A PRO-INDEPENDENCE rally held in Arbroath to mark the 700th anniversary (plus two) of the signing of the Declaration of Arbroath inspired hundreds of Scots to sign declarations of their own.
Almost 500 people signed a “Declaration of a Sovereign Scot” – and they’re now being sent to the United Nations headquarters in New York City.
Veteran Yes campaigner Mike Fenwick started the initiative in 2021, calling on 100 Scots to sign declarations of sovereignty, echoing the famous lines from the 1320 Arbroath document.
READ MORE: ‘I am a Sovereign Scot’ declaration a Yes hit with UN aware of project
Signed on April 6, 1320, that paper famously reads: “As long as but a hundred of us remain alive, never will we on any conditions be brought under English rule.
“It is in truth not for glory, nor riches, nor honours, that we are fighting, but for freedom – for that alone, which no honest man gives up but with life itself.”
Setting up a stall at the All Under One Banner rally in the historic Scots town earlier this month, Fenwick said he was surprised at the size of the response.
“It was a bit scary as I watched this queue form at the rally as people joined in ever growing numbers,” he said. “Did I have enough blank forms for everyone?”
“Thankfully I did, and it is just heartwarming that so many are beginning both to take part and to understand what this initiative is designed to achieve, namely to play its unique part in regaining the independence of Scotland, based on Scots exercising their claim of right and sovereignty.”
Fenwick said that the signed declarations had been put into five bundles of 100 to echo the Arbroath document, as well as including some signed “‘In Memoriam’ for all those independence campaigners who have passed, but who must not be forgotten”.
The campaigner wrote the first "Declaration of a Sovereign Scot" on April 6, 2021 and lodged it with the Secretary-General of the United Nations, Antonio Guterres.
It reads: “Exercising my Claim Of Right as a Sovereign Scot, I declare: I do not consent to the terms of, nor the continuation of, the Treaty of Union established through the Acts of Union in 1707.”
Fenwick said his intention is to eventually ask the members of the UN General Assembly if a resolution passed in 1960 applies to Scotland.
It reads: “All peoples have the right to self-determination; by virtue of that right they freely determine their political status and freely pursue their economic, social and cultural development.”
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