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Brother
Ignacio Harding, OFM, Co-Director Sisters and Brothers, Peace and all good! Thank you for this opportunity to share with you our on-going and relatively new experience as a ministry of the Worldwide Franciscan Family at and through the United Nations Organization, as well as its subsidiary bodies. For organizational purposes I intend to present this brief report in six parts: 1.
General Introduction. 1. General Introduction: You all know very well that in the past three or four decades a wholesome new and refreshing approach to development has emerged on the world scene. In the not too distant past the measurement of development was principally and essentially considered economic. Meaning growth in individual and national material economic income — called Income Per Person on a personal level and Gross National Product on a country level. The more money a person or country had, the more developed it was considered. The fallacy in this method was clearly seen as high income nations also had low literacy rates, poor health services and shockingly low life expectancy. Thanks to worldwide social, economic, and cultural studies, a significant shift has occurred and the world now is principally concerned with integral human development. Over 17 different aspects of human existence are now considered before a country is given a position on the development ladder. Today, this coincides greatly, in the same way, with the more integral conception of the Church’s definition of Evangelization. Consider these brief quotes from the great encyclical Evangelii Nuntiandi: "Between evangelization and human advancement — development and liberation — there are in fact profound links. These include links of an anthropological order, because the man who is to be evangelized is not an abstract being but is subject to social and economic questions. They also include links in the theological order, since one cannot dissociate the plan of creation from the plan of Redemption. The latter plan touches the very concrete situations of injustice to be combated and of justice to be restored. They include links of the eminently evangelical order, which is that of charity: how in fact can one proclaim the new commandment without promoting in justice and in peace the true, authentic advancement of man? We ourself have taken care to point this out, by recalling that it is impossible to accept ‘that in evangelization one could or should ignore the importance of the problems so much discussed today, concerning justice, liberation, development and peace in the world. This would be to forget the lesson which comes to us from the Gospel concerning love of our neighbour who is suffering and in need"(n. 31). "For the Church, evangelizing means bringing the Good News into all the strata of humanity, and through its influence transforming humanity from within and making it new: ‘Now I am making the whole of creation new’ [Rv 21:5]. But there is no new humanity if there are not first of all new persons renewed by Baptism [cf. Rom 6:4] and by lives lived according to the Gospel [cf. Eph 4:23-24; Col 3:9-10]. The purpose of evangelization is therefore precisely this interior change, and if it had to be expressed in one sentence the best way of stating it would be to say that the Church evangelizes when she seeks to convert [cf. Rom 1:16; 1 Cor 1:18, 2:4], solely through the divine power of the message she proclaims, both the personal and collective consciences of people, the activities in which they engage, and the lives and concrete milieu which are theirs"(n. 18). "Strata of humanity which are transformed: for the Church it is a question not only of preaching the Gospel in ever wider geographic areas or to ever greater numbers of people, but also of affecting and as it were upsetting, through the power of the Gospel, mankind’s criteria of judgment, determining values, points of interest, lines of thought, sources of inspiration and models of life, which are in contrast with the Word of God and the plan of salvation" (n. 19). "There is no doubt that the effort to proclaim the Gospel to the people of today, who are buoyed up by hope but at the same time often oppressed by fear and distress, is a service rendered to the Christian community and also to the whole of humanity" "…the Church, ‘striving to proclaim the Gospel to all people’ [Ad gentes, n. 1], has had the single aim of fulfilling her duty of being the messenger of the Good News of Jesus Christ — the Good News proclaimed through two fundamental commands: ‘Put on the new self’ [cf. Eph 4:24, 2:15; Col 3:10; Gal 3:27; Rom 13:14; 2 Cor 5:17] and ‘Be reconciled to God’"[2 Cor 5:20] (nn. 1-2). "The Church considers it to be undoubtedly important to build up structures which are more human, more just, more respectful of the rights of the person and less oppressive and less enslaving…"(n. 36).
Today the international structures that enslave and dehumanize have a new name: globalization. John Paul II in a meeting on Human Rights in the Vatican just last week reiterated what is becoming one of his new and strong evangelical proposals for an alternative "Globalization of Solidarity". So as not to spend too much time "preaching to the choir" let me end this introduction here suggesting that to unite the tenets of true human development and integral evangelization there is a new need for concrete, creative, and sustained international advocacy in favour of the "Globalization of Solidarity" and a good place to do such advocacy is the United Nations and its bodies, the world’s global forum, and as John XXIII called it: "…the last, best hope for peace". 2. United Nations Overview Most of us know little or nothing about the United Nations itself except the slanted information received through most media sponsored by huge international interest groups who want no shackles put on them, especially on their international business interests. Although we all hope that through constructive criticism and evaluation, the UN becomes a better and more effective institution for the world community, we should start by recognizing these positive, relevant and little known facts. The United Nations is today, more than ever with its 185 member states and two observer missions, engaged in service to all the world’s nations and peoples. However its ability to function is severely hampered by its well known financial problems. Unless Member States pay their debts to the Organization — over $2.5 billion is owed as of 30 September 1998 — the UN will remain in a precarious financial situation. The budget for the UN’s core functions — the Secretariat operations in New York, Geneva, Nairobi, Vienna, and five Regional Commissions — is $1.25 billion a year. This is about 4 per cent of New York City’s annual budget — and nearly a billion dollars less than the yearly cost of Tokyo’s Fire Department. It is $3.7 billion less than the annual budget of New York’s State University system. The USA’s share of the UN’s regular budget for 1998 is $298 million — the equivalent of $1.11 per American. Tiny San Marino, by comparison, pays $4.26 per citizen to the UN. The UN has no army. Governments voluntarily supply troops and other personnel to halt conflicts that threaten peace and security. The United States and other Member States on the Security Council — not the Secretary-General — decide when and where to deploy peacekeeping troops. The New York World Headquarters of the UN requires the services of less than 4,700 people. The Swedish capital of Stockholm, by contrast, has 60,000 municipal employees. Some 52,280 people work in the UN system, which includes the Secretariat and 29 other organizations such as United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF). Three times as many people work for McDonald’s, while Disney World and Disneyland employ 50,000. Eighty per cent of the work of the UN system is devoted to helping developing countries build the capacity to help themselves. This includes promoting and protecting democracy and human rights; saving children from starvation and disease; providing relief assistance to refugees and disaster victims; countering global crime, drugs and disease; and assisting countries devastated by war and the long-term threat of landmines. The United Nations and its agencies, funds and programmes — mainly the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF), UN Development Program (UNDP), United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA), The World Food Program (WFP) and the World Health Organization (WHO) — have $4.8 billion a year to spend on economic and social development, to assist countries in such areas as health care, sanitation, agriculture and food distribution. This is the equivalent of 81 cents per human being. In 1996, the world’s governments spent about $797 billion in military expenditures — the equivalent of $135 per human being. The total cost of all UN peacekeeping operations in 1997 was some $1.3 billion the equivalent of less than 0.5 per cent of the US military budget, and less than 0.2 per cent of global military spending. The United States’ assessed share of UN peacekeeping expenses — nearly 31 per cent of the yearly total — has dropped by half, from about $1 billion in 1995 to some $400 million in 1997. This equals less than one-quarter of 1 per cent of the annual US military budget. Member States share the risks of maintaining peace and security. Since 1948, over 1,580 UN peace-keepers from some 85 countries have died in the line of duty. Less than 3 per cent were Americans. Under the supervision of an American, Joseph E. Connor, the Under-Secretary-General for Management, the UN Secretariat has a zero-growth budget of $2.5 billion for 1998-99 — $1.25 billion a year. This is down $100 million from 1994-95, the result of efficiency gains and the elimination of nearly 1,000 jobs. UN Secretariat staff has been cut by 25 per cent to about 8,700 from a high of more than 12,000 in 1984-85, and streamlining continues. Tough new standards have been set for staff performance. UN staff members have about one-third of their salaries deducted in lieu of taxes. A "quiet revolution" to make the UN leaner and more effective was launched by the Secretary-General Kofi Annan in July 1997, as the second phase of his reform efforts. Initiatives include consolidating several Secretariat bodies, streamlining management and shifting resources from administration to development work. An Office of Internal Oversight, established in 1994, is pursuing its mandate of promoting more effective and efficient management, and eliminating waste, fraud and mismanagement. It includes a special UN Investigative unit and a hotline. The total operating expenses for the entire UN system — including the World Bank, International Monetary Fund, and all the UN funds, programmes, and specialized agencies put together — come to some $18.2 billion a year. This is less than the annual revenue of a major corporation like Dow Chemical, which took in more than $20 billion in 1997. The top seven contributors to the UN are the USA (25%); Japan (17.98%); Germany (9.63%); France (6.49%); Italy (5.39%); the United Kingdom (5.07%); and Russia (2.87%). Collectively, they account for more than 72% of the regular UN budget. The United States — whose citizens hold more UN Secretariat jobs than any other Member State, as well as the top posts at UNICEF, the United Nations Development Program, the World Bank, the World Food Program, the International Court of Justice and the Universal Postal Union — owes more in unpaid assessments, both past and current, than any other Member State: $1.6 billion. Of the $327.5 million in procurements approved by the UN Secretariat in New York in 1997, American companies got 59 per cent of the business, or $192 million. For every dollar that the USA contributed in 1996 to the New York-based United Nations Development Program, it got back more than $3 in contracts to US companies and other goods and services. The UN, its agencies and the diplomatic and consular corps contribute $3.2 billion a year to the economy of the New York City area alone, according to Mayor Rudolph W. Giuliani. That has generated 30,600 jobs, yielding $1.2 billion in annual earnings. As you can see the UN is a complicated structure that spans the globe. How does it work? Where can we fit in? At UN Headquarters in New York there are three basic interrelated structures. The UN Secretariat and UN Specialized Agency Offices (like UNICEF); Permanent Missions of each member state; and the NGO community in consultative status with the UN. First, the United Nations Secretariat, is responsible for the organization and coordination of all the structures and activities that the member states approve. It is the executive body putting into practice all that is decided by the member states. The UN Specialized Agency Offices in New York coordinate activities with member states, NGO’s, and the Secretariat itself. Next, each country has its own UN staff with one or more Ambassador — Permanent Representatives. It is interesting that since most countries have Embassies to the United States in Washington D.C., the country delegations to the UN, which is on International Territory, are called "Permanent Missions" to the United Nations, each headed by an Ambassador. They together are the political decision making body for UN decisions and activities. Each member country has one representative and one vote in the General Assembly, which ordinarily meets from September to December and then extraordinarily after the New Year with no time limit to finish any unfinished agenda items. In the last few years this has become normal procedure since, for instance in 1998, the agenda contains no less than 158 items. The General Assembly has six main Committees (Disarmament, Sustainable Development, Economic and Social Affairs, De-Colonization and Self Determination, Peacekeeping and Finance) which prepare the agenda items and resolutions brought up. There are also many Sub-Commissions and regional groups to treat items for any and all of the Committees. The Security Council is the 15 member body responsible at all times for world security. Five countries are permanent members with the right to veto any decision: the US, Russian Federation, England, France and China. The other ten countries are elected for a two year membership by regions. This arrangement is in the process of long term evaluation and there are many proposals for its reform being presented for a more representative membership. Besides the final decisions made by the General Assembly in New York, important preparations are made at the level of the UN Offices in Geneva, Vienna, and Nairobi, as well as its 29 Programmes and Agencies centred around the world. One of the most important structures for NGO participation has been the UN World Conferences and now their follow up Special Sessions of the General Assembly. Rio de Janeiro on Environment 1992, Vienna on Human Rights 1994, Copenhagen on Social Development 1995, Beijing on Women, to name a few. And finally, the Non-Governmental Organizations community that is organized through the Conference of NGO’s (CONGO). Particular NGO’s also work together as groups in NGO Committees by interest area or institutional commitment. There are NGO Committees on: Aging; Disarmament; Human Rights; Narcotics and Substance Abuse; Shelter and Community; Southern Africa; Sustainable Development; Trade, Investment and Entrepreneurship; Family; Indigenous Peoples; Youth; Population; Crime Prevention and Criminal Justice; Freedom of Religion and Belief; Religious NGO’s; Social Development and the Reform of the Security Council. There are also instances of NGO caucuses, like the Values Caucus, the Faith Based Caucus for an International Criminal Court; and the Coalition for the establishment of the International Criminal Court. The participation of NGO’s today is based on a 1996/31 resolution governing their participation that is currently under study once again with the possibility to open the doors of even wider participation. At this time an NGO in General Consultative Status, like Franciscans International, an NGO with several areas of concern and members in many different countries, or one with Special Consultative Status — meaning with specialized interests and membership limited to even one country, may intervene verbally and/or in writing and may apply to participate in meetings and Conferences of the UN around the world in their specific areas of expertise and concern. Let move now more into the concrete to share a little about what we are trying to do. 3. Franciscans International Franciscans International is a global organization of the Franciscan Family from the grass roots up to and including the General leadership. It includes sisters, brothers, priests, active as well as cloistered; and a large number of women and men who are Secular Franciscans as well as some Friends of Franciscans International, not actually Franciscans, but working with our groups. We are ecumenical since we have both religious and Secular Franciscan members from among the Anglicans, Lutherans, as well as a group known as Ecumenical Franciscans. We are joined together by a consensus statement of the vision for our ministry at the UN:
Vision Statement of Franciscans International We
are Franciscan men and women We
believe that all creation, We
commit ourselves to encourage awareness of this interdependence We
will do this by service to our own members Care
of Creation We
see these concerns as congruent We are a service of the Conference of the Franciscan Family, based here in Rome representing the whole Franciscan Family worldwide. Special Statues now governed by an International Executive Committee of eight members from Africa, Asia, Europe, North and South America that in 1999 will be replaced by a more permanent International Board of Directors. We maintain our main office at the UN Headquarters in New York with a Sister and Brother, Kathleen Uhler and myself, as Co-Directors and UN Permanent Representatives, Sister Mary Theresa Plante, a volunteer UN Representative, an administrative Secretary and an Intern from Saint Francis College in Brooklyn. We have a joint office with the Dominicans in Geneva, Switzerland, with a permanent part time secretary and a team that attends the important Human Rights Commission and Sub-Commission meetings. We have Sister Carol Ann Kane, FMM, coordinating the organization of our presence in the most important UN Environmental Program. We have sent delegations to all of the major World Conferences and on a more limited basis to the follow up sessions on World Conferences. As in all experiences of Evangelization, we have learned a lot more than perhaps we have been able to contribute. 4. Possibilities Let me share a few of our concrete experiences so that you can perhaps see some more of the possibilities this ministry may open up to all of you as well. When I first arrived at the UN in June 1995, one of my first experiences was to be approached by Dr Amelia de Barrish, Ambassador of Costa Rica. She was insisting that as a Franciscan I should help her to promote a General Assembly Resolution for a 10 day worldwide cease fire from all hostilities, in honour of the 50th anniversary of the founding of the UN in October. I remember so well my reaction as I thought that it sounded like such a minimal proposal that I skeptically asked her what would be the significance of a 10 day cease fire? She looked at me incredulously as she explained that if a unanimous Resolution could be passed by July, it would allow the UN to then ship and stockpile food and medicines on boarders of every area of conflict so that when the cease fire took place they could be immediately shipped in to the war torn areas and could save the lives of anywhere from 3 to 10 million people. That certainly changed my perspective. We supported her proposal in NGO meetings, with governments and in our publications and private meetings. She was able to have 80 country co-sponsors of the resolution that when presented passed unanimously. The cease fire went into effect for 10 days in October 1995, as far as we know it was totally adhered to and millions of lives were saved because of it. In the preparatory meeting in New York for the World Summit on Human Settlements in Istanbul, the city planners were so strongly influencing the Conference that they began to call it the Cities Summit. Our Franciscans International delegates from India and Brazil called the attention of the assembly reminding all that the majority of people in the world still live in rural areas. So we could not have a world summit on Human Settlements without even taking into consideration the rural population and the reason why they are fleeing to the cities. As a result a whole new theme was introduced into the Summit expressed in many places in the final documents as the "Rural Urban Linkages". This emphasizes the point too, that we should no longer try to be the voice of our sisters and brothers from Asia, Africa and Latin America, but open the doors so that they can come and have their own voices heard. At the Copenhagen World Conference on Social Development the Franciscans International delegation were co-founders of the Values Caucus. It is a forum based on a commitment to values shared by all of humankind. It affirms that such values exist, and we believe that choosing to live by these values will lead to a global future of peaceful cooperation in an interdependent and culturally diverse world. We believe that without this commitment to shared values, humanity will continue to live under the threat of war, subsistent standards of living, and depletion of the natural resources of our endangered planet. Among other objectives the Values Caucus participates in the work of the United Nations by formulating values related concepts and language for documents and advocating for their inclusion and by developing and implementing values related programmes and workshops. One of the concrete activities of the Values Caucus is a bi-weekly informal off the record coffee session with one of the UN Ambassadors for about an hour on pertinent UN issues or country priorities at the UN. Not too long ago we had an extraordinary session with the Ambassador of a very large and multicultural country. The ambassador confessed to us that as he prepared to share his experience and priorities with us he realized how very little time he spends on real values considerations and how much time and energy he spends defending his country’s interests. "We must help them make a shift", he said, "from such an emphasis on national interests to some essential shared values in our UN decision process". In our later evaluation we thought that just causing him to think about his mission at the UN and the need for a values oriented position, made the caucus worth while. In the area of disarmament, perhaps one of our greatest successes was the Nobel Peace Prize we won success as members of the International Campaign to ban landmines. We were among the earliest to join the campaign and received a significant amount of support and enthusiasm from our grass roots local members, to national groups and the Franciscan Family as a whole. In this area our Canadian group really helped lead the way by actively participating as our FI delegation in the most significant international meetings especially the Ottawa Conference. Thousands and thousands of letters from our members from around the world, north-south east and west, were transmitted to world leaders. We had prayer services on the feast of St Francis, Instrument of Peace in the main entrance to the UN. In a most symbolic and non-violent gesture, small children pleaded for exchanging landmines for flowers and gave bouquets to UN Ambassadors who promised to eliminate the land-mines that killed and maimed so many innocent child-ren and women. Today, perhaps because of so many different and significant activities many nations have already ratified the landmine ban treaty. For the next two years we hope to work especially hard on the United Nations Decade for the Eradication of Poverty — particularly the most important issue — to cancel the debts of the world’s most impoverished countries. We have enthusiastically joined the International Jubilee 2000 campaign to raise the consciousness of the world’s financial institutions on the needs and benefits of such a pardon. John Paul II never ceases to mention this point too. A global momentum is building that we hope will cause a positive response as we begin the next millennium. The alleviation of the overburdening and unjust debt of the world’s most impoverished countries is the most significant step towards eradication of poverty possible. We are also looking forward to participate on all different levels of the United Nations new ten-year "Culture of Peace and Non-Violence" programme now before the General Assembly. We hope that schools, universities, parishes, retreat centres, and all levels of ministry will be able to contribute in this effort to transform our violent culture to a true culture of Peace. 5. Limitations Perhaps the first and foremost limitation is the very size and complexity of the United Nations System in itself. If you have become just a little dizzy trying to keep all these structures I have been explaining straight in your head, come to the UN for a couple of weeks and you will get thoroughly confused. This is something we have to deal with at greater length. Before I came to New York I thought that we at Franciscans International were very wise to choose just three issues to deal with at the UN: Care of Creation, Peacemaking, and Concern for the Poor. But as I get more and more involved I see more and more clearly that those three interrelated priorities cover almost every single aspect of UN activity. We are all limited, so our limitations must be carefully weighed and evaluated. Then we must commit ourselves to do what realistically can be accomplished. We do not wish to be the voice of the poor but to give the poor their own voice in the UN System. We, and the UN, need to hear the voices of the grass roots person especially the impoverished of Asia, Africa and Latin America. South-north travel to the UN Centres like New York, Geneva, and Vienna, is the most expensive. So those with the least need the most to have their voices heard. Our financial limitations sometimes exclude the very ones we should hear from in these forums. The work on international advocacy itself is still somewhat culturally limited. Dom Helder Camara, the great Brazilian bishop of the poor once said, "When I was giving bread to the poor I was called a saint. When I asked why the poor do not have their own bread I was called a communist". We have not yet been able to establish a serious commitment on the part of the majority of our leadership to invest in a long range presence at the UN even in New York. The Methodist Church has a 12 story UN Church Centre at the door of the UN, the Episcopal Church has their International UN Offices in their own 10 story building a block away. The Bahai Community, has extensive offices and a permanent staff of 35 for UN activities just in New York. While these are not the most imporant aspects, they do show us that our own substantial commitment is not even equal to what we have invested in one parish, school or university. Another limitation that we must overcome in the future is that of not yet effectively collaborating with UN projects and financing. Many of the activities that our membership are participating in, are also UN priorities, and sometimes would even be eligible for at least partial UN financing or grants. Although we have begun, we must learn to better use the advantages of internet communication much more than we have so far. The possibilities of world consultations and information sharing are growing each day. List servers could daily connect our experts in different fields and have them input their expertise to meetings, conferences and documents at a distance. Here too, the south still has the most expensive internet connections and some kind of permanent concrete solidarity must be realized. 6. Conclusions: More and more religious communities are beginning to apply for and receive UN Consultative Status. Maryknoll, the Augustinians, Good Shepherd Sisters, Congregations of Saint Joseph, Sisters of Notre Dame, among others. It is a good and important place to minister an international expression of missionary evangelization in its fullest sense. Worldwide religious communities can participate in New York and around the world in UN Specialized Agencies and World Conferences. We can bring our southern sisters and brothers to our New York teams and make a contribution that few other NGO’s can make. There is also a need to hear the voice of youth. Sixty-four per cent of the world population is under 25. In 1997, not one UN Mission had any staff member under 25. The NGO’s are not any better. Promote the participation of young religious in your organizations and support them to work on your teams at the different UN Centres. Care for creation — the environment is an urgent concern of the church and the world. If you have or can have a presence at the Centre for the UN Environmental Program in Nairobi, Kenya, by all means do not hesitate to do so. Please forgive me if I failed to mention any or all the things you came to hear about. If you have any questions I will be happy to answer them to the best of my ability now or at a later time. Thank you for listening. I look forward to speaking with you on an informal basis too. I have shared what we are in the process of trying to do as Franciscans International at the UN. I hope I have been honest enough and given you a somewhat objective view of the possibilities and limitations. What encourages us at Franciscans International and keeps us going is that beautiful honest saying of Saint Francis: "Let us begin again today, for up until now little or nothing have we accomplished". Thank you.
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