Project |
Business Introduce |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Interfaith Dialogue |
|
|
|
< Project < Interfaith Dialogue
|
|
|
|
Date : 2014-01-12 20:29
[International Seminars]
Seminar of IPCR, Seoul July 17-19, 2008.
|
Author :
Admin
Views : 1,979
|
|
Theme:"Conflict and Dialogue: the Role of Asian Religious Leaders in
Establishing Permanent Peace in Troubled Regions" Place : Sofitel Ambassador
Hotel, Seoul, Korea In commemoration of the founding of IPCR, religious
leaders, 20 from abroad and 100 from Korea, met to discuss how to establish
permanent peace in troubled regions all over the world. Keynote
Speech: |
2008 International Interfaith Seminar of IPCR, Seoul July
17-19, 2008.
The Initiative for the UN Decade of Inter-Religious Dialogue
and Cooperation for Peace
Stein Villumstad, Deputy Secretary General of
Religions for Peace and Chair of the Provisional Steering Committee for
the UN Decade Initiative.
Religion in most traditions has been seen as
the source of common moral order. Inter-faith dialogue has sought to legitimize
this role by identifying the commonality in the basic moral tenets of the
world's religions. There is, however, a different trend in which morally
unacceptable political actions are legitimized by religious
"fundamentalist"sectarianism. This trend can and must be countered through
co-operation that brings out the potentials and assets of religions. Religion
has broadly three sets of assets that may be mobilized in religious communities.
The spiritual assets of religious communities are, in the eyes of their
communities, their greatest assets. Typically, spiritualities point to what is
most elemental and "given"within religious visions regarding the meaning of
human life. Spiritualities can provide unique potential resources for
reconciliation among and between conflicted persons and
communities.
Religious communities have moral assets or
capacities that build upon and unfold the great strengths of their
spiritualities. Fundamentally, most religious moral traditions ask their members
to judge others by the same standard as they would judge themselves. These
standards can provide a moral basis for establishing a communal consensus
regarding the need to address injustices and work for the nonviolent resolution
of conflict.
The social assets of religious communities include
the vast panoply of religious infrastructures: local churches, mosques or
temples; the women and youth associations affiliated with them; the national
denominational organizations; councils of churches and mosques; and the large
number of religiously affiliated NGOs, schools, hospitals.
Religions
that cooperate put the common problems at the centre. These may include poverty,
social and political injustice, and ethnic and nationalistic assertions.
Different religions have a variety of interpretations of the problems and their
solutions. This does not prevent them from searching for the common principles
and deeply held values that may be powerfully translated into common ground for
joint action through mobilizing their assets.
The Religious Summit on the
occasion of the G-8 meeting in Hokkaido earlier this month pointed out that
religious communities have roles to play in promoting
peace:
International actors who are responsible for global
decision-making must act transparently and be open to the contributions of all
stakeholders, including religious communities which represent a major part of
civil society."
The main message is that multi-stakeholdership is needed
to move constructively towards peace. It is therefore time for international
organizations, and notably United Nations to fully appreciate religious
communities as stakeholders in their broad and ambitious peace
agenda.
Developments in the UN over the last few years in relating to
religion
There is a growing recognition of the role played by
individuals and communities of diverse religions and beliefs in all societies.
Sadly, many situations of injustice and conflict have religious or ideological
origins and dimensions. At the same time, there is also a sense of hope that
comes from the development of a number of religious and interreligious
initiatives committed to peace building.
Within the UN the role of
interreligious dialogue and cooperation for peace has been clearly expressed in
recent resolutions of its General Assembly which promote "interreligious
dialogue" as well as "religious and cultural understanding, harmony and
cooperation." Worth mentioning is also the "Alliance of
Civilizations"initiative, launched by the Secretary-General of the United
Nations in July 2005. In October 2007, the General Assembly convened a "high
level dialogue onInterreligious and Intercultural Cooperation for the promotion
of tolerance, understanding and universal respect on matters of religion or
belief and cultural diversity, in coordination with other similar initiatives in
this area". In December 2007, the General Assembly decided "to declare 2010
as the International Year for Rapprochement of Cultures" and recommended
that "during the course of the year appropriate events be organized on
interreligious and intercultural dialogue, understanding and cooperation for
peace."
The time seems ripe to build on the momentum that has been
built around the importance of interreligious dialogue and cooperation and work
for the launch of a "UN Decade of Interreligious Dialogue and Cooperation for
Peace 2011-2020".
A number of individuals, interfaith and faith
organizations have worked for some time to develop the concept for this Decade
and to build support for it. A significant step in this process was a
consultation, hosted by the World Council of Churches (WCC) and the Conference
of NGOs in Consultative Relationship with the United Nations (CONGO), in Bossey,
Geneva, in January 2008. The participants represented a wide range of faith
organizations, UN agencies and UN member states. The consultation produced a
draft document that describes the main ideas behind the suggested Decade and the
Coalition we want to build in support of it.
Relationships between
religion and the United Nations. The initiative to launch a Decade for
Interreligious Dialogue and Cooperation for Peace is a major attempt to bring
together the forces of the United Nations, its member states and religious
communities for joint action. In this context it may be useful to explore
the relationships between religion and the UN. One way is to define three levels
of relationships:
a. UN's expertise to deal with religion
globally and locally. Within the UN system there is a clear deficit of
systematic knowledge about religion, religious communities and their
institutions. Although many conflicts arein one way or another affiliated with
religion, the historic UN approach has been strictly secular. There is an urgent
need to strengthen the knowledge both in the secretariat of the Secretary
General and in the specialized agencies and programs on global and national
levels. UN representations in respective countries should have a basic expertise
on the cultural and religious context in which they operate. Religious
communities should on the other hand step up their own awareness raising of the
UN and its different functions, not least to be able to interact with the
national __EXPRESSION__s of the UN.
b. The political level
relationship. The General Assembly is the highest political body of the
UN, while the Security Council, ECOSOC, Human Rights Council among others are
also important bodies. These bodies are forums for member states. There is no
formal space for other actors in them. If, however, the peace agenda cannot
fully be addressed without a multi-stakeholder approach, the need for a
mechanism for the religious communities to relate to the political level of the
UN should be carefully considered. Different models and suggestions have been
promoted, including the creation of an Advisory body to General
Assembly/Security Council/ECOSOC. Without commenting on any particular solution,
I want to point out the challenge of building a mechanism that is sufficiently
independent from the political institutions of the UN member states and thatat
the same time is appropriately representing the religious institutions.
c. Program/substance relationship Religious communities and
faith-based organizations have numerous partnerships with UN agencies and
programs on local and national levels. These partnerships are partly built on
mutual understanding of the respective roles and self identities. At other times
religious institutions are being used as instruments to achieve UN agendas that
have not necessarily been fully discussed and owned by them. The social assets
of religions worldwide are, however as mentioned earlier, impressive. If
equipped and given appropriate capacity building faith communities can have the
scaling-up potentials through the faith infrastructures is substantial. The UN
needs even more and better partnerships with the religious communities to
achieve their ambitious agendas.
The Decade will have the potential
to address all three levels of relationships, strengthen them and use them for
the implementation of activities related to the Decade. The significance of
distinguishing the levels of relationship is that different approaches and
skills are needed, and the actors within our constituencies may be different for
the different levels. In order to prepare ourselves for the Decade we will need
to work out strategies for addressing the respective levels effectively. Let me
in the passing mention that the Decade can specifically be a possible framework
in which a further reflection on a more systematic way of relating to the
political level, primarily between the world's religious leaders and the world's
political leaders in the General Assembly context.
The concept of a
Decade
There are currently seven UN Decades in progress, the last one
ending in 2015. Some critics claim that there are too many of Decades and years
declared by theUN and that their impact doesnot match the energy and resources
put into them. In order to have an informed opinion about the proposed UN Decade
for Interreligious Dialogue and Cooperation for Peace we may reflect upon what
we believe this Decade may become.
The Decade is thought of as a
framework that can give all the different initiatives direction and a way to
connect. The framework may be a way of testing out the viability of the various
initiatives and to build support behind key UN agendas that logically could be
implemented in cooperation with religious communities - preferably jointly
across religious divides. A quick fix is not appropriate or feasible - time and
space are needed!
The General Secretary of World Council of Churches
observed in the preparatory meeting in Geneva in January:
"A project of
that magnitude, let us agree, cannot be accomplished by any one of our religious
communities, by any one country, or any one UN agency or by making this an
emphasis for a year or two. What it would require is for the pre-eminent
international and multilateral body, the United Nations itself, to make a
commitment, not for a year or two, for that would be nothing other than paying
lip-service to a nice idea, but for an entire decade, when the work of preparing
the ground, planting, watering, pruning, watching it grow and harvesting can
take place"
What might the time and space created by the Decade provide a
framework for?:
1. Encourage Member States publicly and constructively to
engage individuals and communities of diverse religions and beliefs for the
common good;
2. Strengthen and deepen the cooperation of individuals and
communities of diverse religions and beliefs, locally, nationally, regionally
and internationally for building a sustainable world of justice and
peace;
3. Encourage individuals and communities of diverse religions and
beliefs to cooperate on UN initiatives such as: Enhancement of Human Rights
(including the rights of women, children and youth, refugees and migrants as
well as gender equity), Millennium Development Goals, decent work for all,
dialogue among civilizations, promoting a culture of peace and nonviolence,
peacebuilding and shared security.
4. Promote mutual respect and trust
between individuals and communities of diverse religions and beliefs through
dialogue and shared action.
Suggested elements of a
Decade
The UN Decade of Interreligious Dialogue and Cooperation for
Peace 2011-2020 (or DECADE) is aimed at promoting partnership between UN Member
States, UN Agencies, Religious and Spiritual Communities and Civil Society
Organizations to advance the culture of peace.
The current proposal
indicates that the UN Decade of Interreligious and Intercultural Dialogue and
Cooperation for Peace would have the following key tasks:
- Increase
dialoguebetween people and communities of diverse religions and beliefs, and by
seeking commonalities and respecting differences, promote mutual understanding
and trust;
- Enhance communication and partnership between religious and
political leaders at every level around issues dealing with peace;
-
Identify the root causes of violence in multireligious societies, in order to
promote non-violent conflict resolution, justice, tolerance, gender equality and
elimination of all forms of religiously and ideologically related injustice,
violence and discrimination, leading towards harmoniouscoexistence between
people and communities of diverse religions and beliefs;
- Identify,
deepen and share the application of sacred texts, teachings - for example, the
Golden Rule- and practices that promote mutual respect, cooperation, peace,
justice, healing and reconciliation.
- Design and develop joint programs,
projects and activitieswith people and communities of diverse religions and
value-based organizations, working as partners in the pursuit of pertinent
United Nations goals;
- Proactively include women, youth and childrenin
every aspect of the planning and implementation of programs, projects and
activities;
- Build partnerships between people and communities of
diverse religions and value-based organizations, and other civil society
organizations, government agencies and social actors from the private sector, in
the pursuit of those United Nations goals at global, national and local
levels;
- Establish and strengthen relationships of cooperation with the
bodies and specialized agencies within the UN system which are responsible for
social, cultural, political, economic and environmental concerns.
-
Promote right relations within the human family and with the Earth
community.
The primary political and programmatic responsibility for
sponsorship and implementation of the DECADE will lie with UN Member States and
pertinent UN agencies. The UN General Assembly will designate an appropriate
entity of its system to serve as Lead Agency for the Decade, as well as other
agencies and entities that could cooperate in its implementation.
Given
the unique focus of the DECADE, religious communities, interfaith and
values-based organizations will be given key responsibilities in a participatory
approach to implementation, interlinked through a broad coalition of civil
society groups, non governmental organizations and faith institutions.
A
"Plan of Action"proposed by the UN Secretary General at the launching of the
DECADE will be prepared by the Lead Agency, in consultation with the appropriate
state, UN and civil society actors during the two previous years. The Millennium
Development Goals, Human Rights, Culture of Peace, Dialogue among Civilizations,
climate change, peacebuilding and shared security appear to be the main
pertinent themes in the current agenda of the United Nations to be considered in
a plan of action for the DECADE.
It should be borne in mind that there
are a large number of relevant programs and activities already being undertaken
by religious and interfaith organizations around the world in the field of
interreligious dialogue and cooperation for peace.Consequently, a Plan of Action
should benefit from that experience, while adopting a flexible approach which
would allow a high degree of initiative and participation by the partner
organizations during the implementation of the DECADE.
The
process
The DECADE would cover the period 2011-2020, launched on the
21st of September 2010, the International Day of Peace, which would then be an
annual occasionto promote the Decade's objectives, assess the progress made, and
strengthen interreligious partnership and commitment.
Given this
proposed launch date, there will be sufficient time to prepare and promote a
final proposal and to get political support from member states to present the
corresponding project of resolution on the Decade to the General Assembly in its
63rd session (September 2008), in order to be adopted by the General Assembly in
its 64th session (autumn 2009). During this preparatory phase the Coalition of
supporting organizations will be constituted and an appropriate non-governmental
arrangement will be designed and put in place to insure the effective mobilizing
of individuals and communities of diverse religions and value-based
organizations for their participation in the Decade.
A Provisional
Steering Committee was formed in the Bossey meeting. My presence here today is
in the capacity as its chair. The Committeewill take responsibility for the
coordination of the process of the faith and interfaith constituencies leading
to a successful UN General Assembly Resolution that launches the Decade.
The credibility of the proposal is closely linked to our ability to
build a broad Coalition of eminent persons, faith communities, religious and
inter-religious institutions and organizations and other civil society actors.
This work is going on, and I see this event as an important contribution to the
coalition building. When the Provisional Steering Committee feels that there is
a critical mass of support, the Coalition will be declared and a restructured
Steering Committee will be chosen to reflect the body of support. At the moment
we have not reached this point.
Much time and energy has been invested
over the last few weeks to reach out to UN member states both in New York and
Geneva. The major negotiations need to take place in New Yorkwhere the General
Assembly is. Negotiations take place on two levels.
a. It is important
to build broad support for the idea of the Decade. The decision in the General
Assembly will be on a "no objection"basis. Therefore we need to lobby states
that have taken an initial negative position, including the EU block and USA.
b. One country needs to table the proposal for the General Assembly agenda,
and therefore act as the "champion" state. This is normally done in cooperation
with an inner circle of sponsors. Discussions are on-going with a few UN member
states who may consider taking the leadership. No commitment has so far been
given, and time is getting short. We have indications that the proposal needs to
be submitted prior to the opening of the General Assembly session in September.
We are further pursuing a general support from the High Representative
of the Alliance of Civilizations. The current EU position is complicating this
process.
As we speak we are also working on a first zero draft of a
General Assembly resolution that can be used as a resource document for the
prospective "champion"state.
2008-2009: Building strong coalition of
religious communities / interfaith organizations and broad support from member
states in order to sway the sceptical members of the GA.
2009-2010: A
growing coalition will assistthe UN Lead entity and the UN member states in
building a strong implementation plan. Key to our argument will be the
potentials offered by joint religious actions.There are no plans to create a
centralized institutional coordination of the implementation on the
faith/interfaith side. The coalition should, however, find ways of building
joint momentum and be a mechanism for linkages and partnerships.
The
challenges for us In conclusion I want to share the following challenges
to all of us: - Build support from religious/interfaith
organizations/communities, and build a support group of eminent persons
(including Peace Prize Laureates (Nobel and other)) - Influence our
governmentsto support, and possibly sponsoring the draft resolution. -
Continue wise lobby activities with EU countries and USA in order to avoid that
they block the resolution. - Prepare priorities that can build a powerful
implementation of the Decade. These would include programmatic priorities within
the wide UN agenda that lend themselves toalliances and partnerships that can
mobilize our constituencies. - Seek support from Nobel Peace Laureates from
our respective countries. |
|
|
|