Bahá’í World/Volume 31/World Summit on Sustainable Development

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[Page 107]

World Summit on Sustainable Development

Held from 26 August to 4 September 2002 in Johannesburg, South Africa, the World Summit on Sustainable Development was dedicated to evaluating progress since 1992’s Earth Summit and defining new strategies for achieving sustainability.

In Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, there stands a five-meter-high, hour-glass-shaped sculpture that contains soil from some 150 nations. Called the Peace Monument, the sculpture is a symbol of people’s connection both to their environment and to each other. That connection is eloquently summarized in the monument’s inscription, from the writings of Bahá’u’lláh: “the earth is but one country, and mankind its citizens.”

The Peace Monument was inaugurated in 1992, when representatives from governments and nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) gathered in Rio de Janeiro for the Earth Summit,¹ a landmark conference to assess global issues surrounding the environment and sustainable development. That summit drew the international community one step closer to the realization of the goal of the interconnectedness and ultimate unity of the planet. The Bahá’í International Community was deeply engaged in both preparation beforehand and meetings at the summit.

Ten years later, the World Summit on Sustainable Development (WSSD) in Johannesburg, South Africa, was held to judge progress

¹ Formally known as the United Nations Conference on Environment and Development. [Page 108]since the Rio Summit. Bringing together 104 heads of state and government and thousands of NGOs, it was the largest UN conference ever. Once again, Bahá’ís contributed to many aspects of the conference and continued to stress not only the importance of unity but also the need for highlighting spiritual and religious issues in discussions on sustainable development.

A Recognition of Unity

A total of 191 countries participated in the summit, and 21,340 accreditation passes were issued. Organized by the United Nations, the summit had the goal of inspiring action towards the creation of an environmentally sound world while addressing humanity's needs for food, water, shelter, sanitation, energy, health services, and economic security.

The summit itself, which focused on government negotiations, was held at the Sandton Convention Center just outside Johannesburg. A parallel Civil Society Forum of NGOs, which attracted some 22,000 delegates, was held separately at Nasrec. The Ubuntu Village, an exhibition space that was open to government leaders, NGOs, major groups such as businesses, and the public, was created for exhibits, cultural performances, and other events designed to help facilitate new partnerships for sustainable development.

A notable factor was the increased involvement of business leaders, scientists, farmers, and other groups not traditionally part of UN conferences on the environment. This increased diversity of participants was accompanied by an affirmation of a growing sense of interconnectedness and interdependence.

"[R]ecognition has grown that, indeed, the world has grown into a global village," said Thabo Mbeki, President of South Africa, who served as the summit's chairman. "The survival of everybody in this village demands that we develop a universal consensus to act together to ensure that there is no longer any river that divides our common habitat into poor and wealthy parts. This indicates that the noble concept of human solidarity has, once again, regained currency as a driving force in the reconstruction and development of our common world." [Page 109]The summit’s declaration also reinforced the need for unity within the spheres that constitute sustainable development, stating that it must be built on three “interdependent and mutually reinforcing pillars”—economic development, social development, and environmental protection—and established “at local, national, regional, and global levels.”

For the Bahá’í representatives, the summit’s recognition of the need for unity is an important step in the right direction. Some 30 representatives of six Bahá’í and Bahá’í-inspired organizations took part in activities at all of the summit’s three venues. Delegations from the Bahá’í International Community included representatives from Bahá’í communities in Brazil, Canada, and South Africa. In addition, two Bahá’í-inspired organizations, the International Environment Forum (IEF) and the European Bahá’í Business Forum (EBBF), which operate on Bahá’í principles but have no formal connection to Bahá’í institutions, sent delegations. The IEF and EBBF shared an exhibit at the NGO Forum and presented several workshops on topics related to sustainable development.

The Bahá’í International Community and the Bahá’í community of South Africa created two exhibits, one for the Ubuntu Village and the other for the NGO Forum, highlighting the Bahá’í approach to development. They showcased Bahá’í projects that reflect values and principles at “the heart of development,” such as trustworthiness, the equality of women and men, and justice.

Other contributions included those in the arts. Two Bahá’í youth performing-arts troupes, Beyond Words and Ablaze, offered performances, and a display of “Children’s Art for the Environment” featured art from an annual competition run by the Bahá’ís in the Cape Town area.

Outcomes

Much was expected from Johannesburg, especially in terms of concrete commitments from governments. For the most part, these consisted of reaffirmations or reiterations of commitments made at the Millennium Summit in 2000 and other recent UN conferences.

On another level, however, the Johannesburg Declaration and the summit’s Plan of Implementation demonstrate both growth and [Page 110]development in the global understanding of sustainable development since the Earth Summit—particularly in terms of recognizing links between poverty, environmental protection, and the use of natural resources.

“The deep fault line that divides human society between the rich and the poor and the ever-increasing gap between the developed and developing worlds pose a major threat to global prosperity, security and stability,” states the summit’s declaration.

Additionally, the decision to hold the summit in Africa demonstrated an awareness of the needs of that continent, which stands as the least developed in the world and in dire need of attention from the international community.

Another key outcome of the Johannesburg Summit was a clear acknowledgment that sustainable development cannot be achieved without widespread collaboration among all sectors of global society. This is most clearly seen in the creation of new “Type II” partnerships between governments, businesses, and civil society, in contrast to traditional “Type I” government-to-government agreements. The Rio Declaration on Environment and Development and Agenda 21 are considered to be Type I agreements, as are the Johannesburg Declaration and its final Plan of Implementation.

Designed to stress practical collaboration on the front lines of environmental action and development, some 280 Type II partnerships were launched at the summit. They include actions like those embodied in an initiative to collect bicycles in Europe to refurbish and sell in Africa, so as to reduce CO₂ and alleviate poverty; a plan involving Asian governments and wildlife groups aimed at recognizing and protecting landing sites for migratory birds; and the creation of a public/private network in the South Pacific to help protect coral reefs and associated fisheries.

The Role of Religion

For their part, the Bahá’í participants expressed the need for expanding the vocabulary of development to include spirituality and the role of religion in the dialogue. [Page 111]In 2001, the Bahá’í International Community issued the statement entitled “Sustainable Development: The Spiritual Dimension.”² For this conference the delegation presented a follow-up statement, “Religion and Development at the Crossroads: Convergence or Divergence?”, that outlines the need for a reassessment of the role of religion in development.³

“The statement [to the ‎wssd WSSD‎] raises a bold and challenging call to the UN and to the leaders of the world’s religions,” said Peter Adriance, the lead representative of the Bahá’í International Community to the summit. “It asks the UN to more fully recognize the key role religion must play in the quest for sustainable development and it calls on religious leaders to reject all forms of religious fanaticism as impediments to development and peace.”

The Bahá’í International Community’s statement makes a clear call for a further exploration of the role of spirituality and religion:

Despite ... significant achievements, the United Nations has yet to grasp fully both the constructive role that religion can play in creating a peaceful and prosperous global order, and the destructive impact that religious fanaticism can have on the stability and progress of the world.... For its part, the United Nations might begin the process of substantively involving religion in deliberations on humankind’s future by hosting an initial gathering of religious leaders.⁴

Even though the ‎wssd WSSD‎ acknowledged the need for greater unity, unity without its spiritual underpinnings is nothing more than an arrangement of convenience. When based on spiritual understanding, however, it is a reality whose reflection needs to be seen in all efforts for the advancement of human society. As ‘Abdu’l-Bahá said,

No matter how far the material world advances, it cannot establish the happiness of mankind. Only when material and spiritual civilization are linked and coordinated will happiness be

² This statement can be found in The Bahá’í World 2001–2002, pp. 279–85.

³ For the text of this statement, see pp. 231–39.

⁴ Ibid., pp. 231–38. [Page 112]assured. Then material civilization will not contribute its energies to the forces of evil in destroying the oneness of humanity, for in material civilization good and evil advance together and maintain the same pace.⁵

The idea is not completely foreign to the development community. The 500-page document Agenda 21, which emerged from the Earth Summit and outlines an extensive plan of action for the world’s governments, businesses, and NGOs in pursuit of sustainable development, has served as a blueprint for action in the 10 years since that conference.

Agenda 21, in sections dealing with subjects as diverse as human health and deforestation, includes several mentions of the need for spirituality as well as social, economic, and other factors. Despite this, however, a true consensus on what spirituality means and how to include it in the discussions about development remains to be reached.

The motivation that drives Bahá’ís to participate in these gatherings is ‎an an an‎ acknowledgement of the need for the integration of spiritual concerns into development issues, which arises from the essential reality of humankind. As the Bahá’í International Community writes in “Sustainable Development: The Spiritual Dimension”:

For the vast majority of the world’s people the idea that human nature is fundamentally spiritual is an incontrovertible truth. Indeed, this perception of reality is the defining cultural experience for most of the world’s people and is inseparable from how they perceive themselves and the world around them. It is, therefore, only by bringing a focus on the spiritual dimension of human reality that development policies and programs can truly reflect the experiences, conditions, and aspirations of the planet’s inhabitants and elicit their heartfelt support and active participation.⁶

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⁵ ‘Abdu’l-Bahá, The Promulgation of Universal Peace: Talks Delivered by ‘Abdu’l-Bahá during His Visit to the United States and Canada in 1912, rev. ed. (Wilmette, IL: Bahá’í Publishing Trust, 1995), p. 109.

⁶ See The Bahá’í World, 2001–2002, p. 280.