Religious Leaders in UN Unite for Global Peace
They're Cooking Up a UN Inter-religious Council for Peace's Sake
Jun 28, 2009
Early this year, leaders of the World Peace Summit gathered to institutionalize peace-keeping efforts around the world. With the theme, "Toward a new paradigm of leadership and good governance", religious and political leaders called for the setting up of an inter-religious council in the United Nations and the creation of a new inter-governmental organization rooted on universal spiritual principles.
Religious Unity to Achieve Peace
The international leaders forum coincided with the 90th birthday celebration of Rev. Sun Myung Moon, founder of the Universal Peace Federation (UPF), an international movement that attempts to unite the 12 major religions of the world to achieve peace.
"The UN must have a voice for religious leaders so that peace can be achieved in the world," said Justin Fong of the Youth Federation for World Peace during the forum which was covered by this writer for Suite101.
UPF Secretary General Thomas Walsh lauded the participation of the religious and world leaders in the global peace movement, saying "the world has long been wanting peace."
Interfaith Council in the UN
Former Philippine House Speaker Jose de Venecia spoke before the leaders of 130 countries at the Manhattan Center and stressed that the setting up of an Interfaith Council in the UN is necessary to forge peace. "There is no need for a new budget to set up the Interfaith Council because we will just convert the Trusteeship Council into this new council," he explained.
According to de Venecia, the Philippines, Iran, and Afghanistan were lobbying for the setting up of a religious council in the UN in 2007.
He urged US President Barack Obama to head in the on-going interfaith dialogues to bring about the necessary organizational changes within the UN.
Moreover, he urged all the 102 most heavily indebted countries in the world to lobby for the conversion of their debts into equity, so as to use the payments of these debts to finance anti-poverty programs.
De Venecia had a resounding applause for these two proposals.
Peace Summits Around the World
Since the World Peace Summit, several countries in the world have echoed the same message of peace and understanding in their respective countries.
A UPF press release noted that peace summits were held in Nepal, Peru, and Fiji where local religious leaders met to respond to their social and economic concerns that have an impact on peace.
Last May, the Nepali political leaders met with parliamentarians from Asia in order discuss and seek support for the peace process in Nepal, the UPF press release said.
In June, the Ambassadors for Peace in Peru held a Peace Summit in the midst of the violent clashes in its southern territories between government and indigenous peoples who opposed the oil and logging companies from getting into their ancestral land.
The political and religious leaders unanimously agreed that all social groups, especially the indigenous peoples, have to be included in the development plans as a way to peace and development in Peru.
Meanwhile, the Fiji Peace Council recently held an inter-religious summit and discussed family and marriage as instruments for peace.
Leaders of Islam, Christian, Roman Catholic, Seventh Day Adventist, and the Bahai Faith discussed the values of strong marriage and family ties as a way to promote peace in the world. "It starts at home," said Dewan Chan Maharaj, a council member of Fiji.
(For more information on the different peace summits taking place in many countries all over the world, please log on to Upf.Org)
