Declaration Project

Declaration on the Granting of Independence to Colonial Countries and Peoples (1960)

Editor’s Note: Adopted by the UN General Assembly on December 14, 1960, this declaration was largely considered a watershed in the movement towards the end of colonialism.  Eighty nine member states voted to approve the declaration; none opposed it, though there were nine abstentions, including the U.S. Declaration on the Granting of Independence to Colonial Countries […]

The Black Declaration of Independence (1970)

Editor’s Note: Though in some respects an adaptation of our July 4, 1776 Declaration, this time the tyrant is not King George but the endemic system of oppression and segregation that prevented Black Americans from being part of “all men are created equal.” The public proclamation issued by the National Committee of Black Churchmen on […]

Declaration of the Rights of the Child (1959)

Editor’s Note: Approved by all 78 member states of the United Nations, this declaration is a first in the formal global agreement on children’s rights and the principles on which they are based. This declaration is a follow-on to the unprecedented 1924 declaration by the League of Nations (see image) endowing children the world over with […]

African National Congress Freedom Charter (1955)

Editor’s Note:  On June 26, 1955, in Kliptown, South Africa, a ‘people’s congress,’ with several thousand attending, adopted this Charter — effectively a declaration (and it says so in the opening sentence) that calls for a non-racial democratic nation in which human rights, labor rights land reform are a centerpiece. While the ruling white South […]

Declaration of the Establishment of the State of Israel (1948)

Editor’s note:  On May 14, 1948, the day that the British Mandate, which gave Britain authority over Palestine was ended. Immediately afterward, Israel, led by David Ben-Gurion, a principal figure in the Zionist movement who would become its first Prime Minister, was declared an independent state. Declaration of the Establishment of the State of Israel ERETZ-ISRAEL [(Hebrew) […]

Declaration of Continuing Independence – First Indian International Indian Treaty Council (1974)

Editor’s Note:  This declaration emerged out of a growing activist movement among Native Americans to re-establish their autonomous rights of government, their rights under existing treaties, and their continued grievances with the U.S. government and how their rights have been continually subverted. Nearly 100 indigenous tribes and Nations took part in the 1974 gathering at Standing […]