stop us from working together to solve humanity’s biggest problems, whether at local, national, or planetary scale.
We also wish to recognize that while some nations face threats of extremist violence from fringe elements, the people of other nations face violence from political leaders. Violence by governments against their own people is also unacceptable.
At CCI, we are committing to carry our work forward in a way that honors the principle that solidarity as free and informed human beings, across political differences, is essential to effective, just, and legitimate governance, in all contexts.
This is how we can achieve the best-case response to climate disruption. It is how we can achieve sustainable shared prosperity. It is how we can achieve the best possible future for humankind.
