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A declaration of conscience

International Council of Christians & Jews
Estados Unidos (1979/06/15)

We, the delegates to the annual meeting of the International Council of Christians and Jews, in session in New York City, June 10-15, 1979, hereby join together in this solemn declaration of conscience.

We speak together as Christians and Jews on the basis of our commitments to those principles and precepts which are inherent within both Judaism and Christianity and which compel us to involved concern for the welfare of all our brothers and sisters in the human family.

We have met together to study our religious responsibilities for human rights. We have looked backward in time to the tragedy of the Nazi Holocaust. We have looked inward to our own hearts and souls to ascertain our directions for today. We have looked outward to the world in which we live and have seen the outstretched arms of uncounted millions of our fellow human beings beckoning to us for our attention and our assistance.

We have become acutely aware in our investigations and our deliberations that the lessons of the Holocaust have not been learned. The genocide inflicted upon the Jews a generation ago is being repeated in other nations and inflicted on other peoples. Once again the religious communities of the world stand silent and unmoved. Indeed, the tyrants seem to have learned more from the Holocaust than have the people of conscience. Even as Hitler was encouraged by the world's lack of outrage and protest at the massacre of the Armenians, today's oppressors seem to have been emboldened by the world's silence to the reality of the Holocaust.

We decry the apparent fact that the evil spirit of Holocaust remains in our world. We decry the fact that the great silence continues. We confess our own participation in this conspiracy of apathy and pledge together that we shall lift our voices and commit our bodies and our resources to active resistance to every expression of human tyranny.

We call upon the religious leaders of the world, statesmen and political organizations, authors and artists, educators and representatives of the mass media to join with us in a united effort to develop and implement strategies of action to alleviate the bondage of those who suffer all forms of oppression.

We affirm the fundamental right of every person of every country, every color, every class, and every creed:
* To freedom of conscience and the expression of the dictates of that conscience,
* To freedom of religious belief and the right to practise that religion without interference from the State or from other religious bodies within the State,
* To freedom from hunger, poverty, and deprivation of adequate housing and medical care,
* To freedom of self-identity and cultural tolerance without pressure, either subtle or overt, to be assimilated into the majority culture of the State, To freedom of migration from any nation which violates these rights and full participating citizenship in the nation to which they move.

On the basis of these beliefs and concerns, we urge: The immediate release of all prisoners of conscience,

The alteration of immigration restrictions in the Western nations so that victims of oppression may find safe haven and a new beginning of life, The development of positive educational programs in every nation to instruct the world's children in the lessons of the Holocaust and to instill within them the sensitivity to the conditions of others that will inspire them to actively resist all forms of tyranny and all violations of human rights.

We hear the cries of our brothers and sisters in distress, and commit ourselves to strive in every way to respond to the special needs of:

* The refugees from political and religious oppression in Southeast Asia,
* The black majorities and other ethnic minorities in Southern Africa who live under the heel of oppressive racist regimes,
* The minorities in the Middle East and Iran whose existence becomes more tenuous every day under the yoke of cruel and fanatic rulers,
* The impoverished of the nations of Latin America who plead for liberation from the terror of militaristic totalitarianism,
* The masses of Eastern Europe and Asia who quest for freedom from the tyranny of political and cultural totalitarianism,
* The minorities within our own nations to whom basic human rights are still denied by reasons of race, religion, class or culture.

Never Again will we abandon our brothers and sisters in their times of distress.

Never Again will we turn away from the anguished cries for recognition and release.

Never Again will we remain aloof and uninvolved when any member of the family of humanity reaches out to us for help.