Peace Palace in The Hague working on a friendship pact for world religions

The Peace Palace in The Hague is working on a historic friendship treaty between the largest religions in the world. The intention is to have religious world leaders like the Pope, Grand Mufti and Dalai Lama sign the declaration of friendship in The Hague in June 2020, The Carnegie Foundation and the Elijah Interfaith Institute announced, ANP reports.

The two organizations hope that the treaty will lead to more tolerance among people from different religions. "The idea is that the spiritual world leaders will promote solidarity between religions. That is also in line with their religions", Erik de Baedts, director of The Carnegie Foundation, said, according to the news wire. "If the religious leaders declare that you can treat each other peacefully, we hope that people realize that you do not have to oppose each other on religious views at least."

According to the two organization, the religious leaders of the Muslims, Jews, Christians, Buddhists, Hindus and Sikhs have responded positively to this initiative. They already expressed support for a friendship initiative started by advertiser Mark Woerde. The Dutch man was the founder of the idea of 'Make Friends Across Religions', and this idea has now been taken over by The Carnegie Foundation and the Elijah Interfaith Institute.

Woerde managed to get 22 people from different religions make a call for friendship between religions in a video message. For this he received a United Nations peace medal from the former Secretary General of the UN Ban Ki-moon in South Korea in March. Woerde says he is grateful that his initiative is moving forward. "My dream is that we as people get 'compassion' as a family name. This new initiative can realize that idea", he said to the news wire. 

Various organizations and countries are involved in drafting the treaty, and many of them also pledged money to organize the historic summit between the religious leaders. This will be the first time that the religious leaders will meet with the aim of signing a friendship treaty in such an iconic setting. The Peace Palace is an international law building in The Hague. It houses the International Court of Justice, the Permanent Court of Arbitration, the Hague Academy of International Law and the Peace Palace Library.