Religious Non-Governmental Organizations and the United Nations in New York and Geneva

对宗教和暴力问题的关注往往掩盖了宗教团体如何参与国际和平机构。联合国及其与宗教非政府组织的互动是对宗教和政治世界如何互动的创新理解和见解的焦点。联合国成立于1945年，旨在维护第二次世界大战后的国际和平，是唯一代表世界各国的国际组织。它的工作涉及法律、发展、经济、权利与和平等领域，从成立之日起，它就致力于与非政府组织（有具体关切和利益的私人非政府团体，如大赦国际）密切合作。《联合国宪章》第七十一条规定，联合国将通过其中央委员会之一-经济及社会理事会-与非政府组织“协商”，以开展工作。自联合国成立以来，宗教组织一直与联合国合作，1972年在联合国设立了宗教非政府组织委员会（http：//www.rngo.org/）;每年提交活动报告，并列出了从美国浸礼会到世界基督教女青年会等108个不同宗教团体的成员。自1990年代以来，“宗教”非政府组织的作用及其对联合国在纽约和日内瓦的委员会的贡献有所增加。宗教非政府组织的代表现在积极参加许多联合国委员会，包括联合国社会发展委员会。他们还与朱比利基金会一起在促成联合国关于世界债务和限制地雷使用的决议方面发挥了重要作用。近年来，当联合国秘书长支持联合国活动的基层合作时，宗教非政府组织的日益增加的存在得到了额外的重视。在一个全球组织的世界里，越来越多的宗教非政府组织--非常多样化的--参与影响国际政治决策和进程，我们不仅需要了解它们的类型、密度和数量，而且需要了解它们自己的动机，他们参与联合国决策的理由和成功。我们需要了解的是，这些宗教团体如何以及为什么参与联合国的高层游说和外交活动。我们需要了解宗教非政府组织的使命声明如何指导它们承诺为联合国的参与提供资源，它们根据自己的使命声明提供服务的效率如何，以及联合国外交官如何看待它们。这一点很重要，因为我们需要了解这些团体代表谁，以及他们在塑造我们的世界方面进行游说的目的。很少有独立的研究探讨这些问题，以前的研究只映射类型和密度。我们现在正处于重要的第二个跨学科调查阶段，需要有足够的资源在联合国主要地点（纽约和日内瓦）雇用一名研究员调查这些问题。它还需要一个国际团队，包括一名国际关系和联合国研究专家，一名了解概念，理论和分类问题的宗教学者，一名具有非政府组织专业知识和数据收集技能的社会学家，非政府组织顾问（巴哈教国际联盟联合国办事处和贵格会联合国办事处）和外交支持。研究人员将从联合国宗教非政府组织活动的两年快照中提供新的经验数据。这将通过文本分析、与非政府组织领导人和成员的访谈、对非政府组织活动和资源的调查、对特定群体的个案研究以及联合国外交官评估这些群体地位的调查问卷来进行。通过严谨的实证分析，该研究将为全球治理中的宗教提供创新思维。这将是联合国对宗教非政府组织的第一次全面研究，具有重要的国际意义。

The preoccupation with issues of religion and violence has often obscured how religious groups are involved in international institutions for peace. The United Nations (UN) and its interaction with religious non-governmental organizations (NGOs) are a focal point for innovative understanding and insight about how religious and political worlds interact. The UN, founded in 1945 to maintain international peace after the 2nd World War, is the only international organization that represents every country in the world. It works across areas of law, development, economy, rights and peace and from its foundation it aimed to work closely with NGOs (private, non-governmental groups, with specific concerns and interests, such as Amnesty International). In Article 71 of the UN Charter it stated that the UN would 'consult' with NGOs to carry out its work through one of its central committees, the Economic and Social Council. Religious organizations have collaborated with the UN since its foundation and in 1972 there was the establishment of the Committee of Religious NGOs at the UN (http://www.rngo.org/); with an annual report of activity and listing 108 different religious groups as its members from the American Baptist Church to the World YWCA. Since the 1990s there has been an increase in the role of 'religious' NGOs and their contributions to UN committees in New York and Geneva. Religious NGO representatives are now active on many UN Committees and UN Commissions, including, for example, the UN Commission for Social Development. They have also played important roles in bringing about UN resolutions on world debt, with the Jubilee Foundation, and restrictions on landmine use. The increasing presence of religious NGOs was given extra weight in recent years when the Secretary General of the UN supported grass root collaboration for UN activity.In a world of global organization and ever increasing involvement of - very diverse - religious NGOs influencing international political decisions and processes, we need to know not only about their type, density and number, but also about their own motivations, rationale and success in their involvement in UN decision-making. What we need to know about these groups is how and why religious groups engage with high-level lobbying and diplomacy at the UN. We need to understand how the mission statements of religious NGOs direct them to commit resources to UN engagement, how effective they are in delivering services according to their own mission statements and how they are perceived by UN diplomats. This is important because we need to understand who these groups represent and the aims of their lobbying in shaping our world. There have been few independent studies examining these questions and the previous studies only mapped type and density. We are now at an important second, interdisciplinary, stage of inquiry and it requires sufficient resources to employ a researcher at the main UN sites (New York and Geneva) to investigate these issues. It also requires an international team, including a specialist in International Relations and UN studies, a scholar of religion to understand the conceptual, theoretical and classificatory issues, a sociologist with specialist NGO knowledge and data gathering skills, NGO consultants (UN Office of the Bahai International Community and the Quaker UN Office) and diplomatic support. The researchers will provide new empirical data from a two-year snap-shot of religious NGO activity at the UN. This will be carried out by textual analysis, interviews with NGO leaders and members, surveys of NGO activity and resources, case studies of specific groups and questionnaires to evaluate the perceived status of such groups by UN diplomats. Through its rigorous empirical analysis, the research will offer innovative thinking about religion in global governance. It will be the first comprehensive study of religious NGOs at the UN and of important international interest.