ABSTRACT
This chapter focuses on the causes and effects of religious NGOs (RNGO) advocacy and action at the UN. Half of all RNGO indicate on their websites or in other publications that, apart from involving themselves in particular policy fields, they actively seek to promote their own religious traditions. Jewish RNGOs, for example are active predominantly in the field of human rights; Muslim organizations focus on development; and Buddhist groups opt to work mainly in the area of peace and reconciliation. The cooperative potential of RNGOs has become compromised: apparently caught up in the general retreat from multilateralism, they are being drawn into alignments with conservative nationalism that make it impossible for them any longer to fulfil their role as development partners in the way that would have been expected. The chapter also presents some closing thoughts on the key concepts discussed in the preceding chapters of this book.
