Does the United Nations actually help in our crisis-laden world?
Can they actually do anything that counts—anything that addresses humanity’s ills and facilitates solutions?
From Forbes: A Real Election Choice On The United Nations “U.N. reforms proclaimed with fanfare in recent years have fizzled.”
From the New York Times: U.N. Blocked From Pulling Workers Out of Congo “…the peacekeeping troops were overstretched in trying to protect the civilian population, which is caught in the middle of vicious fighting between a rebel group and the Congolese Army.”
From The Hindu: Give developing nations a say in financial crisis talks “A day before the United Nations meets to discuss its taskforce on the global financial crisis, ActionAid, along with more than 400 civil society organisations across the world, has issued a statement demanding that developing nations be included in crisis talks.”
This post will present some of the most pressing international concerns as discussed in a major document presented to the United Nations on the occasion of the 60th anniversary of its founding in 2005. It was presented by the Bahá’í International Community, a Non-Governmental Organization registered with the UN. The document is called The Search for Values in an Age of Transition. It is not casual reading and there’s also a detailed Study Guide to help understand the issues and solutions it provides.
I’ll give you the essence of the issues dealt with in this post and the solutions they present in the next post.
One of the most powerful statements in this document is: “The great peace long envisioned by the peoples and nations of the world is well within our grasp.”
Quite a statement, eh? How in the world can an organization make such a statement when we have issues like these to deal with:
“The advancement of men and boys at the expense of women and girls has sorely limited the creative and material capacities of communities to develop and address their problems…”
“…the neglect of cultural and religious minorities has intensified ancient prejudices setting peoples and nations against one another…”
“…an unbridled nationalism has trampled the rights and opportunities of citizens in other nations…”
“…weak states have erupted in conflict, lawlessness, and massive refugee flows…”
“…narrow economic agendas exalting material prosperity have often suffocated the social and moral development required for the equitable and beneficent use of wealth.”
One of the most stunning issues brought up for consideration is the growing importance of the role of religion in discussions of global crises:
“The existing debate about religion in the public sphere, however, has been driven by the voices and actions of extreme proponents on both sides—those who impose their religious ideology by force, whose most visible expression is terrorism—and those who deny any place for expressions of faith or belief in the public sphere. Yet neither extreme is representative of the majority of humankind and neither promotes a sustainable peace.”
Here are a few more snips from the first part of the document:
“…the question of values must take a central place in deliberations, be articulated and made explicit.”
“…the search for shared values—beyond the clash of extremes—is paramount for effective action.”
“…we can no longer be content with a passive tolerance of each other’s worldviews; what is required is an active search for those common values and moral principles which will lift up the condition of every woman, man, and child, regardless of race, class, religion or political opinion.”
This is, no doubt, a challenging document but these are, certainly, challenging times.
You may also be interested in my post, Sweet Words Are Crying Out for Potent Action, one of the most popular posts on this blog, which has the text of the United Nations’ Universal Declaration of Human Rights.
In the next post, we’ll look at some of the changes proposed for the United Nations, to transform it into the global peace-promoting organization it was created to be.
Spiritual Quote:
“No social body, whatever its form, has power to maintain essential human rights for persons who have repudiated their moral obligation and abandoned the divine endowment distinguishing man from beast. Civil definitions of political and economic status, if devoid of moral value and influence, are not equivalent to essential human rights but express the expedients of partisan policy. An ordered society can only be maintained by moral beings.”
Bahá’í International Community, 1947 Feb, A Bahá’í Declaration of Human Obligations and Rights, Presented to the first session of the United Nations Commission on Human Rights.
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