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CAMPAIGN TO PERSUADE WORLD LEADERS TO ENSURE FREEDOM OF THOUGHT FOR ALL

People throughout the world are to be invited to sign-up to and support a ‘Global Charter of Conscience’ in an international campaign to guarantee freedom of thought and religion for all. Author and social critic Dr. Os Guinness, who hopes to persuade world leaders to reaffirm their support for Article 18 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, presented the details of a ‘Global Charter of Conscience’ in a radio lecture, on June 28th, commissioned by Premier Christian Media Trust. It was the prelude to the launch of a new campaign website - www.declarationforfreedom.org, where everyone can learn more about, and sign-up to, the Charter.

Anyone visiting the site from the UK will find a facility which will enable them to write to their local Member of Parliament asking them to support the campaign. Premier Christian Media will also be approaching the Commons and Lords, Christian church leaders, and leaders of other faiths. World leaders will also receive from Premier the ‘Global Charter of Conscience’ as a key element of the campaign.

‘The Premier Lecture’ - ‘Soul Freedom; Living with our deepest differences in an age of expanding diversity’ - will be the first in a planned series of annual radio lectures by Premier, featuring an acknowledged expert in their field.

Martyn Eden, Premier Christian Media’s Political Editor explains; “Freedom of conscience is the very essence of a free, democratic society. If we can’t live and act on the basis of our beliefs and values, we are not free. Those who hope to privatise faith and exclude it from the public square are destroying the freedom of thought, conscience and religion proclaimed in Article 18 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. And that’s the key issue which Dr. Guinness will address in his lecture.”

Guinness, a Senior Fellow of the East West Institute in New York and co-founder of the Trinity Forum, seeks to persuade the United Nations to recognise his ‘Global Charter of Conscience’ as an adjunct to the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. He also plans to highlight the inadequacy of the Equality Act [2010] and how it fails to address tensions between different strands of equality policy.

For more information on ‘Declaration for Freedom’, log on to: www.declarationforfreedom.org