Religious leaders have 'great power to strengthen respect for human dignity', she argues Shortly before the world's Heads of State and Government met in New York for the United Nations's Millennnium Summit, a less publicised but no less important meeting took place in the same city. They came from all of the great faiths, including Bahai, Buddism, Christianity, Confuscianism, Hinduism, Indigenous Peoples, Islam, Jainism, Judaism, Shinto, Sikhism, Taoism, Zoroastrianism. The goal of the Religious Summit was to identify ways that the worldwide religious and spiritual communities can work together as interfaith allies with the United Nations on specific peace, poverty and environmental issues. I welcomed the holding of the Religious Summit for many reasons and was encouraged by its outcome. It was highly appropriate because of Article 18 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and the Declaration on the Elimination of all forms of Intolerance Based on Religion or Belief, adopted by the UN General Assembly in 1981, which I discuss below.
Religious leaders have great power to strengthen respect for human dignity.
Their active support and involvement are essential if the goal of universal human rights is to be achieved. I believe that there should be a more intense dialogue between religious leaders and the human rights community. We have a great deal in common - perhaps more than is sometimes realised. An experience which I found enlightening was when my office organised a seminar with Islamic scholars to discuss Islamic perspectives on the Universal Declaration on Human Rights. What was interesting was that, in all the discussions, no one expressed doubt about the relevance of international human rights standards.