Source: Religion News Service
NEW YORK, NEW YORK, June 5, 2002: A recent study by the group Religion Counts says religious organizations are becoming more prominent at the United Nations and will continue to have a “potent” role in shaping future international public policy. “Religion has been a critical part of the UN since its inception and continues to offer a distinct dimension and voice here that other entities do not bring to international issues,” said Philip Boyle, chief operating officer of the Chicago-based Park Ridge Center for the Study of Health, Faith and Ethics. Boyle was one of the authors of the report, “Religion and Public Policy at the United Nations.” Beginning with the UN’s 1994 International Conference on Population and Development in Cairo, Egypt — at which the Vatican, joined by several Central American and Muslim nations, and advocates of family planning and birth control publicly clashed — and continuing with the ongoing series of UN conferences since then, religious-linked issues such as population, development and AIDS have been at the forefront at international forums. And while UN leaders, such as Secretary General Kofi Annan, have praised religion’s “transcendent, spiritual dimension,” it is also clear there is not a consensus at the UN on what the “religious voice” means or what the “appropriate role” of religion ought to be, the report concluded. One of the report’s findings is that conservative Christian religious groups that once shunned the international body are enjoying increased prominence, as are non-Christian groups, such as Buddhists. “The religious ecology of the UN is more diverse than ever,” the report said.