Building Bridges for Change – Inspiring Collective Action

 

An event in the framework of the World Interfaith Harmony Week, 4 February 2020,
Palais des Nations, Geneva - Room XXII, 14:00-17:00
organised by the Foundation for Gaia and the NGO-Alliance on Global Concerns
Moderated by Lucis Trust – World Goodwill Geneva

The World Interfaith Harmony Week was first proposed at the UN General Assembly on September 23, 2010 by H.M. King Abdullah II of Jordan. Just under a month later, on October 20, 2010, it was unanimously adopted by the UN; thenceforth the first week of February has been observed as a World Interfaith Harmony Week.

The World Interfaith Harmony Week provides a platform—one week in a year—when all interfaith groups and other groups of goodwill can show the world what a powerful movement they are. The thousands of events organised by these groups often go unnoticed, not only by the general public, but also by interfaith groups themselves. This week allows for groups to become aware of each other and strengthen the interfaith movement by building ties and avoiding the duplication of each other’s efforts.

The first speaker was Sanaz Javadi, a law consultant with WIPO, ITC, who protects the rights of indigenous peoples in a globalising world through the application of Intellectual Property (IP) law. She demonstrated how saffron, which has a high spiritual value for local communities in Iran, is under threat of being absorbed by global markets. Ethiopian coffee, which has an equally high spiritual value for local communities, is also under threat and may be absorbed by Starbucks. The international IP framework gives tools to protect the rights and values of these communities.

Dr. Davide Dimodugno, Law Dept. Università degli Studi, Torino, Italy, addressed the problem of safeguarding the culture heritage of church sites in Italy. Of the over 100,000 churches in Italy, 80% are significant to Italy’s cultural heritage. Many, however, are empty and risk ending up as purely commercial buildings if no legal tools are available to protect their cultural and sacred value. This is a problem not only in Italy but worldwide too.

Thinlay Chukki (LL.M), Special Appointee for Human Rights of the Tibet Bureau in Geneva, addressed the continuing efforts needed to protect the Tibetan culture, both in Tibet and beyond. Despite the relative silence of most major countries, the suppression and annihilation of the Tibetan culture continues to take place even today. Chukki, amongst other things, made an appeal to promote interfaith understanding at the grassroots level.

Valeriane Bernard, representative of Brahma Kumaris World Spiritual University to the UN in Geneva, stressed the need for interfaith dialogue as a constructive component in addressing many of the major world crises—environmental, climate, and resource management. Brahma Kumaris focusses on raising awareness globally and is actively involved in many areas of society. It has participated actively in global environmental conferences (COP24, COP25, etc.) and sees education as one of its main activities.

Detmer Yens Kremer of the Geneva Quaker United Nations Office (QUNO) presented a Quaker perspective which was a significant contribution to the interfaith dialogue. His perspective was oriented around the belief that ethical values, or the sacred, exist in every single person and that this promotes an egalitarian and inclusive approach. Through quiet diplomacy, QUNO works on many faith-based issues of the UN’s agenda, including the COP environmental conferences.

Mr. Oscar McConkie, representative of LDS Charities (the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints) gave a comprehensive review of the humanitarian relief work LDS Charities has engaged in since 1985 throughout the world.  Their service work is offered irrespective of the religious or faith signatures of the regions involved. As such, they work together with partners in over 15,000 communities and organisations. This demonstrates the importance of building bridges across faiths.

Vita de Waal, founder of the Foundation for GAIA as well as the NGO-Alliance on Global Concerns, focussed on ecology. Her explanation of the etymology of ecology (oikos=house + logia=study of) highlights why it has its place in an interfaith discussion. Of the four elements (earth, water, air, fire) we have already polluted three. Vita stressed the wisdom of the indigenous peoples all over the world which is threatened by modern global market thinking.

A lively discussion followed in which it was concluded that when building bridges for change and inspiring collective action, both the vertical and horizontal lines are meeting; the vertical line, representing the spiritual or interfaith, finds expression in the horizontal line which is expressed in the field with all the difficulties and constraints of embattled diplomacy and political tension.

References and resources:
Audio recordings of the event can be found here and here (thanks to Davide Dimodugno)

Foundation for Gaia

NGO-Alliance for Global Concerns

CTA: Central Tibetan Administration