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The Human Manifesto describes the
values and motivation required to establish a better and safer world for present and future generations MOVE SIDEBAR DOWN TO READ TEXT
Despite the expressions of hope and renewal demonstrated around the world on the first day of this new millennium, the sad fact is that war and organized violence remain dominant with civilians bearing the brunt of the suffering.
At the beginning of the 20th century the ratio between war casualties were about 90 percent military and 10 percent civilian. Today these figures are reversed because modern warfare is war against civilians. Moreover, world military spending has escalated to over one trillion dollars a year keeping the war business in full production while turning our planet into one giant arsenal.
Over 27,000 nuclear weapons are stockpiled and the number of nuclear weapon states is escalating. Without dramatic change it is only a matter of time until a missile strike carrying nuclear bombs occurs in some regional conflict that could rapidly escalate out of control and envelop the world in a nuclear tsunami.
A new direction and idealism is mandatory if we are to rid the world of nuclear weapons and to move beyond war and violence to a global community for the 21st century.
The Human Manifesto is an appropriate guide to achieve this great task. Inspired by UN Secretary-General U Thant, the Manifesto was first published in 1972 by Planetary Citizens, which us no longer in operation. In 2002, the Association of World Citizens reissued this document with the blessing of the former organization.
The 1972 issue was endorsed by about 90 influential personalities including Leonard Bernstein, Pablo Casals, Buckminister Fuller, Sir Edmund Hillary, The Dalai Lama, Arthur Miller, Linus Pauling, Arnold Toynbee. The 2002 release was endorsed by about 60 influential personalities, including President Jimmy Carter, Sir Arthur C. Clarke, Walter Cronkite, President Gerald Ford, Boutros Boutros-Ghali, The Dalai Lama, Jane Goodall, Archbishop Desmond Tutu, President Oscar Arias Sanchez
In March 2007 we are issuing a third release of the Manifesto and making it available for all people to sign and mobilize to end the war system and establish the foundation for a world community based on peace with economic and social justice, and a heathly and sustainable environment.
A HUMAN MANIFESTO
Human life on our planet is in jeopardy.
It is in jeopardy from war that could pulverize the human habitat.
It is in jeopardy from preparations for war that destroy or diminish the prospects of decent existence.
It is in jeopardy because of the denial of human rights.
It is in jeopardy because the air is being fouled and the waters and soil are being poisoned.
It is in jeopardy because of the uncontrolled increase in population.
If these dangers are to be removed and if human development is to be assured, we the peoples of this planet must accept obligations to each other and to the generations of human beings to come.
We have the obligation to free our world of war by creating an enduring basis for world peace.
We have the obligation to safeguard the delicate balances of the natural environment and to develop the world's resources for the common good.
We have the obligation to place the human interest, and human sovereignty above national sovereignty.
We have the obligation to make human rights the primary concern of society.
We have the obligation to create a world order in which man neither has to kill or be killed.
In order to carry out these obligations, we the peoples of this world assert our primary allegiance to each other in the family of man.
We declare our individual citizenship to the world community and our support for a United Nations capable of governing our planet in the common human interest.
The world belongs to the people who inhabit it. We have the right to change it, shape it, nurture it.
Life in the universe is unimaginably rare. It must be protected, respected, cherished.
We pledge our energies and resources of spirit to the preservation of the human habitat and to the infinite possibilities of human betterment in our time.
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