Declaration of the Copenhagen international conference ‘Anti-terrorism legislation’Declaration of the Copenhagen international conference ‘Anti-terrorism legislation, political rights and international solidarity’, convened by Opror (‘Rebellion’, Denmark), November 18 – 19, 2006:
The US-led ‘war on terror’ threatens us all. Defend freedom of expression, human rights and international solidarity!
We appeal to all movements for democracy and international solidarity to join us in challenging national and supranational anti-terrorist legislation, the international ‘terrorist lists’, and the so-called ‘global war on terror’.
Through present anti-terrorist legislation, states have attempted to curb the freedom of expression and the political rights of their citizens, including the right to extend moral and material support to resistance and liberation movements throughout the world.
Such support is now at risk of prosecution within the terms of anti-terrorism legislation. The role of international solidarity, which in the past has made an important contribution to conflict resolution, is under severe threat.
Moreover, civil disobedience, protest campaigns and labour action are increasingly in danger of falling within the scope of such legislation.
This erosion of political and human rights is driven by a neo-liberal state strategy where the liberalization of economies and markets is accompanied by repressive state regulation of political activity and expression. Within this perspective, the ‘war on terror’ is a global project seeking to contain and crush popular resistance to the expropriation of essential resources by increasingly deregulated market forces.
Resistance is now redefined as an expression of ‘international terrorism’. Several states have grasped the opportunity to define resistance movements in terms of the so-called ‘global war on terror’, thereby seeking to confer upon themselves a guise of international legitimacy. The threat of state terrorism is today the most immediate and lethal threat against the peoples of many nations.
Together we will challenge the political paradigm underlying the so-called ‘global war on terror’ and the proscription of organisations through so-called ‘terrorist lists’. Such ‘terrorist lists’ can only contribute to the marginalisation of social and political movements, excluding them from an international political dialogue, which in itself is a necessary step towards a negotiated political resolution of the conflicts of which they are a part.
Now and in the future we will defend
– the right of peoples to resist illegitimate government and foreign occupation,
– the right of peoples to take up arms against oppression, where all other means have been exhausted,
– the right to create new forms of people’s power which serve the economic, social, political and cultural aspirations of the people,
– and the right of citizens of all nations to extend their support, material and otherwise, to these struggles for economic, political, social and cultural emancipation.
