Case number 11/2016: UNESCO Association for the Promotion of Intercultural and Interreligious Dialogue in Malaga

JUDGEMENT AND ETHICAL CONCLUSION

Dear Prosecutor, Executive Secretary and Jury Members of the International Buddhist Ethics Committee (IBEC) and Buddhist Tribunal on Human Rights (BTHR), regarding the case denounced by the World Association of Buddhism (WBA) against UNESCO Association for the Promotion of Intercultural and Interreligious Dialogue in Malaga, I hereby, on the day January 8, 2016, put on record that the eleventh case of the Ethics Committee is concluded to analyze the violation of Buddhist Spirituality and Human Rights carried out by the accused. After the evidence certified as valid by the Prosecutor, and the accused having had the opportunity to provide statement, it has proceeded with voting of 4 members of the Jury, who unanimously issued the verdict of “Responsible” to the UNESCO Association for the Promotion of Intercultural and Interreligious Dialogue in Malaga for the crimes of COMPLICITY WITH DISCRIMINATION, FALSE INTERCULTURAL DIALOGUE AND FALSE INTERRELIGIOUS DIALOGUE.

The actions of the accused have breached the Buddhist ethical precepts but also the international guidelines of International Law and Human Rights, since its prize and silence regarding the criminal acts of Mr. Nydahl – sentenced in case 05/2015 – are evidence that the UNESCO Association for the Promotion of intercultural and interreligious Dialogue in Malaga is complicit in discrimination, in addition to carrying out a false intercultural and interreligious dialogue. This association does not comply with what it says to represent, which are the ethical values of UNESCO, by awarding and endorsing an individual who allegedly made a contribution to freedom of speech, compassion, peace and good, even though our International Buddhist Ethics Committee has demonstrated that Mr. Nydahl is the very opposite of these values, being an individual who conveys ideas of intolerance towards Muslims, social minorities and even attacking freedom of expression of the International Buddhist Ethics Committee by promoting censorship as well as by promoting blockade of educational activities of the Maitreya Buddhist University. This kind of aggressive actions that violate human rights and fundamental freedoms is what UNESCO Association for the Promotion of Intercultural and Interreligious Dialogue in Malaga has awarded. Despite the ethical judgment of the Committee against Mr. Nydahl, in which their prize is declared spurious, and despite the continuous attacks and discriminatory acts of this individual, the association has continued defending him, contradicting everything they claim to represent. In addition, since the UNESCO Association for the Promotion of Intercultural and Interreligious Dialogue in Malaga has refused to confirm if there was a financial donation by Mr. Nydahl, who violates Human Rights and Buddhist Ethics, there is high probability that the award to this individual is a product of a turbid transaction. This association has been given the opportunity to correct its mistakes by canceling the award after analyzing the huge amount of evidence existing about the discriminatory and intolerant acts on the part of Mr. Nydahl, but the UNESCO Association for the Promotion of Intercultural and Interreligious Dialogue in Malaga decided to be complicit in these violations against the purity of Buddhist Ethics and Human Rights, which is an indisputable evidence of COMPLICITY WITH DISCRIMINATION, FALSE INTERCULTURAL DIALOGUE AND FALSE INTERRELIGIOUS DIALOGUE.

These public conducts of the accused are part of a global context of constant discrimination against Muslims and ethnic minorities, but are also part of a process of worldwide ignorance about what is really tolerance, which is not concession, condescension, indulgence or justification of social injustice and brokenness on Human Rights, of values and fundamental freedoms, such as the Declaration of Principles on Tolerance conducted in 1995 by UNESCO says. In fact, this international organization claims that tolerance should be practiced by every subject, group and people, being a synonym for pluralism and democracy in the face of dogmatism and absolutism. For peace and harmony to reign in the world it is essential that individuals, groups and peoples adopt tolerance towards other cultures, always seeking development but never discriminating. The Declaration of Principles on Tolerance of UNESCO also supports the inculcation of attitudes of openness, reciprocal listening, solidarity and tolerance values in schools and universities, which is precisely what Maitreya Buddhist University, an institution attacked by Mr. Nydahl, has been doing, which shows the danger of the increase and dissemination of intolerant ideology by the group led by this individual. Just like UNESCO, Maitreya Buddhist University and the International Buddhist Ethics Committee consider that education is the most appropriate means to prevent intolerance, which is the main root of violence and social exclusion, by helping humanity to develop the ability of solidarity reasoning, critical thinking and ethical judgment.

Therefore, the International Buddhist Ethics Committee and Buddhist Tribunal on Human Rights dictates that Buddhist Spirituality, as a Supreme Path of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms, must establish that the UNESCO Association for the Promotion of Intercultural and Interreligious Dialogue in Malaga has violated the Buddhist ethical precepts but it also has breached the spirit of UNESCO, institution to which it supposedly intends to support. However, because Maitreya Buddhist University is a humanitarian organization dedicated to education and tolerance, it offers the sentenced association a full scholarship for all its members to study a PhD in Human Rights at no cost, with the requirement that the UNESCO Association for the Promotion of Intercultural and Interreligious Dialogue in Malaga publicly apologizes for its complicit conducts of discrimination, by committing itself to try to repair the damage done to the Spiritual and Cultural Dialogue through the annulment of the award given to Mr. Nydahl, returning all financial donation that this person could have made, if any. Hopefully this will help the association to achieve a genuine defense of the values of UNESCO, which have been tainted by poorly ethical behavior of this association.

Following the Way of the Master Siddhartha Gautama, who has been the embodiment of true interspiritual dialogue, by defending the Human Rights our Committee has been able to prove that the UNESCO Association for the Promotion of Intercultural and Interreligious Dialogue in Malaga has committed crimes of COMPLICITY IN DISCRIMINATION, FALSE INTERCULTURAL DIALOGUE AND FALSE INTERRELIGIOUS DIALOGUE. Although we consider that non-governmental organizations have a special condition because they are leaders of justice and good in many countries of the world, our International Buddhist Ethics Committee has a duty to speak in the name of Righteousness and not being complicit in abuses against Spirituality and Fundamental Freedoms, by establishing the present Judgment as a form of ethical teaching to the accused association.

Always with a spirit of reconciliation (maitri),

Master Maitreya

Spiritual guide and president of the Buddhist Ethics Committee (IBEC) and Buddhist Tribunal on Human Rights (BTHR)