110 HRES 653 IH: Expressing the sense of the House of U.S. House of Representatives 2007-09-17 text/xml EN Pursuant to Title 17 Section 105 of the United States Code, this file is not subject to copyright protection and is in the public domain.

IV 110th CONGRESS 1st Session H. RES. 653 IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES September 17, 2007 Mr. McDermott (for himself and Mr. Wilson of South Carolina) submitted the following resolution; which was referred to the Committee on Oversight and Government Reform RESOLUTION Expressing the sense of the House of Representatives that the concept of nonviolence and the teachings of Gandhi remain relevant and instructive in today’s world and the United States should take an active role in disseminating the message of nonviolence through education and public awareness.

Whereas peace is a vision and nonviolence is a strategy; Whereas nonviolence was most famously instrumental in the struggle for Indian independence and the civil rights movement in the United States; Whereas nonviolence has been advocated in some form by many of the great leaders of the 20th Century, including Mahatma Gandhi, Martin Luther King Jr., Cesar Chavez, Leo Tolstoy, Albert Einstein, and Dorothy Day, among others; Whereas the United Nations General Assembly proclaimed this decade (2001 through 2010) as the International Decade for the Promotion of a Culture of Peace and Non-Violence for the Children of the World on November 10, 1998; Whereas representatives from 90 countries and 122 organizations adopted a declaration commemorating the Centenary of the Satyagraha Movement launched by Mahatma Gandhi at the International Conference on Peace, Nonviolence and Empowerment—Gandhian Philosophy in the 21st Century in New Delhi, India in January, 2007; Whereas the representatives at the conference vowed to nurture the values espoused by Mahatma Gandhi, to pursue Truth, to privilege peace and reject violence in all our activities, to respect diverse viewpoints, and to practice the philosophy of Nonviolence to win over the forces of violence and injustice through tolerance, empathy and love.; Whereas the declaration adopted by the conference appeals to the United Nations to declare Mahatma Gandhi’s date of birth, October 2, as International Nonviolence Day; Whereas, on June 15, 2007, the United Nations unanimously passed a resolution to observe October 2nd as an International Day of Non-Violence; and Whereas the United States was a cosponsor of this United Nations resolution: Now, therefore, be it

That it is the sense of the House of Representatives that— (1)the concept of nonviolence and the teachings of Gandhi remain relevant and instructive in today’s world; (2)the United States should take an active role in disseminating the message of nonviolence through education and public awareness; and (3)the President should issue a proclamation calling on the American people to observe the International Day of Non-Violence with appropriate ceremonies and activities.