The IHEU International Conference "Empowering Women", meeting on 15th and 16th November 2003 at Conway Hall, London, at which participants from 16 countries (Slovakia, Poland, Belgium, The Netherlands, Germany, France, Norway, Sweden, Switzerland, Iraq, Syria, Iran, India, Nepal, the United Kingdom and the United States) are assembled, unanimously passed the following resolution:

"This conference expresses its grave disquiet that despite the claims of the government of the United States that the invasions and occupation of Afghanistan and Iraq were carried out, at least in part, to liberate the people of those countries, the draft Constitution for Afghanistan reintroduces Islamic law in a form that falls far short of internationally accepted standards of human rights, and that in Iraq, the American Administration is reported as being prepared to accept Islam as the state religion.

The conference deplores the reintroduction of an Islamic Constitution in Afghanistan while the memory of the brutality of the Taliban is still fresh, and expresses its dismay that the Administration would countenance the introduction of a state religion in Iraq where none existed before the occupation by coalition forces. The principle of the separation of religion and state, a defining characteristic of the Constitution of the United States of America, is a necessary condition to guarantee freedom of conscience for all citizens, and to safeguard the welfare of women in any state.

The conference urgently requests the government of the United States to ensure that the new Constitutions for Afghanistan and Iraq conform to the standards set out in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights."