soka gakkai international quarterly magazine number 42 · soka gakkai international quarterly...

SGIQuarterlyA Buddhist Forum for Peace, Culture and Education

ISSN 1341-6510

Soka Gakkai International Quarterly Magazine Number 42

IN THIS ISSUE:The UN: Past, Present, Future

2005October

The UN is a vital forum for global debate (p. 3)

Soka Gakkai International Quarterly Magazine Number 42

SGIQuarterly

The SGI Quarterly aims to highlight initiatives and perspectives onpeace, education and culture and to provide information about theSGI’s activities around the world. The views expressed are not nec-essarily those of the SGI. The editorial team (see back cover) wel-comes ideas and comments from readers.

C O N T E N T SFeature

The UN: Past, Present, Future..............................................1PAST

The Relevance of the UN in Its 60th Year by Shashi Tharoor.............................................................2A Time of Hope: Conversations with Early Staffers of the UN by Andrew Gebert............................................4Adding History to the Debate by Jean Krasno .................7

PRESENTGraphic Overview of the UN............................................9A Working Partnership—The UN and Civil Society: Interview with Gillian Sorensen .....................................10Faith in the Future—The Role of the UN Religious

Community by Hiro Sakurai...........................................12On the Ground with the UN by Shohrat A. Orazov .......13

FUTUREDelegates for a Day by Jan Fredrickson .........................14A Vision for the Earth by Robert Muller........................15Youth Voices ..................................................................15

People:A Broader Vision by Sophie Theven, Switzerland ............18A New Direction by Kaori Yasuoka, Thailand...................19

Portraits of Global Citizens: ....................................................20Lion of Freedom: Nelson Mandela

Arts and Education: .................................................................22The Soka Gakkai Youth Peace Conference by Kimiaki Kawai

Around the World: ..................................................................24SGI’s Role in Multicultural Australia; Reflecting on War;Youth and Sustainable Development; Hurricane Katrina ReliefEfforts; Serbia and Montenegro; Peace Symposium in India;“Dialogue with Nature” Exhibition in Vietnam; Women’sPeace Conference in Malaysia; Helping Taiwanese Elemen-tary Schools

Buddhism in Daily Life: ...........................................................29Three Poisons—the Source of the Problem

A Buddhist Forum for Peace, Culture and Education

October 2005

Perhaps the next stage of the UN’sdevelopment will see more focus onrelations with the Earth itself (p. 17)

SGI MEMBERS IN MADAGASCAR

This issue of the SGI Quarterlyfocuses on the 60th anniversary ofthe founding of the United Nations.

Revisiting its founding spirit, weexamine the past through interviewswith early UN staffers, the presentthrough current issues and experi-

ences, the future through the eyes ofyouth. The SGI has consistently sup-ported the lofty aims of the UN and

carried out public education activitiesto help broaden awareness of thevital role of the UN as a forum fordialogue, consensus-building and

action to address the common chal-lenges facing our world. To quote

SGI President Daisaku Ikeda’sthoughts on the 60th anniversary inhis 2005 peace proposal, “For thegood of our planet, for the good ofhumankind, let us make the most of

this opportunity, bringing all ourintelligence and conviction to bearon the challenges of reforming andstrengthening the United Nations.”

UNICEF Turkmenistan/2004/Pirozzi

he UN system turns 60 thisyear. Sixty is the age whenpeople at the UN contem-plate retirement. Is the UN

ready to be pensioned off? Ouranswer is a resounding “no”—theworld needs the United Nations now,more than ever.

The United Nations was foundedat the end of a period bookended bytwo savage World Wars that beganwithin 25 years of each other.

In the first half of the 20th century,people in most parts of the worldscarcely had the luxury of decidingwhether they were interested inworld politics. World politics took athoroughly intrusive interest in them.Horror succeeded horror, until, in1945, the world was brought face to

face with the terribletragedies wrought by war,fascism, attempted geno-cide and the nuclear bomb.Had things gone on like that,the future of the human race wouldhave been bleak indeed.

The second half of the 20th centurywas far from perfect. But it was a spec-tacular improvement on the first half.

Progress MadeI do not deny that tyrannies and civil

wars and even international wars con-tinued, and billions of people still livein extreme and degrading poverty. Butthe overall record of the second half ofthe 20th century is one of amazingadvances. Many in the industrializedworld now enjoy a level of prosperity,

and have access to a rangeof experiences, that theirgrandparents could scarce-ly have dreamt of; and evenin the developing world,there has been spectaculareconomic growth. Childmortality has been reduced.Literacy has spread. Thepeoples of the so-called“Third World” threw offthe yoke of colonialism, andthose of the Soviet bloc wonpolitical freedom. Democ-racy and human rights arenot yet universal, but theyare now much more thenorm than the exception.

Did all this happen byaccident? No. It happenedbecause, in and after 1945, agroup of farsighted leaderswere determined to makethe second half of the 20thcentury different from thefirst.

So they drew up rules to governinternational behavior, and they

founded institutions in which dif-ferent nations could cooperate

for the common good. Thatwas the idea of “global gov-ernance”—to foster interna-tional cooperation, for theelaboration of consensualglobal norms and for the

establishment of predictable,universally applicable rules, to

the benefit of all.The keystone of the arch was the

United Nations itself. The UN wasseen by world leaders as the only pos-sible alternative to the disastrousexperiences of the first half of the cen-tury. It stood for a world in whichpeople of different nations and cul-tures looked on each other, not as sub-jects of fear and suspicion but aspotential partners.

The U.S. President who presided atthe birth of the UN, Harry Truman,put it clearly: “You have created agreat instrument for peace and secu-rity and human progress in theworld,” he declared to the assembledsignatories of the United NationsCharter in San Francisco on June 26,1945. “. . . If we fail to use it, we shallbetray all those who have died inorder that we might meet here in free-dom and safety to create it. If we seekto use it selfishly—for the advantageof any one nation or any small groupof nations—we shall be equally guiltyof that betrayal.”

The UN Charter was not, however,the work of starry-eyed idealists, butrather of the leaders of the coalition ofstates that won the Second WorldWar, and what they were seeking todo was convert their wartime allianceinto a peacetime organization.

The world for which they hadfought was a world of increasingopenness; of imperial contractionmaking way for the expansion of free-dom; of growing mutual confidence;above all, a world of hope.

That hope seemed to have dimmedaround the world in 2003. A Pew Poll

SGI Quarterly October 2005

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Delegates to the founding conference of the United Nationsin San Francisco, May 1945

The Relevance of the UN in Its 60th YearBy Shashi Tharoor

taken in 20 countries showed that theUN’s credibility was down in the U.S.because it did not support the U.S.administration on the war on Iraq,and in 19 other countries because itdid not prevent the war. So we got hitfrom both sides of the debate. And weare aware that Iraq is not the onlysource of frustration with the interna-tional system.

But there can be no weakening ofour efforts to make the world a betterplace in larger freedom. On the con-trary, we are seizing on our 60thanniversary to contemplate renewal,not retirement. Recently we saw therelease of the report of the Secretary-General’s High-level Panel onThreats, Challenges and Change,which examines the entire architec-ture of the international systembuilt up since 1945. This year, theUN will also review the Millen-nium Development Goals estab-lished five years ago. So our 60thanniversary is a crucial one.

And, whatever happens in Iraq, letus also not forget that the relevance ofthe United Nations does not stand orfall on its conduct on one issue alone.When this crisis has passed, the worldwill still be facing (to use Secretary-General Kofi Annan’s phrase) innu-merable “problems without pass-ports”—problems that cross all fron-

tiers uninvited,problems of theproliferation ofweapons of massdestruction, ofthe degradationof our commonenvironment, ofcontagious disease and chronic star-vation, of human rights and humanwrongs, of mass illiteracy and mas-sive displacement.

Mirror of the WorldOf course, the UN is not perfect. It has

sometimes acted unwisely and some-times been too divided to succeed. Andall too often, Member States have

passed resolutions they themselves hadno intention of implementing.

The United Nations is, at its best, amirror of the world: it reflects ourdivisions and disagreements as wellas our hopes and convictions.

And the United Nations is both a

stage and an actor. It is a stage onwhich the Member States play theirparts, declaiming their differencesand their convergences, and it is anactor executing the policies made onthat stage.

Governments have at times seenadvantage in blaming their sins ofomission or commission on the orga-nization. When certain governmentofficials blame the UN for failing toprevent genocide in Rwanda, over-

looking their own government’srole in ensuring the SecurityCouncil took no action on thatissue, the point could not be

clearer.When all is said and done, the

world needs laws and norms thatcountries negotiate together, and agreeto uphold as the “rules of the road.”And it needs a forum where sovereignstates can come together to share bur-dens, address common problems andseize common opportunities. Thatforum is the United Nations.

If we continue to be guided by thecompass of our determination to livein a world governed by common rulesand shared values, and to steer togeth-er in the multilateral institutions thatthe enlightened leaders of the last cen-tury have bequeathed to us, thenindeed we can explore the hopes ofthe UN’s founding fathers, and fulfillthe continuing adventure of makingthis century better than the last.�

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Shashi Tharoor is UN Under-Secretary-General for Communicationsand Public Information and has headedthe Department of Public Informationsince January 2001. This article isbased on a speech delivered at theUnited Nations University in Tokyoon March 15, 2005.

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A high-level meeting of the UN Economic and Social Council

“the world . . . needs aforum where sovereign states can

come together to share burdens, addresscommon problems and seize com-

mon opportunities.”

Former rebel soldiers in Guatemalawho have completed training undera UN demobilization program

T he Mohicans enjoy braggingabout each other. Every inter-view with this group of veteran

UN staff members (to qualify formembership, one must have workedat the UN prior to August 1946) seemsto end with, “Oh, you’ll be meetingwith so-and-so. Much more interest-ing than I’m sure I’ve been, you’ll getmuch more from them. . . .” Presently,there are some 100 members, some ofwhom gather yearly for a luncheon ofcamaraderie and reminiscence.

Planning for a postwar internation-al organization was initiated by theAllied powers in 1943 with UnitedStates President Franklin Delano Roo-sevelt an especially strong advocate ofthe need for such an organization. Thepredecessor body, the League ofNations, had been undermined byfailure of the United States to join andby dissension among the major pow-ers; planning for the new organizationwas informed by the determination toavoid the errors of the past.

Despite this relativelylengthy planning, oncethings moved to the actu-al implementation stage,the search for a talentedstaff was rather ad hoc. TheMohicans interviewed alldescribe a sense of suddenly findingthemselves involved in a new projectwhose contours were still vague butwhich seemed to prefigure a very dif-ferent way of conducting the world’saffairs. They each came alive with aparticular energy when the subjectturned to the early days of the UN, atime of hope that overlapped anddovetailed with the idealism andenergy of youth.

A Chance Encounter Betty Teslenko’s 52-year career at

the UN began in the night skies ofApril 1945. As a Depression-era eco-nomic survival strategy, she hadlearned stenography and had workedbriefly as a court reporter. During heryears as a student at the University ofCalifornia, Berkeley, she studied

French and many of her professorshad been refugees from Europe whohad fled the oppression of Fascism.During the long, propeller-drivenflight between New York and Chica-go, she struck up a conversation witha passenger who was unable to sleepand who was fascinated by her rarecombination of skills: stenographicnote-taking and foreign languages(including the ability to decipherheavily accented English).

The passenger turned out to be asenior officer of the United States StateDepartment. He urged her to quit herjob as a flight attendant and return toher native San Francisco, where animportant conference requiring herskills was under way. She gave noticeand soon found herself at the UnitedNations Conference on InternationalOrganization that culminated in thesigning of the UN Charter on June 26,1945. Reporting for her first day ofwork, Betty, who had expected a peri-od of orientation or training, foundherself in a roomful of foreign minis-

ters from the Allied powers,including Anthony Eden,

Vyacheslav Molotov andEdward Stettinius. “I actual-ly thought I had died and

gone to heaven. We had nosound equipment and we worked

night and day. But I never had a peri-od of my life that meant so much tome. The people attending the confer-ence were coming out of the war, peo-ple who had been in prison camps,people who had been in the Resis-tance [to the Nazis]. For many partic-ipants, taking shelter from air raidshad long been a part of daily life, andwhen the lights would stay on at nightthey would just stand and look. San

4 SGI Quarterly October 2005

“The people of the generationwho created the UN experienced so much

war and destruction. I sincerely believe thatwithout the UN, there might already have

been nuclear war.”

Members of the Russian Delegation to the United Nations Conference onInternational Organization rejoice at news of the end of war, San Francisco, May 1945

Betty Teslenko worked for the UN for 52 years as averbatim reporter; her career began at the 1945San Francisco Conference

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A Time of HopeConversations with Early Staffers of the UN By Andrew Gebert

Francisco opened its arms to us.There was a lot of hope. It wasjust a terrific place to be. AndI’ve never looked back.”

Making a Difference Looking back at a long and

eventful career, Betty Teslenkorecalls the consistent sense ofbeing at the heart of the actionin meetings of the Security Counciland elsewhere. She continued work-ing until the mandatory retirementage of 60 and returned on a contractbasis, putting in a total of 52 years atthe United Nations. She describes herresponse to a goddaughter who couldnot believe this extraordinary lengthof service: “I told her you had to havebeen there, to be at the heart of theaction and have a sense of doingsomething that really does matter. . . .People only know the political end ofthe UN. The UN has done so much inother fields. The WHO [World HealthOrganization] eradicated smallpox.The Berlin Airlift Crisis [of 1948–49]was really settled in the delegates’lounge of the UN when the Russianand American delegates met thereand found a way to settle it withoutlosing face.”

Asked about her most exhilaratingmoment at the UN, she answers with-out hesitation: “When Nelson Mandelaspoke at the UN. For every year since1947, we had had the South Africanquestion before the UN. To have spent27 years in prison on Robben Islandand not be vindictive! The idea that thisgentle man could become president ofthe country that had tried to kill him!”Asked to sum up her feelings about theUN, she is equally clear: “I don’t thinkI am naive about the shortcomings ofthe UN, but it is vital that countrieshave a place where they can cometogether and talk, and try to work outtheir differences peacefully. The peo-ple of the generation who created theUN experienced so much war anddestruction. I sincerely believe thatwithout the UN, there might alreadyhave been nuclear war. And I hope that

the present generation will work toensure that that continues to be thecase.”

Spirit of InternationalismMel Silverman had just been dis-

charged from three years of service inthe U.S. military and was “at wit’send” as to what to do with his lifewhen he heard about the UnitedNations from a friend. The friend toldhim that the new organization, thenheadquartered in the Bronx section ofNew York City, was in need of a widerange of talents. He was hired, but hewas a U.S. citizen and the imperativeto develop a genuinely internationalstaff meant that it was only a matter oftime before he was replaced. “For the

first year, about every weekthere were people coming in asreplacements and there was alist of people who would not beinvited to return next week. Itwas very clear that this was atemporary situation.” Contraryto his expectations, however, hewas given a permanent positionin November 1947.

Silverman also remembers the spir-it that animated the early days of theUnited Nations. “We still talk aboutthe feeling we had when we first setfoot in those jobs, no matter howmenial they were. After having gonethrough the war, it was so thrilling tosuddenly be in an atmosphere wherehere was an Iranian and here was aCanadian, and here was this and herewas that nationality, all working to dothe same thing together. There was aspirit that still prevails among theMohicans who come to our little lun-cheons.”

Soon, however, Silverman foundhimself caught up in the anticommu-nist campaign waged by U.S. SenatorJoseph McCarthy who demanded the


U.S. President Harry S. Truman arrives in San Francisco for the United Nations Conference on InternationalOrganization, April 1945

Mel Silverman began working for the UN in 1946 in the documents sec-tion; he later became the chief of the transportation division and retiredin 1980

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investigation of all U.S. employees atthe UN. The Secretary-General atthe time, Trygve Lie, accededto the pressure and agreedthat every U.S. employee ofthe UN should be required tosign a loyalty oath—“which wascontrary to the Charter and contraryto every understanding about what aninternational civil servant should beand should do.” The impact on staffmorale, Silverman recalls, “was dev-astating.”

In 1953, Dag Hammarskjöld becameSecretary-General. “He systematicallywent from office to office, floor tofloor, meeting every staff member.”Silverman still thinks of Ham-marskjöld’s handshake as an especial-ly inspiring moment in his long career.In various staff positions over theyears, Silverman found himself on theedges of crisis, one of the most memo-rable being the aftermath of the inva-sion of Egypt by Britain, France andIsrael in 1956. “I was on duty as a doc-ument coordinator on the night whenLester Pearson, the Canadian ForeignMinister, was meeting with represen-tatives of the Secretary-General todraft a document proposing the estab-lishment of a UN peacekeeping forcefor presentation to the Security Coun-cil the next morning. We were told thattranslators and reproduction staff hadto remain available until that docu-ment was ready because it had to betranslated into the five official lan-guages and printed by morning.

“There was greatemphasis on urgencybecause Russia had justinvaded Hungary and ahigh-level Russian diplo-mat was reportedly enroute to attend the Coun-cil meeting. The fear wasthat Russia might alsobecome involved in theMiddle East if the planfor creation of the peace-keeping force was not onthe table at the morningmeeting. There was a

sense of anxiety as we waited for thiscrucial document to be completed.Happily, it got done on time and thefirst-ever UN Emergency Force wascreated soon thereafter.”

Women’s InputMargaret “Molly” Bruce is generous

in sharing her many treasures. The firstis a letter from René Cassin, vice-chairof the UN Commission on HumanRights during the years 1946–55 and akey figure in the drafting of the Uni-versal Declaration of Human Rights. Inhis letter, Cassin first regrets Molly’sabsence on the committee, thenexpresses his joy that its cause was therecent birth of her child, and closes bywishing Bruce, whom he had nick-named “jewel of the commission," aspeedy return to work. There is simi-larly a photograph of Eleanor Roo-sevelt at the first meeting of the UNGeneral Assembly in January 1946,when she gathered together thewomen representatives in attendance.They drafted and issued a message tothe women of the world. This was par-ticularly important, she notes, “if youremember that at the time of the San

Francisco confer-ence, women intwo-thirds of the51 countries partic-ipating in thatmeeting did nothave the right tovote.”

Molly Bruce graduated from Cam-bridge University in the early years ofWorld War II. She was working for theRoyal Institute of International Affairs,headed by Arnold Toynbee, when shewas recruited to support the UN meet-ings being held in London.

Her interest in human rights hadbeen shaped by experiences in conti-

nental Europe during the 1930s,as the forces of militarism andFascism were gaining momen-tum. She was in Munich when

Hitler met the Italian Fascistleader Mussolini; she watched them

drive past where she was staying. “Wewould go out at night with a pot ofblack paint and paint over anti-Jewishpropaganda that was displayed inevery square in every German city. Wewere never caught. We were just com-pletely crazy, but you do things likethat when you are young. . . . Witness-ing the human rights abuses of that erais what gave me the desire to joinsomething that would build anotherworld where you wouldn’t see thiskind of thing.”

As staff for the UN Human RightsCommission, Bruce worked with for-mer U.S. First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt,attending many of the meetings atwhich the Universal Declaration ofHuman Rights was drafted. Accord-ing to Bruce, Roosevelt had a great giftfor bringing people together; shewould often invite delegates to herhome to discuss differences in a pri-vate setting. The delegates, in turn,respected her, even when they dis-agreed violently with her. “She wasalways on time, by the way, whilealmost everybody else was almostalways late. One time there was anelderly man in the audience, and heasked me if he could possibly say


Molly Bruce (left), then chief ofthe Status of Women Section,Division of Human Rights;with Helvi L. Sipila (Finland),chairman [sic] of the sessionon economic rights forwomen, February 1967

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Molly Bruce was an assistant to Eleanor Roosevelt during the process ofdrafting the Universal Declaration of Human Rights

“. . . you had to have beenthere, to be at the heart of the actionand have a sense of doing something

that really does matter . . .”

Johnny Rozsa

hello to Mrs. Roosevelt. I told her andshe said, ‘Well, where is he? I’ll go andsay hello to him.’ That’s the kind ofperson she was. She preferred to eat inthe staff cafeteria. Of course peoplewould always want to give her theirplace in line, and she would nevertake it. These are small things, butthey mean a lot.”

Especially in the early years, theUN’s involvement in human rightsconcentrated mainly on establishinglegal standards to define them, and oneducating and promoting respect forhuman rights. The governments thatcomprised the organization were vig-ilant in guarding the prerogatives ofsovereignty, and the Commission onHuman Rights went so far as todeclare that it “recognizes that it hasno power to take action with regard toviolations of human rights.” Yet as aUN staff member, Molly Bruce wasexposed to a stream of letters andreports from individuals whose rightshad been violated and who were seek-ing redress. She fought her frustrationand did what she could.

“I was close to one of Dag Ham-marskjöld’s advisers, and I told himhow distressed I was about all thesecomplaints that we were doing noth-ing about. He told me to let him knowwhen Hammarskjöld was goingsomewhere if I had information thatrelated to the situation in that country.If he could do something, he would.Well, that was very, very ‘under thecounter.’ But I wasn’t unique in thisregard at all. There were things youcould do as staff behind the scenes.And I think a lot of what goes on, anda lot of the effectiveness of the UN sec-retariat is what they are able to dobehind the scenes, and that of coursenever comes out in any form.” �


I n order to fully under-stand the current debateon UN Security Council

reform, it would be useful toreview some of the history ofthese same discussions lead-ing up to the founding of theUnited Nations in 1945. Theissue of permanent members of theCouncil and the use of the veto hadbeen settled at the Great Power meet-ing with Churchill, Stalin and Roo-sevelt at Yalta in February 1945. BothStalin and Roosevelt understood thenecessity of the veto for the majorpowers and Churchill was eventuallyconvinced. President Roosevelt hadexplained to the American people inhis 1943 Christmas Eve radio address:

“Britain, Russia, China, and theUnited States and their allies repre-sent more than three-quarters of thetotal population of the earth. As longas these four Nations with great mili-tary power stick together in determi-nation to keep the peace there will beno possibility of an aggressor Nationarising to start another world war.”

It was felt that those countries withthe greatest military might wouldneed to stay together after the war asthey had done during the war if peacewere to prevail. This kind of alliancewould be necessary todeter another worldwar, and cooperationwould be neededamong the powers tokeep them from goingto war against eachother. Roosevelt knewhe needed veto powerfor the U.S. if he weregoing to gain ratifica-tion by the U.S. Sen-ate, which had failedto ratify the League of

Nations Covenant, prevent-ing the U.S. from becominga member of the League.

In addition, clearly theU.S. and the other majorpowers, who would have

to enforce any decisionmade by the Security Coun-

cil, did not want to committheir resources and troops in anenforcement action against their will.Cooperation was essential. China wasinformed about the decisions at Yaltalater, and France, who had been occu-pied by the Nazis early in the war, didnot participate in the discussions untilthe conference in San Francisco inApril/May 1945.

France was asked to join the perma-nent members of the Council at theend of the war. Nevertheless, thedebate over permanent members andthe veto erupted in San Franciscowhere 50 countries came together tofinalize the Charter. The 21 LatinAmerican nations joined by Australiaand the Philippines led the resistanceto this privileged status of the majorpowers. They resented the notion ofthe veto but in the end knew that therewould be no UN Charter without thepermanent five and the veto power.The final vote taken at San Francisco

Adding History to the Debate:A Proposal for UN Security Council ReformBy Jean Krasno

U.S.S.R. Premier Krushchev and Yugoslav President Tito during one of themost tense General Assembly sessions ever, September 1960

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on the veto resulted in 33 nations insupport, two (Cuba and Colombia)against, and 15 countries abstained.

This history demonstrates that theveto has always been a troublesomeissue, as it continues to be today. TheSecurity Council was expanded dur-ing the 1960s from its original 11members to the current 15 in order toreflect the growing membership of theorganization, but the veto wasretained for the five permanent mem-bers. Now that there are 191 UNMember States, and the economic andmilitary power balance in the worldhas shifted, that debate on Councilexpansion has ignited once again andthe veto is at the center of the contro-versy.

ControversyGiving permanent seats, for exam-

ple, to India to represent Asia, Brazilto represent Latin America, or SouthAfrica to represent Africa, soundedgood initially, but was challenged byother countries in the region, claimingthat these continental giants did notnecessarily represent the interests ofothers in the region and in factmight solidify their local hege-mony. Germany and Japan,which pay a substantial por-tion of the UN budget, feelthat because they are paying formuch of the work of the Council,they should have more say in the deci-sion-making process. China, Italy andothers have demonstrated resistanceto these thoughts.

Nevertheless, most Member Statesacknowledge that the Council needsto include those nations that can con-tribute most to the UN’s capacity tomeet the current challenges, andtoday’s configuration does not meetthat criteria. Reform is needed if theUN is to function as the founders hadhoped. Therefore, here I would like topropose some ideas for a revisedstructure of the Council: Enlargement: To be more representa-tive of the now 191 members, theCouncil could be enlarged to 20–23

members, while maintaining the cur-rent permanent five (P–5): China,France, Russia, the United Kingdomand the United States. The permanent seats: Haggling overnew permanent seats has stalematedany reform. I would propose creatinga new category of Council member-ship, a four-year renewable term. Thefour-year concept allows the elected

member more time to participate inthe decision process and garner lever-age in the negotiations. The systemcould allow for certain members to bedemocratically elected to serve indef-initely if the majority of the member-ship continues to support their legiti-macy. Other members would contin-ue to fill the two-year slots, going offthe Council to allow more membersan opportunity to participate. Electing new members: These newfour-year renewable seats could beelected by the current geographicgroups or distributed through a vol-untary process among three groups:highly industrialized nations; middle

economies in the developing world;and countries with smaller, develop-ing economies. Countries couldchoose which group to assign them-selves to, and this could be changedevery two years. Each group wouldelect two countries for the four-yearrenewable seats. Smallest countrieswould thus only compete with eachother for these seats, ensuring theirrepresentation on the Council. A bargain for the permanent seats: A

condition for having the privilegeof holding the four-year seatwould be that these memberswould pay an additional sur-charge for peacekeeping much

like the permanent members nowpay. Any country elected to the four-year semipermanent seat, be it Ger-many, Japan, Brazil, India or others,would be accountable for their actionsto the broad membership in theAssembly, yet others could challengethem. Far from being a second-classseat, these seats would have the pres-tige of being elected. Perhaps this orsimilar ideas could help break the cur-rent logjam.�


The Security Council debates the Cuban Missile Crisis, October 25, 1962

“They resented the notionof the veto but in the end knew that

there would be no UN Charter withoutthe permanent five and

the veto power.”

Dr. Jean Krasno is the Yolanda MosesScholar at City College of New Yorkand Fellow in International SecurityStudies at Yale University where shehas participated in the study of UNreform since 1995.

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The United Nations organization wasestablished on October 24, 1951. It isnot a world government and it doesnot make laws but provides a means tohelp resolve international conflicts andformulate policies. Its 191 MembersStates accept the obligations of the UN

Charter that sets out the principles of international relations.Its purpose is: • To maintain international peace and security.• To develop friendly relations among nations. • To cooperate in solving international problems and in pro-

moting respect for human rights.• To be a center for harmonizing the actions of nations.

9SGI Quarterly October 2005

Trusteeship Council

Established to provide international supervision for 11 Trust Territories; now largely defunct.

International Court of Justice

The main judicial organ of the UN, based at The Hague. 15 judges elected jointly by the GA and the SC decide disputes between countries. Participation by States in a proceeding is voluntary (if a State agrees to participate, it is obligated to comply with the Court’s decision). Provides advisory opinions to the GA and the SC upon request.

Specialized Agencies* Programs and Funds*

PRINCIPAL ORGANS

General Assembly (GA)

All UN Member States represented, each has one vote.Decisions on key issues decided by two-thirds majority. Other matters by simple majority. (There is an effort to reach decisions by consensus.) Annual regular session from September to December.Cannot force action by any State; its recommendations represent the moral authority of the community of nations.

Security Council (SC)

Responsible for maintaining international peace and security. 5 permanent members (China, France, the Russian Federation, the United Kingdom and the United States).10 members elected by the GA for two-year, nonrenewable terms. Decisions require nine yes votes. (A decision cannot be taken if there is a no vote, or veto, by a permanent member.)The Council makes recommendations to the GA on the appointment of a new Secretary-General and admission of new members to the UN.

Secretariat

Carries out the substantive and administrative work of the UN, as directed by the GA, the SC and the other organs.Head is the Secretary-General, who provides overall administrative guidance.

Economic and Social Council

Forum for discussing international economic and social issues, formulating policy recommendations.Coordinates the UN’s economic and social work under authority of the GA.Fosters international cooperation for development. Consults with non-governmental organizations; link between the UN and civil society.54 members, elected by the GA for three year-terms. Meets throughout the year.Subsidiary bodies, such as the Commission on Human Rights which monitors the observance of human rights internationally, meet regularly and report back to it.

14 independent organizations created by intergovernmental agreement, known as “specialized agencies” and linked to the UN through cooperative agreements. Included are the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), the World Bank, the International Monetary Fund, the World Health Organization (WHO).

Some, such as the Universal Postal Union, are older than the UN itself.

*Have own governing bodies, budgets and secretariats. Provide technical assistance and other forms of practical help in virtually all economic and social areas.

A number of UN offices, programs and funds work to improve the economic and social condition of people around the world. Included are the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), the UN Development Programme (UNDP) and the UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF).

Report to the General Assembly or the Economic and Social Council.

An Overview of the UN

Secretariat

Source and for further information,www.un.org/Overview/brief1.html

SGIQ: What do you see as the posi-tive role of civil society in the UN sys-tem?Gillian Sorensen: I think the role ofcivil society is essential and indis-pensable for the UN. It is, in the viewsof many, the authentic voice of thepeople. It is citizens’ action in manyforms, and on many, manyissues. There are 4,200accredited NGOs at the UN.That of course is just a frac-tion of the universe of thecivil society in the world atlarge. And they do good work.They educate, they mobilize, theypublicize, dramatize, they raise funds,they raise consciousness, they canlobby. They are really very, veryimportant. Some of them work on thefront lines, especially those who areinvolved in refugee issues, and famineand food issues, and others are moreinvolved in political activity, or edu-

cating, trying to inspire political rep-resentatives to act and vote in supportof UN issues. So civil society is verydiverse and it is wide-ranging. TheSecretary-General has referred toNGOs as “our essential partner.” Ithink that’s a good term.

A New RelationshipSGIQ: How has the role and impactof civil society changed?GS: It’s changed quite a lot. In thevery beginning, in 1945, when theCharter was drafted, you will see pic-tures of delegates at work. There were

about 50 NGO representatives attend-ing at that time.

They sat properly at the far edges ofthe room. They only observed and lis-tened, they did not participate. For themost part, they did not criticize. Theywere there to support and to followthe proceedings. Of the 50, all except

one are still active, Rotary forinstance, the Girl Scouts and

Boy Scouts, the Red Cross, anumber of peace groups and15–20 faith-based NGOs. But, how has it changed?

Today, NGOs are much more politi-cally savvy. They know that it’s notenough just to sit and listen. Theywant to be involved, they want to par-ticipate, and they insist on it. In theUN now, no major conference isplanned without considering from thestart, “How are we involving civilsociety?” not just in the event, but inthe planning and preparation for thatconference. And I think the degree ofexpertise, outreach and skills withwhich they mobilize and publicize theissues is really impressive.

There are two good examples inrecent times. One was the move to cre-ate the convention to ban land mines.It was NGOs who led. They were pas-sionate on this issue, and they gener-ated a great amount of publicity insupport of banning land mines andreducing or prohibiting the manufac-ture or sale of land mines, and makingvery vivid the terrible consequencesof land mines. They did a remarkablejob, and they really were ahead ofmost governments on this.

Another example is the work for theInternational Criminal Court. NGOswere so expert in this issue, and theywere so good at responding to criti-cisms or concerns and in persuading


A Working Partnership—The UN and Civil SocietyInterview with Gillian Sorensen

“They sat properly at the faredges of the room. They only observed

and listened, they did not participate . . .they did not criticize.”

The NGO Caritas Niger was at the forefront of efforts to tackle child malnutrition in the recent crisis in Niger

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governments why this mattered, andwhy it was in national interest as wellas global interest to establish the Inter-national Criminal Court.

A Need for CoordinationSGIQ: What sort of changes wouldyou like to see in the future?GS: I would hope that in areas ofcommon interest NGOs would makea big effort to collaborate or to coordi-nate their efforts, because the UNis sometimes overwhelmed withrequests for information andspeakers and access. For instance,there are hundreds of humanrights NGOs, and their particularemphasis might vary from onegroup to another, but overall, theyhave a common cause. To theextent that those human rightsNGOs can speak with one voice,that increases their impact, andthat makes it much easier for theUN to work with them. SGIQ: Do you see space for somesort of civil society forum orassembly parallel to the GeneralAssembly? GS: I don’t really support a

standing permanent peo-ple’s assembly. It’s verycostly, and the question israised: who nominates, whoselects those people, whom dothey represent? What I do personallysupport and encourage is meetings thatare focused on a particular subject com-ing up at the UN that mobilize relevantNGOs on that subject. If you are takingon the entire range of issues that theUN addresses, I just think it’s too muchfor one meeting. And you would haveto ask: is it going to be a permanentforum; who will underwrite it? Wherein fact would they meet? SGIQ: How can coordination amongcivil society be improved?

GS: The Internet haschanged everything.Because informationmoves fast now, amongthe community of NGOsand from the UN offices

to civil society, and the flow of com-munication is much more open, theability of UN officials to speak withNGOs and work together is muchmore open than in the early decades. Ithink people really do feel joined andconnected. It is almost a tradition thatNGOs will complain of not gettingenough information or access, but inmy years with the UN, I’ve seen it openup a great deal, and I think that the UN

is making an outstanding effort to havea truly collaborative partnership. Ihave heard the Secretary-General saythat the UN cannot do this alone. Lookat the membership of all the NGOs,which reaches into the millions—thoseare the foot soldiers, a mighty, peace-ful army. Those are the voices in thefield and front lines and the capitalsaround the world, carrying messagesforward and letting politicians knowthat their citizens care, and they vote,

and they want their political represen-tatives to take notice of that.

Creative TensionI find that for the most part, the rela-

tionship between civil society and theUN is constructive and active andhealthy, but there is one thing thatconcerns me. There is a handful ofNGOs there who achieved accredita-tion—really a few—who, in fact, arenot supportive of UN goals and his-toric purposes. That has created somereal problems. As I say, it is a verysmall number, but it may be a signthat the UN has to be prepared tohave NGOs in their midst who are in

fact opposing what have been his-toric UN goals. SGIQ: But, for the most part, yousee a healthy relationship?GS: Yes, I do. But it is evolving,and there is always a certain ten-sion, a creative tension. Civil soci-ety has independence, has free-dom and flexibility, which the UNdoes not have sometimes. Civilsociety wants to move fast. Andso this tension always exists tosome degree, and we acknowl-edge that, and we’ve tried to workwith that. It’s not necessarily bad,but it just exists because you’retalking about two quite different

entities. The UN is essentially avoluntary organization of gov-

ernments, and civil society isa free, independent, volun-tary association of citizens

who speak for themselves. Soyou are coming at it from two dif-

ferent directions. The relationshipbetween the UN and civil society is aconstructive and extremely importantrelationship, and I hope and believethat it will flourish and grow in the21st century.�

Gillian Sorensen is former AssistantSecretary-General in the Office ofExternal Relations at the UnitedNations and currently senior adviserand national advocate at the UnitedNations Foundation.

“To the extent that . . . NGOs canspeak with one voice, that increases theirimpact, and that makes it much easier for

the UN to work with them.”

An NGO workshop during the 57th Annual UN Department of PublicInformation/NGO Conference on the Millennium Development Goals

A poster by the Australian Network to Ban Landmines which hassuccessfully lobbied the Australian government for funding toaddress the effects of land mines

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I Photo

W hen people think ofthe United Nations,they think of an

organization of governments,perhaps supported by interna-tional relief agencies and otherhigh-profile groups. What is oftenoverlooked is the role of religiouscommunities in contributing to boththe UN’s agenda and its activities.Through NGO networks, people ofdifferent faiths with a shared interestin peace, development and humanrights come together at the UN notonly to offer their separate anddistinct perspectives, but also toforge agreement on how to real-ize these goals. Our discussionsare not theological or abstract;they cut to the heart of the prob-lems facing the world today, andoffer hope for solutions.

Post 9/11The need for the unique and

potentially healing power of reli-gious dialogue has never beenmore acute than in the post-9/11period. Shortly after that cata-clysmic event, I ran into Gian-domenico Picco, then Secretary-General Kofi Annan’s Personal Rep-resentative for the United NationsYear of Dialogue among Civiliza-tions. Mr. Picco told me that beforethe planes hit the World Trade Centerthere had been no budget and littleinterest in the Year. But over thecourse of 2001, government represen-tatives gained a growing awarenessof the importance of the dialogue itsought to promote.

The Committee of Religious NGOsat the UN (RNGO), which I now chair,responded quickly to 9/11. The com-mittee’s executive bureau, which con-

sists of representatives ofChristian, Muslim, Jewish,Buddhist, Bahá'í and otherfaith traditions, reorganized its

monthly briefing sessions tofocus on interfaith dialogue with a

particular focus on the voices and real-ities of Islam, with themes such as“Transnational Political Islam: Chal-lenges and Perspectives” and “Hatred,Retribution and Forgiveness.”

The exercise of confronting thesesensitive issues at a time of height-ened global fear and mistrust awak-

ened participants about how little weknew about each other’s faiths. This,in turn, prompted still more interest inlearning through dialogue.

The conversations among religiousgroups were valuable, but as organiz-ers, we were acutely aware of theimportance of sharing views alsoamong governments and the UN as awhole. This goal was realized in June2005, when the committee was invit-ed to join representatives of over adozen governments as well as officialsfrom the UN in co-organizing a Con-ference on Interfaith Cooperation for

Peace which inspired discussion onhow to translate our shared valuesinto practical action.

Taking these valuable lessons to thenext level, we communicated ourresults to the President of the GeneralAssembly as input to the summit ofleaders from 170 countries to be heldin September.

Building BridgesThroughout this process I was

struck by the earnestness of all partic-ipants and their mutual determinationto grapple with pressing global issues.In the conference room, a rare sceneunfolded: there were government offi-cials, UN staff and NGO representa-tives all gathered around a single lap-top computer working in a spirit ofopenness and equality to finalize theconference’s report for adoption.

Immediately following the con-ference, the committee hosted areception at the Church Centeracross the street from the UN.Shortly after the event began, arainbow appeared over the UN.Many of us went out to the Cen-ter’s balcony to view it. Itappeared to be bridging the Gen-eral Assembly Building and theUN Secretariat, and served as ametaphor for the mission of inter-faith initiatives: to close the gapbetween the religious communi-ty, the UN and governments.

In essence, religious communi-ties can offer hope that stems from

a belief rooted in as yet unrealizedpossibilities. Faith in the positivepotential of ourselves and others is avital prerequisite for meaningful dia-logue. Without this faith, we lapseinto monologue or silence. With it, wecan come together in local and globalexchanges, finding solutions that willenrich and benefit all humanity.�


Hiro Sakurai is the SGI’s representativeat the United Nations in New York.Since June 2005, he has been presidentof RNGO. See www.rngo.org

Faith in the Future—the Role of the UN Religious CommunityBy Hiro Sakurai

The Conference on Interfaith Cooperation for Peace at the UNHeadquarters, June 22, 2005 (Hiro Sakurai, podium far right)

“Stand for something or you’llfall for anything. Today’s mightyoak is yesterday’s nut that held itsground.”—Rosa Parks

O ver the past 60 years the Unit-ed Nations has evolved froma “nut” into a “mighty oak”

with branches spread wide to offerrefuge, protection and peace to eachman, woman and child inhabiting thisplanet, and with roots extending tonearly 200 nations of the world, bring-ing them all together for the peace ofhumanity. Whether it is a civil conflictin one region of the world ora natural disaster in another,in my experience the UN isfirst to react and assist.

I have joined the UN fam-ily only recently. I currentlydo what I feel is the mostexciting and challenging jobI could dream of—I workfor children, as a project offi-cer for UNICEF in Turk-menistan. My job entailsassisting the Turkmenistannational government inshaping its national policiesand laws to better suit theneeds of children.

I am supporting the imple-mentation of one of threemajor UNICEF programs in Turk-menistan: policy advocacy and devel-opment planning for children. I aminvolved in working with the nationalstatistics institute to improve its capac-ity, ensuring the implementation anduse of programs designed to monitorprogress for children and women andcoordinating various studies and sur-veys.

The other aspect of the programinvolves advocacy for children’srights. This involves interaction andwork with legislators, members of theparliament and local authorities to

raise awareness and promote theadoption of new legislation related tochildren. Practically, I am involved inplanning events and making presen-tations on children’s rights and relat-ed topics at various forums.

In general, current focuses ofUNICEF in Turkmenistan includestrengthening of early childhooddevelopment and education, improv-ing the level of high school attendanceand teaching methodology, support-ing mother-and-child health servicesthrough improving hospital environ-ments and interventions such as saltiodization and flour fortification.

Working together with the govern-ment, UNICEF has achieved the fol-lowing within the last five years:Turkmenistan is certified as a polio-free country; immunization coverageis sustained at 95–98 percent; 70 per-cent of births occur in a baby-friendlyenvironment; “life skills education”for the prevention of HIV/AIDS andother sexually transmitted infectionshas been introduced into schools andsafe drinking water and sanitation hasbeen provided to schools in theDashoguz Velayat region.

Indeed there are hindrances to

working with public organiza-tions as there may be anywhere,but all the effort and time con-sumed in overcoming them is

worth it, as we are working for thefuture of humanity—children. I havealways dreamed of being able to con-tribute to development and peace,and though I worked for variousdevelopment-oriented donor pro-grams, I have never felt as fulfilled asI do now working for UNICEF.

I have also witnessed how UNagencies concerned with refugeeshave assisted people in finding a safehaven as their homes were destroyedby civil wars and natural disasters.Like my friend Aman, one of over10,000 ethnic Turkmens who wereborn and had been living in Tajikistan

until the civil war erupted.He found refuge in the landof his forefathers. Since themid-1990s UNHCR, alongwith the national govern-ment, has put extensiveefforts into integrating himand other refugees into thelocal society, providing aplace to live in peace andunder protection.

While one agency is pro-tecting refugees, another ishelping the economy, envi-ronment and social sectorsto develop, to provide betterhealth and education forchildren—the most vulner-able members of the popu-

lation and the future of any country. Rosa Parks has expressed better

than I can what the United Nationsmeans to me—indeed it is that“mighty oak,” strong enough to leanon and mighty enough to providerefuge and protection. I believe in abetter and brighter future for all thenations of the world, and to me theUnited Nations is the best tool in mak-ing confident steps toward it.�


Participants at a UNICEF Turkmenistan workshop on parenting skills

Shohrat A. Orazov is a UNICEFProject Officer in Turkmenistan.

On the Ground with the UNBy Shohrat A. OrazovOn the Ground with the UNBy Shohrat A. Orazov

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Shohrat with polytechnicstudents

T he Slough Model UnitedNations General Assembly(MUNGA) 2005 was held at

SGI-UK’s Taplow Court center onJuly 7.

The tragic terrorbombings that tookplace in Londonhave made this adate that none ofus will easily for-get, but for those ofus involved in organizingthis year’s annual Model UnitedNations conference, the significance ofthe day began much earlier.

SGI-UK this year again hosted a cit-izenship education program to enableyoung people, most of them aged 14or 15, to explore complexglobal issues by taking onthe role of delegates to theUnited Nations.

Supported by Creative Part-nerships, a U.K. government ini-tiative administered by ArtsCouncil England, every Year 9 stu-dent in every secondary school inSlough, west of London, was giventhe opportunity to learn about the UNthrough drama and to develop essen-tial skills in argument, persuasion andnegotiation, which are fundamental tothe role of UN delegates.

Working in partnership, theater pro-fessionals and teachers then chose ninestudents from each school to representthree different Member States of theUnited Nations, making 33 delegations

in all. Representing countries fromJapan to Cuba, from Somalia to Viet-nam, from the U.S.A. to North Korea,

student delegates learned how towrite policy statements, present,debate and amend resolutions—

both in Committee and in Gen-eral Assembly—on issues

related to poverty, educa-tion, children’s rights andchildren in war.At each stage, expert

training was provided forstudents and teachers by NGOs

such as Save the Children andAmnesty International, but the focuswas on young people taking charge—engaging in their own research andlearning creatively by playing thepart of their adopted country’s repre-sentative.

At the beginning of the day, the del-egates expressed high hopes for whatthey would like to achieve throughthe General Assembly: “To agree onfree primary education throughoutthe world,” “To cancel Third Worlddebt,” “To make a difference topoverty in the world.” The GeneralAssembly session itself provided theopportunity to grapple with the com-

plexities of negotiating internationalagreement.

Some of the most important out-comes of the day for the delegatesincluded “a better understanding ofthe different views in the world,” “tosee how debt, child soldiers and otherissues can be tackled” and “an under-standing of how hard the UN works.”Several reported how much theyappreciated being treated as adultsrather than children.

The young people respond to theatmosphere of Taplow Court verypositively. They start believing thatthey can make a difference to theirworld and discover strategies foreffecting change.

Finally, the comments from theyoung people themselves bear testi-mony to the value of this work and thebenefit that all of us involved in thepartnership—the schools, SGI-UKand the creative professionals—havederived from it. At a time when therole and status of the UN are the sub-ject of so much controversy and whenthere is such temptation to give wayto fear and despair, it is heartening tosee what young people are capable ofin understanding the issues that facethem and in communicating what arenot necessarily their own views soarticulately. The overall outcome ofthis year’s MUNGA has been aptlysummed up by one of our colleaguesat SGI-UK: “With young people likethis, the future is in safe hands.”�


Jan Fredrickson is citizenship coordi-nator for Creative Partnerships,Slough, U.K.

“One of the bestdays of my life . . .I have learnt to bemore confident.”

“I learnt how tostand my ground in an argument.”

Delegates for a DayBy Jan Fredrickson

Delegates for a DayBy Jan Fredrickson

“I learnt how importantcommunication is in our world.

I’ve enjoyed this whole experienceand would do

it again.”

Yoichi M

asumoto

SGIQ: What is the UN to you andwhat would you like to see it become?RM: The UN is, on the one hand,essential, and, on the other hand, it isinsufficient to what world problemshave become and require. It is goodthat out of the Second World Warwe got a United Nationswhich has survived, whichhas grown. After the FirstWorld War, the League ofNations did not survive andwe had a second war. The fact thatwe have a UN, which iscomposed of practicallyall the governments of theworld, is vital for havingprevented any conflictsfrom developing into aworld war.

In addition, the UN hascreated and connectedanother 32 specializedagencies around the worldwhich have been able tolook into the new funda-mental problems whichhave occurred, like over-population, water prob-lems, climate change, etc. Ijoined the UN as a youngman in 1948 and I ques-

tioned whether it would sur-vive; and it has survived.

On the other hand, the UNhas been outdistanced by newproblems, and this is why there

is now going to be, forthe first time, a totalreview for the reform ofthe UN. Whether thisworld conference for thereform of the UN isgoing to succeed—thatwe do not know. Itmight not be immediate,because some govern-

ments might not want to see thechanges happen so quickly.

New PrioritiesSGIQ: What are the mainchanges you would like to

see? RM: One would be to go beyond

the concept of merelymaintaining peace. Worldwar is practically out of thequestion. Most of the warstoday are wars withincountries, and very oftenthe UN can’t do verymuch, because it is notallowed to intervene inlocal, national problems.

My dream is that the UNshould be elevated by awhole series of measures,for example, having a par-liamentary representationof all the parliaments of theworld, so that peoplewould have, through theirparliaments, a voice in the


A Vision for the EarthInterview with Robert Muller

“The UN was created primarily forgovernments and for humanity. Today, in my

opinion, the first priority is the Earth.”

Education is the key to a global community

This year marks the 60thanniversary of the UnitedNations. It also marks the 30thanniversary of the Cambodianpeople’s suffering under theKhmer Rouge regime whenapproximately two million people werekilled in the “killing fields.” Such geno-cide should not be allowed to happenon this precious mother Earth again.

The next 30 years and beyond mustbe years of happiness. I hope, there-

fore, that the United Nationswill become a truly humaneorganization whose memberswill work selflessly for the ben-efit of all humanity. I hopethat it will make effective

efforts to refocus on and fulfill themission of its Charter.

My hope is that the United Nationswill strengthen the balance of poweramong all its Member States, regard-less of their contributions, and that

communication and cooperation with-in the organization and with NGOswill be strengthened toward the actu-al fulfil lment of the MillenniumDevelopment Goals; that peace andhuman security for all people willbecome a reality. I hope the UN willbecome a truly effective force for con-flict prevention, that the threat ofnuclear weapons will finally beremoved and that particular supportwill be given to assist the democrati-zation of Southeast Asian countries.

Socheth Sok is a Cambodian student at Soka University of America.

My Hope for the UN in the 21st CenturyBy Socheth Sok

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UN—which they do not havetoday because the UN gets itsrecommendations onlythrough foreign affairs officesand through meetings of the Gen-eral Assembly.

Another dream would be for theUN to take up uncommon subjects,like the development of ways of lifeto achieve happiness in the world. Wedo not speak much about happiness,though there are certain constitutions,like the U.S. constitution, which givethe government the role of ensuringthe happiness of the people.

There should also be more coopera-tion to show to the rest of the worldwhat the European Union hasdone, namely suppress the bor-ders between 25 countries to cre-ate a united Europe.

Also, to develop the notion ofLove—that we have to love ourEarth, we have to love our skies,we have to love our waters. Wehave to live with nature, and wemust absolutely prevent thedeath of so many speciesbecause of our lack of attention.Why each five hours do weallow a species to disappearfrom the planet? This will meanthe loss of 84,000 species in thenext 50 years!

We are destroying our Earth.The UN was created primarilyfor governments and for human-

ity. Today, in my opinion, the first pri-ority is the Earth. We cannot continueto kill our Mother Earth. Humanity isonly a part of Earth, and must behavein such a way that the Earth is pre-served.

Global CitizensSGIQ: Many people wonder howmuch the UN can really do. RM: One problem is that the UN and

its global work is not taught tochildren in schools and is notreceived with interest by the

media. Governments should real-ly ensure that the decisions, ideas andconcerns that come from the UN arebrought closer to the people. And alsothat people are educated about thefact that there are many things whichare part of their daily lives which havebeen brought into being through theUN. Like road signals—the fact thatred means “Do not cross,” etc. I was inthe meeting when we came up withthe idea that we needed the same roadsigns in all countries on Earth. Thereare many, many examples. People are

not informed about the UN. Thereforms should seek to bring theUN closer to the people, becauseit is the United Nations of thepeople, not of governmentsonly.

In schools today children aretaught about their nation. Onlyat the end are they told about thewhole world and whole uni-verse, but not with enthusiasm.

In the last 10,000 years sincehumans were added to the lifeforms on this planet, they havelived around the planet in verydistinct groups and apart fromeach other. It is only recently, inthe last 100 years, that we dis-covered that we are on a globe!Since then, people have got in


Young Czechs celebrate their country’s entry into the European Union

“I thought, ‘Why are thesepeople different? Why is there a border

here which we cannot cross?’ ”

Youth are the leaders oftomorrow, and it is the youngpeople of the world who willhave to ensure the prolongedexistence of the UnitedNations and give accuratemeaning to its aims and objectives. Assuch, having their voice heard in poli-cy formulation and decision making isvital. I would hope, therefore, that theUN would see youth empowermentand employment as a point of refer-

ence in assessing the develop-ment of member countriesand the granting of financialassistance to countries whereoften youths continue to bemarginalized.

Tensions will arise if the UN seemsto be moving at a slow pace in fulfill-ing its objectives and ensuring therealization of the Millennium Devel-opment Goals, while at the same timeraising hopes of young people for

empowerment. Sustainable develop-ment, which is inextricably linked withthe promotion of good governance,democracy, the rule of law, humanrights and youth development, cannotbe realized without comprehendingthe goals and aspirations of youth andpersuading governments to put theinterests of young people at the cen-ter of policy formulation.

Sylvanus Murray works in the publicinformation office of the UN Mission inSierra Leone. For over 10 years he hasbeen active as a youth leader on anational and international level.

My Vision as a Youth for the Future of the UNBy Sylvanus S. Murray

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touch with each other by wars—sometimes also by cooperation. It’svery difficult for people who havebeen educated in a particular lan-guage, in particular principles, partic-ular forms of eating, to understandother people and not to dislike them.Groups want to remain as a group. Soeducation is the key to our globalcommunity.SGIQ: What is it that enables you toremain optimistic about the future?RM: As a child, living in Alsace Lor-raine in a very poor neighborhood, ona border which I was not supposed tocross, and knowing that the people onthe other side had the same types ofnames and spoke the same language,I thought, “Why are these peopledifferent? Why is there a bor-der here which we cannotcross?” As a child, too, Ithought that to be alive, tohave life, was a miracle. And thenI discovered that we have wars. Ourtown was evacuated twice. We weregiven three hours to leave—a town of15,000 people—and to go to live in thesouth as refugees of France. I haveseen so many horrors during the Sec-ond World War between French andGermans that I swore that I wouldspend the rest of my life working forpeace on this planet.

And I continue to do this alsobecause I liberated 20 young Germanswho had been told by Hitler that if theywere taken by the French, they would

be killed. I promised them: “We willnot kill you,” and they surrendered. Ihad to go to help liberate another town,and when I came back, I asked where

the young Germans were. They had allbeen killed by our commander. I sworeto the memory of these 20 young peo-ple that I would do everything to makepeace on this planet!

Reason to HopeI love the planet. I love the skies. I

love nature. I love people. I lovediversity. At the age of 82, I wake upin the morning, and I come up with anew idea for a better world! It’simportant to keep a positive view,

because a positive view will help youresolve problems.

On the whole I think that people aredoing pretty well. They don’t wantwars. When I was in the UN we hadmany heads of state who visited us. Iwas invited to their luncheons and Ialways asked them: “Would you starta war to gain some territory fromyour neighbor?” and they alwayslooked at me as though I was madand said, “Why should we? Whyshould we not remain within our bor-ders?" This is totally different fromthe way it was at the beginning of the20th century.

Our planet is unique. So far we havenot found another one that has life.

Things are very complicated andwe make many errors, but we

are evolving. We mustmake this planet Earth par-

adise Earth. This must be ourobjective, and we can get there,

but we have to work very, very hardas a global community.�


“As a child . . . I thought that to bealive, to have life, was a miracle. And then I

discovered that we have wars.”

Robert Muller is a former AssistantSecretary-General of the UN whoserved the organization for 38 yearsuntil his retirement in 1986. He isChancellor Emeritus of the UN-estab-lished University for Peace in CostaRica. His classic book Most of AllThey Taught Me Happiness andideas for a better world can be foundat www.robertmuller.org

Schoolchildren in Cameroon learn about the rain forest

Even though the UnitedNations is sometimes describedas too bureaucratic and slow tobe effective, I have great hopesfor the UN for the future, as itsvery concept represents anideal of global cooperation anddemocracy. I believe the challenge ofthe current times is for people to thinkbeyond themselves and their immedi-ate interests, to make an effort to

respect others and to find away to transcend the differ-ences between them throughdialogue. The same is truefor nations and their govern-ments. If we can manage to

think “globally” not only in terms ofeconomic advantage but in terms ofour shared humanity and with a long-term vision for our shared resourcewhich is the planet we all inhabit, then

there can be hope for peace. It is notthe existence of the UN in itself thatcan make a difference, but the visionand courage of each of its MemberStates, and, ultimately, each of theircitizens. It is my hope that in thefuture we will use the full potential ofthe UN network and its agenciesmuch further than its existing activi-ties and develop it into a real forumfor dialogue.

Moni Shrestha is from Germany. Sheworks for a human rights NGO inLondon.

Our Shared HumanityBy Moni Shrestha

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When my father startedpracticing NichirenBuddhism in Paris, I

was thirteen. Struggling with aserious visual impairment sincebirth, I immediately wanted totry it out and felt relief and hope.In the following years I devel-oped a strong desire to helpmake a reality of the SGI’s visionof contributing to people’s hap-piness and improving society.This desire has since been a com-pass in my life, a starting pointto which I can always returnwhich has given me the strengthnot to give up, or be over-whelmed by my limitations.

After a confidence-buildingexperience as a dancer, I decided toresume my studies: I needed tounderstand society better if I want-ed to promote the arts. These stud-ies in social and economic adminis-tration, however, opened me up tobroader social concerns. Afterreceiving a master’s degree, I movedto New York to study political sci-ence and international relations.Soon I focused on issues of devel-opment, inequality, and the UnitedNations, with a special interest inAfrica. For me, the United Nationsrepresented the possibility of goingbeyond narrow nationalism andlooking at the world as an intercon-nected whole.

While finishing my Masters ofPhilosophy in Political Science, I gota job as a researcher for a project onthe intellectual history of the UnitedNations. The purpose of this projectwas to trace the origin and evolutionof ideas of social and economicdevelopment within the UnitedNations.

This research has shown theamazing wealth and diversity ofdevelopment ideas and policies pro-moted by the United Nations since

the mid-1940s. The UN has playedan educational role by circulatingideas and setting goals, norms andprinciples. Peace, independence,human rights and developmenthave been asserted as ideals thatought to be pursued. Governmentsand secretariats have been fightingover visions of the world. Early on,the social aspects of development,and inequalities within and betweencountries were underlined as hin-drances to genuine progress. Theyhad to be integrated into the devel-opment process and complementthe search for economic growth.

New IdeasThe research also showed that

many novel and far-reaching ideashave remained just that. Manyanalyses and proposals do not makeit beyond certain divisions or secre-tariats often for political reasons,and when governments reach someprogressive agreements on social orenvironmental policies they are notoften implemented in practice. Fur-thermore, the United Nations’ ideas,such as “sustainable development”or “poverty reduction” tend to bewidely used, but as rhetorical legit-

imacy for the continuation ofthe same old policies.

One of the conclusions ofthe project is that within theUN creative and independentthinking should be nurturedand made more broadlyavailable; an inquisitive andquestioning voice is of criticalimportance in the globaldebate.

While working for this pro-ject, I developed a researchtopic for a doctoral disserta-tion on sustainable develop-ment and water issues inDakar, Senegal, looking at theinfluence of sustainabledevelopment promoted by

the United Nations on water policiesand realities in Dakar, and trying toidentify options for resource man-agement that would ensure access todrinking water for the majority ofthe poor and the sustainability ofwater resources.

SGI President Ikeda has writtenthat a fundamental change in direc-tion in our civilization is needed, ifwe want to avoid a truly catastroph-ic outcome. My studies and encoun-ters have made me realize how truethis is. Modern “developed” civi-lization characterized by con-sumerism implies the overexploita-tion of natural resources and pollu-tion beyond the earth’s regenerativecapabilities, as well as inequalities inthese resources’ benefits and theburden of pollution. My long-termgoal is to contribute to a reexamina-tion of economic activities and ourways of life from an environmentalperspective, to encourage a changein consciousness and more respon-sible behavior. While this seems adaunting task, returning to my orig-inal determination gives me thesense of purpose needed to tacklemy research afresh every day.�

SGI members experiences in faith

A Broader VisionBy Sophie Theven, Switzerland

SGI Quarterly October 2005 19

I t was one of the annual “PeaceProposals” by SGI PresidentDaisaku Ikeda that gave me

the dream of working with theUnited Nations and changed thedirection of my life.

In December 1989 after earningmy MBA in Oregon, I moved toNew York hoping to become asuccessful businesswoman onWall Street. Many of my universi-ty friends were talking aboutworking with the United Nations,or with nonprofit organizations;but I didn’t care about “nonprof-it” initiatives as “profit” seemedto me the only reward for humanactivities.

DisappointmentIn 1992 in New York, however,

I found myself confused and dis-appointed with my work as afinancial analyst at one of theworld’s largest investment banks.Financial analysis seemed specula-tive and virtual to me; I felt I couldanalyze but do little for the realworld. At the same time, I wasdeveloping a deeper understandingof the meaning of my life throughmy practice of Buddhism and start-ed seeking a way to “use my life” forpeace and for other people. While Iwas struggling to discover this, Iwas laid off and then unemployedfor one-and-a-half years.

During this difficult period, myBuddhist practice gave me thestrength to persevere. I prayed sin-cerely every day to gain the wisdomto see what I truly wanted to do forthe rest of my life and to find a wayto contribute to peace and happi-ness. One day I opened PresidentIkeda’s peace proposal. He men-tioned that the Buddhist spirit oftreasuring peace, equality and com-passion is also expressed in the UNCharter. It was, therefore, impera-

tive for the SGI to support the UN’sendeavors. This made me realizethat the values and outlook I gainedthrough SGI could perfectly fit workfor the UN. I earned another master’sdegree in economics, and startedworking with the UN in 1994 in thefield of economic development.

ChallengesI was assigned to the United

Nations Economic and Social Com-mission for Asia and the Pacific(UNESCAP) in Bangkok, Thailand,as an economic affairs officer—myfirst encounter with a developingcountry. For the first time, I had towork amidst a variety of values, cul-tures and people. I had little knowl-edge and expertise in my work,international trade facilitation.Everything was new, demandingand endlessly challenging. Manytimes, I felt that I was incapable offulfilling my job and dealing withmy life in a developing country. Irealized though that this was a

defeatist attitude. I used my Bud-dhist practice to tap into the greatreservoir of potential that I wastaught lay inside me, and using allchallenges as a springboard, Igradually developed into a personwho can enjoy my work, appreci-ate the diversity of people andplaces, and value living in a devel-oping country.

Asia and the Pacific region isvery diverse with a wide range ofsocial and economic issues andUNESCAP covers 62 countries,including China, India, Iran, theRussian Federation and theDemocratic People’s Republic ofKorea. It is also the home to 13least developed countries wherearound 800 million people live onless than US$1 per day, and thechallenge of poverty alleviation isdaunting. Trade is the engine ofgrowth and the source of earn-

ings. My work is to make trade pro-cedures simpler and more efficient,and thus to facilitate trade.

As part of my work, I organizecapacity-building workshops indeveloping countries. Several yearsago at such workshops I was pro-moting how to use carbon copiesand A4 “standard size” for all tradedocuments. I was also introducinginformation and communicationtechnology (ICT) for future trade.Participants often said to me: “Weare still tackling ordinary illiteracy.Computer literacy for ICT use isvery ambitious.” Now some of themare using national paperless e-tradesystems applying state-of-the-artICT. It is satisfying to feel that mywork has contributed, in a smallway, to the countries’ trade devel-opment. I am determined to furtherdevelop myself to work better withthe UN in realizing peace, equalityand sustainable development, thegoals both of the UN and of SGI.�

Kaori (left) with colleagues

A New DirectionBy Kaori Yasuoka, Thailand

T here is something very specialabout Nelson Mandela’s smile.It’s honest and pure, full of gen-

tle composure. And yet it embodies theconvictions and strength of character ofa man who has led his people to free-dom. It’s a smile like the purest gold,from which all impurities have beenextracted in the furnace of great suffer-ing.

He was brimming with confidencewhen I greeted him in Tokyo on a Julyafternoon in 1995. It was our secondmeeting, and also a little over a yearsince he had been elected president ofSouth Africa.

The “dangerouscriminal” who hadbeen imprisoned for 27years for high treasonhad emerged from thatprison to become pres-ident of his country.Justice, which hadbeen locked away forso many decades, hadfinally begun to reignagain in South Africa.

As Mandela hascommented, “SouthAfrica’s prisons wereintended to cripple usso that we shouldnever again have thestrength and courageto pursue our ideals.”

The prisoners were awakened beforedawn to start a long day of forced labor.For 13 years Mandela was led in chainsto a limestone quarry and forced toextract lime from the hard cliffs beneatha burning sun.

Even under these hellish conditions,Mandela managed to study and encour-aged the other prisoners to share theirknowledge with each other and todebate their ideas. Lectures werearranged in secrecy and the prison cameto be known as “Mandela University.”Mandela never relented in his efforts to

change mistaken views and create alliesamong those around him. Eventually,his indomitable spirit gained the respectof even the prison guards.

By far the cruelest torment he had toendure was his inability to aid his fami-ly or shield them from the incessant per-secution of the authorities. The Mandelahome was attacked and burned; his wifewas repeatedly harassed, arrested andinterrogated. Mandela was in prisonwhen he learned that his mother haddied of a heart attack. It filled him withimmense pain to think that she died stillworrying about his safety, as she had

throughout the long years of his strug-gle for freedom and dignity. Shortlythereafter, he was told that his eldestson had been killed in a highly suspectautomobile “accident.”

Yet throughout it all, he refused toabandon hope. In 1978, 16 years into hisimprisonment, he was permitted to havea direct meeting with his daughter Zeni,who brought her newborn child withher to the prison. The last time Mandelahad hugged his daughter she had beenas small as the infant accompanying herthat day. Throughout their visit, he held

his granddaughter in his arms. He laterwrote: “To hold a newborn baby, so softand vulnerable, in my rough hands,hands that had for too long only heldpicks and shovels, was a profound joy. Idon’t think a man was ever happier tohold a baby than I was that day.”

Zeni asked him to name the child.Looking at his granddaughter, hethought of the future and how, when shewas grown, apartheid would be a distantmemory. He thought of her and her gen-eration walking proudly and fearlesslyunder the sun of freedom; of a countrywhere all people would live in equality

and harmony. Withthese thoughtsswirling through hismind, he named thetiny baby Zaziwe,“Hope.”

When PresidentMandela and I firstmet in 1990, I suggest-ed organizing a seriesof programs to informthe Japanese publicabout the realities ofapartheid and to pro-mote education inSouth Africa. Presi-dent Mandela accept-ed my proposals withgenuine joy. His sec-retary, Ismail Meer,said that this offer of

cultural exchange was a welcome recog-nition of Africans as human beings. Thisis what had been denied them in SouthAfrica, where they were simply classifiedas “black.”

The tendency to label people is notunique to South Africa. Prejudiced atti-tudes are at the root of human rightsabuses everywhere. By lumping peopleinto categories, we stop recognizingthem as individuals, as our fellow humanbeings; we are no longer able to put our-selves in their shoes. They are there infront of us, but we do not see them.


Lion of Freedom: Nelson Mandela

Excerpted from an essay in SGI President Ikeda’s recently published book One byOne about people whose lives and actions have inspired him.

SGI President Ikeda welcomes Nelson Mandela to Tokyo, July 1995

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An unwillingness to recognize thehumanity of the people of Africa is lit-erally inscribed on the map of modernAfrica; its arbitrary, divisive bordersdecided by colonial powers. Africa is nota “Dark Continent.” The darkness wasbrought from without. Nor is Africa apoor continent. It was made poor byrapacious exploitation. During the ColdWar, Africa became a stage for theproxy wars of the Eastern and Westernblocs, and the weapons brokers ofmajor powers grew rich as a result. Andwhat did the rest of the world have tosay to the African people who hadendured so much? They called Africa a“failure.” What indescribable arro-gance!

“The struggle is my life.” True to thisconviction, in 1962 Mandela trans-formed even the courtroom in which hewas being tried into a battleground ofcourageously articulated ideals and elo-quent appeals for justice. Standingbefore the judge, he demanded that theright to vote be extended to all SouthAfricans. He declared, “I consid-er myself neither legally normorally bound to obey lawsmade by a parliament in whichI have no representation.”

From within his prison cell, Mandelacontinued to inspire the people of SouthAfrica. Although he was unable to com-municate with them, his very existencewas a source of hope.

The world registered its disgust forapartheid and its support for thoseresisting it through economic sanctionsand cultural and sports boycotts. Feelingthis pressure, the South African govern-ment held out the offer of early releaseto Mandela on several occasions. Heconsistently refused these offers, whichwould have compromised the integrityof the antiapartheid movement. Herefused to consider his own freedombefore that of the whole country hadbeen achieved. In his eyes, all of SouthAfrica was a prison.

At last, the day of his release arrived.On that day, February 11, 1990, Man-dela addressed a rally in Cape Town:

“I stand here before you, not as aprophet, but as a humble servant of you,the people. Your tireless and heroic sac-rifices have made it possible for me to behere today. I therefore place the remain-ing years of my life in your hands.”

Mandela dreams of a land ruled nei-ther by blacks nor whites, but rather, ofa “rainbow nation” in which all peopleenjoy equal treatment. He once said, “Itis an ideal which I hope to live for andto achieve. But, if needs be, it is an idealfor which I am prepared to die.”

South Africa’s first nonracial elec-tions, open to all citizens, were held inApril 1994. As Nelson Mandela walkedto the voting booth, the faces of allthose who had died on the journey tothat moment appeared in his mind.Men, women and children, they hadgiven their lives so that he and his fel-low South Africans could be where theywere that day.

The most profound philosophies areborn in those who have endured themost severe oppression. In Mandela’sown words:

“It was during those long and lonelyyears that my hunger for the freedom ofmy own people became a hunger for thefreedom of all people, white and black. Iknew as well as I knew anything that theoppressor must be liberated just as sure-

ly as the oppressed. A man who takesaway another man’s freedom is a

prisoner of hatred; he is lockedbehind the bars of prejudice andnarrow-mindedness. . . . The

oppressed and the oppressor alikeare robbed of their humanity.”

No one can better teach us the deep-est meaning of freedom than this manwho spent half his adult life imprisoned.The essence of freedom is found inimmovable conviction. Only those wholive true to their convictions, whoseinner faith enables them to rise abovethe fetters of any situation, are truly free.As President Mandela has said: “To befree is not merely to cast off one’schains, but to live in a way that respectsand enhances the freedom of others.”

The struggle President Mandelawaged to bring apartheid to an end isreally a struggle for the very soul ofhuman dignity. I feel that he took up thisstruggle as the representative of theentire human race.�

21

“Only those who live true totheir convictions, whose inner faith enables

them to rise above the fetters of any situation, are truly free.”

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Mandela revisits his cell onRobben Island in 1994


The Soka Gakkai YouthPeace Conference (YPC) waslaunched in 1979 to serve asthe axis for promoting ayouth movement dedicatedto building a peaceful societyunderpinned by the Buddhistphilosophy of the sanctity oflife. The Soka Gakkai youthdivision sees its peaceactivities essentially as aneducational movement toawaken in individuals thespirit of global citizenship, agoal upheld by the SokaGakkai ever since itsfounding.

Abolishing WarThe Soka Gakkai was

founded as an educationalreform study group in 1930by Tsunesaburo Makiguchiand Josei Toda, who becameits first and second presidents.Both were educators. DuringWorld War II, Makiguchi andToda were imprisoned fortheir opposition to theJapanese military governmentand its abuse of religion andeducation in support of itswar of aggression in Asia.Makiguchi died in prison in1944, but Toda, his closestfollower, emerged fromprison after the war to rebuildthe Soka Gakkai as a layBuddhist association. In 1957,in his “Declaration for theAbolition of NuclearWeapons” delivered at agathering of 50,000 youth,he called on young people totake responsibility for

establishing the principle ofrespect for the dignity ofhuman life as a basic socialstandard. This declaration,one of the last instructions ofMr. Toda, who passed awaythe following year, becamethe starting point of the SokaGakkai youth division’s peacemovement.

In 1973, the youth membersof the Soka Gakkai in Japanadopted the Youth DivisionAppeal for the Protection ofthe Right to Live. In this theyconfirmed their commitmentto work toward lasting peaceand the well-being of allpeople by persistently callingfor the abolition of war,upholding environmentalprotection, and opposing allforms of oppression andviolence. Today the YouthPeace Conference wagesvarious campaigns based onthe annual peace proposalissued by SGI President Ikeda(see: www.sgi.org/english/President/peace-pro.htm). Oneof the basic directions that theproposal provides is support forUN initiatives. The goal of theYPC’s activities in this regard isto raise public awarenessaround global issues alsoidentified as key concerns ofthe UN. In this, the YPC adoptsan educational approach.

Public EducationPeace promotion initiatives

include internationalexhibitions such as “NuclearArms: Threat to Our World,”

The Soka Gakkai Youth Peace ConferenceBy Kimiaki Kawai, YPC Chair

A Soka Gakkai youth delegation visits a refugee camp in Kenya, February 1993

Youth in Hiroshima collect signatures for the Abolition 2000 campaign toeliminate nuclear weapons

“Toward a Century of Humanity—Human Rights in Today’s World” exhibitionin The Hague, the Netherlands, 1998

Photos from

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SGI Quarterly October 2005 23

first presented in 1982 during aspecial session on disarmamentat the UN Headquarters in NewYork in cooperation with theUN Department of PublicInformation and the cities ofHiroshima and Nagasaki. It hastoured 39 cities in 24 countries.To preserve a record ofpeople’s experiences of WorldWar II, Soka Gakkai youth alsocompiled 80 volumes of morethan 1,000 individual accounts. Manyof these accounts have also beenrecorded on video. In 1975 and 1998,anti-nuclear-weapon petition drivescollected 10 million and 13 millionsignatures which were presented tothe UN Headquarters and the Abolition2000 movement respectively.

Another focus of the Youth PeaceConference has been the promotion ofhuman rights education in support ofthe UN Decade for Human RightsEducation (1995–2004) and the WorldProgramme for Human RightsEducation that started at the beginningof 2005. Initiatives include exhibitionssuch as “Toward a Century ofHumanity—Human Rights in Today’sWorld,” which has toured some 40cities in eight countries, an

antiapartheid exhibition and lecturesand seminars on peace issues. The YPChas also created exhibitions promotingeducation for sustainable developmentand campaigns aimed at stoppingbullying in Japanese schools.

Humanitarian ReliefThe Youth Peace Conference has

also been actively engaged inhumanitarian activities, includingrefugee relief and postwar restorationassistance overseas. It has undertakenannual awareness-raising and fund-raising campaigns in support of the UNHigh Commissioner for Refugees(UNHCR), and, between 1973 and2001, it conducted 21 such campaignsto facilitate provision of medical care,food, education and other servicesadministered by UNHCR and related

organizations. In1993, the YPCcoordinated thecollection of300,000secondhand radiosand donated themthrough the UNTransitionalAuthority inCambodia(UNTAC) to thepeople of

Cambodia to help them stay informedabout that country’s first-everdemocratic election.

SGI President Daisaku Ikeda haswritten: “The empowerment of thepeople, by the people, for the people,to inspire and enlighten the spirit ofeach individual, will be thefundamental force for truly changingthe world.”

The purpose of our movement is tocreate a culture of peace; it is to planta seed of peace in every person’s heartand cultivate the spiritual soil in whichpeace can be built. Dialogue is theactual tool in this endeavor. It is ourfirm conviction that building a fortressof peace within the heart of eachperson through effective dialogue isthe most unfailing path to peace.�

An Eco-Aid event to promote environmentalprotection, Kushiro, Japan, 1993

Lecture by peace activist Jan Øberg, Nagoya, 2004

Secondhand radios were collected anddonated to the people of Cambodia

through UNTAC to help facilitate the country’s first democratic election,

Tokyo, 1992–1993


In recent years SGI-Australia hasincreased its interaction with otherfaiths and become involved with manysocial and community activities. Thishas led to ongoing dialogues and part-ner relationships with a wide range ofother organizations promoting peace,tolerance and nonviolence in Australiansociety.

The first chapter of SGI-Australia wasestablished in 1964, and in 1977 weopened our first culture center in Syd-ney. During the 1980s, we startedspreading our wings by holding con-ventions and cultural festivals on anational level.

Currently, our membership is around3,000, with members in Sydney, Victo- ria, Queensland, Western Australia,

Canberra, Darwin, Cairns, South Aus-tralia, Tasmania and more rural regionsand 34 different cultures involved in ourtotal membership, including a high pro-portion of members of Asian origin asbefits Australia’s geographical positionand ethnic makeup. The distancesbetween each of the states and the isola-tion of the country areas mean that eachstate has its own distinct characteristics.

The SGI movement in Australia iscentered on an informal group-gather-ing style which reaches out to a widerange of people in different cultural,work-related, student, language-basedand interest groups. This style attractsyoung people and those with a stronginterest in cultural activities. The orga-nization has also developed an innov-ative approach to Buddhist study cen-tered on small group discussions whichfocus on the application of Buddhistprinciples to issues in daily life andAustralian society.

Peace EventsSince August 1998, members in Vic-

toria have been participating in anannual interfaith peace event to com-memorate Hiroshima Day. Togetherwith Pax Christi, we have worked hold-ing dialogue and friendship gatheringsof different faiths to promote peace. The2005 interfaith activity, in commemora-tion of 60 years since Hiroshima, washeld at the University of Melbourne. Theevent comprised representation from

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SGI’s Role in Multicultural AustraliaSGI’s Role in Multicultural AustraliaSGI’s Role in Multicultural Australia

Australia

Report

By Hans Van Der Bent, SGI-Australia General Director

SGI’s global activities for peace,education and culture

Northern Territory

New South Wales

South Australia

TasmaniaVictoria

Western Australia

CanberraSydney

Perth

Brisbane

Cairns

Melbourne

Queensland

A women’s peace workshop hosted by SGI-Australia in Melbourne, March 2005

Sydney

the Bahá’í, Buddhist, Christian, Indige-nous Australian, Islamic, Jewish andSikh communities.

Our youth members in Queenslandhave been closely involved with theGriffith University Multi-Faith Centre aswell as joining an interfaith lecture seriesat the University of Queensland.

In June 2004, Dean Lawrence Carter ofthe Martin Luther King Jr. InternationalChapel at Morehouse College also gavepublic lectures under the sponsorship ofSGI-Australia at a number of venues onthe topic of peace andawarded the Chapel’s“Gandhi, King, IkedaCommunity Builders’Award” to Dr. Marie JoanWinch, founder of theMarr Modditj AboriginalHealth College, who hasdevoted her life to improv-ing the health and welfareof her Aboriginal people.

In New South Wales, togeth-er with Forum for AustralianIslamic Relationships (FAIR),SGI-Australia has held twoseminars this year: “Race, Reli-gion and Rhetoric” and “Con-flict Transformation and Terror-ism—Implications for the 21stCentury,” in conjunction withSydney University and peacescholar Prof. Johan Galtung.

Women members of SGI-Australiahave also held several local-level semi-nars on peace issues, using the theme“Victory Over Violence” and includingdiscussion of domestic violence andother pressing problems facing Aus-tralian women.

Celebrating DiversityIn 2000, SGI-Australia was invited by

the Office of Citizenship and Multicul-tural Interest (OCMI) and the WesternAustralia Museum to hold the “Children

of Terezin” exhibition in Perth. WesternAustralia is one of the most diversecommunities in the world, with its pop-ulation drawing from more than 200ethnic backgrounds. The exhibition waslaunched on March 21, which is Aus-tralian National Harmony Day, anannual event in conjunction with theUnited Nations International Day forthe Elimination of Racial Discrimination.

In the following year, SGI-Australia,together with OCMI, celebrated Nation-al Harmony Day at the Perth Zoo withthe opening of a Harmony Garden anda Global Village.

Dr. Geoff Gallop, premier of WesternAustralia and minister of citizenship andmulticultural interests, acknowledgedthat the centerpiece of the event was theGlobal Village which was put togethermainly by SGI-Australia members.

Over the past 10 years, a number ofevents focused on environmental pro-tection have been held.

“Respect the Ocean” was a large con-vention and exhibition, held both inBrisbane and the Gold Coast in 1998.The exhibition promoted the need todevelop a greater awareness of theinterrelatedness of human activities andthe health of the oceans.

In 2001, the Earth Charter Asia PacificConference was held in Brisbane. SGI-Australia members hosted a dinner andprovided cultural performances to enliv-en the conference.

Clean-Up Australia Day is an annualevent carried out on the first Sunday inMarch. Members of SGI-Australia inPerth have participated in this dayannually since 1992. Members alsosupported the annual National TreePlanting Day at the Eric Singleton BirdSanctuary in Perth in July 2005.

Because of the broad spread of ethnic-ity in Australian society today, people areconcerned about the many different cul-tures and religions that are appearingday by day. SGI-Australia is respondingto this by facilitating cultural exchangesand interfaith dialogues both in largerevents and in smaller forums and work-ing groups. We firmly believe that thereare no strangers out there in society, onlyfriends that we haven’t met yet.

Such interfaith events and seminars, aswell as cultural exchange and environ-mental protection activities, are activitiesthat we will continue in Australia in sup-port of spreading goodwill and friend-ship in our local community.�


Celebrating Harmony Day

Cairns Peace Week

The “Respect the Ocean”event in Brisbane, 1998

Yanchap National Park, Perth

A series of events to commemoratethe 60th anniversary of the end of WorldWar II and boost popular awareness ofpeace issues was organized in July andAugust by the Soka Gakkai in Japan.The value of such initiatives is high-lighted by a survey on attitudes toward

war and peace undertaken ear-lier this year by the Soka GakkaiYoung Women’s Peace Com-mittee. Responses showed thatyoung Japanese have a verypoor understanding of the real-ities of war. Many of them fore-see the possibility of their coun-try’s involvement in war during theirlifetime. Some also believe that Japanshould possess nuclear weapons. Theresults of the survey, together withaction steps for building peace, havebeen published in a book entitled p: step.

At an Intergenerational Culture ofPeace Forum sponsored by theWomen’s Peace Committee of the SokaGakkai held at the Kanagawa CultureCenter in Yokohama on July 30, youngpeople had an opportunity to hear theexperiences of individuals directly affect-

ed by war. A panel discussion on creat-ing peace featured Ms. Yukie Osa, for-mer secretary-general of the Associationfor Aid and Relief, Japan, and a memberof the International Campaign to BanLandmines Coordinating Committee, aswell as other activists.

Peace Efforts in HiroshimaOn July 25, Prof. M. S. Swaminathan,

pioneering agronomist of India’s “GreenRevolution” and current president of thePugwash Conferences on Science andWorld Affairs, spoke on “The Status ofHuman Security: 60 Years After theAtomic Bombs” at the Hiroshima IkedaPeace Center. Referring to the ideals ofDr. Joseph Rotblat (1908–2005), NobelLaureate for peace and past president ofthe Pugwash Conferences, and Dr. Linus

Pauling (1901–94), Nobel Prize recipientfor chemistry and peace, ProfessorSwaminathan emphasized that scienceshould exist for the sake of humanity’shappiness. He also stressed the impor-tance of educating youth about the cul-ture of peace and the abolition of nuclearweapons.

On July 30, jazz legends Herbie Han-cock and Wayne Shorter performed aspart of a World Youth Peace Music Fes-tival at Hiroshima Central Park. Alsofeatured were Korean drum and Chi-nese classical harp performances.

On July 31, the Hiroshima SokaGakkai student division hosted a peacerally in Hiroshima city attended byJapanese students as well as studentsfrom China, Korea, Thailand, Australiaand Iran currently studying in Hiroshima.

Women Against WarOn the same day, the Soka Gakkai

Hiroshima Women’s Peace Committeesponsored an atomic bomb experiencesymposium at the Hiroshima IkedaPeace Center. A testimonial was givenby atomic bomb survivor Emiko Oki-moto who was exposed to radiation atage 19 during the 1945 atomic bomb-ing of Hiroshima.

Building on earlier projects to collectand publish records of women’s experi-ences of war, Soka Gakkai womenmembers across Japan are filming wartestimonials in order to document thereality of war and counteract efforts ofthose who would sanitize or glorifyarmed conflict. In addition to the 20-vol-ume work Heiwa eno negai wo komete(Women Against War), a collection of 40wartime experiences selected from theoriginal Japanese work has been pub-lished in English as Women Against War.In the 1970s, the Soka Gakkai youthdivision also published over 1,000wartime accounts in 80 volumes. TwoEnglish-language volumes—Peace IsOur Duty and Cries for Peace—haverecently been reissued.


Participants in the Culture of Peace Forum listen to wartime experiences

Reflecting on WarReflecting on WarReflecting on War Drummers express Hiroshima’s passion for creating lasting peace

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The World Youth Peace Music Festival at Hiroshima Central Park

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The SGI-Canada Vancouver YouthEarth Charter Committee (YECC) wasamong the winners of the Mayor’s Envi-ronmental Achievement Award at theSustainability Fair 2005 sponsored bythe city of Vancouver and the Canadiangovernment. Held on June 8 at the Van-couver Public Library, the awards cere-mony, which commemorated Clean AirDay and Environment Week, recog-nized individuals, nonprofit organiza-tions and corporations for environmen-tal initiatives that protect, preserve andenhance the environment. Mayor LarryCampbell presented a certificate to SGI-Canada Vancouver youth for theirefforts to promote the Earth Charter, a“people’s treaty” that sets forth funda-mental principles for sustainable devel-opment and conservation of the naturalenvironment, and for their efforts toestablish the YECC which organizes andimplements environmental educationand volunteer activities.

During February and April, the YECCvisited elementary schools in the Van-couver suburb of Langley to teach chil-dren about the Earth Charter, and inJune it participated in a neighborhoodcleanup. On May 7, together with SGIVancouver youth leaders, it hosted ascreening of The World Is Yours toChange, an award-winning documen-tary sponsored by the SGI, at the Van-couver Convention and Exhibition Cen-ter. Over 30 youth organizations pro-moted ideas for sustainable living athome and abroad at this event, held tocelebrate the start of the UN Decade ofEducation for Sustainable Development(2005–2014) and attended by some2,000 local residents.

Meanwhile in Malaysia, the StateGovernment of Selangor commendedSGI-Malaysia (SGM) for its contribu-

tions to art and culture. The conferraltook place on July 4 at the State YouthCulture Center in Shah Alam, capital ofSelangor.

In Singapore, the Singapore SokaAssociation (SSA) youth division wasawarded the Singapore Youth Award(SYA) 2005 for Community and YouthServices. The award recognizes excel-lence in and commitment to communi-ty service and youth development. Theaward ceremony took place on June 25at the Istana, the official residence of theSingaporean president.

SGI-Serbia and Montenegro mem-bers hosted a general meeting for theBalkan Peninsula at the SGI BelgradeCenter on June 17 and 18, which wasattended by SGI members from Mace-donia, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Albaniaand Croatia, as well as members fromRomania and Hungary.

A Balkan Youth Peace Committee,made up of youth from Serbia and Mon-tenegro, Bosnia-Herzegovina andMacedonia, was established the follow-ing day at the organization’s first youthgeneral meeting. The committeepledged to be in the vanguard of effortsto establish peace on the Balkan Penin-sula, a region historically fraught withconflict.

SGI-Serbia and Montenegro wasestablished as a chapter on July 3, 1999,shortly after NATO air strikes on Serbia.It was officially recognized as an organi-zation for the promotion of peace, cul-ture and education in October 2003.

The Balkan General Meeting at the SGI BelgradeCenter


At the time of going to press,SGI-USA members and leaderswere rallying to offer relief assis-tance and support to those affectedby the devastating Hurricane Katri-na which hit New Orleans and othercoastal areas on August 29.

SGI-USA made an initial donation ofUS$10,000 to the American Red Cross,and over 50 local SGI-USA members,including some evacuees whose homesin New Orleans had been flooded,joined efforts to provide food, water andclothing to evacuees in the HoustonAstrodome, Reunion Arena and othercenters. Hoss McBain, an SGI-USAleader from Texas, was appointed by theAmerican Red Cross to be shelter man-ager for the night shift at the DallasConvention Center, then housing10,000 people.

A team of SGI-USA representativestraveled around affected areas of Mis-sissippi and Louisiana to visit membersand provide food, water, gasoline andtoiletries to them and others affected bythe hurricane.

SGI-USA also launched a toy andbook collection drive for children in anattempt to provide for their needsamidst the confusion and loss. Over1,000 toys and books were distributed tochildren sheltered at the HoustonAstrodome and other facilities in Texas.On September 9, members of ICAP(International Committee of Artists forPeace) held a concert for evacuees at theDallas Convention Center.

Presentation of the Mayor of Vancouver’s 2005Environmental Achievement Award

Youth and Sustainable Development

Serbia and Montenegro

SGI volunteers support relief efforts at the HoustonAstrodome

Hurricane Katrina Relief EffortsHurricane Katrina Relief EffortsHurricane Katrina Relief Efforts

Youth volunteers distributed toys and books to children in shelters throughout Houston

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Bharat (India) Soka Gakkai (BSG) andthe Times Foundation of the TimesGroup, India’s largest professionalmedia group, cosponsored a peace sym-posium on August 4 based on the 2005peace proposal by SGI PresidentDaisaku Ikeda, “Toward a New Era of Dialogue: Humanism Explored.”Excerpts from the proposal were print-ed in The Times of India that day. Some700 guests attended the seminar.

In a keynote address, Dr. R. K. Pachau-ri, director-general of the Tata Energyand Resources Institute (TERI), NorthAmerica, and chairman of the Intergov-ernmental Panel on Climate Change,called for a review of human activitiesbased on fundamental truths to ensurethe welfare of all beings on the planet.

Dr. L. M. Singhvi, member of parlia-ment and formerly India’s High Com-missioner to the United Kingdom, saidthat unlike the West-espoused move-ment for rationality which sees a lessen-ing of religious influence, Dr. Ikeda’shumanism belongs to the Asian tradi-tion—humanism that stems from adesire to build bridges and establish

equations of tolerance in the world.Former Indian Ambassador to the

U.S. Lalit Mansingh affirmed that dia-logue is fundamental to diplomacy, andthat Dr. Ikeda’s pleas for a multilateraldisarmament process coincide withwhat India has been calling for for thepast half-century.

On July 30–31, Soka Gakkai Malaysia(SGM) hosted a Women’s Peace Confer-ence on the theme “The Role of Womenin Building Bridges of Peace Through

Culture and Arts” at the SGM CultureCenter in Selangor State. Some 1,200women scholars, local NGO personneland SGI representatives from Malaysia,Thailand, Singapore, the Philippines,Australia, Taiwan, Hong Kong andMacau attended the conference.

Puan Norliza Rofli of the Ministry ofCulture, Arts and Heritage spoke on“Culture and Arts from My Profession-al Perspective,” and Datin Seri RosmahMansor, wife of Malaysia’s DeputyPrime Minister, gave a commemorativespeech. SGM women representativeschaired forums addressing how cultureand art help bring about peace; theimportance of preserving traditional val-ues and culture; and building bridges ofpeace at home and in the community.An exhibition, “Women NurturingPeace,” was on display at an exhibitionhall of the SGM Culture Center. Friend-ship exchange meetings were also heldin the evening at 34 venues, attended by3,700 participants.�

“Dialogue with Nature” Exhibition in Vietnam“Dialogue with Nature” Exhibition in Vietnam“Dialogue with Nature” Exhibition in Vietnam


This year marks the 30thanniversary of the end of theVietnam War (1960–1975) andthe independence of the SocialistRepublic of Vietnam. From July22 through 31, “Dialogue withNature,” an exhibition of some105 nature photographs by SGIPresident Daisaku Ikeda, washeld at the Fine Arts Museum inHo Chi Minh City, the country’slargest city and economic hub.Water lilies

Helping Taiwanese Elementary SchoolsHelping Taiwanese Elementary SchoolsHelping Taiwanese Elementary SchoolsAfter a typhoon packing

high-velocity winds of up to184 kph and bringing tor-rential rains hit Taiwan onJuly 18, local SGI-Taiwanmembers, led by studentdivision members, helpedrelief and cleanup activitiesat Mao-lin and Duo-na ele-mentary schools in Kao-hsiung, southern Taiwan.SGI-Taiwan youth also heldsummer camps at both ele-mentary schools to encour-age the students, presentingbooks and stationery sup-plies to the children.

Peace Symposium in India

The summer camp for elementary school students

Women’s Peace Conference in MalaysiaWomen’s Peace Conference in MalaysiaWomen’s Peace Conference in Malaysia The SGM Women’s Peace Conference, Malaysia

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As the problems of our planet grow deeper and morecomplex, the possibility of humanity untangling thedestructive web that we have woven can seem less

and less easy to believe in. The hope that Buddhism offersto this pervasive sense of uncertainty is the perspective thatsince the ills of our world have been created by humanbeings, it is within our power to solve them. Both the prob-lem and the solution lie with us.

Buddhism began as a bold, humane confrontation withthe fact of suffering. Its original impulse is not one of retreator escape from life’s challenges and contradictions. Rather,Buddhist practice could be broadly characterized as thestruggle to draw forth and shine the light of human wisdomon life and society. A thorough understanding of the caus-es of human misery is a departurepoint for this philosophy. ThusNichiren writes, “One who is thor-oughly awakened to the nature ofgood and evil from their roots totheir branches and leaves is called aBuddha.”

At the root of human misery,Buddhism sees three destructiveimpulses: greed, anger and foolish-ness, which it terms the “three poi-sons.” These are the essence of allthe delusions and negative work-ings of life that impede the realiza-tion of our full potential for happi-ness and creativity.

Of the three, foolishness is mostfundamental, as it facilitates greedand anger. Foolishness here meansignorance (passive or willful) of thetrue nature of life. It is blindness tothe reality of our interrelatedness—not merely our connectedness to anddependence on each other, but the connectedness of theunfolding of each of our lives to the unfolding of the verylife of the universe; the fact that each of us is a vital com-ponent of life itself and a nexus of immense possibilities.Because it obscures life’s true, enlightened nature, thisignorance is also referred to as “fundamental darkness.”

Our deepest sense of fulfillment lies in the experience ofthis connectedness and in actions that uphold it. Under theinfluence of such ignorance, however, we look for fulfill-ment through acquisition and possession (of objects, fame,power, and so on). Greed is the uncontrolled impulse tofulfill these desires, even at the cost of the unhappiness ofothers. Inevitably, such pursuits lead only to a sense offrustration.

Anger is the violent impulses that spring from the sameegocentric orientation. It is not only explosive rage, but alsoresentment, envy—all the insidious, ultimately self-destruc-tive emotions of the wounded ego.

These poisons thus undermine our individual happiness,impede our relationships and hinder the unfolding of ourunique creative potential. Their influence, however, goesbeyond this. On a social level they well forth from the innerlives of individuals and become the cause of conflict,oppression, environmental destruction and gross inequali-ties among people. One Buddhist text expresses it this way:“Because anger increases in intensity, armed strife occurs.Because greed increases in intensity, famine arises. Becausefoolishness increases in intensity, pestilence breaks out. And

because these three calamities occur,earthly desires [delusions] grow morenumerous and powerful than ever, andfalse views increasingly flourish.”

From the perspective of NichirenBuddhism, the three poisons are aninherent aspect of life and can never becompletely eradicated. In fact, a reli-gious approach based on eliminatingthese poisons from one’s life may sim-ply breed hypocrisy. Buddhist practicein the Nichiren tradition can bedescribed as a process of continuallytransforming the energy of these delud-ed impulses and redirecting it toward thecreation of value. In a more generalsense it is through the spiritual struggleto continually orient our lives towardrespecting others and working for thebroader good of all that we are able totranscend and transform these poisons.In this process, the destructive energy ofanger, for example, is sublimated into a

protective force that can counteract injustice, preventing usand others from merely being swept along by outside forcesor being taken advantage of by those with ill intent.

Dialogue based on a will to genuinely connect withpeople in an attitude of respect and mutual encourage-ment is a powerful key in this transformative process.

Ultimately, establishing peace and security on our planetrelies on an inner transformation within the lives of indi-viduals. As the UNESCO constitution states, “Since warsbegin in the minds of men, it is in the minds of men that thedefenses of peace must be constructed.” The sense ofresponsibility to continually seek to develop our potentialfor creative good is the crux of personal empowerment andbeginning of the broader transformation of the planet.�

Buddhism in Daily LifeBuddhism in Daily Life

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Three Poisons—the Source of the Problem

The Soka Gakkai International (SGI) is a worldwideassociation of 82 constituent organizations withmembership in 190 countries and territories. In theservice of its members and of society at large, the SGIcenters its activities on developing positive humanpotentialities for hope, courage and altruistic action.

Rooted in the life-affirming philosophy of NichirenBuddhism, members of the SGI share a profoundcommitment to the promotion of peace, culture andeducation. The scope and nature of the activities

conducted in each country vary in accordance with theculture and characteristics of that society. They all grow,however, from a shared understanding of the inseparablelinkages that exist between individual happiness and thepeace and development of the global human family.

As a nongovernmental organization (NGO) withformal ties to the United Nations, the SGI is active inthe fields of humanitarian relief and public education,with a focus on peace, sustainable development andhuman rights.

Editorial team:Joan Anderson, Anthony George, Katsuhiro Fujino, Kumiko Ichikawa, Kimiaki Kawai,

Motoki Kawamorita, Yoshinori Miyagawa, Satoko Suzuki, Richard Walker

Published by Soka Gakkai International©2005 by Soka Gakkai International. All rights reserved. Printed in Japan.

Printed on recycled paper.

SOKA GAKKAI INTERNATIONAL15-3 Samoncho, Shinjuku-ku, Tokyo 160-0017, Japan

Telephone: +81-3-5360-9830 Facsimile: +81-3-5360-9885

Web site: www.sgi.org

© SEKAI BUNKA PHOTO

Aomori, Japan

soka gakkai international quarterly magazine number 42 · soka gakkai international quarterly...

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