Interreligious Youth Forum on Sustainable Development

Context

In times where news regarding interreligious conflicts and wars legitimized in the name of religions are dominating our media, there is a great need for reports about the harmony between religions and the peace and love they bring into the world. An example of a most fruitful and inspiring dialogue between people from many different faith traditions took place in July 2014.

From July 13th to 18th 2014, 19 young religious leaders from 19 different countries met in Kaub, Germany, for an Interreligious Youth Forum. They gathered in order to exchange thoughts and experiences from their interfaith grassroots projects from all over the world and thematically contextualized their local projects through the sustainable development goals process. Focusing on different aspects of global needs on a local scale, all the single projects contribute to the betterment of the world. By doing so they are linked to the world leader´s initiative to implement a new set of universal development goals (SDG).

An interfaith planning team from Germany with representatives from the Muslim, Jewish, Baháí, and Christian faith invited to the youth gathering. The following statement derived from the mutual exchange during the week in Kaub and was written by the forum alumni. It addresses the international political leadership as represented by the G7 summit in Germany 2015.

 

Statement

On the occasion of the G7 2015 Summit in Germany, we, the delegates of the Interreligious Youth Forum, in Kaub, Germany, wish to take this opportunity to voice our support for the Sustainable Development Goals of the United Nations and to pledge our ongoing commitment to sustainable grassroots development social action within our own religious communities and in close collaboration with other faith groups.  

As youth delegates from over 19 different countries and representing six of the world’s religions, our mutual concern for the future of our planet and our desire to create a global partnership across religious divides brought us together to consult on the progress of the Sustainable Development Goals and Post 2015 agenda of the United Nations. Within this framework for sustainable development, we explored an important, oft-neglected determinant of the development process: the role of religious communities.  

Historically, interfaith activity around the world has aimed at building bridges of respect and tolerance between different religious communities. However, our experiences as young people of faith exploring each other’s beliefs within the framework of the SDG process have enabled us to go beyond an atmosphere of respect to one of profound openness and understanding, allowing enduring bonds of friendship to blossom between us. These ties have inspired us to commit ourselves to a long term process that many of us had little experience of before. We hope to demonstrate and highlight how interfaith action can produce positive and effective outcomes linked to development.

Together we have identified some key areas where we feel we can make a particular contribution from an inter-faith perspective; namely Justice, Peace and Education. Our contributions may be small when viewed on an individual level, but they will contribute to a wider process of collective learning, not only enriching the lives of the participants but also providing a small window for evidence-based input into the SDG process.

In our different religious traditions we share the belief that dignity and justice are gifts from God. We are challenged to end poverty, protect our planets ecosystems and facilitate sustainable development for all. Therefor we strongly welcome the framing of universal Sustainable Development Goals. We pledge ourselves to the achievement of these goals and call on all leaders to agree on ambitious targets and to fully commit themselves and their actions to the achievement of the SDG. 

Regarding our highlighted topics we emphasize that preconditions for justice are the implementation of human rights to food, health and social security, a transition to efficient and sufficient economic systems that accord with ecological boundaries and the overcoming of structural causes of inequity and all kinds of discrimination. To promote peace we demand to curtail human trafficking, arms trade and land grabbing and a commitment to peaceful ways of conflict resolution. As well as justice and peace we see education as a key to sustainable development. To ensure quality education for all has to be a priority in political agenda setting.

Furthermore, we wish to address the belief held by some that religion has a limiting or negative effect on development. In the last 15 years maintaining the sustainability of all the pro-development actions and projects has been identified as one of the key challenges. This group believes that there is every possibility that inter-faith action can enhance the sustainability of the development process, both at the level of individual and the community. Harmony in the community is an important contributing factor to sustainable development and we believe interfaith action in today’s heterogeneous society will enhance community integration, whilst proper spiritual education enables individuals to understand their responsibility towards the stewardship of the planet and the well-being of all humanity.

It is our hope that the humble insights and experiences of this group may provide useful input for policy, distinct from that of religious organizations or political bodies, presenting a unique comprehensive perspective adding to the sustainability and inclusiveness of developmental processes. We truly believe that interfaith action will bring the peoples of the world closer together and help to make this planet a place we can all enjoy together.