Working at the community level, people must strive to build capacity on larger and larger scales, to enable people around the world to become protagonists of development. Central to these efforts is the principle that humanity is but one people and, within that context, development ceases to be something one group of people does for the benefit of another. Instead, all people, whether materially rich or poor, young or old, man or woman, engage in a common to work shoulder to shoulder to contribute to the well-being of the whole.

The role of religion in advancing the common good deals with the idea that human reality has both a spiritual and a material dimension. While not promoting a particular belief-system, resources must be brought to bear on the spiritual aspects of challenges ranging from apathy and prejudice to hunger and material poverty.

We explore how the spiritual principles found in all the world’s religions can be applied to the modern world. In this way, we seek to understand how something that many see as a fundamental truth–that spiritual reality is central to human existence–can help us all participate in building a better world.

We must consider how can the qualities of youth can be enlisted in the processes of community building and in social transformation. It is necessary to encourage them along a path of selfless service to others, and explore the moral and intellectual capacities that can best guide them.

Like-minded collaborators need to explore opportunities available in villages and neighborhoods around the world for youth participation in the process. This includes, the promising area of development where upcoming generations of teenagers are learning how to help those younger than themselves to develop the personal capacities and attitudes needed to contribute to social progress.

The human rights framework expressed in the Declaration, marks a milestone in humanity's collective efforts to build a more just and peaceful world. Yet widespread discrimination, oppression and society’s failures to uphold international law still exist, result being an increase in suffering of millions people thwarting the advancement of humanity on the global stage.

We believe that human rights achieve their highest expression when understood in the context of human relationships—within the family, the community, the national entities, and among the community of nations. Viewed in this way, human rights are a vehicle for all to realize their inherent potential and to ensure the same not only for ourselves but for others.

This has strong Implications for society. The equality of women and men is a facet of human reality, and not just a condition to be achieved for the common good. That which makes human beings human—their spiritual core, their inherent dignity and nobility—is neither male nor female.

The search for meaning, purpose and community, the capacity to love, to create, to persevere, has no gender. This has profound implications for the organization of every aspect of human society in localities across the world.

We must endeavour to establish patterns of community life and put in place institutional structures that reflect the belief in the fundamental equality of women and men. In this way, discrimination against girls and women will cease and allow all to develop to their full potential.