“In favour of life and the dignity of man”

To the President of the European Parliament, the President of the European Commission, the President of the Council of Ministers of the European Union, the Secretary General of the UN and the Secretary General of the Council of Europe.

The hereunder signed European citizens,

considering that

- “Conscious of its spiritual and moral heritage, the Union is founded on the indivisible, universal values of human dignity, freedom, equality and solidarity", as is laid down in the Charter of Fundamental Rights of the European Union;

- 60 years have passed since the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, the effectiveness of which in favour of freedom, justice and peace is compromised if not every human being, from conception till natural death, is recognised as being the subject of dignity and rights;

- The European Union and the European Council consider as their duty to respect and promote the human rights solemnly proclaimed in the Charter of Fundamental Rights of the European Union and in the European Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms;

- there are recurrent attempts to interpret restrictively the right to life by not recognising it in favour of a human being who is conceived but not yet born;

- even the definition of family becomes uncertain if it is not recognised as "the fundamental nucleus of society and of the State" and therefore founded on the marriage of a man and a woman and which has primarily the right and duty of educating the children;

proclaim

- the right to life of every human being from conception till natural death

- the rights of the family as the fundamental nucleus of society and of the State founded on the marriage of a man and a woman who have the right and obligation to educate the children;

request

- that initiatives are adopted so that it is specified in the Charter of Fundamental Rights of the European Union (Art 2) and in the Treaties which are in the process of being revised, as well as in the European Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms (Art 2) and in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (Art 3), wherein the right to life of every human being is recognised, that such right must be recognised as from conception;

- that, at least, every decision, recommendation, resolution, regulation or directive in which the right to life is to be defended, guaranteed or taken account of is in accordance with this principle, as such right has to be recognized from the time of conception onwards

- that public funding of research which involves the destruction of human embryos, as is happening, for example, in virtue of the VII Research Framework Programme of the European Union, be suspended;

- that the family unit is recognized as one founded on the marriage of a man and a woman as the family in the full sense of the word and to which is granted as a priority the right and the duty to choose what education to give to the children.