Home :: Charter

Mission:

The Philohr Society encourages, collects, and disseminates on the Internet the titles of the rigorous scholarship on the universal moral philosophy of Human Rights.

By-Laws:

I. Organization:

1. The mission of the Philohr Society is entrusted to a Board of Governors. The majority of the Board shall be comprised of philosophers at the secondary and tertiary levels of scholarship from all philosophical specializations and academic disciplines. A minority of the Board is comprised of interested professionals. The UN High Commissioner for Human Rights has an open invitation to serve as an Ex-Officio member of the Board.

2. The Philohr Society has no regular meetings unless called for by majority vote of the Board of Governors, although national and individual university chapters may regularly meet, with their meetings required to be both inclusive and democratic.

3. A national or university chapter may be comprised of a sole scholar at the secondary or tertiary level, or an interested professional.

4. Each national or university chapter elects one of its members to serve as their representative to the Board of Governors of the Philohr Society for a two-year term. The election of university presidents and chancellors are welcome, as well as professional philosophers and other scholars at secondary and tertiary levels of scholarship from all academic disciplines. The elected Board of Governors appoints a non-salaried Director to administrate the Society for one or more two-year terms, and the Director serves at the sole pleasure of a majority vote of the entire Board.

5. Any removal of a member of the Board of Governors is made by majority vote of the Board, or by majority vote of the national chapters. Any de-listing of a chapter by the Board of Governors is by majority vote. The removal of a member of the Board of Governors or the de-listing of a chapter shall be for any action deemed injurious to the mission or impartial reputation of the Philohr Society.

II. Governance:

6. The Philohr Society, nor its chapters, promote or advocate other than: a) to encourage university administrations to develop the philosophy of Human Rights as a course of study for interested students within their institution, and b) to encourage booksellers, university and public libraries to develop a distinct location for books on the philosophy of Human Rights.

7. The Philohr Society and its national chapters are prohibited from affiliating with other non-governmental organizations (NGO's). Individual members of the Philohr Society may, of course, affiliate with or join another NGO, but they may not represent any Philohr Societies by their attendance at another organization's meetings, conferences, or symposiums.

8. While individual members of the Society or its national chapters may say or write whatever they please on any topic at any time, for the deliberate protection of the safety of its members, the Philohr Society and its national chapters are prohibited from issuing any policy statements--and are especially prohibited from officially expressing support of or opposition to any individual, issue, or cause--not associated with its Mission Statement.

9. Guest speakers to any meeting of the Philohr Society or its national chapters are encouraged to address topics related to the Society's Mission Statement, or to the amendment of this Charter.

10. The Philohr Society and its chapters will honor all copyright laws.

11. The Philohr Society will publish world-wide, on August 19th of each year, the total numbers of scholars who list 'Human Rights' as one of their philosophical specializations in their professional directories. The same public notice may note those institutions of higher learning with departments of philosophy which do not offer the philosophy of Human Rights for their matriculating students.

12. This Charter is amendable by two-thirds vote of the entire Board of Governors.

13. All meetings of the Philohr Society or its national chapters shall begin and conclude with humor.

III Finances:

14. The Philohr Society collects no dues, although national chapters may choose to require dues of their national members.

15. All meeting minutes, financial statements, and correspondence by the chapters, by the Board of Governors, or by the Director, are to be made immediately available for perusal by any member of the Society upon written or verbal request.

16. The Philohr Society will maintain one locus for the collection and dissemination of scholarship on the philosophy of Human Rights, relying upon the individual chapters to provide encouragement, critiques, and reviews from all possible sources, including from separate specializations within the profession of philosophy as well as from other academic disciplines such as law, economics, sociology, anthropology, history, psychology, political science, international affairs, etc. This locus is to be maintained free of fees to the members.

17. Any funding of the Philohr Society's mission obtained by the Director is subject to approval or denial by the majority vote of the Board of Governors. All funds in or out of the Philohr Society's financial accounts are to be transparent, independently audited, and legally reported to the Board of Governors, to all national chapters, and to all appropriate regulatory agencies.

18. The Board of Governors shall maintain the status of the Philohr Society as an educational non-profit organization with all appropriate regulatory agencies. Those national chapters which decide to collect dues shall also maintain an identical, educational non-profit status with their national regulatory agencies.