Interreligious movement and the Earth Charter at Rio+20

Guest post by Michael Slaby

The best way to meet people is to be where the food is – so the food court of the Rio Centro Convention Center is the place where the main networking is happening and where the latest news about crucial side events or the latest developments of the governmental negotiations are being shared. And if you are looking for someone whose phone does not work, the best way to find this person is to have a coffee in the food court and trust that the need for coffee will eventually make this person show up in the world’s largest cafeteria, about the size of two soccer fields.

Yesterday morning, I was on a panel organized by the Temple of Understanding on Interreligious Collaboration for Sustainable Development. Many speakers and participants agreed that it is crucial that religious and spiritual communities weigh in on addressing the root causes of our global sustainability crisis.

Over the past ten momths, I have been working with Earth Charter Commissioner Rabbi Awraham Soetendorp on crafting an interreligious appeal to the Rio + 20 Conference called "Towards Rio + 20 and Beyond - A Turning Point in Earth History".

The declaration calls for a radical change of our current, unsustainable, growth-based economic paradigm. It includes the commitment of faith-based organizations to work collaboratively towards the creation of a new economy and list some key recommendations to the assembling governments.  It especially urges the governments to accept the importance of shared ethical and spiritual values as expressed in the Earth Charter and to seize the historic opportunity of the Rio + 20 Conference to guide the world to a sustainable track.

The statement is being read and quoted at different events and being used as a background for crafting a Peoples’ Treaty on Ethical and Spiritual Values for Sustainable Development that is being discussed at the Peoples Summit.

Among the initial signers of the statement are His Holiness, the XIVth Dalai Lama, Dadi Janki,  the spiritual head of the Brahma Kumaris, Revd. Makgoba, Archbishop of Cape Town,  Chief Imam of India Umair Ilyasi, and the Earth Charter Commissioner and Maori Elder Pauline Tangiora. Many high-level faith leaders have already signed on to it. To allow the statement to go viral, we have posted it on an online platform where it can be endorsed by faith-based organizations and supportive individuals.

Please feel invited to sign on to the statement and share it with the religious and spiritual communities in your networks. You will find the document at:

http://www.ipetitions.com/petition/towards-rio-20-and-beyond

With the endorsements we will be able to present a strong and unified message to the Rio + 20 Conference of the “unofficial 10^th major group” – the world’s religious and spiritual traditions that need to be involved in the discussions so that they can bring to the table the wisdom that has guided human conduct for centuries. In the follow-up we will use the statement as a basis for moving forward in creating a global interreligious partnership for justice, peace and sustainability. Quoting the final lines of the statement:

“Humble in the consciousness that the consequences of our decisions and actions are being felt by many generations to come, we turn to the Source of All Being for strength and courage. May our children, and our children’s children take pride in our actions.”