Declaration Project

Tibetan Declaration of Independence (1913)

Editor’s note:  On February 13, 1913, the Thirteenth Dalai Lama returned to Tibet from exile in India — where he’d fled four years earlier after China’s Quing (Manchu) dynasty had dispatched troops — and issued this proclamation declaring the restoration of its independence. At the time of the Dalai Lama’s return to the Himalayan region, the […]

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 […]

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, […]

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 […]

Earth Charter (also referred to as a Declaration of Interdependence), 2000

Editor’s Note: The Earth Charter Initiative  was issued on June 29, 2000. Here is how those who spearheaded the initiative described their charter, also referred to as a Declaration of Interdependence: “The Earth Charter is a product of a decade-long, worldwide, cross-cultural dialogue on common goals and shared values…  The drafting of the Earth Charter […]