چکیده:
There is an urgent need for methods by which people and communities of faith
peacebuilding and human rights development. This paper argues for a holistic
understanding of peacebuilding that includes security of life, a guarantee of
subsistence, and the pursuit of other fundamental human rights. This need is
especially acute in countries of rising instability or post-conflict rebuilding. More
and more countries face a downward spiral of instability even though many
leaders and bodies seek to reverse this trend. Sadly, even among those countries
that emerge from conflict, one-half revert to conflict within five years. Hence the
question this paper addresses is, “How shall people and communities of religious
conviction be effectively engaged in a peacebuilding and human rights process?”
This people factor is too little understood, even though the role of citizens in
transitional states has long been acknowledged as essential for just and
sustainable change. For peace accords and international conventions, in and of
themselves, do not make peace or deliver human rights. Neither does the arrival
of international peacekeepers nor the speeches of clerics and political leaders.
While these developments are helpful stimuli, real human peace and security
derives from community-based initiatives that create a “positive deviance” for
peaceable, rights-oriented living vis-à-vis governments and other forces.
Thus this paper will hypothesize a methodology whereby citizens engage religious
institutions, governments (local and national), and international change agents to
transform conflict into promising peace and rights. It will identify common
peacebuilding principles operating across sectors of human development, security, and
rights-oriented work. These sectors may include at least the following: health,
conservation, education, security, labor, spirituality, and corporate social responsibility.
This paper also seeks to hone a typology of human rights and peacebuilding
challenges facing countries of instability and post-conflict rebuilding. Categories
may include at least the following: stages and types of conflict, fragile and failed
states, overlooked populations, ethnic and racial discrimination, transnational
politics and justice, natural resource and wealth distribution, and social capital.
خلاصه ماشینی:
Engaging Religious Communities in Human Rights Dan Wessner <FootNote No="263" Text="Professor of International and Political Studies, Future Generations University of America.
Hence the question this paper addresses is, “How shall people and communities of religious conviction be effectively engaged in a peacebuilding and human rights process?” This people factor is too little understood, even though the role of citizens in transitional states has long been acknowledged as essential for just and sustainable change.
While these developments are helpful stimuli, real human peace and security derives from community-based initiatives that create a “positive deviance” for peaceable, rights-oriented living vis-à-vis governments and other forces.
Thus this paper will hypothesize a methodology whereby citizens engage religious institutions, governments (local and national), and international change agents to transform conflict into promising peace and rights.
In my own tradition – Mennonite/Anabaptist Christianity – those scriptural people who bridged the exclusivist bonded interests of religious community to forge relations among strangers and enemies; these are the transcendent pillars of faith – Job, Esau, Joseph, Moses, Ruth, and Jesus.
Since modern nation-states seek to affect the bonding and bridging social capital, religious groups must study how to link vertically with state and international governance to promote a broader public good for diverse communities.
It presumes the right to exercise military force globally, regardless of long-honored self-defense principles of international law, state necessity to survive immediate threats and secure fundamental interests, or humanitarian response to gross human rights violations.