Published Friday, July 04, 2008

United Nations forging relationships with religions

Editors' Note: This article originally appeared in "One Country," newsletter of the Bahá'í International Community, and is republished with permission of that publication. This is part two. Part one was published last Saturday.

With words like "peace," "dialogue," and "cooperation" salted through its agenda, the program for a special hearing of the General Assembly last autumn might have been any of a thousand meetings here.

But what made the Oct. 4-5 "High-Level Dialogue and Informal Interactive Hearing with Civil Society on Interreligious and Intercultural Understanding and Cooperation for Peace" different was the degree to which a new actor was spotlighted before the UN'S most globally representative body. That new actor was religion -- or, rather, people who directly represent religious communities from around the world.

"What is new is that the president of the General Assembly was calling for this kind of a hearing on religion and intercultural cooperation for peace," said Bani Dugal, the principal representative of the Baha'i International Community to the UN. "You've never really had the General Assembly reach out to this sector of global civil society before."

The General Assembly, however, is not the only UN body that is reaching out to religious groups. Spurred in part by the threat of religion-inspired violence that was so starkly demonstrated in the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks on the World Trade Center, and also by an increasing recognition of the power of religious belief to inspire social action, the UN and its agencies have recently launched a number of initiatives that involve ever closer collaboration with world religious communities. Such initiatives include:

* The Alliance of Civilizations. Established in 2005 at the initiative of Spain and Turkey, under the auspices of the UN, the Alliance aims to improve understanding and cooperative relations mostly among Western and Islamic nations and peoples and "to help counter the forces that fuel polarization and extremism."

* The Tripartite Forum on Interfaith Cooperation for Peace. Founded in 2006, the Tripartite Forum is an open-ended consultative group composed of representatives of UN member states, the United Nations system, and non-governmental organizations that aims to foster mutual respect, tolerance and friendship among peoples, cultures and religions.

* A new collaboration/partnership between the UN Development Programme (UNDP) and the Alliance of Religions and Conservation (ARC) to better involve world religions in addressing climate change and specifically to help religions develop concrete programs of action to slow global warming.

* The "Culture Matters" review by the UN Population Fund (UNFPA). Published in 2004, this report offered a series of case studies from the Fund's efforts to work with "communities and faith-based organizations." It concluded, among other things, that partnerships with "religious and faith-based organizations" can help "reach some of the most vulnerable and marginalized communities" in development efforts.

In December, as well, the General Assembly adopted a resolution declaring 2010 the Year of Rapprochement of Cultures, and recommended that appropriate events be organized on interreligious and intercultural dialogue, including, among others, a high level dialogue and/or informal interactive hearings with civil society.

"I believe there is a sea change taking place at the United Nations," said Joan Kirby, the UN representative of the Temple of Understanding, in a recent speech in London. "Member states are recognizing that religious traditions hold the key to peace and security or alternatively, the misuse and misunderstanding of religion can incite violence and bring chaos to the world."

The UN has always dealt with religions in their capacity as humanitarian-oriented non-governmental organizations. During World War II, religious groups gave input to discussions on the UN Charter. And, after the UN'S founding in 1945, many religions entered into consultative status with the UN as non-governmental organizations. The Bahá'í International Community, for example, has had observer status with the UN Department of Public Information since 1948.

And UN agencies have long collaborated with religious NGOs in the promotion of development and social welfare.

"It has always been an assumption that working with faith-based communities is essential for the achievement of the Millennium Development Goals," said Jordi Llopart, program coordinator of the UN Millennium Campaign. "Faith-based communities have been working on the ground for many years. They know malnutrition. They know ill health. They have been working with the poorest of the poor. And in the global south, they are often trusted more than anyone else."

But beyond the field of development, the UN has in the past hesitated to become too closely involved with "religious" issues.

"The UN is an intergovernmental mechanism, and governments are wary of directly cooperating with religions," said Hilario G. Davide, the permanent representative of the Philippine Mission to the UN, which helped found the Tripartite Forum. "On the other side, religions do not believe that they are inferior or subordinate to governments or even to other religions because they function in a world distinct from the secular concerns of intergovernmental cooperation."