Wednesday, July 11, 2012

The Brussels Declaration

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July 9, 2012

The Brussels Declaration
To Safeguard Individual Liberties and Human Rights


International Conference for Free Speech & Human Rights

To Preserve Free Speech, Civil Liberties, Human Rights and Democracy, against all efforts to injure and usurp those universal principles, we call upon leaders in all nations to support this 2012 Brussels Declaration to Safeguard Individual Liberties and Human Rights:

Reasserting that Human rights and liberties are universal, individual, equal, inalienable, and self-evident irrespective of philosophical, cultural or religious considerations, as a matter of long-held principle;

Considering that any honest defender of Democracy has the right and the duty to uphold and defend free speech, civil liberties and human rights;

Affirming the irrefutable fact that sharia law as articulated and applied is incompatible with and destructive to free speech, civil liberties and human rights and as such is incompatible with the fundamental principles of democracy (as stated in the 13 Feb 2003 judgment of the ECHR);

Acknowledging that the declaration known as “Cairo Declaration of Human Right in Islam” also commonly referred to as the “Cairo Declaration” curtails all human rights under sharia law and sharia normative behavior restrictions (CDHRI Articles 22, 23, 24) on the pretense that “All human beings form one family whose members are united by their subordination to Allah”(CDHRI Article 1);

Observing that the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC), being the creator of Cairo Declaration and its current main proponent has, by its continuous and single-minded activity, proven to be the principal international politico-religious organization working to restrict free speech, civil liberties and human rights and to enforce sharia in the world;

Asserting that any official endorsement or promotion of the Cairo Declaration or any cooperation with OIC that leads, by the test of consequences, to more enforcement of sharia anywhere in the world identifies its perpetrator as an active opponent of Democracy, freedom of speech, civil liberties and human rights;

Noting that such an identification renders illegitimate any attempt by the perpetrator to discuss or negotiate matters involving freedom of speech, civil liberties and human rights in any local, national or international forums;

The signatories solemnly require of their governments and civil society:

1. To commence a process, to be known as the Brussels Process, to implement the content of this declaration through education and policy initiatives at all levels of government and sectors of civil society, in order to safeguard the future liberties and rights of our nations and our children, so that all members of the human family may prosper as free individuals.
2. To decline any invitation to participate in any local, national or international forum to discuss civil liberties, free speech or human rights, if the organizers – individual persons or organizations – are known proponents of the Cairo Declaration or societal sharia enforcement unless the negotiated or discussed topic is a transition of their codification and implementation of human rights to the UNDHR definitions and away from the Cairo Declaration definitions.
3. To protest against any kind of participation in a local, national or international meeting dedicated to civil liberties, free speech or human rights’ discussions or negotiations by any known proponents of the Cairo Declaration or societal sharia enforcements, unless they are only attending in an observational capacity or negotiating their entry in the Brussels Process.
4. To initiate a thorough inquiry before any bilateral or multilateral cooperation about civil liberties, free speech or human rights related matters, in order to clearly identify any participants who are proponents for the Cairo Declaration or sharia law, or who have cooperated or collaborated with the OIC or its associated organizations.
5. To reject and forbid any public funding for promotion of the Cairo Declaration or of any sharia societal implementation and enforcement, because such promotions are a direct attack against our most fundamental democratic principles and human rights.
6. To stop any cooperation with all known proponents of the Cairo Declaration at a national or international level, when that cooperation has as its aim or result, a restriction of civil liberties, free speech or human rights in a democratic country, until those proponents repudiate the Cairo Declaration.
7. To extend cooperation and support in all forums to former proponents of the Cairo Declaration who repudiate the suppression by the OIC and sharia law of civil liberties, free speech and human rights, and who assert that human rights and liberties are universal, individual, equal, inalienable, and self-evident irrespective of philosophical, cultural or religious considerations.
8. To engage with civil society and official organizations that work to safeguard individual liberties from suppression by shariah law, especially those located in nations that are signatories of the Cairo Declaration or members of the OIC, to encourage dialogue, education and understanding on individual liberties and human rights, as these terms have been historically understood before the Cairo Declaration.

3 comments:

George said...

"Reasserting that Human rights and liberties are universal, individual, equal, inalienable, and self-evident irrespective of philosophical, cultural or religious considerations, as a matter of long-held principle"

The true principle of rights is necessarily a moral principle, and since morality (or ethics) is a main subdivision of philosophy the true principle of rights is necessarily the product of philosophical consideration or thought. Furthermore, for a principle of rights to be true it must be objective (in the sense that its content is fully reducible to the facts of reality), and for a principle of rights to be objective the method of thought employed in its discovery must be fully rational (since reason is the only means to objectivity). Thus, in order to discover the true principle of rights, one must begin by identifying, by the process of rational thinking, the facts of reality that are the source of rights - an identification which, although achieved, is by no means self-evident.

It is true that rights, properly understood, apply equally to all individuals (hence the term 'individual rights') and are inalienable, but this tells us nothing about what rights actually are. If one is to understand the full nature of rights, one must first understand the precise source of rights, and it is only in the bright light of this understanding that one can defend rights effectively from all attacks.

To achieve this understanding I urge everyone to read carefully this important essay by Craig Biddle: Ayn Rand's Theory of Rights: The Moral Foundation of a Free Society.

http://www.theobjectivestandard.com/issues/2011-fall/ayn-rand-theory-rights.asp

Anonymous said...

George,
Wow, so many words and so little said. You surely must have heard of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights? Under Article 3 you can read for example:

"Everyone has the right to life, liberty and security of person."

For instance, the right to life and security of persons means that it violates the UDHR to be killed for leaving Islam as it is prescribed in the Koran and therefore by Sharia law. This also ties into the the point of liberty which means that anyone has the right to practice any religion as long as this does not violate anyone else's rights. In other words, you can believe in a stone as long as you do not throw it at anyone! But you see, when you kill people for leaving Islam, then you are throwing not only stones but boulders. Get it??? Do there exist philosophical inquiries regarding common sense?

P.S. I could give a thousand examples how Islam is directly opposed to the UDHR but I will leave this for another time.Something to look forward to!

Vlasta said...

Islam is a supremacist ideology similar to supremacist ideology with its delusional Jew hatred, written in Koran and Hadith. Unless Islam reforms to make it compatible with the Universal Declaration of Human rights it has no place in ANY civilized society, since it promotes apartheid (dhimmitude), misogyny, pedophilia, polygamy and murder for Allahu Akbar. Sharia is incompatible with the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.

Tet US gives visas to Muslim-majority countries to go to UN and defame the ONLY country that respects human rights of all, Israel. The does not mean that Israel has to wait till the Islamists gather enough weapons to annihilate it as they claim as their goal.

If US and European countries refuse visas to diplomats ruled under sharia and send them back to their home countries to deal with routine human rights abuses, under sharia, then we can clean up UN from this scourge of lies and irresponsible behavior of Islamists helped by the politically correct ignoramuses.