Christian Leaders Advocate for Human Rights in Honduras after Coup

Ecumenical Delegation to Meet With High-Level Officials to Promote Peace and Reconciliation

An emergency delegation of international Christians leaders, representing the World Council of Churches (WCC) and the National Council of Churches of Christ of the USA, will arrive in Washington, DC today to advocate for the cessation of widespread human rights violations in Honduras, a country torn apart by a coup d’état staged on June 28, 2009. The six-person delegation, including American, Honduran, and Argentinean leaders, will meet with the General Secretary of the Organization of American States and State Department officials to urge firmer and more decisive action to restore democracy and ensure full compliance with rule of law and respect for fundamental human rights in Honduras. The suffering and insecurity of the people of Honduras has reached crisis proportions, and long delays in resolving the situation following the coup are unacceptable.

The delegation’s high-level meetings in Washington, D.C. follow two delegations to Honduras this summer: the World Council of Churches “Living Letters” delegation met with church and civil society groups in early August, and the Latin American Council of Churches led a pastoral visit in late September. Both visits strongly urged the return of President Manuel Zelaya in order to hold free and legal elections within the country’s constitutional framework. Noemi Madrid de Espinoza, President of the Theological Community of Honduras and a member of the delegation who participated in the “Living Letters” visit to Honduras, reiterates that "the repression, arrests, forced disappearances and violence directed against the population and especially against women must come to an end now."

The General Secretary of the World Council of Churches has also previously written to the General Secretary of the Organization of American States on behalf of the Churches to advocate for the re-establishment of constitutional order and an end to human rights abuses in Honduras. WCC Representative to the United Nations, Rev. Christopher Ferguson, notes that “churches in Honduras feel called to accompany the people in creating dialogue and promoting a message of healing and reconciliation. The repression and violations of Human Rights must stop and new bridges must be built to create a society which is based on justice and respect for all.”

Members of the delegation:

Rev. Dr. Michael Kinnamon, General Secretary of the NCCCUSA
Rev. Dr. Bernice Powell Jackson, President, North America, World Council of Churches
Lic. Noemi Madrid de Espinoza, Vice Moderator of the Commission of the Churches for International affairs of the WCC, and President (Administration) of the Theological Community of Honduras
Bishop (Emeritus) Aldo Etchegoyen, Evangelical Methodist Church of Argentina, and Co-President of the Permanent Assembly of Human Rights of Argentina
Rev. Christopher Ferguson, Representative to the United Nations of the World Council of Churches
Michael Neuroth, Policy Advocate on International Issues, United Church of Christ, Justice and Witness Ministries