REPORT FOR IION ON INTERFAITH ACTIVITY AT THE UN
JOAN KIRBY – TEMPLE OF UNDERSTANDING
My report is written during the week of the opening of the General Assembly and I am pleased to report that Interfaith Dialogue has gained support again among significant members of the UN. Last November I described what I called a sea change at the UN regarding Interreligious Dialogue. This year interest in religious collaboration to achieve UN goals and cooperation for peace is the hope and expectation.
Following the meeting of IION in November, 2007 where John Taylor introduced the Proposal for a Decade of Interreligious Dialogue and Cooperation for Peace, a group of Member States Ambassadors, representatives of more than 40 religious Institutions and of the major Interfaith Organizations met in January, 2008 at Bossey in Geneva to determine whether they could support the proposal. The expectations in the original text were altered and a revised edition gained support from the entire group. A provisional Steering Committee with Stein Villumstad as interim Chair was established to test the interest in this proposal among a significant number of Member States at the UN General Assembly.
The Religious NGOs at the United Nations Headquarters in New York have pursued the possibility of having this Proposal introduced during the 2008-09 meetings of the General Assembly. Stein Villumstad, Interim Chair of the Steering Committee, Chris Ferguson, UN Liaison for WCC, Monica Willard, URI Representative to the UN and Joan Kirby, Temple of Understanding representative to the UN are the New York members of the Provisional Steering committee established in Geneva. The task of the New Yorkers is to visit Member States to gain support and to find an appropriate Member State willing to introduce the Resolution.
During the spring and summer the support of many states was solicited. We have been able to open the dialogue and have found strong support for the core purpose of the Proposal – to assure collaboration of religious institutions throughout the world to help achieve the goals of the UN, notably Human Rights and the Millennium Development Goals. We began with the European Union since we had word of a Concept Paper that opposes the Decade. As we visited EU States we found that the main resistance is to a proliferation of Decades rather than opposition to Interreligious Dialogue. Subsequent visits gained friends who promised to support but did not offer to sponsor the Resolution until we met with Senegal. After months of waiting it was during the opening days of the General Assembly that Stein Villumstad secured a meeting with President Wade who promised that Senegal will table the resolution. This is a major step that will be pursued during the months to come.
The opening of the General Assembly sets the agenda for the coming year. Secretary General Ban Ki Moon and President of the GA, Miguel d”Escoto of Nicaragua both emphasized the importance of achieving the Millennium Development Goals as a primary objective. Perhaps this is the reason that Member States are interested in the proposal coming from the RNGOS at the UN. 29.9.08
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