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Atlantic Charter 1941
Self Determination: principle & the law
The Atlantic Charter
August 14, 1941
The following statement signed by the President of the United States and the
Prime Minister of Great Britain is released for the information of the Press:
The President of the United States and the Prime Minister, Mr. Churchill,
representing His Majesty's Government in the United Kingdom, have met at sea.
They have been accompanied by officials of their two Governments, including high
ranking officers of the Military, Naval and Air Services
The whole problem of the supply of munitions of war, as provided by the
Lease-Lend Act, for the armed forces of the United States and for those
countries actively engaged in resisting aggression has been further examined.
Lord Beaverbrook, the Minister of Supply of the British Government, has joined
in these conferences. He is going to proceed to Washington to discuss further
details with appropriate officials of the United States Government. These
conferences will also cover the supply problems of the Soviet Union.
The President and the Prime Minister have had several conferences They have
considered the dangers to world civilization arising from the policies of
military domination by conquest upon which the Hitlerite government of Germany
and other governments associated therewith have embarked, and have made clear
the stress which their countries are respectively taking for their safety in the
face of these dangers.
They have agreed upon the following joint declaration:
Joint declaration of the President of the United States of America and the Prime
Minister, Mr. Churchill, representing His Majesty's Government in the United
Kingdom, being met together, deem it right to make known certain common
principles in the national policies of their respective countries on which they
base their hopes for a better future for the world.
First, their countries seek no aggrandizement, territorial or other;
Second, they desire to see no territorial changes that do not accord with the
freely expressed wishes of the peoples concerned;
Third, they respect the right of all peoples to choose the form of government
under which they will live; and they wish to see sovereign rights and self
government restored to those who have been forcibly deprived of them;
Fourth, they will endeavor, with due respect for their existing obligations, to
further the enjoyment by all States, great or small, victor or vanquished, of
access, on equal terms, to the trade and to the raw materials of the world which
are needed for their economic prosperity;
Fifth, they desire to bring about the fullest collaboration between all nations
in the economic field with the objector securing, for all, improved labor
standards, economic advancement and social security;
Sixth, after the final destruction of the Nazi tyranny, they hope to see
established a peace which will afford to all nations the means of dwelling in
safety within their own boundaries, and which will afford assurance that all the
men in all the lands may live out their lives in freedom from fear and want;
Seventh, such a peace should enable all men to traverse the high seas and oceans
without hindrance;
Eighth, they believe that all of the nations of the world, for realistic as well
as spiritual reasons must come to the abandonment of the use of force. Since no
future peace can be maintained if land, sea or air armaments continue to be
employed by nations which threaten, or may threaten, aggression outside of their
frontiers, they believe, pending the establishment of a wider and permanent
system of general security, that the disarmament of such nations is essential.
They will likewise aid and encourage all other practicable measures which will
lighten for peace-loving peoples the crushing burden of armaments
FRANKLIN D. ROOSEVELT
WINSTON S. CHURCHILL |
