Nostra Aetate - In Our Time

69 Swami Agnivesh is President Emeritus of the World Council of Arya Samaj. Swami Agnivesh finds that values common to all reli- gions have been neglected and that emphasis should be placed on an appeal to the commonality between diverse religions to bring united action among different peoples. He works towards the liberation of child slaves and bonded labourers and has had tremendous success in achieving those aims through initiating the process of dialogue. Career summary v President Emeritus of World Council of Arya Samaj v Founder-Chairperson of Bandhua Mukti Morcha (Bonded Labour Liberation Front) v Founder-Convenor of the Parliament of All Religions v 1977–1982: Member of the Haryana Legislative Assembly, India v 1979: Minister of Education in Haryana, India v 1994–2004: Chairperson of the UN Trust Fund on Contemporary Forms of Slavery v Former Global Trustee of United Religion Initiative (URI). Co-founder of URI’s Religions for Social Jus- tice Cooperation Circle which has been a powerful force for inter-faith harmony and cooperation in India v Honoured with several awards including: Right Livelihood Award (alternative Nobel Peace Prize), Stockholm, Sweden; Freedom and Human Rights Award, Bern, Switzerland; Anti-Slavery International Award, London, UK, 1990; Rajiv Gandhi National Communal Harmony Award, NewDelhi, India, 2004. The anguish of our human condition – reflections on religious peacemaking Swami Agnivesh BROADENING INTERRELIGIOUS DIALOGUE AND COLLABORAT ION FOR OUR T IME Swami Agnivesh addressing an interfaith gathering at Salmia Indian Model School, Kuwait, 2015