By Thalif Deen
UNITED NATIONS, Jul 29 2000 (IPS)

The world’s major religions – including Christianity, Islam, Buddhism and Hinduism – will be represented at the first-ever religious summit to be held at the United Nations next month.

The goal of the World Peace Summit is to identify ways that religious and spiritual communities can work together with the United Nations on specific peace, poverty and environmental initiatives.

The four-day summit, which will hold its concluding sessions at the New York’s Waldorf Astoria hotel, is expected to be attended by about 1,000 of the world’s religious and spiritual leaders, according to organisers of the meeting.

The participants also include adherents of various other faiths, including Bahaism, Confucianism, Jainism, Judaism, Shintoism, Sikhism, Taoism and Zoroastrianism, as well as the Harvard University Centre for the Study of World Religions, the UN University for Peace, the Council for a Parliament of the World’s Religions, Forum on Religion and Ecology and the World Resources Institute.

“The summit will be a historic opportunity to involve spiritual leaders in a quest for conflict resolution, the eradication of poverty, the improvement of the environment, and forgiveness and reconciliation,” says Bawa Jain, Secretary-General of the summit.

The Dalai Lama, the spiritual leader of Tibet, has been invited to deliver the keynote address at the closing session on Aug 31.

“It is our greatest wish that he will be able to participate,” Jain said Friday. “I discussed the summit with the Dalai Lama and he gave us his blessings.”

Since China is extremely sensitive on the issue of human rights in Tibet and self-determination for Tibetans, the Chinese government has traditionally objected to the presence of the Dalai Lama at the United Nations.

As a result, the Tibetan spiritual leader has virtually been shut out of the UN premises. The organisers have asked him to address the summit at the Waldorf Astoria hotel, far removed from the UN neighbourhood. But he has not indicated whether he will attend.

Jain said the invitation to the Dalai Lama was extended only last week “following lengthy discussions with the UN on the sensitivities that have prevented the Dalai Lama from being invited to the UN.”

The participants will also include religious leaders from some of the world’s battle zones, including Sierra Leone, the Balkans, Ethiopia, Rwanda and Sudan, who will discuss the roles they can play in reducing religious tensions.

The summit’s outcome – a declaration for World Peace and the proposed establishment of an ongoing International Advisory Council of Religious Leaders – will serve as a resource for Secretary-General Kofi Annan in his efforts at conflict resolution.

The Council, which will function as a network of senior religious and spiritual leaders, will meet in times of crises and provide advice on managing ethnically and religious based tension.

A fact sheet provided by the organisers says that during the past 50 years, armed conflicts have claimed about 27 million lives worldwide, of which civilians represent 85 percent of the casualties, most of them being children and the elderly.

In the last decade, there have been over 100 armed conflicts in more than 70 different locations and in every region of the world.

“With approximately 83 percent of the world’s population adhering to some formal religious or spiritual belief system, religion and spirituality is a dynamic force that the World Peace Summit will seek to develop for peace advocacy and conflict prevention and resolution,” the organisers say.

Between 1966 and 1997, worldwide military spending has totalled about 950 billion dollars to 1.1 trillion dollars each year. Cumulatively, 30 trillion dollars has been spent in the last three decades. With the end of the Cold War, annual military expenditures remain at about 840 billion dollars per year.

The summit is not only seeking peace and security worldwide, but also sharp cuts in military spending, and the diversion of resources into development. Annan, who often speaks of “the religious and spiritual dimension of our work at the United Nations”, has said that the values of peace deteriorate not because of religion but because of the misunderstanding and behaviour of religious followers.

The summit will focus on three specific activities that promise the enhancement of peace:

First, identifying early warning signs where violent conflict could erupt, alerting local, national and religious authorities, as well as the International Advisory Council of Religious and Spiritual Leaders, thus contributing to the UN’s existing early warning system, and suggesting actions that can prevent and resolve potential conflicts;

Second, working to resolve conflicts after they have erupted by consulting with UN officials, regional religious and spiritual leaders, as well as political leaders, and local grassroots organisations;

Third, providing advice on the healing process after armed conflicts have ended, working towards coexistence to sustain peace, and recommending steps to ensure that violence does not erupt again.

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