In honour of the International Day Commemorating the Victims of Violence Based on Religion or Belief, leading global multi-religious organizations, Religions for Peace and United Religions Initiative (URI), announced today they are deepening their collaboration on the prevention of religiously motivated violence across the globe. This multi-religious partnership will galvanize other multi-faith groups and peacebuilding allies into common action for our shared goal of positive and lasting peace.
Since signing a Memorandum of Understanding in 2021, both Religions for Peace and United Religions Initiative have been leveraging their resources and networks to advance multi-religious collaboration and action. Today, we announce a new initiative under this partnership, aimed at bringing together the world’s religious, faith, and Indigenous leaders and communities in strengthening efforts and capacities to stop the spread of religiously motivated violence. Together, we serve to cultivate a culture of positive and lasting peace, justice, and healing worldwide.
To this day, religious and faith communities continue to face harassment and persecution by governments and private groups in various parts of the globe. Religious, spiritual, and Indigenous leaders and actors play a pivotal role in preventing this violence and establishing positive behaviours and actions to counter it. It is with this understanding that United Religions Initiative and Religions for Peace commit to build on the strengths and experiences of their respective networks, in a joint effort to call attention to and address religiously motivated violence.
With a focus on evidence-based approaches to stopping the spread of violence, this partnership will strengthen the capacities of religious and faith leaders at the grassroots, national, regional, and global levels. Together, United Religions Initiative and Religions for Peace will provide additional tools and approaches to religious and faith leaders and scale up documentation of lessons learned and best practices from the joint mobilization of their work.
In addition, this collaboration will focus on designing and implementing robust media campaigns and activities aimed at stopping the spread of religiously motivated violence. Advocacy actions will be targeted towards governments and international organizations whose mandate is to prevent violence based on religion or belief. A special emphasis will be placed on mobilizing the engagement of the Women and Youth Interfaith Networks, as catalysts of change and drivers of common action and awareness-raising.
Religions for Peace is the largest representative multi-religious coalition, advancing common action among the world’s faith communities through Interreligious Councils – and their Women of Faith and Interfaith Youth Networks – in over 95 countries and 6 regions.
United Religions Initiative (URI) is the world’s largest interfaith grassroots network of more than 1,100 community-led organizations (Cooperation Circles) working in 110 countries to cultivate peace, justice, and healing worldwide.
Religions for Peace and URI are both non-profit and non-governmental international interfaith peacebuilding organizations with consultative status with the United Nations Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC).
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