The Contribution of Interreligious Initiatives to Human Rights Education

Abstract

Starting point of this paper is the declaration of the First World Assembly of the international movement Religions for Peace/RfP (former World Conference on Religion and Peace/WCRP) 1970 in Kyoto/Japan where representatives of religions from many parts of the world came together (during the middle of the Cold War). Human Rights were one of the central concerns from the very beginning of the movement: The declaration’s focus on the equality and dignity of all human beings corresponds with the 1st article of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, pointing out the inviolability of the individual and their conscience concerning the rights to freedom of belief, underlining the solidarity of the poor and oppressed with the vision of the human family. But also values and behaviors have been referenced which are particularly at home in the religions: Love, compassion, selflessness, the power of the mind… The paper will explain how these ideas have spread out during the development of the interreligious movement—and have been recognized as a challenge for education. The Sixth World Assembly in 1994, conducted in the Vatican, initiated the establishment of the Peace Education Standing Commission (PESC) within RfP of which professor Lähnemann is the chair and in which interreligious peace education projects and endeavor are documentated to bring them into discussion with one another. It is explained how in interreligious cooperation impulses can be given for human rights education—on the international, the national and the local level.

Originally published as “Der Beitrag interreligiöser Initiativen zur Menschenrechtsbildung”, in: M. L. Pirner, J. Lähnemann, H. Bielefeldt (Hrsg.) Menschenrechte und inter-religiöse Bildung, EB-Verlag Dr. Brandt e.K., Berlin 2015.