Since 9/11, there is a heightened awareness in the international community for the importance of engaging religion in order to prevent religiously motivated violent confrontation and instead build on religious actors’ potential for peace, reconciliation, human rights and social justice. At the United Nations, several conceptual and practical avenues have developed in recent years via which UN agencies, member states and religious actors interact and co-operate with each other in various areas of governance. Yet the involvement of religious actors also brings with it new areas of tension and conflict due to differing moral, theological and ideological positions. The paper first presents an overview of these different avenues of interaction in the UN-system such as the alliance of civilizations, various NGO committees and working groups, as well as single states’ initiatives for interfaith dialogue and co-operation. These avenues provide an opportunity structure for diverse religious actors such as the Vatican, the Organization of Islamic states, as well as a growing population of religious NGOs in order to pursue their different interests and normative objectives. The second part of the paper seeks to develop analytical tools in order to identify factors which advance or inhibit positive and peaceful contributions by religious NGOs.
