Declaration (Proclamation) of Korean Independence (1919)
Editor’s note: On March 1, 1919, after 9 years of Japanese occupation, 33 primarily cultural and religious leaders of the Samil Movement (most political leaders were jailed or in exile) convened and drew up a proclamation of independence. This sparked a nationwide protest movement, called the March 1st Movement or the Samil Independence Movement, which featured widespread demonstrations to […]
Irish Declaration of Independence (1919)
Editor’s note: On January 21, 1919, the Assembly of Ireland both initiated a War of Independence (“Cogadh na Saoirse” in Irish) against British forces and issued a formal declaration of independence. The guerrilla campaign ended almost 2 1/2 years later with the ceasefire in July 21, followed by the Anglo-Irish Treaty on December 6, 1921. With […]
Declaration on Fundamental Principles and Rights at Work (1998)
Editor’s Note: This declaration was adopted in 1998 in Geneva, at the 86th session of the International Labor Conference, the declaration of the International Labor Organization — a United Nations agency that focuses on labor issues and that received in 1969 the Nobel Peace Prize for its efforts to achieve social and economic just […]
An Initial Declaration Towards a Global Ethic (September 4, 1993)
Editor’s Note: The first draft of this declaration was composed by the Swiss Catholic priest and scholar Dr. Hans Kung — known for his rejection of the notion of papal infallibility — and then was further worked on by approximately 200 scholars affiliated with many of the world’s principal faith traditions. It aims to set forth a global ethic […]
Recommendation for Independence by Scituate, MA, residents
Editor’s note: A month before the July 4, 1776 Declaration of Independence was penned, the residents of this seacoast town in Massachusetts called upon the representative of Scituate to support their sentiment to break from Britain, which in their estimation was seeking “to extirpate the Americans from the face of the earth, if possible, unless they […]
Universal Declaration of Non-Violence (1990)
Editor’s note: The genesis of this declaration was a series of conversations between the Dalai Lama and Bro. Wayne Teasdale, a Catholic monk and noted author and social justice activist. Over time, as the late Bro. Teasdale describes it, they “examined the possibility of a statement formally separating religion from any relationship with organized violence, […]
Instructions for Independence by the Inhabitants of Palmer, Hampshire County, MA (June 17, 1776)
Editor’s note: What with Britain “being bent on her favourite scheme of enslaving the Colonies,” the inhabitants of this Massachusetts town, on June 17, 1776, instructed their Representative to communicate to the Second Continental Congress that they deem it “absolutely necessary for the safety of the United Colonies to be independent from Great Britain, and […]
Address of a Watchman to the People of Pennsylvania, on a Declaration of Independence (June 24, 1776)
Editor’s note: In this eloquent and insightful missive of June 24, 1776, a Pennsylvania watchman — typically someone who keeps lookout in a town at night — forewarns his countrymen that declaring and even winning independence is just a first step — “we shall then only have crossed the Red Sea of our difficulties. A wilderness will still […]
The Declaration of the Rights of the Negro Peoples of the World (1920)
Editor’s note: On August 13, 1920, this declaration of black grievances, rights and principles was drafted and adopted at a convention of the Universal Negro Improvement Association, presided over by Marcus Garvey, a leading advocate of Black Nationalism and Pan-Africanism. Garvey had a sizable following of disenfranchised black Americans — as demonstrated by the more than 20,000 […]
Declaration of Independence from the War in Vietnam (1967)
Editor’s note: This speech by Martin Luther King, Jr., delivered at the Riverside Church in Manhattan precisely one year to the day he was assassinated, was entitled Declaration of Independence from the War in Vietnam. King was widely excoriated by mainstream media at the time for characterizing U.S. involvement in the war as a grave mistake, and […]
