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WCC central committee calls for guarding against atrocity crimes

The World Council of Churches (WCC) central committee, in a statement, lamented that atrocity crimes against individuals and communities have marred human history since ancient times, and called for better international guarding against such crimes, including genocide.

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17 March 2022, Siret, Romania: Hundreds of birds fly over the Vama Siret border crossing, Romania. The Vama Siret border crossing connects northeast Romania with Ukraine. Located north of Siret and further in the south the city of Suceava, the crossing connects Romania with the Ukrainian village of Terebleche and further north the city of Chernivtsi. Following the invasion of Ukraine by Russian military starting on 24 February 2022, close to half a million refugees have fled across the Ukrainian border into Romania. In the past 24 hours, government figures indicate more than 50,000 people have crossed the border in search of refuge, an estimated 20 percent of whom are expected to stay in Romania, rather than transit into other European countries.

Photo:
Albin Hillert, all rights reserved
24 June 2025
Central Committee 2025

“We acknowledge and lament the historic complicity of churches in many of these crimes, for which repentance and reparation is an ongoing responsibility,” reads the statement. “We recognize that current categories of crimes under international law cannot encompass the full spectrum of suffering, dislocation, and existential fragmentation endured by victims, or the consequences still carried by their descendants and members of affected communities.”

The statement calls for explicit acknowledgement of the enduring trauma of such crimes, even if they fall outside the narrow purview of conventional legal definitions. 

“We acknowledge that these experiences have marked, and continue to mark, the lived experience of many in our churches and communities in many parts of the world,” the statement reads. “Today, we bring all these events and all the people who suffered atrocity crimes in these contexts – and who continue to suffer in some places – into our thoughts and prayers, and lift them up before the God of justice and compassion.”

The lack of recognition, remembrance, and accountability for such crimes committed in the past has enabled and encouraged their repetition. the statement notes. 

“Such efforts to weaken these principles and mechanisms for the prevention and prosecution of the most serious crimes under international law are immoral, and put us all in greater peril of their repetition,” reads the statement, which also calls for the WCC to play a central role, with and through its member churches and ecumenical partners, and within the resources at its disposal, in addressing this legacy of unresolved injustices, unhealed memories, and fractured communities due to historic atrocity crimes.

The WCC central committee is convening 18-24 June in Johannesburg, South Africa. 

Statement on Guarding Against Atrocity Crimes

WCC Central Committee, June 2025

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WCC general secretary reflects on daring to hope amid struggle (WCC news release, 18 June 2025)

Welcomed by African churches, WCC central committee opens (WCC news release, 19 June 2025)

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Photos: WCC Central Committee 2025

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