[Congressional Record Volume 152, Number 125 (Friday, September 29, 2006)]
[Senate]
[Pages S10654-S10656]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
THE KYOTO DECLARATION OF RELIGIONS FOR PEACE
Mr. LUGAR. Mr. President, the organization known as Religions for
Peace constitutes a global network of interreligious councils and
affiliated groups, harnessed to encourage cooperation among the world's
religious communities to transform conflict, build peace and advance
sustainable development.
Founded in 1970 as an international, nonsectarian organization,
Religions for Peace is now the largest coalition of the world's
religious communities.
President of Religions for Peace is His Royal Highness Prince El
Hassan bin Talal of Jordan.
Secretary General of WCRP, as the organization is known, is Dr.
William F. Vendley, of the United States.
Our former colleague and my fellow Hoosier, John Brademas, who served
in the House of Representatives from Indiana for 22 years and then
became president of New York University, which he now serves as
President Emeritus, is an International Trustee of Religions for Peace.
Last month, in Kyoto, Japan, more than 800 religious leaders, from
all major traditions and over 100 countries, met at the Eighth World
Assembly of the World Conference of Religions for Peace.
The theme of this assembly was Confronting Violence and Advancing
Shared Security.
At the request of our former colleague Representative Brademas, I ask
unanimous consent to have the final statement issued by the Kyoto
Assembly printed in the Record.
There being no objection, the material was ordered to be printed in
the Record, as follows:
The Kyoto Declaration on Confronting Violence and Advancing Shared
Security--Religions for Peace Eighth World Assembly
Preamble
Representing all major religious traditions and every
region of the world, more than eight hundred religious
leaders from over one hundred countries convened in Kyoto,
Japan as the Eighth World Assembly of the World Conference of
Religions for Peace to address the theme, ``Confronting
Violence and Advancing Shared Security.'' We, the Assembly
Delegates, come from the global Religions for Peace network
of local, national, regional, and international inter-
religious councils and groups, as well as networks of youth
and women of faith. We recognize and build on the significant
contributions and statements of youth and women of faith made
in their respective assemblies.
The first Religions for Peace World Assembly that convened
in Kyoto in 1970, and every Assembly since, affirmed deeply
held and widely shared religious principles that still
inspire our search for peace with justice today. We share a
conviction of the fundamental unity of the human family, and
the equality and dignity of all human beings. We affirm the
sacredness of the individual person and the importance of his
or her freedom of conscience. We are committed to the ethical
values and attitudes commonly shared by our religious
traditions. We uphold the value of life manifest in human
community
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and in all creation. We acknowledge the importance of the
environment to sustain life for the human family. We realize
that human power is neither self-sufficient nor absolute, and
that the spirit of love, compassion, selflessness, and the
force of inner truthfulness ultimately have greater power
than prejudice, hate, enmity or violence. Meeting in Japan,
the nation that experienced the horrors of nuclear attacks,
we commit ourselves to continue to struggle toward
comprehensive nuclear disarmament and against the
proliferation of arms.
The first Assembly of Religions for Peace declared: ``As
men and women of religions, we confess in humility and
penitence that we have very often betrayed our religious
ideals and our commitment to peace. It is not religion that
has failed the cause of peace, but religious people. This
betrayal of religion can and must be corrected.'' It is
crucial now to engrave the reflection of our respected
predecessors deeply in our hearts.
Today, we live in a world in the grip of many forms of
violence, both direct and structural. Violent conflicts--
within states and across borders, carried out by both state
and non-state actors--take lives and destroy communities.
They cause more civilian than military casualties and their
disproportionate impact is on vulnerable populations.
Religious communities in particular must play a central
role identifying and confronting violence in all its forms
and manifestations. The world's religions have experienced
abuse by those who seek to misuse religion for their own
purposes. In ongoing violent conflicts around the world,
religion is being used as a justification or excuse for
violence. We must regretfully accept that some groups within
our religious communities have indeed sought to employ
violence. We must reject this and recommit religions to the
way of peace. Religious communities and leaders must stand
up, speak out, and take action against the misuse of
religion.
The diverse and interconnected threats currently
experienced by innumerable members of the human family call
for a much broader understanding of violence in the world.
The world's religious communities must play a central role
partnering with one another and all sectors of society, to
prevent and stop war, expose injustice, combat poverty, and
protect the earth.
The time to do this is now; and our key to confronting
violence is cooperation based on mutual respect and
acceptance.
Confronting Violence
Today, genocide, state-sponsored repression, terrorism, and
other forms of human rights abuse violate international law,
target innocent civilians, and threaten the safety of many
communities. State laws restricting human rights and civil
liberties are also a form of violence. Conflict-related
disease, famine, displacement and environmental catastrophes
constitute serious threats to life. Violence against women
and children, including rape, forced pregnancy, enslavement,
forced labor, prostitution, the use of child soldiers, and
trafficking, has become a tactic of warfare in many
conflicts.
Direct physical threats are the most commonly offered
definition of violence, but the reality of the diverse and
interconnected chronic threats to human survival experienced
by millions calls for a much broader understanding of
violence in the world. Economic injustices leading to extreme
poverty and hunger kill 50,000 people each day. Preventable
and treatable diseases kill millions. Twenty-five million
people have already died from AIDS, while approximately forty
million more are living with HIV and AIDS, and the impact on
our communities is devastating. Many corporations, especially
at the multinational level, set their business interests
without concern for values that foster sustainable
development. Environmental degradation and dwindling
resources threaten our planet's ability to sustain life.
The poor, the powerless, and the most vulnerable
populations disproportionately suffer the consequences of
violence in all its forms, ranging from armed conflict to
extreme poverty to environmental degradation.
Unfortunately, religion plays a significant role in some of
the most intractable and violent conflicts around the world.
Religion is being hijacked by extremists, and too often by
politicians, and by the media. Extremists use religion to
incite violence and hatred and foster sectarian conflict,
contrary to our most deeply held beliefs. Religious people
need to recognize the reasons why religions are being
hijacked, such as through manipulation and misuse of their
central principles. Politicians often exploit and manipulate
sectarian differences to serve their own ends, frequently
dragging religion into social, economic and political
disputes. The media also contribute to the scapegoating of
religions in conflict situations through disrespectful
representations. They also too easily identify parties to a
conflict by religious labels and present religion as a source
of conflict without reporting the diversity within religious
traditions and the many ways that religious communities are
confronting violence and working for peace.
A Multi-Religious Response
As people of religious conviction, we hold the
responsibility to effectively confront violence within our
own communities whenever religion is misused as a
justification or excuse for violence. Religious communities
need to express their opposition whenever religion and its
sacred principles are distorted in the service of violence.
They should take appropriate steps to exercise their moral
authority to oppose attempts to misuse religion.
There are religious and ethical imperatives for multi-
religious cooperation to resist and reject violence, prevent
it when possible, as well as promote reconciliation and
healing.
Our religious traditions call us to care for one another
and to treat the problems faced by others as our own.
Violence against any individual is an attack against all and
should prompt our concern. Religious communities know that
they are especially called to stand on the side of the most
vulnerable, including the poor, the marginalized, and the
defenseless. Our religious traditions acknowledge the
fundamental vulnerability of human life. The vulnerability of
each person should make us recognize the need to respond to
the vulnerability of all persons.
There are also practical grounds for cooperation. No group
is immune to violence or its consequences. War, poverty,
disease, and the destruction of the environment have direct
or indirect impacts on all of us. Individuals and communities
deceive themselves if they believe they are secure while
others are suffering. Walls can never be high enough to
insulate us from the impacts of the genuine needs and
vulnerabilities of others. No nation can be secure while
other nations are threatened. We are no safer than the most
vulnerable among us.
The efforts of individual religious communities are made
vastly more effective through multi-religious cooperation.
Religious communities working together can be powerful actors
to prevent violence before it erupts, diffuse conflict,
mediate among armed groups in the midst of conflict, and lead
their communities to rebuild war-torn societies.
Religious communities are called not only to reject war and
foreign occupation, sectarian violence, weapons
proliferation, and human rights abuse, but also to identify
and confront the root causes of injustice, economic
inequalities, governance failures, development obstacles,
social exclusions, and environmental abuses.
Shared Security
The moral and ethical convictions of our diverse religious
traditions provide a moral foundation for confronting
violence in its many forms and for suggesting a vision of
shared security.
Existing notions of security inadequately address violence
in its many forms. National security does not necessarily
ensure peace; in fact, it often promotes violence and foments
insecurity. Armed conflict takes place between states, and
increasingly within states and among non-state actors. Human
security acknowledges the solidarity of the human family by
approaching security from the perspective of human rights and
needs. But defining human security in these terms fails to
address adequately how these needs are to be met and who is
responsible for ensuring them.
A well-developed concept of shared security articulates
security needs, how they are to be met, and the necessary
agents, instruments, and relationships to achieve it.
Importantly, shared security would highlight the collective
responsibility of all people to meet our common need for
security.
Shared security requires all sectors of society to
acknowledge our common vulnerabilities and our shared
responsibility to address them. It is undertaken collectively
by multiple stakeholders acknowledging that every sector of
society must confront violence if we hope to do so
effectively. It supports participatory and democratic forms
of governance. Governments, international organizations,
civil society, and religious communities themselves must all
advance shared security. Effective shared security spans
boundaries of geography, nationality, ethnicity, and
religion. It marshals human responsibility, accountability
and capacity wherever it exists.
Effective shared security, at all levels of community,
meets national security needs; acknowledges and addresses
both direct and chronic threats to individual physical
security; and protects the poor, the powerless and the most
vulnerable. It strengthens governance efforts and addresses
the disparities and inequities of globalization. Shared
security supports religious communities and religious leaders
in their efforts to oppose the abuse of religion for violent
ends and to build institutions for collaboration among
governments, all elements of civil society and religious
communities. A commitment to shared security enables multi-
religious networks, such as the global Religions for Peace
network, in their efforts to transform conflict, build peace,
struggle for justice, and advance sustainable development.
Religions for Peace
Religions for Peace has become a major global multi-
religious voice and agent for peace. Guided by respect for
religious differences, the global Religions for Peace network
fosters multi-religious collaboration harnessing the power of
religious communities to transform conflict, build peace, and
advance sustainable development.
We, the delegates of the Eighth World Assembly of Religions
for Peace, are firmly united in our commitment to prevent and
confront violence in all its forms and confident in the power
of multi-religious cooperation to advance a common vision of
shared security. We are determined to mobilize our religious
communities to work together and with all sectors of society
to stop
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war, struggle to build more just communities, foster
education for justice and peace, eliminate poverty and
advance sustainable development for future generations.
A Multi-Religious Call to Action
As religious leaders, we commit ourselves to advance shared
security through advocacy, education, and other forms of
multi-religious action, and to share this Kyoto Declaration
within our religious communities.
We call on all sectors of society--public and private,
religious and secular--to work together to achieve shared
security for the human family.
Specifically, the Religions for Peace World Assembly calls
on:
(1) Religious communities to:
Resist and confront any misuse of religion for violent
purposes;
Become effective educators, advocates and actors for
conflict transformation, fostering justice, peacebuilding,
and sustainable development;
Draw upon their individual spiritual traditions to educate
their members on our shared responsibilities to advance
shared security;
Strengthen peace education on all levels;
Hold governments accountable for the commitments they make
on behalf of their peoples;
Network locally, nationally, regionally and globally to
foster multi-religious cooperation among the world's
religious bodies; and
Partner with governments, international organizations and
other sectors of society to confront violence and advance a
new notion of shared security.
(2) The global network of Religions for Peace to:
Foster high-level multi-religious cooperation around the
issue of shared security;
Build, equip, and network inter-religious councils locally,
nationally, and regionally;
Strengthen the global Religions for Peace network as a
platform for collaboration to advance shared security;
Further commit to actions for women's empowerment and
women's human rights within its structures at all levels;
Embrace the central position of religious women and place
gender concerns at the center of the shared security agenda;
Keep religious youth and their concerns at the center of
its agenda and promote their full involvement in advancing
shared security;
Support and collaborate with the Peacebuilding Commission
of the United Nations;
Advocate practices that advance sustainable development and
environmental protection; and
Partner with all sectors of society, especially in the
fight against HIV/AIDS.
(3) Governments, International Organizations, and the
Business Sector to:
Support the efforts of religious leaders to address
violence within and beyond their communities, and include
them as appropriate in political negotiations surrounding
conflict situations;
Forge partnerships with religious communities to achieve
the Millennium Development Goals to eradicate extreme poverty
and hunger, combat disease, and advance sustainable
development;
Harness advances in science and technology toward peaceful
purposes and to eliminate poverty and advance sustainable
development; and
Seek out religious networks for their ability to reach vast
numbers of people and their capacity to effect change.
We ask all people of goodwill to support and collaborate
with religious communities as we work toward shared security
for all.
These commitments and the calls to action that arise from
them express our most deeply held and widely shared religious
beliefs.--Kyoto, Japan, August 29, 2006.
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