Secretary General s Report

Transcription

1 Secretary General s Report

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3 OUR WORK Religions for Peace Leaders Advancing a Moral Alliance among the World s Religions for an Integral Ecology Advancing the Global Agenda for Peace This report highlights Religions for Peace s (RfP) multi-religious action at the national, regional, and international levels from 2016 and 2017 in the following areas: 1) Advancing the Global Agenda for Peace, 2) Building and Equipping National and Regional Interreligious Councils, and 3) Strengthening the Global RfP Network. 3

4 COUNTERING VIOLENT RELIGIOUS EXTREMISM Religions for Peace (RfP) engages its World Council, national and regional Interreligious Councils (IRCs), and Women and Youth Networks across the globe to address key drivers of violent religious extremism (VRE) through multireligious action. Over the past two years, RfP has positioned itself and its religious leaders as major actors in the global fight against VRE. It has held a series of international high-level consultations to counter extremism in collaboration with partners, including the United Nations and the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN). L-R: Dr. William Vendley, Shaykh Abdullah Bin Bayyah, & Cardinal John Onaiyekan at Marrakesh Declaration Meeting in Abu Dhabi RfP has also tackled issues important to preventing VRE, including: protecting the rights of religious minorities and groups, building respect for religious freedom, and promoting religious tolerance through the adoption of the Marrakesh Declaration, an initiative led by H.E. Shaykh Abdallah Bin Bayyah, RfP Co-Moderator and the President of the Forum for Promoting Peace in Muslim Societies. Following the adoption of the Declaration, more than 60 world renowned religious leaders from the Middle East and North Africa participated in the High-level International Consultation: Partnering with Religious Leaders of the Middle East in Advancing the Protection of Minorities in Muslim Majority States held in Japan. The Consultation reaffirmed the Marrakesh Declaration and adopted a four-point action plan that identified and promoted, through informal and formal education, the authentic religious teachings within each respective religious tradition, the need to work with state actors and their own religious communities to promote national legal codes, and concrete cooperative action to advance inclusive citizenship for all. 4

5 CREATING JUST AND HARMONIOUS SOCIETIES At the regional level, the European Council of Religious Leaders-RfP launched the Interfaith, Cities and Government initiative to improve dialogue between various stakeholders and identify the most effective methods to counter VRE. The initiative engages local religious leaders, government representatives, academics, and experts on religion, interfaith, and security. Through the identification of best practices and evaluation of current interfaith projects, this initiative plans to demonstrate that religion can underpin creative and positive solutions to enhance peace, safety, and security. At the national level, H.E. John Cardinal Onaiyekan, RfP Co-Moderator and Co-President, and the Sultan of Sokoto, RfP Co-President, have been instrumental in promoting peaceful dialogue to reduce tensions within Nigeria. Following their advocacy efforts to the government to promote dialogue over excessive force, an agreement was reached that led to the return of the remaining Chibok schoolgirls. At the local level, RfP has empowered women and youth groups in Isiolo, Kenya, to prevent radicalization through educational programs targeting mothers and youth. While in Nigeria, youth leaders from across the country participated in trainings that empowered them to work to prevent VRE in their communities. At home, mothers are often the first to observe the early warning signs of radicalization in their families. However, even if mothers recognize the signs of radicalization in their children, they often lack the skills to intervene. These trainings have equipped us to prevent our children from joining extremist groups, and built our capacity to reject the influence of extremism and violence at home and in our communities. -Ms. Halima Dida, Chair of the Isiolo County Women of Faith Network, Members of Inter-religious council of Kenya-RfP (IRCK-RfP) Youth Network in Training on Combating Violent Religious Extremism 5

6 CREATING JUST AND HARMONIOUS SOCIETIES Under the RfP World Council s leadership, RfP s affiliated national and regional interreligious councils have engaged in building just and harmonious societies. Actions included advocacy, education, and concrete field projects to develop social cohesion and interreligious and interethnic harmony, as well as to cultivate the culture of Welcoming the Other which was the theme of RfP s last World Assembly. Engaging more than one million people worldwide, RfP and UNICEF built support for refugees through their joint Faith Over Fear media campaign. This global campaign inspired people of all faiths to welcome refugees into their communities by sharing stories about families of faith from around the world who have opened their hearts, homes, and communities to refugees. By lifting up heartwarming examples, RfP advocated for a more welcoming environment for refugees around the globe. Multi-religious members of RfP-Bangladesh Assist Rohingya Refugees in Myanmar In response to the Rohingya crisis, RfP and RfP Asia, in close collaboration with RfP Bangladesh and RfP Myanmar are providing life-saving humanitarian assistance to the Rohingya Muslim and Hindu refugees fleeing violence in Myanmar. The African Council of Religious Leaders-RfP (ACRL-RfP) is advancing the moral imperative to end modern slavery through the leadership and empowerment of women by gathering religious communities, faith-based organizations, and human rights advocacy groups at its International Conference of Women Empowerment against Modern Day Slavery at the University of Santo Tomas. The Conference resulted in a reaffirmation of participants commitment to international regulations against modern slavery. 6

7 CREATING JUST AND HARMONIOUS SOCIETIES Ms. Linnet Ngayu [Network Coordinator of African Council of Religious Leaders- RfP] Addressing the United Nations on Nuclear Ban Treaty Negotiations 7 ACRL-RfP spearheaded RfP s engagement with the International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons (ICAN), the 2017 Nobel Peace Prize laureate. RfP and ACRL-RfP have been actively involved in the campaign since 2014 in mobilizing religious leaders to support the humanitarian initiative to ban nuclear weapons. It has delivered statements and participated in negotiations at the United Nations. It has also supported this campaign by launching the Nuclear Ban Treaty Negotiation Handbook, published in cooperation with ICAN. This important work successfully culminated in the adoption of the Treaty for the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons at the United Nations. As a result of RfP and ACRL-RfP s efforts, the role of religious leaders has been recognized in the Treaty. ACRL- RfP serves as a member of the International Steering Group of ICAN as well as the African Coordinator for the ICAN campaign. At the national level, RfP Finland s Women of Faith Network (WoFN) has embraced refugees in their country by providing an avenue for integration. Their monthly dialogue café held in cooperation with the International Union of Muslim Women and Open Doors for Dialogue (Union of Lutheran Parishes) not only improves refugees language skills, it fosters friendships and builds inter-religious and intercultural understanding. The RfP European Interfaith Youth Network (EIYN) is working to promote social cohesion amongst people of diverse religious backgrounds. The EIYN held a panel discussion on religion, youth, and society in Maastricht, Holland. As part of the #YoFest 2017, a youth-led festival attended by 3,000 young people, the panel discussion focused on the religious youth representing diverse religious traditions (Christian, Muslim, Jewish, and Hindu) sharing their experiences and exploring how religion can contribute to a just and peaceful society. RfP continues to support peace at the local level by empowering local religious leaders in Myanmar to welcome the other. In the past two years, RfP and RfP Myanmar have fostered the development of ten new local interreligious councils, Women of Faith Networks (WoFNs), and Interfaith Youth Networks (IYNs). These local networks are empowered to build peace through hands-on peacebuilding trainings and leadership opportunities. As a result, they have conducted 25 welcoming Now I want to live in peace--a peace that includes Buddhists, Christians, Hindus, and Muslims living together with equal rights and freedom in Myanmar -Ma Kyu Kyu Thin, President of the Kyaukphyu WoFN, Rakhine State, Myanmar the other initiatives that have reached over 1600 people. These initiatives aimed at building social cohesion, tolerance, and promoting diversity have been conducted in conflict-prone areas across Myanmar. They have resulted in the transformation of relationships between religious groups and a greater level of acceptance and understanding of the other.

8 FOSTERING HUMAN DEVELOPMENT RfP is leading the way in interreligious action for the advancement of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) through the Ethics in Action initiative. Ethics in Action is an initiative predicated on the notion that the grave and urgent challenges facing the world are moral challenges requiring moral solutions. The goal is to develop a multireligious moral consensus and to deploy that consensus as the basis for concrete ethical action. Launched in partnership with the Chancellor of Pontifical Academies of Sciences and Social Sciences, the UN Sustainable Development Solutions Network, and the University of Notre Dame, Ethics in Action convenes a select group of religious leaders, theologians, academics, business and labor leaders, development practitioners, and activists to address the key issues of sustainable and integral development, multi-religious collaboration for positive peace, migration, and corporate responsibility. Ethics in Action Leaders at Meeting in Rome RfP continues to champion the religious obligation to mobilize people of faith and good will for sustainable development on a global stage through its policy leadership at high-level events. During the Think 20 Summit, RfP leaders led the panel on the "Role of Religion in Global Problem-Solving" which emphasized the importance of a moral framework when striving for sustainable development. Following the Summit, the policy brief, "Multi-Religious Consensus on the Ethics of Sustainable Development: Reflections of the Ethics in Action Initiative" was delivered at the G20 Summit. Achieving the SDGs requires synergy among religious, economic, and political leaders. Therefore, RfP organized a high-level multi-religious gathering at the time of the United Nations High-Level Political Forum on Sustainable Development. The panel discussion, Mobilizing Religious Communities to Act with Solidarity and Shared Responsibility to End Poverty and Promote Peace focused on the ethical basis of the SDGs and the commitment by 8

9 FOSTERING HUMAN DEVELOPMENT religious leaders and other stakeholders to forge a stronger partnership in support of these goals. During the Highlevel Forum, RfP Latin America and the Caribbean held the special meeting of the regional Interreligious Alliance for Agenda 2030 for Sustainable Development to advance an action-oriented partnership between governments in the region and RfP affiliated IRCs in the implementation, follow-up and review of SDGs. ACRL-RfP is mobilizing religious leaders across Africa to improve human development and decrease conflict by improving the standards of the extractive economy. ACRL-RfP has set up a working group and developed an action plan to engage government and the extractive industries to change legal policies and frameworks, combat corruption, prevent environmental degradation, and improve the welfare of the local communities. The religious leaders committed themselves to engage with the extractive industry to ensure that it is beneficial to the continent and its people. At the national level, RfP-affiliated interreligious councils have worked to address the major challenges related to health, poverty alleviation, well-being of children, and other critical issues relevant to the SDGs. This includes edutainment programs in Myanmar amongst marginalized youth to promote awareness on the SDGs and workshops in Sri Lanka to build capacity of over 3,000 people to respond to child protection issues. At the local level, a joint IRC Liberia-RfP (IRCL) and UNICEF initiative supported 2,000 Ebola orphans to be placed in family care and trained and empowered 180 foster parents to cater for children orphaned by Ebola. More than 400 teen mothers and vulnerable teen girls received life skills trainings conducted by local Liberian WoFNs across multiple counties. The project also built awareness on how to prevent the transmission of Ebola and worked to decrease the stigma of orphans that often increases the number of children institutionalized. The project held 70 community dialogues and 42 radio talk shows to build awareness on the need to end child abuse, decrease institutionalization, and eliminate the stigmatization of Ebola orphans. Liberian Women Assisted by IRCL & WoFN-RfP Training Initiative for Teen Mothers 9

10 PROTECTING THE EARTH RfP s global efforts to combat climate change have continued through the release of its Climate Change Guide to Action. This Guide builds upon the momentum created during RfP s Faith for Earth campaign, led by Archbishop Desmond Tutu, that was launched in 195 countries, and culminated in a petition, signed by 1.8 million people, in cooperation with other organizations, and presented to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change s Executive Secretary and the French President at COP 21, Paris. L-R: Abbot Phra Paisal Vongvoravisit, Prof. Dr. Din Syamsuddin, H.E. Metropolitan Emmanuel, Bishop Gunnar Stållset, & Rabbi Sir David Rosen at the Launch of the Interfaith Rainforest Initiative in Oslo The multi-religious commitment to protect the earth has been further strengthened through the development of an action plan at the Interfaith Rainforest Initiative s High Level Summit in Oslo to protect, restore, and sustainably manage tropical rainforests. The event was held in partnership with Vidar Helgesen, Minister of Climate and Environment of Norway, Norway's International Climate and Forest Initiative (NICFI), Rainforest Foundation Norway (RFN), UN Development Programme (UNDP), Forum on Religion and Ecology at Yale University, Green Faith, Parliament of the World's Religions, REIL Network, and the World Council of Churches. It brought together religious, indigenous and interfaith leaders, academics and experts to discuss the spiritual and ethical responsibility to end deforestation that culminated in the development of the action plan. The RfP IYN has been working with its regional and national networks around the world to develop their climate change reduction strategy. RfP IYN regional networks gathered over the past two years to identify strategic priorities and actions. RfP s Pacific Interfaith Youth Network (APIYN) gathered in Manila for the Asian Religious Youth Peace Camp under the theme of, Responding to Marginalized Communities Vulnerability to Climate Change: Strengthening Common Actions and Empowering Asia-Pacific Interfaith Youth Leaders. The camp helped to strengthen APIYN s regional approach to climate change whilst collaborating with RfP s global IYN to develop the global strategy. 10 Members of the Global Interfaith Youth Network Cleaning Places of Worship in Manila, Philippines

11 PROTECTING THE EARTH Jenni Matamoros of the Latin American Interfaith Youth Network Promoting GIYN s Our Earth, Our Responsibility Campaign The finalized global strategy includes a coordinated grass-roots campaign led by the IYN and will be launched in the coming months. The campaign entitled, Our Earth, Our Responsibility, will encourage young people of faith to act to promote climate protection and will be accompanied by a pledge for people around the world to commit to three personal or collaborative actions for the protection of the earth and its climate through education, community engagement and advocacy. The newly formed IRC Mongolia is also tackling the issue of climate change on the national level, in partnership with RfP Asia. Rev. Kosho Niwano, Co-Moderator of RfP, Rev. Masahiro Nemoto, Secretary General of RfP Asia, and Rev. Kyoichi Sugino, Deputy Secretary General of RfP, met with members of Parliament in Mongolia to develop a partnership for RfP Mongolia s multi-religious climate protection project, titled Impact of Climate Change on Nomadic Way of Life that examines and addresses how climate change affects herders livelihood and way of nomadic life. RfP Latin America and the Caribbean constituted a Technical Advisory Group for the Alternative Regional Report 2018 that will be dedicated to our priority challenge of "Reducing environmental degradation to improve the quality of life of communities" linked to the SDGs 6, 11, 12 and 15 to be addressed at the 2018 UN High-level Political Forum. 11

12 BUILDING AND EQUIPPING NATIONAL AND REGIONAL MULTI-RELIGIOUS MECHANISMS RfP s network continues to expand with the formation of IRC Togo and two new national WoFNs in Africa. IRC Togo s formation is nearing completion as the constitution is currently being finalized. IRC Togo is carefully selecting partner religious congregations and leaders to ensure representation across the religious spectrum. The diverse religious communities working together will help to build unity within the country and promote social cohesion. Formation of the Togo WoFN is also underway, and is expected to officially launch soon. In South Sudan, a plenary mapping of women of faith has been conducted, with a particular focus on ensuring religious diversity. Its formation committee is currently working on the WoFN s guidelines and constitution, with an official launch planned for February To equip the ever growing RfP family, RfP continues to provide training and workshops and develop resource materials. The most recent resource guides that have been developed include: Welcoming the Other Guide to Action Protecting Children from Online Sexual Exploitation Climate Change for Religious CommunitiesICAN Nuclear Ban Guidebook Countering Violent Extremism (In-Progress) Protecting Holy Sites (In-Progress) RfP s Center of Excellence serves as a knowledge hub that researches, documents, evaluates, and shares experiences, lessons learned, and best practices whilst equipping and mobilizing multi-religious bodies to transform conflict and advance development. Working together with experts, RfP has engaged its national and regional IRCs, WoFNs, and IYNs in training and equipping for action. To improve information sharing among the networks, RfP recently unveiled its newly designed website. The new website is designed to reach a wider global audience and drive stronger engagement among its network and beyond. It better details the organizational structure of RfP on the local, national, regional, and international levels, making it easier for those who are currently engaged to connect on the appropriate level. The resource center on the new website makes it simpler for users to easily find guides to action and other important resources related to RfP s work. The accessible resource center will heighten RfP s ability to serve as the leading source of information on interreligious actions. L-R: Bhai Sahib Mohinder Singh, Sheikh Shaban Mubaje, Dr. William Vendley Advancing a Moral Alliance among the World s Religions for an Integral Ecology RfP continues to look ahead to prepare its network to address current challenges and meet opportunities to engage in collaborative, multi-religious solutions to promote peace and human flourishing. To ensure that RfP has the right strategy and resources for the challenges and opportunities ahead, RfP has engaged NEXT-Transition Advisors to assist in examining and elaborating its priorities, identify fundraising opportunities, and develop the partnerships essential to carrying out its mission. 12