Verification of the right to engage in naked outdoor activities

Update: December 30, 2005

Although this petition was submitted to the appropriate EEC department (of petitions) on 2005-12-29, with a total of over 589 signatures, you may still sign as an ongoing declaration of intent - see http://www.nakedeurope.org/petition/ for more info.

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Verification of the right to engage in naked outdoor activities.

Although technically legal in most countries in Europe, people engaging in naked outdoor activities are often taken to task by the police and/or the justice (?) system itself. Let me say that again: simply being naked in a public place is not a priori illegal, but it is treated as such by many. There are many cases where people will even be prosecuted under a law with the suitably vague title of 'behaviour likely to cause a breach of the peace', which might cover any number of circumstances. Another typical catch-all alternative is 'indecent exposure', which is equally guaranteed to have different meanings depending on context.

Nudism is a belief system, built around the basic tenet that people of all ages, races and creed, have a right to be naked and to engage in peaceful activity with no regard to their shape, size, colour or wealth. Additionally, nudism believes that clothes are not a necessary prerequisite of the human condition, but an add-on. This is in direct contrast to the media passion for using the naked form for commercial gain and the repeated implied suggestion, to the majority of the population, that there is something to be ashamed of in their own body by the inevitably one-sided comparison, and which therefore should be covered up in socio-economic labeling textiles.

The saying: "Clothes maketh the man" is a truism which it is possible to challenge. This petition is saying it should not be necessary to cover your body with cloth to be approved of by society, and that society should explictly allow different belief systems to coexist in the same (open air) sphere and not be permanently stuck in a bucket of textile prejudice.

Modern nudism is about people engaging in naked activities, around the world,
as both a personal statement of freedom and as a stand against the pervasive and dubious use of the naked body in (all forms of) the media.

These people are, or are learning to be, proud of their naked bodies and are celebrating this natural freedom by being naked in nature. Modern nudism is bringing the naked out of the closet, out from behind closed, secretive places and special camps, to the great outdoors. This petition has been amended to include a mention of the intention that being naked outdoors is expected to be at a suitable distance from population centres. This petition is aimed at hills, mountains, lakes, seas, forests, woods, fields, etc. - outdoors.

Being naked is not illegal, although many people continue to think it is. This petition is aimed at securing the explicit written confirmation of the right to be naked in the outdoor environment, and to engage in healthy and harmless, sports and activities, without interference, obstruction, discrimination or harassment. This petition is urging all people to canvas their representatives on behalf of their right to be naked outdoors, and for those representatives to act on this petition and to amend the legal system appropriately, both in their own countries and at the European Union level.

Article II-70 of the Treaty establishing a Constitution for Europe, (Freedom of thought, conscience and religion), due to have been ratified in 2005 may have confirmed this. Again, this would have been an interpretation, and not an absolute recognition of the situation, which is why it is still deemed important that this existing right should be explicitly enshrined in the European Treaty.