Resolution 33
Human Rights
This Conference:
1. Endorses the UN Universal Declaration of Human Rights, and asks the provinces of the Anglican Communion to support all who are working for its implementation.
2. Commends to all Churches the good practice of observing "One World Week" in proximity to United Nations Day, 24 October, as a means of highlighting human interdependence and the need to eliminate exploitation.
3. Urges the Church to speak out against: (a) torture, used as a cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment of prisoners, burning down of people's homes, granaries, and the confiscation of livestock and denial by governments of supplies of medical facilities and relief food by international organizations to people in areas of armed conflict; (b) all governments who practice capital punishment, and encourages them to find alternative ways of sentencing offenders so that the divine dignity of every human being is respected and yet justice is pursued; (c) the incarceration of prisoners of conscience, challenging governments to search for treatment and punishment of convicted persons in accordance with internationally accepted standards; (d) any denial of the principle that a person is innocent until proven guilty by due, fair and impartial procedures of law.
4. Commends the work of various international human rights organisations campaigning to support the freedoms set out in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, and their work on behalf of human rights activists throughout the world who are persecuted for their defence of those fundamental freedoms.
Communion (See further paras 36-50 of the Report on "Christianity and the Social Order.")