FLANDERS FIELDS

DECLARATION

The Great War Centenary

We commit ourselves to this Flanders Fields Declaration, a solemn

pledge to uphold the memory of the Great War, fought one hundred
years ago, here in Flanders Fields and throughout Europe and the
rest of the world:
1 As the generation of direct witnesses of the First World War gently
fades away, we owe to the forty million casualties and the many
more whose course of life was indelibly marked by the war, to
uphold the remembrance of this cataclysmic event.
2 The First World War, unchained by an ill-fated series of incidents
and alliances, led to an unprecedented loss of lives amongst the
military and the civilian population, devastations at a scale never
seen before, a radical change in warfare and the development of
new atrocious weapons and techniques. Young men from all parts
of the world came to die on Flanders battlefields. War cemeteries
with endless lines of graves, sweepingly altered landscapes and
city centres, and vast amounts of ammunition still concealed in
peaceful-looking fields testify to this day of the magnitude of the
war.
3 Yet the Great War also marked the beginning of the modern era.
The massive sacrifices demanded of the entire population made it
impossible to ignore its legitimate claims for the democratization
of our societies. Despite its shortcomings, the peace that ended
the war bore the beginnings of the modern law of nations,
characterized by permanent international institutions, the right to
self-determination
of all peoples, common solutions to social questions, human rights
and the quest for disarmament.
4 War, armed conflict, atrocious weapons, terrible suffering by
civilians and large-scale devastations are still not eradicated from
todays world. We are convinced that the answers to these wrongs
remain the same: the international rule of law, intense cooperation
amongst nations, disarmament and regional integration.
5 As age-old hatred and rivalries have been vanquished and international
cooperation has dimmed the scars brought on by the Great War,
we commemorate 11 November, day of the armistice, as a day to
preserve the remembrance of all victims, from all sides, from all wars.
We reaffirm our belief in humanitys ability to overcome its divisions,
to unite and hence to save succeeding generations from the scourge of
war.
We pledge to continue the remembrance of the victims, to promote
education and to foster research about the Great War. We are
committed to facilitate the disclosure, preservation and interpretation
of archives, documents and materials, as well as the access to war
heritage sites and their conservation.

draft version november 2011