“The earth is but one country, and mankind its citizens

I N S I D E

“The earth is but one country, and mankind its citizens” – Bahá’u’lláh

Newsletter of the Bahá’íInternational Community

April-June 2002Volume 14, Issue 1

6

Worldwide, the Bahá’í community issuesan appeal for religious toleranceIn a letter to “the world’s religious leaders,” the Universal House of Justicewarns of the danger posed by “the rising fires of religious prejudice” andcalls for decisive action against fanaticism and intolerance.

Letter, continued on page 10

At the UN, worldleaders promise tocreate “a world fit forchildren.”

4

16

Perspective: Excerptsfrom a letter to theWorld’s ReligiousLeaders.

Review: RethinkingHumanitarian Interven-tion — Brian Lepardoffers a new ethicalframework.

In Argentina, aBahá’í-inspired NGOworks to strengthencivil society.

2 NEW YORK — Expressing concern over the worldwide rise of religious prejudice,the international governing council of the Bahá’í Faith has issued an appeal to the

world’s religious leaders, calling for decisive action to eradicate religious intoleranceand fanaticism.

Issued in April and delivered to religious leaders around the world in May and June viathe global network of national Bahá’í communities, the message warns that “[w]ith everyday that passes, danger grows that the rising fires of religious prejudice will ignite a world-wide conflagration the consequences of which are unthinkable.”

“Tragically, organized religion, whose very reason for being entails service to the causeof brotherhood and peace, behaves all too frequently as one of the most formidable ob-stacles in the path; to cite a particular painful fact, it has long lent its credibility to fanati-cism,” wrote the Universal House of Justice.

By the end of June, the six-page letter had been delivered to at least 1,600 leaders inmore than 40 countries. And the response has, so far, been overwhelmingly appreciative,with religious leaders, academics who study religion, and specialists in related fields sayingthat the letter is a much needed and timely intervention on an issue of global concern.

“This is the message. This is the moment,” said Professor Jonathan Sacks, Chief Rabbiof the United Hebrew Congregations of Great Britain and the Commonwealth. “We arefacing the greatest challenge that God has ever given us and this is the message we need.”

Many leaders — whether Buddhist, Christian, Hindu, Jewish, Islamic or other — ex-pressed hope that the message will spur religious leaders and their followers to action.

“I would hope that this letter will have consequences, that there will be people reactingto it,” said Dr. Ulrich Dehn of the Protestant Center for Religious and Ideological Issues inGermany. Dr. Dehn added that he agreed generally with the letter’s premise that religiousleaders need to “clarify their position” on religious tolerance.

In some regions, the appeal received significant publicity in the news media. In India,for example, The Times of India and The Hindu, as well as several other newspapers, havefeatured articles on the message. One newspaper in New Delhi, The Pioneer, reprintedexcerpts of the letter in two installments.

The letter begins its appeal for tolerance by pointing to the general rise over the lastcentury of the consciousness of the oneness of humanity. It notes specifically that preju-dices based on gender, race, or nationality, while persisting in many quarters, have never-theless been widely recognized as unacceptable by people everywhere.

However, the letter continues, religious prejudice not only persists but has become a“formidable obstacle” in the “cause of brotherhood and peace.”

“The crisis calls on religious leadership for a break with the past as decisive as thosethat opened the way for society to address equally corrosive prejudices of race, gender andnation,” states the letter. [See page 2 for excerpts.]

The letter suggests that increased interfaith dialogue can be an important step infighting religious prejudice, noting that the Bahá’í community has been a “vigorouspromoter” of such dialogue. But the letter also warns that if interfaith dialogue is to be

ONE COUNTRY / April-June 20022

is published quarterly by theOffice of Public Information ofthe Bahá’í InternationalCommunity, an internationalnon-governmental organiza-tion which encompasses andrepresents the worldwidemembership of the Bahá’íFaith.

For more information on thestories in this newsletter, orany aspect of the Bahá’íInternational Community andits work, please contact:

ONE COUNTRYBahá’í InternationalCommunity - Suite 120866 United Nations PlazaNew York, New York 10017U.S.A.

E-mail: [email protected]://www.onecountry.org

Executive Editor:Ann Boyles

Editor:Brad Pokorny

Associate Editors:Vladimir Chupin andGalina Tumurova (Moscow)Christine Samandari-Hakim(Paris)Kong Siew Huat (Macau)Guilda Walker (London)

Editorial Assistant:Veronica Shoffstall

Design:Mann & Mann

Subscription inquiriesshould be directed to theabove address. All materialis copyrighted by the Bahá’íInternational Communityand subject to all applicableinternational copyrightlaws. Stories from thisnewsletter may berepublished by anyorganization provided thatthey are attributed asfollows: “Reprinted fromONE COUNTRY, thenewsletter of the Bahá’íInternational Community.”

© 2002 by The Bahá’íInternational Community

ISSN 1018-9300Printed on recycled paper

P E R S P E C T I V E

To the World’s Religious Leaders

[Editor’s note: The following is an abridgedversion of the April 2002 letter of the Univer-sal House of Justice to the world’s religiousleaders. The full text of the letter can be foundon the World Wide Web at: http://www.bahai.org/article-1-1-0-1.html]

The enduring legacy of the twentieth cen-tury is that it compelled the peoples of

the world to begin seeing themselves as themembers of a single human race, and theearth as that race’s common homeland. De-spite the continuing conflict and violencethat darken the horizon, prejudices thatonce seemed inherent in the nature of thehuman species are everywhere giving way.Down with them come barriers that longdivided the family of man into a Babel ofincoherent identities of cultural, ethnic ornational origin.

Tragically, organized religion, whose veryreason for being entails service to the causeof brotherhood and peace, behaves all toofrequently as one of the most formidableobstacles in the path; to cite a particularpainful fact, it has long lent its credibility tofanaticism. We feel a responsibility, as thegoverning council of one of the world reli-gions, to urge earnest consideration of thechallenge this poses for religious leadership.

The issue comes sharply into focus whenone considers what has been achieved else-where. In the past, apart from isolated ex-ceptions, women were regarded as an infe-rior breed, their nature hedged about bysuperstitions, denied the opportunity toexpress the potentialities of the human spiritand relegated to the role of serving the needsof men. Clearly, there are many societieswhere such conditions persist and are evenfanatically defended. At the level of globaldiscourse, however, the concept of theequality of the sexes has, for all practicalpurposes, now assumed the force of univer-sally accepted principle.

The beleaguered battalions of nation-alism face a similar fate. With each pass-ing crisis in world affairs, it becomes easierfor the citizen to distinguish between alove of country that enriches one’s life, and

submission to inflammatory rhetoric de-signed to provoke hatred and fear of oth-ers. Even where it is expedient to partici-pate in the familiar nationalistic rites, pub-lic response is as often marked by feelingsof awkwardness as it is by the strong con-victions and ready enthusiasm of earliertimes. The effect has been reinforced bythe restructuring steadily taking place inthe international order.

Racial and ethnic prejudices have beensubjected to equally summary treatment byhistorical processes that have little patienceleft for such pretensions. Here, rejection ofthe past has been especially decisive. Rac-ism is now tainted by its association withthe horrors of the twentieth century to thedegree that it has taken on something of thecharacter of a spiritual disease. While sur-viving as a social attitude in many parts ofthe world—and as a blight on the lives of asignificant segment of humankind—racialprejudice has become so universally con-demned in principle that no body of peoplecan any longer safely allow themselves tobe identified with it.

As the twentieth century opened, theprejudice that seemed more likely than anyother to succumb to the forces of changewas that of religion…. In the context of thetransformation taking place in the humanrace’s conception of itself, the most promis-ing new religious development seemed tobe the interfaith movement. In 1893, theWorld’s Columbian Exposition surprisedeven its ambitious organizers by giving birthto the famed “Parliament of Religions”, avision of spiritual and moral consensus thatcaptured the popular imagination on all con-tinents and managed to eclipse even the sci-entific, technological and commercial won-ders that the Exposition celebrated.

An imaginative leadership, it was confi-dently predicted, would seize the opportunityand awaken in the earth’s long-divided reli-gious communities a spirit of brotherhood thatcould provide the needed moral underpin-nings for the new world of prosperity andprogress. Thus encouraged, interfaith move-ments of every kind took root and flourished.

ONE COUNTRY / April-June 2002 3

Alas, it is clear that these initiatives lackboth intellectual coherence and spiritualcommitment. In contrast to the processesof unification that are transforming the restof humanity’s social relationships, the sug-gestion that all of the world’s great religionsare equally valid in nature and origin is stub-bornly resisted by entrenched patterns ofsectarian thought.

…[T]he greater part of organized religionstands paralyzed at the threshold of the fu-ture, gripped in those very dogmas and claimsof privileged access to truth that have beenresponsible for creating some of the most bit-ter conflicts dividing the earth’s inhabitants.

The consequences, in terms of humanwell-being, have been ruinous….

Locked into preoccupation with agendasthat disperse and vitiate human energies, reli-gious institutions have too often been the chiefagents in discouraging exploration of realityand the exercise of those intellectual facultiesthat distinguish humankind. Denunciations ofmaterialism or terrorism are of no real assis-tance in coping with the contemporary moralcrisis if they do not begin by addressing can-didly the failure of responsibility that has leftbelieving masses exposed and vulnerable tothese influences.

The implications for today are summedup by Bahá’u’lláh in words written over acentury ago and widely disseminated in theintervening decades:

There can be no doubt whatever that thepeoples of the world, of whatever race orreligion, derive their inspiration from oneheavenly Source, and are the subjects ofone God. The difference between the or-dinances under which they abide shouldbe attributed to the varying requirementsand exigencies of the age in which theywere revealed. All of them, except a fewwhich are the outcome of human perver-sity, were ordained of God, and are a re-flection of His Will and Purpose. Ariseand, armed with the power of faith, shat-ter to pieces the gods of your vainimaginings, the sowers of dissensionamongst you. Cleave unto that whichdraweth you together and uniteth you.

Such an appeal does not call for aban-donment of faith in the fundamental veri-ties of any of the world’s great belief sys-tems. Far otherwise. Faith has its own im-perative and is its own justification. Whatothers believe—or do not believe—cannotbe the authority in any individual conscience

worthy of the name. What the above wordsdo unequivocally urge is renunciation of allthose claims to exclusivity or finality that,in winding their roots around the life of thespirit, have been the greatest single factorin suffocating impulses to unity and in pro-moting hatred and violence.

It is to this historic challenge that webelieve leaders of religion must respond ifreligious leadership is to have meaning inthe global society emerging from the trans-formative experiences of the twentieth cen-tury. It is evident that growing numbers ofpeople are coming to realize that the truthunderlying all religions is in its essence one.This recognition arises not through a reso-lution of theological disputes, but as an in-tuitive awareness born from the ever wid-ening experience of others and from a dawn-ing acceptance of the oneness of the humanfamily itself. Out of the welter of religiousdoctrines, rituals and legal codes inheritedfrom vanished worlds, there is emerging asense that spiritual life, like the onenessmanifest in diverse nationalities, races andcultures, constitutes one unbounded real-ity equally accessible to everyone.

Together with the crumbling of barriersseparating peoples, our age is witnessing thedissolution of the once insuperable wall thatthe past assumed would forever separate thelife of Heaven from the life of Earth. Thescriptures of all religions have always taughtthe believer to see in service to others notonly a moral duty, but an avenue for thesoul’s own approach to God. Today, the pro-gressive restructuring of society gives thisfamiliar teaching new dimensions of mean-ing. As the age-old promise of a world ani-mated by principles of justice slowly takeson the character of a realistic goal, meetingthe needs of the soul and those of societywill increasingly be seen as reciprocal as-pects of a mature spiritual life.

The great advantage of the present ageis the perspective that makes it possible forthe entire human race to see this civilizingprocess as a single phenomenon, the ever-recurring encounters of our world with theworld of God.

Inspired by this perspective, the Bahá’ícommunity has been a vigorous promoter ofinterfaith activities from the time of their in-ception. Apart from cherished associations thatthese activities create, Bahá’ís see in thestruggle of diverse religions to draw closer to-gether a response to the Divine Will for a hu-

Perspective, continued on page 14

…[T]he greater

part of organized

religion stands

paralyzed at the

threshold of the

future, gripped in

those very

dogmas and

claims of

privileged access

to truth that have

been responsible

for creating some

of the most bitter

conflicts dividing

the earth’s

inhabitants.


U N I T E D N A T I O N S

UNITED NATIONS — The world haschanged greatly in the dozen years since

world leaders last met to discuss how tobetter help and protect the world’s children.

In particular, the spread of HIV/AIDS, theincreasing use of children as soldiers, and thewidening gap between rich and poor have allemerged as new threats to the health and well-being of young people around the world.

And so, while acknowledging that someprogress had been made since the 1990World Summit for Children, leaders gath-ered here in May for the 2002 United Na-tions Special Session on Children agreed thatmany recent trends had made things worsefor young people.

“More than 10 million children die eachyear although most of those deaths couldbe prevented; 100 million children are stillout of school, 60 per cent of them girls; 150million children suffer from malnutrition;and HIV/AIDS is spreading with catastrophicspeed,” stated the 180 governments repre-sented at the Special Session, which was held8–10 May 2002.

“There is persistent poverty, exclusionand discrimination, and inadequate invest-ment in social services,” continued the gov-

ernments in the Session’s final Declaration.“The childhood of millions continues to bedevastated by hazardous and exploitativelabor; the sale and trafficking of children,including adolescents, and other forms ofabuse, neglect, exploitation and violence.”

In the face of these realities, governmentscalled on “all members of society” to jointhem in a “global movement” to “help builda world fit for children.”

They adopted a Plan of Action thatmainly reaffirms their commitment to thegoals world leaders set two years ago in theMillennium Declaration to fight poverty andits effects but which also specifically callsfor greater efforts to mitigate the effects ofthe HIV/AIDS pandemic on children, toimprove the opportunities for their educa-tion, to protect those affected by armed con-flict, and to end their exploitation.

Reaching consensus on the Session’s fi-nal Declaration and Plan of Action was byall accounts a difficult process. Althoughthere was agreement on many points priorto the meeting, governments went into theSession sharply divided on several key is-sues. Among them were the degree to whichto focus on the Convention on the Rights ofthe Child as the central legal framework forprotecting children and the language on re-productive health issues.

In the end, however, consensus wasreached and government leaders and offi-cials from UNICEF — which organized theSession — called the meeting a success.

“We have adopted a Declaration that de-scribes, very clearly, the steps we must taketo build a new world fit for children,” saidAmbassador Han Seung-soo of South Ko-rea, President of the UN General Assembly.“It does so in a clear, concise and robustmanner. It is a practical and achievablechecklist, not only for a better future, butalso for immediate action that will improvechild well-being today.”

Added Carol Bellamy, Executive Directorof UNICEF (the United Nations Children’sFund): “I am enormously proud and pleased

World leaders promise to create “A World Fitfor Children” at UN Special Session

In the face of new

problems facing

children and

young people

worldwide,

governments met

in New York in

May 2002 and

called on “all

members of

society” to join

them in a “global

movement” to

“help build a

world fit for

children.”

Children, continued on page 14

UN

ICE

F/H

Q02

-019

7/ S

usan

Mar

kisz

Pianist Eric Dozier (left, foreground) plays his composition, “Color Me Human,” at the9 May 2002 gala concert during the Special Session on Children. He is accompanied bythe UNICEF World Chorus and the National Youth Symphony Orchestra of Venezuela.


UNITED NATIONS — Although Hugh Locke and JackLenz grew up two years apart in the tiny farming town

of Eston on the Canadian prairie in Saskatchewan, thetwo men never met until they became members of theBahá’í Faith as young adults.

But since meeting, they have embarked on a numberof collaborations, the most recent of which was the pro-duction of a major concert for world leaders at the UnitedNations during the United Nations Special Session onChildren in May.

Mr. Locke served as executive producer for the event,which featured guest appearances by former South AfricanPresident Nelson Mandela and UN Secretary General KofiAnnan, while Mr. Lenz served as musical director.

And although the concert, which sought to featuremainly the voices and musical performances of childrenand young people, was sponsored entirely by UNICEF,both men feel strongly that their practice of the Bahá’íFaith and its principles of global interdependence andhuman unity gave them great inspiration.

“The theme of the concert was to have the voices ofchildren giving a message to the leaders of the world —and that message was to urge them to put children first inall of their undertakings,” said Mr. Locke, whose com-pany, Locke Associates Inc., specializes in organizing in-ternational events and conferences.

“And once Jack and I started to shape the concert, wewanted to have a message that was universal in natureand hopeful for the future,” said Mr. Locke, noting thatthey chose a number of songs written by Bahá’ís for theevent — songs that feature themes of hope, oneness andhuman solidarity. “And there was a resonance in that withthe tone and intention of what UNICEF wanted to do.”

Held 9 May 2002 on the north lawn of the UN groundsin New York under a specially erected tent before an audi-ence of some nearly 1,000 world leaders, UN officials andchildren’s advocates, the concert featured the 300-voiceUNICEF World Chorus — assembled by Mr. Lenz from youthchoirs in metropolitan New York — and the 160-strong Na-tional Youth Symphony Orchestra of Venezuela.

The concert, titled “Change the World with Children,”also featured a series of solo performances by some youngor youthful singers who have already won fame for theirtalent, such as Billy Gilman, a 13-year-old country andwestern phenomenon from the USA, to Josefine Garline,an 11-year-old pop singer from Sweden. Also performingwere Raffi, the internationally acclaimed children’s singer

Bahá’ís play key role behind the scenes in UNICEFconcert at the UN Children’s Summit

T H E A R T S

and songwriter, and Angelique Kidjo, one of the world’sbest-known African singers.

A number of international celebrities, composed mostlyof UNICEF and UN goodwill ambassadors, also appearedon stage, with each presenting one of the “Say Yes forChildren” campaign pledges, which were a focal point ofthe concert. Among those present were actors MichaelDouglas, Roger Moore, and Cicely Tyson; singer HarryBelafonte; and chess master Anatoly Karpov.

The Say Yes for Children campaign was a focal pointof the event. Worldwide, more than 94 million signatureshave been collected as pledges to the campaign, whichoffers ten simple points — such as “Put Children First”,“Educate Every Child”, and “Protect the Earth for Chil-dren” — designed to help build a world where “all chil-dren should be free to grow in health, peace and dignity.”

Appearing on stage with the adult goodwill ambassa-dors were members of the Children’s Theater Company(CTC), a New York-based children’s performance work-shop that is operated as a Bahá’í-inspired project. Each

member of the CTC read outone of the pledges and thenintroduced his or her new“friend” — one of the fa-mous goodwill ambassadors,who explained the impor-tance of that pledge.

Many of the songs per-formed at the concert cel-ebrated human diversity andinterdependence. Amongthem were “Color Me Hu-man,” which was written andperformed by Eric Dozier, aBahá’í from Los Angeles, and“The Greatest Moments,”written by Mr. Lenz himself,who is an internationally

known Toronto-based song writer, musician and producer.“For Bahá’ís, the idea of unity in diversity is a key

theme,” said Mr. Lenz, who is now producing a video ofthe concert. “And as we worked with UNICEF officials toput the concert together, there was a lot of discussion aboutdiversity and the importance of ensuring that the entirehuman race was reflected in this gathering. So I knowthat I, and the other Bahá’ís who worked on this, felt thisconcert was a significant event.”

Hugh Locke


C I V I L S O C I E T Y

BUENOS AIRES, Argentina — Last No-vember, the people of this vast and cos-

mopolitan city took to the streets, bang-ing on pots and pans, protesting the sud-den economic collapse that sent one ofLatin America’s richest countries into adeep and continuing crisis.

In January, the protests took on a newform as people in many areas began to cre-ate “neighborhood assemblies” to talk aboutwhat they can do to solve their own prob-lems. Neighborhood assemblies have under-taken projects ranging from the communitypurchases of food at reduced prices to orga-nizing neighborhood banks.

Whether or not the phenomenon per-sists, the spontaneous organization of peoplein neighborhood parks and plazas in this cityof 12 million people reflects an increasingconviction that only with the active partici-pation of civil society can Argentina’s eco-

In Argentina, a Bahá’í-inspired NGOworks to strengthen civil society in atime of national crisis

nomic and social problems be addressed.It is an idea that has long been advo-

cated by UNIDA, a Bahá’í-inspired non-governmental organization (NGO) thatfocuses extensively on training programsaimed at strengthening civil society andpromoting participatory developmentmodels. UNIDA has seen an upsurge ininterest in its programs since the crisisbegan, reaching its highest level of enroll-ments ever by early June.

“These neighborhood assemblies werestarted because the people now believe thatthey must take responsibility for action intotheir own hands,” said Haleh Maniei, coor-dinator of students and promotion forUNIDA. “And, accordingly, people knowthey need more education in this area of stra-tegic planning for NGOs, how to start uptheir own projects, and so on. So many morepeople are calling and asking about UNIDA’s

Psychologist MillarayRiquelme (standing) leads aUNIDA-run workshop forlocal women leaders entitled“Ethical Models forLeadership with a Gender-Related Perspective forLocal Development.” ABahá’í-inspired non-governmental organization(NGO), UNIDA focuses ontraining programs aimedat strengthening civilsociety and promotingparticipatory developmentmodels.

A Bahá’í-inspired

NGO that focuses

on training

programs for

strengthening

civil society,

UNIDA has seen

an upsurge in

interest in its

programs since

the Argentinian

economic crisis

began last year.


programs nowadays.”Founded in 1996 by a group of Bahá’ís,

UNIDA – Universidad de la Naciones,Integracion, Dessarrollo, and Ambiente(University for Nations, Integration, Devel-opment, and Environment) – offers post-graduate courses in four areas: sustainabledevelopment, social anthropology, humandevelopment, and organizational processes.

Participatory methods

The four programs take up the studyof “human scale” development and the ac-companying methodologies for grassroots,participatory decision-making thatUNIDA’s founders say are key to effectivesocial action.

“Those four subjects are really just dif-ferent gates to enter into and arrive at thesame place,” said Lucio Capalbo, generalcoordinator of UNIDA and one of itsfounders. “At the heart of what UNIDAstrives to do is to help make civil societystronger by training its leaders to use newconsultative and participatory methods ofdecision-making that can help people func-tion better in groups. And this is at the coreof the empowerment of civil society.”

Last year, even before the current cri-sis, UNIDA won several significant grants.In November, it was one of eight NGOs tobe recognized by the Women in EqualityOrganization in a competition for grantmoney from the Inter-American Develop-ment Bank (IDB). In that competition,UNIDA received US$8,900 for a programaimed at giving local women leaders train-ing in ethical leadership.

Earlier in the year, UNIDA received fund-ing from the European Community to offertraining in conflict resolution to local lead-ers serving impoverished communities.Also, the City of Buenos Aires offered a sub-sidy for a “New Labor Roles” project, aimedat training 20 unemployed persons in fur-niture recycling.

Since its founding, UNIDA’s enrollmenthas risen steadily, reaching a high of 128 stu-dents early this year. And, despite the eco-nomic downturn, it has managed this yearto expand its offerings to two other cities inArgentina: Rosario and Viedma.

“Our training programs are exactly whatthe country needs at this moment,” said Mr.Capalbo, explaining that the core of eachprogram is built around participatory deci-sion-making and strategic planning meth-odologies that are designed to empower lo-

cal organizations.More specifically, UNIDA teaches in all

of its courses a specific method of non-adversarial decision-making known as “con-sultation,” the principles of which are de-rived from the Bahá’í teachings.

At its core, consultation is a highly par-ticipatory process that encourages a diver-sity of opinion and yet seeks to unite vari-ous constituencies. Among its key principlesare: the primary goal is always the good ofall; information should be gathered from thewidest possible range of sources and pointsof view; the exchange of ideas should be fulland candid, while courteous; any ideas putforward become the property of the group;and once a decision is made, it will be sup-ported by all participants.

“Once people understand the process ofconsultation, they start to think in a newway,” said Mr. Capalbo, explaining thatUNIDA’s founders believe many of the prob-lems in society today stem from adversarialdecision-making models that set variousgroups against each other. “They think inthe way of unity in diversity, not partisan-ship or fighting or conflict. And whatUNIDA teaches is how to make decisionsand work with others in a consultative way,how to design, execute and evaluate partici-patory programs, built with the cooperationof everyone.”

According to UNIDA graduates, the re-sult is a powerful and practical formula forsocial empowerment.

“It was extremely useful, especially dueto the concept of human scale economy andthe systemic approach, and some otherstools for planning,” said Fabian Roman,

The staff of UNIDA. Shown,left to right, back row, are:Nur Saeed, volunteer;Shahin Said, treasurer;Lucio Capalbo, generalcoordinator; Horacio Russo,development andcooperation coordinator;and Gaston Arballo, lawadministrator. Front row:Adriana Nedel, technicalsecretary; Haleh Maniei,student coordinator.

“What UNIDA

teaches is how to

make decisions

and work with

others in a

consultative way,

how to design,

execute and

evaluate

participatory

programs, built

with the

cooperation of

everyone.”

– Lucio Capalbo


head of Plan21, an environmental manage-ment NGO in Buenos Aires.

An adjunct professor of tourism, devel-opment and environment at La Plata Uni-versity, Mr. Roman took a UNIDA courseon environmental management and sustain-able development in 1999. Mr. Roman saidhe now teaches consultation in his courses.

Mario Daniel Caputo, a judge in BuenosAires Province, took UNIDA’s course onhuman rights in 2000 and is now workingto start up an NGO to help refugees andundocumented immigrants in Argentinagain access to education, health care andemployment.

“The tools offered by UNIDA, such asthe new concepts of development, the con-ceptual technique of consultation and otherelements, have served me well for the plan-ning of the project,” said Judge Caputo.“They accompany me like new baggage in away that allows me to apply such conceptsin a concrete manner.”

Genesis at 1992 Earth Summit

UNIDA grew out of a response by a groupof Bahá’ís in Argentina to the 1992 EarthSummit. Mr. Capalbo and others were par-ticipants in the Global Forum at Rio, andsaw firsthand the enormous power of civilsociety — but, at the same time, the lack ofcoordination, and, to some extent, a divi-sive partisanship.

An engineer by training, Mr. Capalbo felt

that NGOs concerned about the environ-ment could be given better tools for organi-zation and cooperation.

The group that founded UNIDA beganby publishing a magazine, Ecology and WorldUnity, which achieved fairly wide distribu-tion in Argentina. “When we came backfrom Rio, we wanted to make a publicationto show that there are important connec-tions between environmental matters andmodels of development, and between devel-opment models and the kinds of institutionswe have, and, finally, with cultural and spiri-tual matters,” said Mr. Capalbo.

In 1994, the group began to organize aseries of annual “Global Change Seminars.”Each seminar consisted of five to sevenmeetings held on consecutive Saturday af-ternoons, with three to five panelists dis-cussing topics related to environment anddevelopment, human rights, world order,global change and spirituality. Each semi-nar drew from 200 to 300 people, from manylevels and sectors of Argentine society. Since1999, the seminar has been held in associa-tion with the United Nations InformationCenter for Argentina and Uruguay.

The success of the seminars led the groupto create an on-going training program, giv-ing birth to UNIDA and its program of post-graduate offerings. The first year, the programhad 22 enrollments. Today, UNIDA has its ownbuilding and two satellite programs, with to-tal enrollments of 128.

Because of the difficult economic situa-tion in the country, UNIDA has been forcedto cut its tuition and fees, and the staff hastaken a cut in pay. But Shahin Said, UNIDA’streasurer and one of its founders, believesthe organization will survive. “There reallyis no similar program on the market, withthe concept of creating unity in diversity andoffering a new point of view on how to servesociety,” said Mr. Said.

Added Horacio Russo, UNIDA’s coordi-nator of cooperation and development: “Inthe models of development the world hasnow, power is generally concentrated in afew people, and corruption has more oppor-tunities to appear. In the model UNIDA of-fers, where the consultation is properly used,you have more people participating and in-volved in the decision-making process —especially the people that are affected bythose decisions. This doesn’t mean every-body will have the same responsibilities. Buteverybody will contribute to the final idea,so that the community becomes the protago-

The UNIDA building inBuenos Aires.

“The tools offered

by UNIDA, such as

the new concepts

of development,

the conceptual

technique of

consultation and

other elements,

have served me

well for the

planning of the

project.”

— Judge Mario

Daniel Caputo


nist of its own future.”For its faculty, UNIDA draws on a wide

range of experts — including sociologists,economists, environmental engineers, andlawyers — with a core group of some 15professors and about 70 affiliates. The ma-jority are not Bahá’ís.

Gender Equality a common thread

“One of the reasons I participate inUNIDA is because of their concept of ‘de-velopment on a human scale’ that is thebackbone of all its projects,” said MillarayRiquelme, a psychologist with theArgentinean Centre for International Coop-eration and Development (CACID) who hasbeen teaching at UNIDA for three years.“And the fact that in all of their courses thereis a chapter about the equality of womenand men. No other organization does thisas systematically.”

Ms. Riquelme was the lead professor inthe IDB-sponsored course for local womenleaders, held in the spring and titled “Ethi-cal Models for Leadership with a Gender-Related Perspective for Local Development.”One evening in March, about 15 womengathered at one of UNIDA’s classrooms for

the course and Ms. Riquelme presented thehistory of various models for developmentas they related to women.

The students were all leaders of localNGOs. For many, it was their first experi-ence with a UNIDA course, but in interviewsmany said it promised to be extremely valu-able, especially the ideas about how to con-sult and develop better cooperation amonggroups of people.

“The most important thing is to obtaingood training in group dynamics, train-ing to be able to suggest objectives for thegroup and to make a project work better,”said Lila Luna, an anthropologist whoruns a small women’s group based in alocal public library.

Likewise, Maria Rosa Fernandez Lemoine,director of Conciliar, a community mediationNGO, expects the methods taught by UNIDAto be helpful, especially in the current crisis.“The people have many complaints but theyare disorganized and don’t listen to each other,”said Ms. Lemoine. “So this type of trainingand methodology will be useful to implementprojects for training women and men in thecommunities about communication and ne-gotiation skills.”

COLLEGE PARK, MARYLAND, UnitedStates (BWNS) — Lord St. John of

Bletso, a member of the British House ofLords and noted authority on environmen-tal policy, told an audience of some 250 gath-ered at the University of Maryland on 31May 2002 that the environmental challengesfacing the planet will require both a passion-ate commitment to action as well as a bal-anced approach that does not dwell on“gloom and doom” predictions.

A hereditary member of the House of Lordssince 1978, Lord St. John was at the Univer-sity of Maryland as a guest of the Bahá’í Chairfor World Peace to deliver the Eighth AnnualBahá’í Chair Lecture, on the theme of “Envi-ronmental Ethics and Public Policy.”

The Bahá’í Chair is an endowed teachingand research chair established in 1993 at theUniversity’s Center for International Develop-ment and Conflict Management. Its missionis to develop alternatives to the violent reso-lution of conflict by identifying and applyinguniversal ethical and moral principles.

“Environmental pressure groups have

Lord St. John of Bletso delivers annual Bahá’ílecture at University of Maryland

started to believe that they must depict worstcase scenarios, and exaggerate their direpredictions, to ‘scare’ the world into payingattention to this issue,” Lord St. John said,adding that such tactics often have the op-posite effect by inducing a paralysis of willand a desire to ignore complex and seem-ingly intractable problems.

Instead, what is needed is a new globalconsensus that will engage and inspirepeople everywhere to make the changes andadjustments required to live in harmonywith the earth’s life support systems, saidLord St. John. He pointed to the upcomingWorld Summit on Sustainable Development,to take place in Johannesburg, South Africa,in August 2002, as an opportunity to forgethis kind of consensus.

“It is crucial that the Summit succeed inshowing that sustainability is far from be-ing as abstract as it sounds, but rather is alife and death issue for millions upon mil-lions of people around the world, and po-tentially the entire human race,” he said.

— Bahá’í World News Service

“In all of their

courses there is a

chapter about the

equality of

women and men.

No other

organization does

this as

systematically.”

– Millaray Riquelme,

psychologist


effective, it must become far more vigor-ous and searching.

“Bahá’ís see in the struggle of diversereligions to draw closer together a responseto the Divine Will for a human race that isentering on its collective maturity,” the let-ter states. “[I]nterfaith discourse, if it is tocontribute meaningfully to healing the illsthat afflict a desperate humanity, must nowaddress honestly and without further eva-sion the implications of the over-archingtruth that called the movement into being:that God is one and that, beyond all diver-sity of cultural expression and human in-terpretation, religion is likewise one.”

In the letter, the Universal House of Jus-tice offers the assistance of the worldwideBahá’í community in the creation of newefforts to foster such dialogue.

“Taken as a whole, the letter and its dis-tribution amount to a global initiative by theworldwide Bahá’í community to assist hu-manity to overcome what has, at this stage

in history, emerged as a major obstacle topeace, security, and prosperity in the world,”said Albert Lincoln, Secretary General of theBahá’í International Community.

“In particular, the rise of religious fanati-cism, as exemplified by terrorist attacks, at-tacks on houses of worship and the desecra-tion of cemeteries, and civil wars spurredby religious differences, is becoming perhapsthe dominant source of conflict in theworld,” said Dr. Lincoln, who representedthe Community at the Millennium WorldPeace Summit of Religious and SpiritualLeaders, held August 2000 at the UnitedNations. “So, as the Universal House of Jus-tice itself explains in its letter, it felt obli-gated to ‘speak frankly’ to the leaders ofother organized religions about the need totake action.”

So far, the letter has been translated into16 languages, including Afrikaans, Arabic,French, Hindi, Persian, Portuguese andZulu. A great many more translations are inthe works and the distribution of the letter

Worldwide, the Bahá’í communitytransmits an appeal for religious tolerance

R E L I G I O U S T O L E R A N C E

Letter, continued from page one

Members of the Bahá’íCommunity of Botswanapresent the letter of theUniversal House of Justiceto leaders of the UnitedCongregational Church inSouthern Africa (UCCSA).Shown left to right are: theReverend Tim Colvin andthe Reverend MosweuSimane of the UCCSA;Dellah Barungwi; JosephineTsapo; and Lefedile Molefeof the Bahá’í Community ofBotswana. The presentationwas made at the UCCSAheadquarters in Gaborone,Botswana, on 15 May2002.

“Bahá’ís see in

the struggle of

diverse religions

to draw closer

together a

response to the

Divine Will for a

human race that

is entering on its

collective

maturity.”

– Message of the

Universal House of

Justice


will be an on-going project.For the most part, Bahá’í National Spiri-

tual Assemblies around the world have fo-cused first on distributing the letter to na-tional level religious leaders, along with aca-demics and journalists who specialize in re-ligion. Local Bahá’í communities have alsobegun to join the effort by presenting theletter to the leaders of other religions at thelocal level.

In Brazil, for example, the National Spiri-tual Assembly prepared a list of some 44names of national religious leaders, theolo-gians, and religious academics, and then sentthe letter out by mail or personal delivery.As a second step, some 330 copies of theletter were sent to 66 local Spiritual Assem-blies in Brazil, for distribution to local reli-gious leaders.

“In Brazilian society, religious divisionsare a problem,” said Roberto Eghrari, secre-tary of external affairs for the Brazilian Na-tional Spiritual Assembly. “There are ten-sions between evangelical groups and otherChristian denominations, and betweenChristians and Afro-based religious groups.So we believe the distribution of this mes-sage is very timely, that it has the potentialto bring new understandings.”

Mr. Eghrari said religious leaders haveacted with much appreciation. Severalgroups had indicated a desire for some kindof collaboration or follow-up on the mes-sage with the 55,000-member BrazilianBahá’í community. “It is not just a matter ofpeople reading the message. They want toput it into action.”

Reports from national Bahá’í communi-ties indicate that Bahá’í delegations bearingthe letter were treated with a high level ofcourtesy and dignity, which was seen as areflection of the seriousness of the issue.

“We felt an extraordinary courtesyfrom them all, a response not so much tous in particular, but to the occasion itselfand the inherent weight of the message,”said Amy Marks, who was involved withthe efforts of the local Spiritual Assemblyof the Bahá’ís of Capetown, South Africa,to present the letter to more than a dozenreligious leaders there.

Dr. Marks, who served as co-chair of theParliament of the World’s Religions, SouthAfrica, which was the local host of the 1999Parliament of the World’s Religions, said shebelieves the letter’s warm reception has comepartly because of the rising tide of interfaithactivity in recent years.

“In our region, at least, I believe thatthe interreligious work that has gone be-fore, particularly the goodwill generatedby the Parliament of the World’s Religionshere, has laid a foundation for people torespond in a very sincere and reverentway,” said Dr. Marks. “I anticipate that thisletter will help to open new doors for dia-logue among the religions.”

A number of religious leaders indicatedthat they will distribute the letter amongother leaders in their own organizations. Inone African country, the national Muslimcouncil requested additional copies for dis-tribution to all mosques in the capital. Anacademic dean at a Catholic-run LatinAmerican university expressed interest inworking with the Bahá’í community thereto develop a program for professors and stu-dents at the university.

In the United Kingdom, George Carey,the Archbishop of Canterbury and head ofthe Anglican Church, wrote: “I very muchshare your view that we all need to addressthe question of how our different faiths canbecome forces for peace and justice. Muchhonest discussion between the communi-ties will be required as we pursue this goal,and it is good to learn, from the messagewhich you delivered, of the ways in whichthe Bahá’í community is seeking to engagewith these matters.”

In Tanzania, the Bahá’í community re-

At his home in London,Professor Jonathan Sacks, atright, Chief Rabbi of theUnited HebrewCongregations of GreatBritain and theCommonwealth, receives theletter from the UniversalHouse of Justice from theHon. Barney Leith,Secretary of the Bahá’íCommunity of the UnitedKingdom.

“The letter and its

distribution

amount to a

global initiative by

the worldwide

Bahá’í community

to assist humanity

to overcome ... a

major obstacle to

peace, security,

and prosperity in

the world.”

— Albert Lincoln,

Secretary General

of the Bahá’í

International

Community


ceived positive responses from many of the30 some leaders who have officially receivedthe letter, said Shabani Seffu, secretary of theNational Spiritual Assembly there.

For example, Biharilal Keshavji Tanna ofthe Hindu Council of Tanzania wrote: “I haveread the document with great interest and feelthat it contains a supremely important mes-sage not only to the leaders of the faith groups,but to all thinking individuals, who mustshoulder the duty and responsibility of break-ing down barriers amongst the various groupsof the family of mankind.”

Some recipients, while expressing a gen-

eral sympathy for the goal of tolerance, nev-ertheless voiced clear reservations about theidea that all religions are one.

“You will be pleased to know that theCatholic Church acknowledges that theSpirit of God is at work in the whole ofcreation leading all people to a wonderfuldestiny,” wrote Bishop Peter J. Cullinane,president of the New Zealand CatholicBishops’ Conference. “But this does notmean that all religious beliefs and prac-tices are the same.

“Our commitment to ‘investigate reality’,to ‘live the truth’, and to ‘respect others’, doesnot allow us to be indifferent as to whetherpeople are led towards the whole of whatGod has revealed or are left to live with onlysome of it,” continued Bishop Cullinane.“Christians believe God has revealed hiswonderful purposes more fully and moreexplicitly in the person, life, death and res-urrection of Jesus Christ.”

Others, however, welcomed the call toexamine the oneness of all religions. “I’vealways been impressed by the idea that allthe religions are essentially one,” said Prof.Johann Figl, head of the Institute for Reli-gious Science of the Catholic TheologicalFaculty of the University of Vienna. “TodayI think that the members of all religions arepart of mankind, which is a unity. On theother side the religious and cultural differ-ences are a valuable addition.

“These two dimensions, difference andunity, are to be reconsidered in every age, sothat liberty and individuality are preserved and– at the same time – this common ground isan enduring basis,” said Prof. Figl.

GÖTTINGEN, Germany (BWNS) — At aninterfaith meeting in May, representatives

of the main religions in Germany, includingthe Bahá’í Faith, issued a joint memorandumstressing the common ground among the reli-gions on the issue of climate change and theenvironment.

Chaired by Gottfried Orth, director ofthe Ernst Lange-Institute for EcumenicalStudies, and held under the auspices of theGerman Federal Environment Ministry, themeeting took place 6-7 May 2002 and wastitled “Orientation dialogue of religions rep-resented in Germany on environmental poli-tics with reference to the climate issue.”

Faith groups, including Bahá’ís of Germany, meet onenvironment and climate concerns

The main goal of the meeting was towiden the dialogue between the governmentand various religions in Germany on envi-ronmental issues as part of a process to en-hance the receptivity and responsibility ofimportant pillars of society.

Participants included three representativesof Catholic and Protestant churches; the gen-eral secretary of the Central Muslim Counciland an advisor; a member of the council ofthe Buddhist Union and two other Buddhists;and three representatives of the German Bahá’íCommunity. Observers from the World Con-ference on Religion and Peace and backers ofthe Earth Charter were also present.

In Brazil, Dom CláudioHummes, the CatholicArchbishop of São Paulo,receives the letter of theUniversal House of Justicefrom Ms. Fariba S. Vahdat,representing the Bahá’íCommunity of Brazil.


B R I E F S

LUCKNOW, India (BWNS) — CityMontessori School, a large private school

with a Bahá’í-inspired curriculum thatstresses world citizenship and religious tol-erance, has been awarded the 2002 UNESCOPrize for Peace Education.

Awarded annually by the United NationsEducational, Scientific, and Cultural Orga-nization (UNESCO), the honor was givento City Montessori School (CMS) this year“in recognition of its efforts to promote theuniversal values of education for peace andtolerance...at a time when these values andprinciples are increasingly being chal-lenged,” according to a UNESCO press re-lease dated 6 June 2002.

Founded in 1959, the school has a repu-tation for a high level of academic excellence— and for a distinctive program of moraland spiritual education.

“For more than 40 years it has educatedstudents to respect the values of toleranceand peace and sought to make them citi-

City Montessori School winsUNESCO Peace Education award

zens of the world,” said the UNESCO re-lease. “The school’s founders, Jagdish andBharti Gandhi, inspired by the non-violenceof Mahatma Gandhi, founded their schoolon four fundamental principles: universalvalues, excellence, global understanding,and service to the community.”

The founders are also Bahá’ís — and theysaid that the Bahá’í teachings have likewisegreatly inspired their work and the school’scurriculum. “We have been following theteachings of Bahá’u’lláh, and these teachingshave led us to work more and more forworld peace,” said Bharti Gandhi.

Mrs. Gandhi said when they founded theschool, she and her husband were follow-ers of Mahatma Gandhi. Both accepted theBahá’í Faith in 1974, and since then theyhave increasingly incorporated principles ofworld citizenship and human oneness intothe curriculum. “We rededicated ourselvesto the cause of world unity,” said Mrs.Gandhi, who is the school’s director.

HAIFA, Israel, 13 June 2002 (BWNS) — Anew volume of recently translated writ-

ings of Bahá’u’lláh, comprising a series of mes-sages written to world leaders, has been is-sued by Bahá’í World Centre Publications.

Entitled The Summons of the Lord ofHosts, the 272-page book contains authori-tative English translations of six majorworks written by Bahá’u’lláh in the latterhalf of the 19th century. Collectively, theworks clearly enunciate Bahá’u’lláh’s claimto prophethood and offer a prescriptionfor peaceful and just leadership in themodern world.

“Never since the beginning of the world,”declares Bahá’u’lláh Himself in the book, “haththe message been so openly proclaimed.”

In addition to such pronouncements,Bahá’u’lláh calls on kings and rulers to re-duce armaments, resolve international con-flicts, and limit expenditures that place un-

necessary strain on their subjects, amongother things.

Specifically, the book collects theSuriy-i-Haykal [Surih of the Temple],Suriy-i-Ra’is [Surih of the Chief], Lawh-i-Ra’is [Tablet of the Chief], Lawh-i-Fu’ad[Tablet to Fu’ad Pasha], Lawh-i-Sultan[Tablet to the Shah of Iran], and Suriy-i-Muluk [Surih of the Kings].

While portions of some of these workshave been translated and published before,The Summons of the Lord of Hosts marks thefirst time full-length and fully researchedtranslations of them have been released.

The collected volume represents only afraction of Bahá’u’lláh’s output during his 40-year ministry, during which He revealed thou-sands of tablets which altogether represent avolume more than 70 times the size of theQur'an and more than 15 times the size of theOld and New Testaments of the Bible.

A new volume of Bahá’í sacred writings, comprisingBahá’u’lláh’s call to world leaders, is published

“For more than 40

years it has

educated students

to respect the

values of

tolerance and

peace and sought

to make them

citizens of the

world.”

– UNESCO press

release


at what has been accomplished this week. Ifleaders keep the promises they have made, wecan bring about enormous positive change inthe world in less than a generation.”

However, some of the non-governmen-tal organizations (NGOs) that attended theSession expressed disappointment at theoutcome. In particular, some NGO repre-sentatives said governments should haveput more emphasis on the Convention onthe Rights of the Child. As well, someNGOs felt language on reproductive rightswas vague. And many felt the documentcould have been even more specific inoutlining commitments to be undertakenby governments.

“The major disappointment of NGOs wasthat the Convention on the Rights of the Childwas not clearly designated as the legal frame-work for children’s rights worldwide,” saidMary Purcell, co-chair of the NGO SteeringCommittee for the Session. “If you move awayfrom it, you make it more dilute.”

On the other hand, said Ms. Purcell, whois UN representative of the InternationalFederation of University Women, the Ses-sion did strengthen the commitment of gov-ernments in areas of key importance.

“Ten years ago, at the Children’s Sum-mit, the focus was much more on health,immunization, clean water, and the like,”said Ms. Purcell. “This document moves for-

Leaders promise to create“A World Fit for Children”

Children, continued from page 4

ward into the reality of the new millennium,where things like armed conflict and HIV/AIDS are major problems for children.”

NGOs sponsored a number of side eventsand workshops in connection with the Ses-sion. According to Ms. Purcell, about 1,700NGO representatives were accredited to theSession, and NGOs sponsored some 80workshops and panel discussions. “Theyprovided a wonderful place for networkingand building future coalitions,” she said.

Another feature of the Session was thepresence of children. For the first time inUN history, according to UNICEF, childrenaddressed a plenary session of the UN Gen-eral Assembly. The children came from aspecial Children’s Forum, which broughtsome 300 children from around the worldto New York. A concert featuring childrenfrom around the world was also a distinc-tive feature of the Session. [See page 5.]

“Just bringing all of these children toNew York, to be heard and seen, was veryimportant,” said Bani Dugal, the main rep-resentative of the Bahá’í International Com-munity to the Session. “It has given thewhole issue of accountability a differentmeaning, by showing to governments thekind of impact their policies can have onchildren and hearing directly from the chil-dren that are affected by these policies.”

Among the delegates to the Children’sForum was 15-year-old Anjali Mody, a mem-ber of the Bahá’í community of India. In aspeech to the Children’s Forum, she talkedabout the importance of rights for womenas a key issue in helping children.

man race that is entering on its collective ma-turity. The members of our community willcontinue to assist in every way we can. Weowe it to our partners in this common effort,however, to state clearly our conviction thatinterfaith discourse, if it is to contribute mean-ingfully to healing the ills that afflict a desper-ate humanity, must now address honestly andwithout further evasion the implications of theover-arching truth that called the movementinto being: that God is one and that, beyondall diversity of cultural expression and humaninterpretation, religion is likewise one.

With every day that passes, danger grows

that the rising fires of religious prejudice willignite a worldwide conflagration the conse-quences of which are unthinkable. Such a dan-ger civil government, unaided, cannot over-come. Nor should we delude ourselves thatappeals for mutual tolerance can alone hopeto extinguish animosities that claim to pos-sess Divine sanction. The crisis calls on reli-gious leadership for a break with the past asdecisive as those that opened the way for so-ciety to address equally corrosive prejudicesof race, gender and nation. Whatever justifi-cation exists for exercising influence in mat-ters of conscience lies in serving the well-be-ing of humankind. At this greatest turningpoint in the history of civilization, the demandsof such service could not be more clear. “Thewell-being of mankind, its peace and security,are unattainable”, Bahá’u’lláh urges, “unlessand until its unity is firmly established.”

Perspective, continued from page 3

To the World’sReligious Leaders

“Ten years ago, at

the Children’s

Summit, the focus

was much more

on health,

immunization,

clean water, and

the like. This

document moves

forward into the

reality of the new

millennium,

where things like

armed conflict and

HIV/AIDS are

major problems

for children.”

– Mary Purcell, co-

chair, of the NGO

Steering Committee


Doing so “adds a degree of persuasiveweight to these principles as legitimate foun-dations for a fresh approach to humanitarianintervention and international law suitable fora multicultural world,” writes Prof. Lepard,who is an associate professor at the Univer-sity of Nebraska College of Law. “Like norma-tive statements of fundamental ethical prin-ciples in written and constitutive legal docu-ments such as the Universal Declaration ofHuman Rights, revered moral texts are lookedto by many believers as expressions of theirhighest ethical aspirations.”

In terms of human rights and humani-tarian law, the “preeminent ethical principleis the unity of all human beings as equallydignified members of one human family,who in turn can, within a framework ofunity, develop and take pride in individual,national, ethnic, or religious identities,”writes Prof. Lepard.

The principle, he writes, is implicit inthe UN Charter — as in the preamble’s “wethe peoples of the United Nations” and invarious human rights documents. More re-cently, he notes, the Millennium Declarationof the UN General Assembly refers to theUN as “the indispensable common house ofthe entire human family.”

Proposing, then, to use the principle of“unity in diversity” as the lodestone by whichthe necessity of humanitarian intervention canbe judged, Prof. Lepard goes on to show howother basic principles of human rights law canbe likewise derived from it. The equal dignityof all human beings, for example, is impliedby unity in diversity, as is the right to life andphysical security.

But in what may be the most insightfulaspect of the book, Prof. Lepard then goes onto show how the overarching principle of unityin diversity and its corollary principles can like-wise be supported by the sacred texts of worldreligions. Specifically, he has combed throughthe essential texts of the Bahá’í Faith, Bud-dhism, Christianity, Confucianism, Hinduism,Islam, and Judaism — religions whose follow-ers together represent three-quarters of theworld’s population.

The texts of all of these religions, hewrites, give strong support to the idea ofhuman oneness. “For example, the

Review, continued from back page

Review: HumanitarianIntervention

Bhagavad Gita affirms that the whole worldis united in God,” writes Prof. Lepard. “Inthe words of one Hindu scholar, central toHinduism is thus the belief that the ‘wholehuman family is one and basically indivis-ible.’... Moreover, the Hebrew Scriptures af-firm: ‘Have we not all one Father? Did notone God create us?’ (Malachi 2:10)”

Religious texts also support the idea of acherished diversity within that oneness, hewrites. The Qur'an, for example, says thatone of the signs of God is the creation of“the variety of your tongues and hues.”

Prof. Lepard goes on in some detail withrespect to the other major ethical principlesoutlined in UN human rights documentsand, likewise, shows how religious textssupport them. The iteration extends to suchprinciples as the idea of “just war” and the“obligation to undertake humanitarian in-tervention in extreme cases.”

He also explores the ramifications of thisnew approach, and draws out a frameworkfor deciding when and how to intervene. Heexamines, for example, the legal legitimacy ofthe Security Council in exercising jurisdictionover so-called Chapter VII interventions un-der the UN Charter in terms of when humanrights violations constitute a breach of thepeace and the degree to which such interven-tions might violate the long-standing norm of“impartiality” of the UN.

Prof. Lepard also considers whether theSecurity Council and member states are “infact legally or morally obligated” to inter-vene in certain cases of human rights viola-tions, and he investigates rather controver-sial issues surrounding the command andcomposition of multinational forces for suchmissions. He also discusses the role of theveto power and offers suggestions for howthe Council might improve its consultation.

At 496 pages, the book is at times quitelegalistic. Yet its preponderance of evidenceand thoroughness of consideration make thebook one that policy makers concerned withthe topic cannot afford to ignore.

Over the last decade or so, the connectionbetween international policy and religion hasbeen strengthened, notably in the arena of en-vironmental conservation, and, more recently,in the area of poverty eradication, as exempli-fied by the World Bank-sponsored WorldFaiths Development Dialogue.

In making an explicit connection be-tween international human rights law andreligion, Prof. Lepard has taken this trendto the next level.

“Like normative

statements of

fundamental

ethical principles

in written and

constitutive legal

documents such

as the Universal

Declaration of

Human Rights,

revered moral

texts are looked to

by many believers

as expressions of

their highest

ethical

aspirations.”

– Brian Lepard


R E V I E W

Review, continued on page 15

Balancing human rights and statesovereignty in a multicultural world

One of the thorniest issues faced by theUnited Nations in recent years has

been how to balance state sovereignty withhuman rights. At the core: when does theworld have the right to tell a governmenthow to treat its people?

The question is made even more diffi-cult when discussed in the context of us-ing outside military force to rescue peoplefrom grievous rights violations, somethingknown as “humanitarian intervention.”

The discussion is not abstract. Therehave been recent humanitarian military in-terventions in Bosnia, Somalia, Rwanda,Haiti, Kosovo, and East Timor.

In some cases, as with Rwanda, inter-vention was too late and too weak to pre-vent a humanitarian crisis. The deploymentof a small UN peacekeeping mission in themid-1990s was virtually useless in prevent-ing ethnic violence between the Tutsi andHutu that took some 800,000 lives.

In Kosovo, a NATO force used aerialbombing in 1999 to intervene on behalf ofethnic Albanians in that Yugoslavian prov-ince. The Yugoslavian government ulti-mately reined in those responsible for vio-lations against the Kosovo Albanians, butan estimated 500 civilian lives were lost toNATO bombs.

Indeed, in virtually all such cases, themoral and policy choices are difficult.

Part of the conundrum is that interna-tional law is mixed. While some parts ofthe UN Charter clearly uphold the conceptof state sovereignty, other passages allow theSecurity Council to use military force suchas “may be necessary to maintain or restoreinternational peace and security.”

Likewise, the Universal Declaration ofHuman Rights proclaims that it is “essen-tial to promote the development of friendlyrelations between nations,” a statement of-ten interpreted as upholding state sover-eignty. But it also proclaims that“[e]veryone is entitled to a social and in-ternational order in which the rights andfreedoms set forth in this Declaration can

be fully realized,” granting in the minds ofsome a moral entitlement to human rights— not in the least of which is to life, libertyand security of person.

Into this quandary comes Brian D.Lepard and his important new book, Re-thinking Humanitarian Intervention, whichseeks to do just what its title implies: re-consider the fundamental legal and ethi-cal issues surrounding the use of force acrossinternational borders to rescue people fac-ing egregious rights violations.

The outcome of Prof. Lepard’s consider-ations is enormously significant. Among themain offerings of the book is a new meth-odology for reconciling the competing pro-visions of international law.

More specifically, Prof. Lepard suggests thatcompeting claims can be reconciled by look-ing beyond the words contained in the lawand instead to fundamental ethical principles— principles which, he further suggests, canbe derived from and supported by the reveredtexts of the world’s major religions.

Rethinking

Humanitarian

Intervention

By Brian D.

Lepard

The

Pennsylvania

State University

Press

University Park,

Pennsylvania,

USA

Documents

“The earth is but one country, and mankind its citizens