THE KYOTO DECLARATION OF THE
FIRST WORLD ASSEMBLY

1970

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The World Conference on Religion and Peace represents an historic attempt to bring together men andwomen of all major religions to discuss the urgent issueof peace. We meet at a crucial time. At this very moment we are faced by cruel and inhuman wars and by
racial, social, and economic violence. Man’s continued
existence on this planet is threatened with nuclear extinction. Never has there been such despair among men.
Our deep conviction that the religions of the world havea real and important service to render to the cause ofpeace has brought us to Kyoto from the four corners of
the earth. Bahai, Buddhist, Confucian, Christian, Hindu,Jain, Jew, Muslim, Shintoist, Sikh, Zoroastrian, and others - we have come together in peace out of a common
concern for peace.
As we sat down together facing the overriding issuesof peace we discovered that the things which unite us
are more important than the things which divide us. We
found that we share:

A conviction of the fundamental unity of the human family, and the equality and dignity of all
human beings;
A sense of the sacredness of the individual person
and his conscience;
A sense of the value of the human community;
A realization that might is not right; that humanpower is not self-sufficient and absolute;
A belief that love, compassion, selflessness, and theforce of inner truthfulness and of the spirit haveultimately greater power than hate, enmity, and selfinterest;
A sense of obligation to stand on the side of thepoor and the oppressed as against the rich and theoppressors; andA profound hope that good will finally prevail.

Because of these convictions that we hold in common, we believe that a special charge has been given to
all men and women of religion to be concerned with all
their hearts and minds with peace and peacemaking, tobe the servants of peace. As men and women of religion
we confess in humility and penitence that we have very
often betrayed our religious ideals and our commitment
to peace. It is not religion that has failed the cause ofpeace, but religious people. This betrayal of religion canand must be corrected.
In confronting the urgent challenges to peace in thesecond half of the twentieth century, we were compelled to consider the problems of disarmament, development, and human rights. Clearly peace is imperiled by
the ever-quickening race for armaments, the widening
gap between the rich and the poor within and among
the nations, and by the tragic violation of human rights
all over the world. In our consideration of the problemsof disarmament we became convinced that peace cannot be found through the stockpiling of weapons. We
therefore call for immediate steps toward general disarmament, to include all weapons of destruction - conventional, nuclear, chemical, and bacteriological. We foundthat the problems of development were aggravated by
the fact that the resources spent on research, and on themanufacture and stockpiling of such weapons, consume
a grossly inordinate amount of the resources of mankind. We are convinced that these resources are urgently
needed instead to combat the injustices that make for
war and other forms of social violence. Any society inwhich one out of every four children dies is in a state ofwar. While development of itself may not bring peace,
there can be no lasting peace without it. Therefore wepledge our support to the effort of the United Nations
to make the 1970s a decade of development for all mankind.
The social convulsions clearly evident in the world
today demonstrate the connection between peace andthe recognition, promotion, and protection of humanrights. Racial discrimination, the repression of ethnic
and religious minorities, the torturing of political andother prisoners, legalized and de facto denial of political
freedom and equality of opportunity, the denial ofReligions for Peace I 777 United Nations Plaza I New York, NY 10017 USA I 212-6871-2163 I www.religionsforpeace.org

equal rights of women, any form of colonialist oppression - all such violations of human rights are responsible
for the escalation of violence that is debasing humancivilization.
While we of this Conference speak for ourselves aspersons brought together from many religions by ourdeep concern for peace, we try also to speak for the vast
majority of the human family who are powerless andwhose voice is seldom heard - the poor, the exploited,
the refugees, and all who are homeless and whose lives,
fields, and freedoms have been devastated by wars. We
speak to our religions, the ecumenical councils and all interfaith efforts for peace, to the nations, beginning with
our own, to the United Nations, and to men and women
outside established religions who are concerned abouthuman welfare.

as a truce or a balance of terror; it dismisses as utopiana truly universal concern for the welfare of all mankind.
To all this we say “No!”We desire to convey our concern for peace to theUnited Nations. The achievement and maintenance ofpeace requires not only a recognition of the existenceof the United Nations, but, even more, support forand implementation of its decisions. We urge universal
membership in the United Nations, a more just sharingof power and responsibility in its procedures. We urge
the member nations to accept its leadership in resolving
issues that have led or may lead to conflicts.
It is our hope that this Conference will help us see andaccept our responsibility as men and women of religious
faith for the achievement of true and lasting peace.

To one and all, beginning with ourselves, we say thatthe point of departure for any serious effort in humanenterprise - educational, cultural, scientific, social, andreligious - is the solemn acceptance of the fact that men
and all their works are now united in one destiny. We
live or die together in the struggle for peace. We cannot
honestly denounce war and the things that make for war
unless our personal lives are informed by peace and weare prepared to make the necessary sacrifice for it. We
must do all in our power to educate public opinion andawaken public conscience to take a firm stand against
war and the illusory hope of peace through military victory. We are convinced that religions, in spite of historicdifferences, must now seek to unite all men in those endeavors which make for true peace. We believe that wehave a duty transcending sectarian limits to cooperatewith those outside the historic religions who share ourdesire for peace.
We pledge ourselves to warn the nations whose citizens we are that the effort to achieve and maintain military power is the road to disaster. It creates a climate offear and mistrust; it demands resources needed for themeeting of the needs of health, housing, and welfare; itfosters the escalation of the arms race that now threatens man’s life on earth; it sharpens differences among nations into military and economic blocs; it regards peace
Religions for Peace I 777 United Nations Plaza I New York, NY 10017 USA I 212-6871-2163 I www.religionsforpeace.org