European Anti-Discrimination Council
Washington Resolution
Washington Resolution As decided at the Founding Assembly of the Council on Global Antidiscrimination, March 2, 2011, The Willard Hotel, Washington D.C.
I. Recitals
We believe that all people are created equal and possess unalienable rights. An integral part of these are liberty and the pursuit of a life in self determination. The dignity of humankind is inviolable. To respect and protect it shall be the duty of all public authority.
II. Now, therefore, the signatories hereby declare as follows:
Since the Civil Rights Movement in the United States constituted a special American phenomenon which had to be understood in the light of American history and dealt with in terms of the American situation in the beginnings of the Civil Rights Movement. On a more important level, what happened then in the United States was a relatively small part of a world development. Forty years later we see the need for action and development of these rights on a global scale.
We have learned from the experience of the Civil Rights Movement that without effective legal provisions that enable victims to fight their own defense, all well meaning declarations remain hollow and lack merit.
We now see a road over which billions of people are traveling to find a new sense of dignity. This road opens a new era of progress and hope. As with the US Civil Rights Bill in its day, we are convinced, it will be widened and lengthened into a super highway of justice as people in increasing numbers create alliances to overcome their common problems.
Now is the time to find the resolve and combine forces to vigorously pursue these goals.
We need to build pressure for effective laws and their implementation. An effective global network and exchange of ideas is of paramount importance. We call on members of the legal and medical profession, lawmakers as well as individuals and organizations supporting the victims of discrimination to support this fight our common quest.
Given this 2nd of March 2011 at Washington D.C.
[the signatories of the Washington Resolution]
