Right to Literacy Convention: Buffalo

Declaration for the Right to Literacy
Literacy Powerline: June 17, 2009

Right to Literacy Convention delegates from across the country determined and voted on the first United States Declaration for the Right to Literacy. The Right to Literacy Convention was part of the National Community Literacy Conference in Buffalo, New York on June 13, 2009.

Delegates concluded that to ensure prosperity for the nation and self determination for the individual, changes at the national, regional and local level must take place.

Literacy leaders, using the model of the Seneca Falls Convention of 1848, convened from across the nation. The need was clear; tens of millions of adults and children do not have the skills needed to succeed in life. Literacy is the number one tool to change that plight. The right to literacy must be a national priority.

The resolutions support five pillars of literacy:
1. Building the Community
2. Strengthening the Family
3. Ensuring People’s Self-Determination
4. Improving the Workforce
5. Transforming the Literacy System

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DECLARATION FOR THE RIGHT TO LITERACY !
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It is a truth held evident by our United States Declaration of Independence: that all men [and women] are created equal, and thus shall have the opportunity to pursue life, liberty, and happiness. To preserve these rights, we, residents of the United States of America, designate “literacy” as the foundation of such principles and organize our powers to enable every person to affect that ideal. In that pursuit, we acknowledge and agree, as we did in Seneca Falls in 1848 and again 100 years later as part of the United Nations Declaration of Human Rights, that education shall be guaranteed for all members of the human family—men, women and children. The realization of this vision requires that all residents, regardless of age or status, be able to read and write in order to participate fully and equitably in our democracy.

Closing Remarks by David Harvey, President/CEO, ProLiteracy
June 13, 2009

WE ARE HERE TO BEAR WITNESS –

To Bear Witness to our shared American history – The Seneca Falls Convention of 1848, the first Women’s Rights Convention, and now, today, the FIRST Right to Literacy Convention in our history, held in the same birthplace of the women’s rights movements. . . . .

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