Founded on July 4, 2005, at the World Congress of Free Thinkers and Atheists in Paris, in close cooperation with the International Humanist and Ethical Union (IHEU), the International Liaison Committee of Atheists and Freethinkers, meeting in Washington DC, USA, on June 4, 2008, at the initiative of American Atheists (USA), National Secular Society (Great Britain) and the Libre Pensée (France), submits the following proposals to all Atheist and Free Thinker organisations across the world.

- We ask whether the struggle for the separation of religion and state is limited to a struggle for Atheists and Free thinkers to get the same undemocratic privileges as the Churches, or is it the affirmation of equal rights and duties and for the abolition of any religious rule?
- We assert that religious oppression is the dogmatic corollary of economic, social, cultural and political oppression and it results in intellectual degradation, social subservience and political subjugation.
- We conclude that the complete emancipation of humankind must be the goal for Atheists and Free Thinkers organisations, because they reject the triple yoke: “the excessive rule of authority in religious matters, privilege in political matters and capital in economic matters” (World Congress of Freethought of Rome in 1904).

- So, we ask, is it not necessary, in order to reach this goal, to aim at genuine international cooperation between groups, organisations and individuals who agree on these matters, because the separation of religion and state is not only a national issue but it has also international implications in every field?

Many people share these views but are powerless unless united in organisation to represent and lead them. CILALP/ILCAF was set up as a focal point around which Atheists and Free Thinkers organisations in different countries aiming for the same goal could unite.

International cooperation for a common goal

The International Liaison Committee of Atheists and Freethinkers works on the international stage to support Humanism in its freedom from dogmas and religions, and the strict separation of Religion and State in every country as the indispensable instrument to attain absolute freedom of conscience.

ILCAF/CILALP is complementary to – rather than a rival of – national and international organisations who fight for atheism, free thought, Humanism, secularism and rationalism. The aim of ILCAF/CILALP is to improve international cooperation between Atheists and Freethinkers which is so necessary to reach our common goals.

That is why the following undersigned citizens, organisations and individuals, Members of the International Liaison Committee of Atheists and Freethinkers, gathered in Washington DC, USA on June 4, 2008,

Christopher Arntzen (Washington DC, USA), Zelda Bailey (Queensland, Australia), Philippe Besson (Libre Pensée, France), Remus Cernea (Romania), Ralph Dumain (Washington DC, USA), Conrad Goeringer (American Atheists, USA), Geraldo Adriano Godoy de Campos (Sao Paulo, Brazil), Bobbie Kirkhart (California, USA), Josh Kutchinsky (Great-Britain), Jacques Lafouge (Libre Pensée, France), Roger Lepeix (Libre Pensée, France), Swami Manavatavadi (India), Shirley Moll (Minnesota, USA), Karen Owens (Georgia, USA), Steve Petersen (Minnesota, USA), David Rand (Quebec, Canada), Terry Sanderson (NSS, Great-Britain), Max Wallace (New South Wales, Australia), Fred Whitehead (Kansas, USA), Keith Porteous Wood (NSS, Great-Britain)

submit to the free debate of all, the proposal of a preparatory debate for the foundation, in Norway in 2011, in friendly relation with IHEU, of an International Organisation of Freethought.

They propose that the ILCAF/CILALP website should be one of the means through which an international debate be led with a view to this foundation through the international exchange of information and proposals.

Washington DC, June 4, 2008