CHARTER OF THE INTERNATIONAL PEN CLUB

LITERATURE, national though it be in origin, knows no frontiers, and should
remain common currency among nations in spite of political or international
upheavals.

IN ALL CIRCUMSTANCES, and particularly in time of war, works of art and libraries,
the heritage of humanity at large, should be left untouched by national or
political passion.

MEMBERS OF PEN should at all times use what influence they have in favor
of good understanding and mutual respect among nations; they pledge themselves
to do their utmost to dispel race, class, and national hatreds and to champion
the ideal of one humanity living in peace in the world.

PEN STANDS FOR the principle of unhampered transmission of thought within
each nation and among all nations, and members pledge themselves to oppose
any form of suppression of freedom of expression in their country or their
community.

PEN DECLARES for a free press and opposes arbitrary censorship in time of
peace. It believes that the necessary advance of the world toward a more
highly organized political and economic order renders free criticism of governments,
administrations, and institutions imperative. And since freedom implies voluntary
restraint, members pledge themselves to oppose such evils of a free press
as mendacious publication, deliberate falsehood, and distortion of facts
for political and personal ends.