ILCAF calls for international cooperation to achieve human liberty and dignity

Working Resolution adopted at Washington D.C. on June 4, 2008

Founded on July 4, 2005, at the World Congress of Free Thinkers and Atheists in Paris, in close cooperation with the International Humanist and Ethical Union (IHEU), the International Liaison Committee of Atheists and Freethinkers, meeting in Washington DC, USA, on June 4, at the initiative of American Atheists (USA), National Secular Society (Great Britain) and the Libre Pensée (France), submits the following proposals to all Atheists and Free Thinkers organizations across the world.

– Is the struggle for the separation of Religions and the States only limited to a struggle for Atheists and Free thinkers to get the same undemocratic privileges as the Churches, or is it the affirmation of equal rights and duties and for the abolition of any religious rule?

– Religious oppression is the dogmatic corollary of economical, social, cultural and political oppression and it justifies intellectual degradation, social subservience and political subjugation.

– Consequently, complete emancipation of humankind must be the goal for Atheists and Free Thinkers organizations, because they reject the triple yoke: “the excessive rule of authority in religious matters, privilege in political matters and capital in economical matters” (World Congress of Freethought of Rome in 1904).

– Is it not necessary, in order to reach this goal, to aim at genuine international cooperation between groups, organizations and individuals who agree on this demand, because the separation of Religions and the States is not only a national issue but it has also international implication in every field?

CILALP/ILCAF was set up to create a communication and cooperative point of junction among Atheists and Free Thinkers organizations in different countries aiming at the same goal. Many people share those views but numbers do not have a say unless they are united in organization and led by understanding.

International cooperation for a common goal

The International Liaison Committee of Atheists and Freethinkers claims its support for humanism, freed from dogmas and religions, on an international scale, as the indispensable means to conquer human liberty and dignity, and the strict separation of Religion and State in every country as the indispensable instrument to attain absolute freedom of conscience.

ILCAF/CILALP is complementary – and not rival – to all national and international organizations who fight for atheism, free thought, humanism, secularism and rationalism. The aim of ILCAF/CILALP is to improve international cooperation between Atheists and Freethinkers which is indispensable to reach our common goals.

That is why the following undersigned citizens, organizations and individuals, Members of the International Liaison Committee of Atheists and Freethinkers, gathered in Washington DC, USA on June 4, 2008: Christopher Arntzen (Washington DC, USA), Zelda Bailey (Queensland, Australia), Philippe Besson (Libre Pensée, France), Remus Cernea (Romania), Ralph Dumain (Washington DC, USA), Conrad Goeringer (American Atheists, USA), Geraldo Adriano Godoy de Campos (Sao Paulo, Brazil), Bobbie Kirkhart (California, USA), Josh Kutchinsky (Great-Britain), Jacques Lafouge (Libre Pensée, France), Roger Lepeix (Libre Pensée, France), Swami Manavatavadi (India), Shirley Moll (Minnesota, USA), Karen Owens (Georgia, USA), Steve Petersen (Minnesota, USA), David Rand (Quebec, Canada), Terry Sanderson (NSS, Great- Britain), Max Wallace (New South Wales, Australia), Fred Whitehead (Kansas, USA), Keith Porteous Wood (NSS, Great-Britain) submit to the free debate of all, the proposal of a preparatory debate for the foundation, in Norway in 2011, in friendly relation with IHEU, of an International Organization of Freethought.

Made at Washington DC, June 4, 2008