A leader in The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints addressed a standing-room-only crowd at a side event of the 55th session of the United Nations Human Rights Council in Geneva on Thursday, March 7, 2024.
Elder Jack N. Gerard, Second Counselor in the Europe Central Area Presidency of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, participated in a panel titled “Interfaith Cooperation: A Catalyst for Conflict Resolution and Positive Societal Change.” He explored themes of culture, interreligious dialogue, education and tolerance in solving and preventing some of the world’s most intractable problems.
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Other panelists included event cosponsor Ambassador Febrian Ruddyard of the Permanent Mission of Indonesia to the United Nations in Geneva, as well as Nazila Ghanea, U.N. Special Rapporteur on Freedom of Religion or Belief, and Siti Ruhaini Dzuhayatin, Senior Advisor in the Executive Office of the President of the Republic of Indonesia.
Elder Gerard highlighted the need to recognize common threads found in all major religions.
“By first recognizing these universal and unifying truths, we can begin to build bridges — first, bridges of understanding and then bridges of cooperation,” Elder Gerard said. “Through continuing cooperation, we can unitedly address the greatest challenges facing our societies today, including conflict resolution, poverty elimination, good health implementation and quality education expansion.”
Ambassador Ruddyard highlighted the model of the Republic of Indonesia, which maintains the largest multifaith and multicultural society in the world. Although not a perfect society, peaceful coexistence in Indonesia is supported by state-sponsored education initiatives. Ambassador Ruddyard said “dialogue needs to be inclusive and ever widening, not just state-driven, but also self-driven.” Dr. Ghanea reiterated this theme, saying calls for tolerance are found within all holy books. She said we should all strive to bring the spirit of religion into our dialogues with each other.
As he concluded, Elder Gerard noted the need to “communicate, listen, see, feel and celebrate one another” to enable us to “recognize the human dignity and the spark of divinity that resides in all of us.”
During his visit to Geneva, Elder Gerard also met bilaterally with a string of ambassadors from countries within his ecclesiastic responsibilities.
The Church of Jesus Christ maintains offices with many of the world’s premier international organizations, including the United Nations, the European Union, the African Union and the Organization of American States. Ryan Koch, director of the Church’s United Nations Engagement, stressed the importance of participating in such gatherings.
“As we provide space for the Church’s voice to be heard in the corridors of these institutions,” Koch said, “we are highlighting the global nature of our Church and the universality of gospel truths.”