April 2005

Decade to Overcome Violence focus on Asia launch

The rights of the Papuan people will be the focus of WCC's involvement in the 61st session of the United Nations Commission on Human Rights (UNCHR). The WCC delegation includes representatives from Papua, Nigeria, Pakistan, Nepal and Colombia. A written submission has been presented to the commission, and a study on the economic, social and cultural rights of the Papuan people, commissioned by German churches with the WCC and undertaken by Papuan academics and human rights defenders, will be released on Thursday, 31 March.

wcc-coe.org/wcc/what/international/chr2005.html

WCC general secretary Rev. Dr Samuel Kobia will attend the 12th general assembly of the Christian Conference of Asia (CCA) in Chiang Mai, Thailand, where he will deliver the keynote speech on the assembly's theme "Building Communities of Peace for All". The theme reflects a vision in the context of Asia’s religious and ethnic diversity and ongoing quest for communal harmony. The CCA represents over 100 churches from countries like India and Korea, as well as Aotearoa-New Zealand.

The assembly will be Kobia's final stop on his first visit to WCC member churches in Bangladesh (26-29 March) and Thailand (29-31 March).

www.cca.org.hk/12ga/index.htm

Decade to Overcome Violence focus on Asia launch

The 2005 DOV Focus on Asia will be launched at the CCA Assembly. Acting as "living letters", international guests will speak of their work and experiences in overcoming violence. The assembly theme, "Building Communities of Peace for All", is also the theme of the focus on Asia. National and local churches and networks on various levels are conducting projects to overcome violence and promote a culture of peace, both within the churches and in society.

There will be two Asia-wide events during the DOV Focus on Asia: one in July, bringing together scholars under the focus theme, and a larger DOV consultation later in the year.

www.overcomingviolence.org

What are the marks of peacemaking in the life of the churches? WCC scholars currently studying in the United States will meet at Eden Theological Seminary in St. Louis, Missouri, to explore this theme in the context of the ongoing Decade to Overcome Violence.

Rev. Dr Bernice Powell Jackson, WCC president from North America and executive minister for Peace and Justice Ministries of the United Church of Christ, will participate in the gathering. The ten students sponsored under the WCC scholarship programme come from Uganda, Romania, the Philippines, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Kenya, India, Indonesia and the Solomon Islands.

www.wcc-usa.org

The Life Giving Agriculture Forum, sponsored by the Ecumenical Coalition for Alternatives to Globalization (ECAG), provides a platform for farmers from all continents, particularly Christian farmers working in sustainable agriculture. About 100 participants will share ideas and methods and identify strategies for globalizing their concepts. The forum is both global and local in nature, including visits to organic farming projects in Korean villages. The purpose is to create an ongoing process with further regional and global meetings, aiming at a theology of life from an agricultural perspective, and encouraging Christian communities and churches to engage in life-giving farming methods and rural development.

During the Global Week of Action a trade petition, currently signed by 130 religious leaders, will be presented to the World Trade Organization's director of External Relations. This is part of the Trade for People campaign, coordinated by the Ecumenical Advocacy Alliance (EAA). On 20 April the archbishop of Cape Town, Njongonkulu Ndungane, will address the WTO Public Symposium as spokesperson for the Trade for People campaign, calling for international trade rules to give priority to human rights and protection of the environment, and contribute to the eradication of poverty.

The Week of Action, with hundreds of events in more than 70 countries, is a global call to all social movements, mass organizations, local and national campaigns to challenge the free trade myth and put forward alternatives.

www.april2005.org

Different Christian approaches to war and criteria for military intervention for humanitarian purposes will be discussed in a seminar on "The Responsibility to Protect". On invitation from the WCC Commission of the Churches on International Affairs (CCIA), experts from different backgrounds, politicians, jurists, ethicists, theologians, and researchers will assess the actual state of the debate, highlighting the international and political as well as ethical and theological perspectives. Participants include Cornelio Sommaruga, former president of the International Committee of the Red Cross, and Dr Bertrand Ramcharan, former deputy high commissioner for Human Rights.

Gareth Evans, former Australian foreign minister, and Rev. Dr Konrad Raiser, former general secretary of the WCC, will speak in a public session on Thursday, 21 April, 1pm, at the Ecumenical Centre.

wcc-coe.org/wcc/what/international/index-e.html