News
<span style="font-weight: bold; "» Indigenous peoples challenge UN draft declaration
<span style="font-weight: bold; "» Second World Assembly of the People's Health Movement
<span style="font-weight: bold; "» Kobia speaks at Jewish-Christian and church gatherings
<span style="font-weight: bold; "» Kobia meets Caribbean Conference of Churches
<span style="font-weight: bold; "» Kobia visits churches in Cuba and Haiti
<span style="font-weight: bold; "» Indigenous peoples challenge UN draft declaration
<span style="font-weight: bold; "» 16-17 July, Geneva, Switzerland
According to indigenous peoples, "self-determination", "collective rights", "right to land and territory", and "indigenous people" rather than "indigenous population" are concepts and terms that constitute the minimal standards for their existence. They are therefore insisting that these minima are inscribed in the final draft of the UN declaration on the rights of indigenous peoples. At a WCC-sponsored Indigenous Peoples Caucus in Geneva, 100-150 delegates, including indigenous leaders from the Americas, the Philippines and Aborigines from Australia, will meet to strategize for their participation in the 23rd session of the UN Working Group on Indigenous Peoples.
www.wcc-coe.org/wcc/what/jpc/indig.html
<span style="font-weight: bold; "» Second World Assembly of the People's Health Movement
<span style="font-weight: bold; "» 17-23 July, Cuenca, Ecuador
A WCC delegation is participating in the Second World Assembly of the People's Health Movement (PHM) in Cuenca, Ecuador, where a "Global Campaign for the Right to Health" will be launched. The campaign aims to strengthen the "right to health" in the context of weakening public health systems, unchecked privatization and erosion of universal access to health care. Equity, ecologically-sustainable development and peace are at the heart of PHM's vision of a better world. The People's Health Movement is a grassroots movement composed of NGOs in more than 80 countries world-wide, created in Bangladesh in 2000, and which has emerged, in the past five years as a major global action movement on health.
<span style="font-weight: bold; "» Kobia speaks at Jewish-Christian and church gatherings
<span style="font-weight: bold; "» 24-26 July, Chicago and Portland, USA
On 24 July, the WCC general secretary Samuel Kobia will deliver the keynote address at the annual conference of the International Council of Christians and Jews, in Chicago, on the theme "Healing the World - Working Together. Religion in Global Society".
On 26 July, Kobia will speak at the general assembly of the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ) in Portland, Oregon, on the topic of future global challenges to North American Christian involvement in the ecumenical movement in the coming years. The same day, he will also preach on the theme of "In Christ a new humanity" (Ephesians 2:11-22). The Christian Church (Disciples of Christ), a North American mainline Protestant denomination, is a member of the WCC.
<span style="font-weight: bold; "» Kobia meets Caribbean Conference of Churches
<span style="font-weight: bold; "» 28 July, Trinidad
WCC general secretary Samuel Kobia will meet with leaders from the Caribbean Conference of Churches (CCC). CCCis the recognized regional ecumenical organization in the Caribbean and one of the major development agencies at work in the region today. Currently comprised of 34 member churches in 33 territories across the Dutch-, English-, French- and Spanish-speaking territories of the region, it was founded in 1973.
<span style="font-weight: bold; "» Kobia visits churches in Cuba and Haiti
<span style="font-weight: bold; "» 30 July - 7 August, Havana, Cuba, and Port-au-Prince, Haiti
On a visit to WCC member churches in Cuba and Haiti, WCC general secretary Samuel Kobia will meet with leaders of WCC member churches - the Methodist Church, and the Presbyterian Reformed Church - as well as other churches in Cuba. He will also meet with Cuban authorities and visit the Theological Evangelical Seminary of Matanzas.
In Haiti, Kobia will meet with leaders of the Roman Catholic Church as well as with church leaders from the Protestant Federation. A meeting with high-ranking government officials is also scheduled.
<span style="font-weight: bold; "» Major WCC events coming up:
International Day of Prayer for Peace
21 September, worldwide
Conference on "Living the interreligious experience together"
12-14 November, Geneva, Switzerland
WCC 9th Assembly (2006)
14-23 February 2006, Porto Alegre, Brazil
For further information, visit the WCC media calendar at:
