The Arcot Krishnaswami Lecture: Afterword

Abstract

The Arcot Krishnaswami Lecture was delivered in New Delhi in January 1991 by Professor Theo van Boven, Special Rapporteur of the UN SubCommission on the Prevention of Discrimination and Protection of Minorities, at the suggestion of a Minnesota-based nongovernmental organization, Project Tandem. Project Tandem was created as an independent and explicitly secular international human rights organization, working to promote the implementation of the 1981 Declaration on the Elimination of All Forms of Intolerance and of Discrimination Based on Religion or Belief (1981 Declaration). Professor van Boven in his lecture emphasizes the important role of nongovernmental organizations in international efforts to overcome conflicts between religious communities and groups. Publication of his lecture is therefore an apposite occasion to briefly record the work of Project Tandem. It is also a valuable opportunity to mention its current proposal to help implement the 1981 Declaration by producing a World Report on the dimensions of observances and violations of the right to freedom of conscience and belief. In his lecture, Professor van Boven mentions the seminar, convened in Geneva in November 1984 by the UN Secretary-General, to study means for the implementation of the 1981 Declaration. The seminar in its concluding recommendations called for action by the religious and other belief groups of the world to support, through dialogue and practical cooperation, the principles of tolerance and respect for the diversity of religions and beliefs. These principles, it was noted, are the foundation of the 1981 Declaration and are also professed by most of the world's religions and beliefs. Following the seminar, a group of individuals and organizations agreed to consider what might practically be done to act upon this injunction. As is often the case, the driving force was an individual, Michael Roan, who in cooperation with an equally committed philanthropist from Minneapolis,