| Posted: April 25 2005,17:23 |
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PROGRESS: Has your organization seen
progress toward a culture of peace and nonviolence in your domain of
action and in your constituency during the first half of the Decade? |
URI
has seen definite progress toward a culture of peace as our
organization -- committed to promote enduring, daily interfaith
cooperation, to end religiously motivated violence and to create
cultures of peace, justice and healing for the Earth and all living
beings -- has grown from 85 Cooperation Circles (our local groups) in
2000 to nearly 280 CCs in 60 countries in 2005, with activities
annually engaging over 1 million people. These numbers are imperfect
indicators to measure progress that comes from having an ever larger
number of people involved; but they don't measure a more critical
factor -- the depth of transformation that comes from forming mutually
respectful communities whose members have rarely, if ever talked with
each other and/or worked cooperatively to realize a shared vocation for
peace, justice and healing.
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OBSTACLES: What are the most important obstacles that have prevented progress?
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Perhaps
the greatest obstacle to progress is that we live in a time when there
is so much visible division, fear, greed and hatred which so easily
animate that part of human nature that is predisposed toward violence;
and when so much material and human resource flows into developing and
using the technologies of violence. Or, to express it from another
perspective -- a time when so little of the good work that is creating
new models of understanding, mutual respect and solidarity is widely
publicized and so few, relatively speaking, financial and human
resources are dedicated to developing the human capacity to excell at
this work.
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ACTIONS: What actions have been
undertaken by your organization to promote a culture of peace and
nonviolence during the first half of the Decade?
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The
activities of URI's global Cooperation Circle network include:
resolving religiously motivated violence in conflict zones; offering
HIV/AIDS prevention and awareness education; providing health care
services to marginalized groups; creating women and children’s
development projects; advocating economic justice for laborers and
marginalized peoples; transmitting values-based education to youth;
preserving and transmitting indigenous cultural values; developing new
paradigms in health education and enterprise; protecting and restoring
our environment; mentoring leadership through a global youth interfaith
network; providing spiritual support to the ailing and aged.
Though
our CCs are free to organize around any issue critical to them, we also
seek shared global engagement, most noticeably around the International
Day of Peace, which a growing number of CCs have actively observed
since 2003. In 2004, CCs at over 30 sites in 12 countries celebrated
the IDP. For more information, visit the URI website: www.uri.org/CC_News/Global_News/idp2004.html.
A
key resource that has emerged from URI's work around the world is an
Interfaith Peacebuilding Guide, which is a hands-on guide for
grassroots interfaith, cross-cultural peace work.
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ADVICE: What advice would you like to
give to the Secretary-General and the General Assembly to promote a
culture of peace and nonviolence during the second half of the Decade? |
We
would urge the Secretary-General and the General Assembly to do
everything possible to raise the global visibility of and participation
in the International Day of Peace as a symbolic expression of the UN's
intention for peace; and to do everything possible to promote
cooperative endeavors to realize the Millennium Development Goals that
create positive relations among nations and help transform conditions
that lead to violence into conditions that lead to peace.
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PARTNERSHIPS: What partnerships and
networks does your organization participate in, thus strengthening the
global movement for a culture of peace? |
Through
our CC at the UN, we work in partnership with various UN departments,
programs, agencies and networks of NGOs including: CONGO Committee on
Spirituality, Values and Global Concerns, The Values Caucus, Spiritual
Caucus, and the Committee of Religious NGOs. In addition, URI partners
with a wide array of organizations, including a consortium of 15
international interfaith organizations, the World Peace Prayer Society
and Roots of Peace.
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PLANS: What new engagements are
planned by your organization to promote a culture of peace and
nonviolence in the second half of the Decade (2005-2010)? |
Certainly,
we will continue to expand our observance of the International Day of
Peace. We will continue our work of interfaith organizing around the
world to grow and deepen the capacity of our global network of
Cooperation Circles to be an effective agent to create cultures of
peace, justice and healing. In addition, we are currently working with
UNESCO, DESA and the Missions of Philippines, Indonesia, Pakistan,
Spain and the UK to develop a UN conference on interfaith cooperation
for peace.
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Postal address of organization
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P.O. Box 29242
San Francisco, CA 94129
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E-mail address of organization
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office@uri.org
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Website address of organization
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www.uri.org
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Highest priority action domain of a culture of peace
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Understanding, tolerance, solidarity
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Second priority action domain of a culture of peace
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Highest priority country of action (or international)
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International
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Second priority country of action (or international)
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