Earth Charter Presented at the UN General Assembly
For the first time ever, the Earth Charter was officially presented to the UN General Assembly at an interactive informal hearing with representatives of civil society. The context for this important event was the General Assembly’s High Level Dialogue on Interreligious and Intercultural Understanding and Collaboration for Peace, which took place on October 4 and 5, 2007. The dialogue was based on UN Resolution A/61/221, which encourages governments, UN agencies and civil society to increase efforts to deepen understanding and collaboration between cultures, religions and civilizations.
Secretary General Ban Ki-moon opened the dialogue by calling on the international community to address rising cultural and religious tensions by promoting dialogue and advancing shared values: "We need to rebuild bridges and engage in a sustained and constructive intercultural dialogue, one that stresses shared values and shared aspirations."
Ban also emphasised the enriching nature of religious and cultural diversity, and conculded with an appeal to our common humanity:
"It is time to promote the idea that diversity is a virtue, not a threat. It is time to explain that different religions, belief systems and cultural backgrounds are essential to the richness of the human experience. And it is time to stress that our common humanity is greater – far greater – than our outward differences."
74 high-level government representatives and several organizations with observer status took the floor to present their visions for promoting tolerance and understanding, de-escalating intercultural tensions, and preventing religiously motivated violence and terrorism.
The UN also organized an interactive informal hearing on civil society, where experts, scholars and representatives of civil society organizations shared their experiences and firsthand insights into the key challenges and best practices for building bridges between religions and cultures.
Earth Charter International Council Co-Chair Steven Rockefeller participated in this hearing and responded to a panel on best practices for interreligious dialogue going forward. In his statement, Rockefeller stressed the need for a deepened quest for global ethics and shared values, and highlighted the Earth Charter as an important civil society contribution to the development of a new global ethic: “Shared values are what make community and cooperation possible. In an increasingly interdependent world where our major challenges can only be addressed in and through international cooperation, shared values and global ethics are essential.”
In a longer statement (to be posted on the website of the UN General Assembly), Rockefeller outlined how the Earth Charter Initiative can support the UN in its goal of building a global culture of peace. In particular, he explained the methodology that was used to find a common vision in the great diversity of comments, suggestions and aspirations that were submitted in the global process of drafting the Earth Charter:
We found that people from different cultures and religious traditions often have very different philosophical and religious reasons for embracing ethical values many of which they hold in common. In the Earth Charter consultation process we respected and learned from these differences, but we did not try to bridge them. Instead we focused primarily on reaching agreement regarding the basic ethical principles that should guide conduct in the 21st century.
Building on this instructive methodology, Rockefeller outlined how the Earth Charter's inclusive ethical vision could serve as a framework for intercultural and interreligious initiatives:
Intercultural and interreligious dialogue can be especially effective when attention is focused on where different worldviews overlap regarding ethical values and practical action with reference to common problems. The Earth Charter is evidence that with this approach much can be accomplished in laying an ethical foundation for building community locally, regionally and globally.
This dialogue was a landmark event in a series of UN resolutions and initiatives on interreligious understanding and collaboration. Follow-up measures being discussed include: the creation of a focal unit in the Secretariat of the United Nations to ensure the coordination of all interreligious and intercultural initiatives of the UN; the declaration of one of the coming years as the international year of the dialogue among religions and cultures; as well as the adoption of further resolutions to strengthen the General Assembly’s commitment to these issues.
ECI will monitor the follow-up, and continue to support the UN and other agencies in the crucial task of bringing the religions of the world into closer cooperation with each other -- and with leading secular institutions -- to build just, peaceful and sustainable communities.
Background information on the high level dialogue can be found at http://www.un.org/ga/president/61/follow-up/hld-interreligious.shtml
To read the full text of UN Secretary Ban Ki-moon's opening remarks, go to http://www0.un.org/apps/news/infocus/sgspeeches/statments_full.asp?statID=134
The whole dialogue including the hearing was recorded on video and can be watched at: http://www.un.org/webcast/ga.html