21 February 2005

Project of a workshop/conference on The moral and spiritual dimensions of the work of the United Nations on matters of development and social progress

Presented by the Triglav Circle, a non-governmental organization with consultative status with the UN Economic and Social Council 

Background

1. The United Nations has this year on its agenda the ten-year review of the implementation of the agreement reached in March 1995 in Copenhagen by the Word Summit for Social Development. The Copenhagen Declaration and Programme of Action includes ten commitments and related policy recommendations – notably to address the problems of poverty, unemployment and social exclusion — and has an explicit and rather strong moral orientation. In particular, the reduction of poverty is seen as a moral imperative. And, probably for the first time in a major text adopted by the Member States of the United Nations, the word “spiritual” is used. In  paragraph 3 of the Declaration is the acknowledgment that “societies must respond more effectively to the material and spiritual needs of individuals, their families and the communities in which they live.” 

2.This distinctive feature of the Copenhagen text was partly due to the organization in October 1994 by the Secretariat of the United Nations of a seminar on Ethical and Spiritual Dimensions of Social Progress.The report of this seminar was debated by the intergovernmental preparatory committee for the Summit and was subsequently published by the United Nations. After the Summit, a number of the participants in this seminar, which had taken place in Bled, Slovenia, near a mountain called “Triglav” (meaning “three gods”), decided to create an association aimed at pursuing the reflection on those dimensions of the international public discourse. Since then, the Triglav Circle, apart from its own informal gatherings, has regularly participated in the annual meetings of the UN Commission for Social Development.

In the course of the year, apart from the ten-year review of this Summit, the United Nations will undertake a first assessment of the implementation of the Millennium Declaration and the Millennium Development Goals. The Secretary-General will also present his recommendations for changes in the Organization on the basis of the conclusions recently reached by a group of eminent persons. These various threads will be considered in the fall by the General Assembly, which will meet for a few days at the heads of States level.

3. It would therefore seem appropriate that an attempt to contribute to this overall debate on the role and future of the United Nations be made by organizations and individuals interested in the moral and intellectual message conveyed by this universal body. The purpose of this Note is for the Triglav Circle to seek partners in the conception, preparation and holding of a meeting that should preferably take place before the end of the year and whose provisional and tentative title would be The moral and spiritual dimensions of the work of the United Nations on matters of development and social progress. Below are some points for reflection and debate, on both the substance and modalities of such meeting.

Substantive points for consideration

4. A first question is the rationale for debating the “moral and spiritual dimensions of the work of the United Nations”, also called the “moral power”, or the “moral message” of the same organization. An analysis of any text emanating from this body, and a-fortiori of any public statement of the Secretary General, would reveal their moral foundations and moral implications. It would also suggest assumptions on the spirit emanating from such pronouncements, and perhaps even on the spiritual tradition or movement that they represent. Points for reflection are therefore not the presence of these moral and spiritual dimensions of the international discourse but their degree of explicitness and their quality.

• Regarding explicitness, it will be recalled that a highly respectable tradition calls for discretion and deliberate shyness vis-à-vis the public expression of moral sentiments and spiritual inclines. Most economists and international lawyers of the Secretariat of the United Nations, and most diplomats, belong to such tradition. On the other hand, discretion leads easily to neglect and to a sort of “dualism” whereby the moral and spiritual realm is disconnected from “real” and “practical” life. 
• As to the qualityof the moral and spiritual facets of the United Nations discourse, an obvious framework for judgment is given by the Charter and the Universal Declaration for Human Rights. But these founding texts are no longer seen by all as representing an ideal and a practical path towards the building of a peaceful and prosperous world community.

5. A second question relates to the usefulnessof openly debating moral and spiritual issues in the context of the United Nations. Have, for example, explicit references to these issues and dimensions in the text of the Social Summit increase its dissemination, appeal and impact on governments and international organizations? Haven these references inspire and help in their work organizations of the civil society? Beyond this example there are number of arguments in both directions. Among them, and starting with the negative, are the following:

• In the context of an international organization debates on moral and /or spiritual issues, or on values, or on religions, are bound to be either superficial, or divisive, or both.
• References to moral principles or spiritual aspirations in intergovernmental debates or in negotiated texts are consistently juxtaposed with decisions or recommendations that have no clear links with them. At best they are an ornament, at worst a smokescreen.
• Exposure to the diplomatic, bureaucratic and media culture of an organization as large and complex as the United Nations, means an unavoidable pollution of the language of morals and spirituality. The compromises and approximations that are necessary to negotiate are incompatible with a serious reflection on moral and spiritual concepts and practices. Each institution should remain faithful to its raison-d’etre.
•  On the positive side, the United Nations is founded on a corpus on moral and political principles that need to be kept alive, and perhaps in a few cases, adjusted to a changed world. To take these principles for granted, or to maintain them in a sphere protected from polity and politics is to risk their desuetude.
• There is a continuum between the basic principles and values that the Charter and the Universal Declaration of Human Rights see as universally understood and universally applicable and the instrumental values of which people and societies have different conceptions, A meaningful conversation on these – for example regarding the difference between cultural diversity and moral relativism – needs to be anchored in an open and shared understanding of the fundamental and the universal. 
• At the present juncture, in a world replete with various forms of  aggressiveness, offences to human dignity and breakdowns of the notions of human and international community, it would be a pity, and an error with probably tragic consequences, if the United Nations were not to be utilized as a forum to debate the main questions that divide and unite humankind. 

6. A third question pertains to the current and desirable characteristicsof the discourse of the United Nations on moral and spiritual matters. Critical in this regard is the Secretariat, which is one of the major organs of the organization. International civil servants, including the Secretary General, are supposed to be neutral in the sense of not favoring any particular member state and not promoting their personal views. But their duty is to respect and work for the realization of the principles and prescriptions inscribed in the Charter, which is not a “neutral” document. Taking into account the difficulties inherent to such balancing act, the following markers appear to be important: 

• Moral pronouncements or prescriptions in the United Nations discourse, including the recalling of basic principles such as the “dignity and worth of the human person” gain by stemming from both passion for the future of humanity (“passion” in the sense given to this word by for instance Hume, that is love, hope, fellow-feeling) and knowledge of the realities of the world. Passion without knowledge and the use of reason, is ineffective. Realism without passion and the space given by idealism is also ineffective, at least in these domains.
• Consistency between moral pronouncements and policy prescriptions and recommendations, which could also be called moral and intellectual integrity, is obviously essential for the credibility of any organization having to do with the public interest. It is also extremely demanding, intellectually and politically. 
• Even more demanding, the discourse on morality and spirituality has to be firm and uncompromising on the essential (the understanding of which is of course subject to debate) and flexible on the means to put the principles into practices. This touches upon the relation between morality and politics.

7. A fourth issue relates to the processes and institutional arrangementsthrough which the United Nations could debate of moral and spiritual questions. At present those questions do not constitute a recognized sphere of activity of the organization. Their explicit treatment depends on the initiatives of the Secretary General and the staff. Among the relevant questions:

• Is this reserve the only reasonable option for an organization which is fundamentally intergovernmental in its character and has none of the attributes of a supranational body?
• Would it be conceivable to have a commission or committee on the moral and spiritual (and religious?) aspects of the building of a world community? What could be the composition of such a commission? Could it be operating on the basis of the consideration of concrete issues – for example the financial aid given to poor countries – giving different philosophical, moral and spiritual perspectives, and judgments on such an issue?
• Could an alternative be a small group of advisers, from different philosophical traditions and persuasions, attached to the Secretary General to advise him and provide a sort of “in-house enlightenment” to the whole organizations?

8. Fifth is the scope of the debate in this workshop/conference. The provisional title refers to matters of development and social progress.