Sunday Times 2
Our century of last opportunity
| Judge C. G Weeramantry, former Senior Vice President of the International Court of Justice was invited to speak at the Peace Summit of the World Alliance of Religions held at Seoul from September 17-19. This was a conference attended by around 2,000 delegates from all countries, religious leaders of all denominations and some former and present Heads of States and Chief Justices.
The purpose of this meeting was to emphasise the urgency of our moving towards one world of all humanity dedicated to peace and justice. A notable feature of the event was the presence of more than 100,000 citizens who filled the Seoul Olympic stadium for the opening ceremony and participated in the peace walk. Judge Weeramantry stressed the importance of restoring the connection between global religious wisdom and international law, which had been broken during the religious wars of the 17th century. He also stressed the need to rebuild this linkage as every major principle of international law can derive support from the teachings of all religions. The following are extracts from his address: |
We are meeting to discuss two of the most important topics that can ever be discussed at an international forum — the topic of peace on earth and the role that religion can play in taking humanity towards this goal.
There is no doubt that if the teachings of religion are followed, humanity will find itself on the high road to global peace, which has been humanity’s dream since civilisation began. Unfortunately, these teachings have been grossly violated over the centuries. We have weapons available today, a single one of which surpasses, in atrocity and destructive power, all the weapons used in World Wars I and II combined. The danger to the human future is thus greater than ever before in human history.
While the danger signals are flashing all around us and the problems before us are growing, we do not realise that a solution is at hand if only we would use it. That solution is to work out a set of rules of international conduct which all the world accepts and which will be binding not through force of arms, but through its own compelling moral authority.
International law took its origins from the religious and philosophical thinking of all civilisations. What was envisaged was one system of law based on equity and justice. This would be instinctively obeyed by all nations.
Ancient Hinduism captured this idea beautifully when it taught that the future sovereign of the world would not be a physical emperor, but the “kingless authority of the law.” Rules of righteous conduct towards one’s neighbour, the peaceful settlement of disputes, protection of the environment, care for future generations, humanitarian conduct, respect for treaties and agreements – all these were taught by all religions and were interwoven into the corpus of international law. Treatises on international law as a discipline in itself began to appear and religious principles were integrated into them.
However, the wars of religion in the 17th century, especially the Thirty-Year War (1618-1648), caused so much death and destruction that philosophers giving their attention to the future law of nations naturally sought to distance this discipline from religion. Writers like Hugo Grotius, whose great work on War and Peace in1625, did much to trigger the evolution of modern international law, and made it clear that they were distancing this discipline from religion.
As the new system of international law took root in the 17th, 18th and 19th centuries, it proved itself unable to halt wars in which the rich and powerful states victimised and took over those unable to defend themselves. Numerous wars in Europe and the contest for colonies stained those centuries with blood on an increasing scale. The 19th century, with the Napoleonic wars and others, was one of the most blood drenched centuries the world had seen. Four hundred peace societies came into existence around the world. They along with the great Peace Conference of 1899 sought, to plan for a century of peace as a new century was about to dawn. Those plans failed and the 20th century was even more deeply drenched in blood than any century which preceded it. That was a century of lost opportunity.
We are in the early phases of a new century. If humanity bungled its affairs in the 20th century and it was torn with war, humanity still had another century, the 21st century, to put its affairs in order. If we bungle the 21st century, as the 20th century was bungled, we will have no further century in which to put our house in order, as this is the first century to dawn with humanity having the power to destroy itself. This is our century of last opportunity.
The Peace Summit of the World Alliance of Religions in Seoul
It must be remembered that international law has no armies at its disposal, powerful enough to challenge the great armies of the world. It can only rely for obedience on the universal respect it commands. As Albert Einstein observed, “peace cannot be kept by force, it can only be achieved by understanding”. There is no better route towards generating that understanding of peace and respect for international law than by showing the commonality of the teachings of the great religions on the foundational principles on which international law is built. I recall in this context that when I was on the International Court we often delivered judgments requiring states with armies at their command to vacate territory or take other action that international law required. We did not have a single policeman or soldier to enforce our judgment, but more than 90 per cent of them were honoured and obeyed by states with powerful armies at their disposal.
Topics on which all religions are in total agreement are the following:
- Unity of the human family
- Trusteeship of earth resources
- The centrality of the value of peace
- The duty to resolve all disputes peacefully
Judge C. G Weeramantry
- The avoidance of iniquities and inequalities which generate tension and war
- Protecting the rights of future generations
- The rejection of short-term perspectives
- Equitable sharing of earth’s resources
- The duty of humanitarian conduct
- The duty to respect human rights
- Regard and love for one’s neighbour
- Righteous conduct
- The sanctity of treaties
Inspiring scriptural passages can be collected from all religions formulating these principles and making them obligatory.
Space does not permit references to the religious teaching on all the topics outlined above but the first of them will be dealt with by way of illustration. This is a challenging task that lies ahead.
Teachings to be considered in this address will include those of Buddhism, Christianity, Hinduism, Islam, Confucian teaching, Daoism, Jainism, Judaism, Sikhism, Baha’i faith and Zoroastrianism.
All of this needs to be disseminated among the global public and that is a major task devolving on this vital conference.
Unity of the human family
Teachings of all religions are quite categorical on this.
Lord Buddha was perhaps the first to point out that whereas every living species on the planet, whether it be a plant or a worm or an insect or a bird or a mammal, has many subspecies within it, humans are all cast in one species. “Thus there are no characteristics indicating differences of species among human beings in the way in which there are characteristics indicative of differences in species among animals and plants.”
Hinduism has adopted an ancient Sanskrit phrase Vasudha eva kutumbakam, which translates as “The world is one family.” Indeed, Hinduism is all-embracing, not only horizontally across the peoples of this world, but vertically across all the generations to come. All of this together is regarded as the one human family to which we all belong.
There is the fundamental teaching, in Christianity, that all humans are God’s children and the prime prayer of Christianity, the Lord’s Prayer, taught by Jesus himself, begins with the words, “Our Father”. This carries the clear implication that every human being has a direct relationship with God and is a member of one family, headed by God, their Father. This broke through earlier traditions that one has to be in a special position to be able to address God direct, and thus stressed the unity of the human family.
Noteworthy in this connection is the celebrated farewell sermon of Prophet Mohammed. “The aristocracy of yore is trampled under my feet. The Arab has no superiority over the non-Arab and the non-Arab has no superiority over the Arab, all alike are children of Adam and Eve.”
Judaic teachings stress that God and all humans are closely interlinked. The inter-connectedness and relationship with God extends to “Kings and all peoples, princes and all other rulers …” (Psalm 148). Not only are all people interlinked, but that there is an inter-linkage of the generations as well. To be a Jew is to be a link in the chain of generations.
Zoroastrianism stresses that all humans cannot exist but for the support they get from each other. This inter-relationship needs to function smoothly and harmoniously so that no one harms or endangers the other, just as the basis of the just world order of the future, will be unity amongst humanity through good thoughts, good words and good deeds.
Confucius said that all people on earth are brothers and sisters. He drew attention to their unity of teachings of all faiths and deplored the barriers caused by false views of religion.
“If you can’t see God in all, you can’t see God at all”. (Sri Singh Sahib, Yogi Bhajan)
Sikhism condemned religious fanaticism and Guru Nanak’s teaching was that God is everywhere and is present in every one and no religion is superior to another. All religious paths lead to God and most importantly there are common universal values (Dharma) which are binding upon all people whatever their race or nation or faith. “Recognise the Lord’s Light (Spirit) within all, and do not consider social class or status; there are no classes or castes in the world hereafter” (Guru Granth Sahib Ji, 349).
Jainism had a world view of all-beings being in tune with infinity. The entire universe is a living creation and all creations are inter-locked with each other.
Daoism sees all humans as being of one family. It teaches that harmony between humans and harmony between humans and the environment are of the utmost importance.
“So powerful is the light of unity that it can illuminate the whole earth.” These words of His Holiness Baha’u'llah, show that all human activity must be structured to the needs of the single family of humanity. There should also be a worldwide set of values, to serve the single worldwide community of humanity. Fundamental part of Baha’i teaching is that oneness of humanity is “the fundamental spiritual truth of our age”.
“The world of humanity is like unto a rose garden and the various races, tongues and people are like unto contrasting flowers. The diversity of colours in a rose-garden adds to the charm and beauty of the scene as variety enhances unity” (`Abdu’l-Bahá 1918, p. 183)
All the other principles referred to can be similarly illustrated by quotations from all religions, but time does not permit this.
Identifying the causes of war
Even more important than mere condemnations of war and passages promoting peace is the task of addressing the causes of war and preventing them. For the purpose of this brief study I have selected 10 of the principal causes of war. If these are duly attended to, there will be no wars. The purpose of this note is to set specimens of the teachings of all religions of these fundamental causes of war. This note can be considerably amplified with quotations from every religion, but it will suffice to show how widespread is the religious condemnation of these sorts of conduct.
One of the mistakes we make today is to condemn war in general terms without condemning the causes of war. This note goes further than this common approach and gets to the root causes of war. If we eliminate them, we have a peaceful world. Every religion commands us to eliminate them. Let us eliminate the causes and war will be a thing of the past. A list follows of the 10 examples followed by specimen references from various religions to the need to avoid such patterns of conduct.
These teachings are absolutely unanimous and totally condemnatory of the items of conduct involved.
Among the causes of war are:
Revenge – “An eye for an eye makes the whole blind” – Mahatma Gandhi on revenge
Anger and hatred towards one’s neighbour.
Lack of understanding of the culture and history of one’s neighbour Ignorance & misunderstanding of other religions.
Abuse of economic power to exploit a poor neighbour Use of military power to increase one’s territory The strength of the Military-industrial complex Lack of respect for human dignity and human rights Traffic in arms and armament
Failure to settle disputes amicably before they erupt into hostilities and war Lack of self-restraint in the exercise of power Greed and acquisitiveness Pride failure to consider principles of peace and justice Quotations can be collected from all the religions condemning each of these in the strongest terms but they are practised by governments which claim they are committed to peace and righteous conduct.
As Thomas Kempis has said, “All men desire peace but few desire the things that make for peace” (Imitation of Christ 144).
St Augustine, in his Confessions, puts this rather picturesquely when he said, “It is one thing to see the land of peace from a wooded ridge … and another to take the road that leads to it.”
Courses of education linking peace, religion and international law are imperative and must be made available to ministries of education throughout the world for incorporation in school and university curricula. Much work needs to be done in constructing these study materials and there should also be public lectures enabling these lines of thought to reach the general public.
The history of peace movements and peace conferences and the reasons of their failures and successes should be opened out to make the public more aware how wars can be avoided and peace can prevail. Regular meetings between religious leaders and legal professions, judges and law makers should also be arranged to discuss these matters.
This conference has the potential to make a sterling contribution to the future welfare of humanity. Before this century dawned, we did not give the necessary thought towards planning a century of peace, as was done before the 20th century began. The great Peace Conference of 1899 may not have succeeded in ending wars, but at least it succeeded in laying the foundations for an international court for the first time in human history. The International Court of Justice evolved as a result of its efforts. There is a role for organisations such as this to bring together thinkers and concerned citizens to plan a future of peace and drag us out of the blood-stained shackles of war. Far too long has war been a part of the human condition. We cannot afford to let this continue any longer. We all have a role to play.
The answer to all our difficulties and problems is before us. Let us grasp it, make use of global religious wisdom which is the birth-right of all world citizens, enrich our relationships with each other and ensure a better world for future generationd, whose welfare is our sacred trust.