Glastonbury Declaration

At 19:51 on Saturday evening at Glastonbury 2005, the Glastonbury Declaration on the Right to Asylum drafted by award-winning novelist Patrick Neate was performed in the Leftfield tent. The Declaration is a revised alternative to the 1951 Refugee Convention and is supported by UNHCR.

19:51 Glastonbury Declaration on the Right to Asylum 2005
More than half a century after 1951
The convention on the rights of the asylum seeker
Is coming undone
Its tatters
Run up the mast of the good ship ‘Fear’
By pirates dressed up as our leaders
Who feed us through their media lackeys
The best
Cock and bull
To lock us into their warped conception of nation
And pull us into the exploitation
Of terror
That is
Their own darkest creation

So stand up with me and say ‘no’
Stand up with me and say ‘no’
Stand up with me and say -
‘Now that we ourselves live in a country
‘Of decreasing freedoms
‘Single agenda press
‘And a government elected
‘By 25 per cent of us
‘Or less
‘We all seek asylum from this lie
‘And are proud to apply this to
‘Those who
‘Flee
‘Murder and persecution
‘And merit the status ‘refugee’’

So
Stand up with me and say, ‘No!’
Stand up with me and say, ‘No!’
Stand up with me and say, ‘Now
‘We are proud and ready to fight
‘For recognition of asylum as the first and noblest human right.’