Photo: Steve Martin
War is gradually being eliminated, foreign affairs commentator Dr Keith Suter told a capacity audience at a Human Rights Day event held in the Visitors Centre at the Baha’i Temple in Sydney on Sunday 12 December.
“You won’t hear it in the media because people want to hear about conflict,” said Dr Suter, the foreign affairs commentator on Channel Seven’s “Sunrise” program.
“But there’s less violence in the world today than ever before,” Dr Suter said.
“The number of wars and the number of people killed in war are declining, and we are gradually seeing the eradication of war worldwide.”
Dr Suter said the media don’t show the big picture of gradual improvement because important stories are obscured by the latest updates in today’s 24-hour news cycle.
Human rights
Substantial progress has also been made in human rights during the past 60 years, said Dr Suter, whose presentation followed the annual Baha’i Temple service marking the anniversary of the adoption of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights by the UN General Assembly on 10 December, 1948.
The service included readings from the scriptures of major religions on the theme of human rights.
Dr Suter described the Declaration as a radical and visionary document that articulates a common set of values for all humanity.
“We are now seeing a convergence of thinking around the world around these common values,” he said.
Dr Suter said that this is true even in countries that did not vote for the Declaration in 1948, such as South Africa and the USSR.
“But there is always more to be done – cases like the persecution of Baha’is and others in Iran show that we have to keep struggling for human rights,” he said.
Common pathway
Responding to a suggestion that the Declaration is culturally specific, Dr Suter questioned whether apparent differences in values are really fundamental.
“There are basic principles that apply to all humans – for example, the infliction of pain is standard across the world,” he said.
Dr Suter also said there was considerable commonality across religious texts.
“The basic core values of the Scriptures are more similar than their subsequent application by human beings would suggest,” he said.
“I believe we are evolving to a common end point, although we may be at different stages on a common pathway.”
Brain research
Dr Suter said modern brain research demonstrates the fundamental equality of all people.
“Treating everyone equally is not only the right thing to do, it is also the sensible thing to do,” he said.
“We know that brain power is distributed equally, but until now we have run world affairs predominantly on white, male, middle class brains.
“If we can liberate and make use of the power of 6.5 billion brains around the world, imagine what we can create.”