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In 2000, three gatherings held at the United
Nations brought together leaders Ofnations, ofcivil society, and ofworld religions to
address the ChallengeS/aeing humanity as it enters the twenty—first century.
MILLENNIUM EVENTS
Over the past decade, the United Nations has sponsored a series of international gatherings aimed at highlighting and promoting constructive action on some of the most pressing social issues currently confronting humanity. Among the largest of these gatherings have been the UN Conference on Environment and Development (the Earth Summit); the World Conference on Human Rights; the World Summit for Social Development; the Fourth World Conference on Women; and Habitat II. The series culminated in the holding of 21 Millennium Forum for non governmental organizations (NGOS) in May 2000 and of a Millennium Summit for heads of state and government in September 2000. Both took place at the United Nations Headquarters in New York. A Millennium World Peace Summit of Religious and Spiritual Leaders, although not an official United Nations event, was also held in part at the United Nations immediately prior to the governmental leaders’ summit.
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Millennium Forum
The first of these three events, the Millennium Forum, was held from 22 to 26 May 2000 and brought together more than one thousand representatives of NGOs from some one hundred counties. The purpose of the gathering was “to consult about the role of the United Nations in confronting the great global challenges facing humanity in the twenty-first century.”
Consultation focused on peace, security, and disarmament; the eradication of poverty, including debt cancellation and social development; human rights; sustainable development and the environment; facing the challenges of globalization; achieving equity, justice, and diversity; and strengthening and democratizing the United Nations and other international organizations.
The Millennium Forum was first called for by United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan, in recognition that the Views and recommendations of organizations of civil society would be beneficial to all delegations represented in the UN General Assembly.
At the end of the Forum, participants adopted a Declaration to be presented to world leaders at the Millennium Summit in September. The Declaration made recommendations for revitalizing the United Nations and affirmed,
...in our Vision, we are one human family, in all our diversity, living on one common homeland and sharing a just, sustainable, and peaceful world, guided by universal principles of democracy, equality, inclusion, voluntarism, nondiscrimination, and participation by all persons... It is a world where peace and human security, as envisioned in the principles of the United Nations Chaiter, replace armaments, violent conflict, and wars. It is a world where everyone lives in a clean environment with a fair distn'bution of the earth’s resources. Our vision includes a special role for the dynamism of young people and the experience of the elderly and reaffirms the universality, indivisibility, and interdependence of all human rights—civil, political, economic, social, and cultural.
As the cochair of the Millennium Forum was the Bahá’í In ternational Community’s principal representative, Techeste Ahderom, the BIC’s United Nations Office served as the focal
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point and de facto office of the Millennium Forum during the period leading up to the event. Upwards of eight F orum interns worked with the BIC staff. BIC representatives also served on the executive committee, convened the thematic group on religion, and served on the drafting committee for the final document issued as the Millennium Forum Declaration. Lawrence Arturo and Diane ‘Ala’i represented the Bahá’í International Community at the Millennium F orum.
Millennium World Peace Summit
of Religious and Spiritual Leaders The Millennium World Peace Summit of Religious and Spiritual Leaders took place from 28 to 31 August 2000 at the United Nations and the Waldorf—Astoria Hotel in New York City. It brought together some one thousand religious leaders, representing every major world religion—the Bahá’í Faith, Buddhism, Chn'stianity, Hinduism, Islam, Jainism, Judaism, Shintoism, Sikhism, and Zoroastrianism, as well as indigenous religions from almost every continent. The purpose of the gathering was “to further the prospects for peace among peoples and nations, and within every individual.” In essence, participants recognized that it is time for the world’s religious communities to stop fighting and arguing among themselves and, in an atmosphere of mutual respect and understanding, to begin working together—in cooperation with secular leaders at the United Nations and elsewhere—for peace, justice, the eradication of extreme poverty, the protection of the environment, and social harmony.
At the event’s conclusion, participants adopted and signed a Declaration entitled Commitment to Global Peace. It notes that “the United Nations and the religions of the world have a common concern for human dignity, justice and peace”; it accepts that “men and women are equal partners in all aspects of life and children are the hope of the future”; it acknowledges that “religions have contributed to the peace of the world but have also been used to create division and fuel hostilities”; and finally, it resolves to “collaborate with the United Nations and all men and women of goodwill locally, regionally, and globally in the pursuit of peace in all its dimensions.” Further, the Declaration condemns all Violence in the
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name of religion, calls for the protection of the environment for fiature generations, and urges religious communities to respect the right to freedom of religion.
The seeretary-general of the Bahá’í International Community, MI‘. Albeit Lincoln, represented the Bahá’í Faith at the gathering. He was invited to offer a Bahá’í prayer during the opening session of the Summit and to give an address during the third plenary session in the General Assembly Hall of the United Nations. His presentation called on the gathering to work for a “global community based on unity in diversity” through identifying “core values that are common to all religious and spiritual traditions.” He noted, “Our disordered world is in desperate need of a moral compass that is above passing fashion and untainted by the pervasive materialism of the modern era. The convening of this Summit suggests that the world has become aware of this need and of the capacity latent in the world’s religious traditions.” Lawrence Arturo and Bani Dugal-Gujral also attended the Summit as Bahá’í representatives, and the Bahá’í International Community’s United Nations Office contn'buted to the Commitment to Global Peace Declaration.
While the religious summit was not an official United Nations event, the United Nations made its General Assembly Hall available for plenary sessions, and UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan addressed the participants, referring to the event as “one of the most inspiring gatherings ever held here” and noting, “Whatever your past, whatever your calling, and Whatever the differences among you, your presence here at the United Nations
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' Albert Lincoln, secretary-general Ofthe Bahá’í' International Community, addressing the Millennium World Peace Summit of Religious and Spiritual Leaders.
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signifies your commitment to our global mission of tolerance, development, and peace.” Summit organizers said that many of the groups involved had not previously participated significantly in interfaith events, and so their commitment was particularly heartenmg.
Millennium Summit
The largest gathering of heads of state and government ever held, the Millennium Summit took place from 6 to 8 September 2001 at United Nations Headquarters in New York City. Of the UN’s 189 member states, 187 took part in the event, which focused on the theme “The Role of the United Nations in the Twenty-First Century.” Nearly 200 delegations were represented by 99 heads of state, 47 heads of government, three crown princes, five Vice presidents, and a number of deputy prime ministers, foreign ministers, and ambassadors.
The Summit’s final Declaration lists six “fimdamental values” that must form the basis of international relations: fieedom, equality, solidarity, tolerance, respect for nature, and shared responsibility. The Declaration also voices a determination “to establish a just and lasting peace all over the world.” In it, the world’s leaders state: “We recognize that, in addition to our separate responsibilities to our individual societies, we have a collective responsibility to uphold the principles of human dignity, equality, and equity at the global level. As leaders we have a duty therefore to all the world’s people, especially the most vulnerable and, in particular, the children of the world, to whom the future belongs.”
Leaders also discussed the moral imperative and necessity of ending extreme poverty; the importance of understanding globalization as more than an economic phenomenon, with positive and negative impacts, and that it must be justly and democratically regulated in order to benefit all; the importance of giving special attention to the development needs of Africa; the imperative to take action on climate change; the need to reform the Security Council as well as international financial and trade systems; and the importance of involving civil society and the private sector in development efforts. Debt relief, combating HIV/AIDS, corruption, the effects of civil war, and the challenges of building
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T echeste A hderom, principal representative of the Bahá’í International Community [0 the United Nations, speaking befbre the Millennium Summit in his capacity as coChairman qfthe Millennium F 0mm.
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democratic societies in the wake of the collapse of communism were other topics on the agenda.
By the time they left, the leaders had signed, ratified or acceded to some 40 international treaties. They had also pledged, in a special session of the Security Council, to strengthen peacemaking and peacekeeping efforts.
In an innovative approach to UN summitry, four roundtable discussions took place, allowing world leaders to exchange Views freely in gatherings of 30 to 50.
A significant feature of the Millennium Summit was the invitation extended by UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan t0 the NGO F orum to participate. As cochair Of the Millennium Forum, the Bahá’í International Community’s principal representative, Techeste Ahderom, was asked by Mr. Annan to undertake this assignment. After all national leaders had spoken and before the Summit adopted its final Declaration on 8 September, Mr. Ahderom addressed the gathering and presented to it a report of the Forum. Referring to the Declaration and Agenda for Action that had been formulated and adopted by the Forum participants, he said:
After hearing your speeches here over the last three days, I must say that our Vision and plan of action are consonant with much of what has been said. ..
I am personally heartened by this and feel that this historic Summit may well be remembered as having opened the door
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to a long-awaited era of peace, justice, and prosperity for all humanity. This new era will, of course, require concrete deeds and not just words.
We in civil society stand ready to work with you and your governments, side by side, in a strong new partnership to create this new world. At the same time, civil society also stands ready to hold you to your commitments if you do not deliver on your words.1
While the media’s coverage of these three signal events was generally either cynical or nonexistent, the significance of the gathering of so many organizations representing the world’s peoples, so many religious leaders, and so many governments and heads of state will someday be recognized as an important step forward in humanity’s j ourney towards the attainment of world peace. As the Universal House of Justice noted, in a letter that was addressed to all National Spiritual Assemblies, dated 24 September 2000:
For any observer imbued with the Bahá’í Vision of peace and its inherent process, the substance and implications of these recent events, seen together with previous world conferences that during the last decade also involved leaders of nations, must be gratifying indeed to contemplate. It must, too, be doubly thrilling to realize that at so early a stage in the Bahá’í era, representatives of our international community took part so notably in these occurrences that have set down milestones along the way towards that new World Order so clearly foreshadowed by the Pen of Baha’u’llah.
' For the full text of Mr. Ahderom’s address to the Millennium Summit, see pp. 24347.
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