Former WCC official Harper receives Chilean award

Rev. Charles Harper, emblematic figure of the struggle for human rights in the ecumenical movement, was decorated with the Orden de Bernardo O'Higgins by the Republic of Chile.

"With this award, my country wants to thank you for your work in defense of human rights and, fundamentally, for everything that you and the World Council of Churches did for so many people who suffered during the military dictatorship", said the Chilean representative to the international organizations in Geneva, Ambassador Carlos Portales at the ceremony that took place in Geneva, Switzerland on 4 March.

The Chilean representative remembered that, immediately after the military coup of September 1973, the Chilean churches developed "the most important work in defense of so many people persecuted during the military regime".

These churches and entities like the Committee Pro Paz and the Vicariate of the Solidarity "undertook the legal defense of persecuted people and constituted a fundamental part of the historical memory of the violations of human rights during the military regime”, he said.

Charles Harper, a retired Presbyterian clergyman of dual Brazilian and United States citizenship, directed the Human Rights Resource Office for Latin America of the World Council of Churches from 1973 to 1992.

"In September of 1973 there was an earthquake in Chile, a political and military earthquake originated in human evil, in profound sin, which brought about desperation, death and suffering. An earthquake that woke up the sensibility and the conscience of peoples and nations in the world", said Harper.

The response of the World Council of Churches and the world-wide community of churches was a systematic and energetic denunciation in international forums of the human rights violations by the military regime in Chile.

The Rev. Dr Emilio Castro, who was WCC general secretary between 1984 and 1992 and attended the 4 March ceremony alongside the current WCC general secretary Rev. Dr Olav Fykse Tveit, had been decorated with the Orden de Bernardo O'Higgins last October.

Current WCC work on human rights

WCC member churches in Chile

Read also a longer article by Manuel Quintero on the ALC website (in Spanish): Harper galardonado por gobierno chileno