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Charles R. (“Chuck”) Harper, director of the Latin American human rights resource office at the World Council of Churches (WCC) from 1973 to 1992, died on 25 May 2016 in Saint Hilaire d’Ozihan, France. A Presbyterian minister and ecumenical activist, he was the recipient of presidential awards from Chile in 2011 and Argentina in 2014 for his dedication to the defence, protection and restoration of human rights in those countries.
Rev. Dr Olav Fykse Tveit, general secretary of the WCC, hailed Harper as “a model of effective action on behalf of justice and peace, and an inspiration to us all.”
Born in Brazil in 1933, Harper was the child of Presbyterian missionaries from the United States of America. He was ordained to the ministry of the United Presbyterian Church in the USA following studies in theology and international affairs at the College of Wooster, San Francisco Theological Seminary and the University of California.
Following in his parents’ footsteps, he became a United Presbyterian fraternal worker in France assigned during the early 1960s to the ecumenical Committee for Assistance to Evacuees (CIMADE).
During this period, he worked with Algerian immigrants in Marseille and helped smuggle out of Portugal about 60 African students who were under threat from the secret police. Later, as director of the John Knox International Reformed Centre in Geneva and a fluent speaker of Portuguese, he aided church leaders who were persecuted in Mozambique, Angola and Cape Verde.
As coordinator of the WCC programme on human rights in Latin America, Harper was instrumental in the gathering, compilation and preservation of Brazilian documentation from the period of military government in his native land from 1964 to 1985. In 2011, a copy of this archive from Geneva was turned over to the attorney general of Brazil and made available to the public on an Internet website titled “Brasil: Nunca Mais Digital” (Brazil: Never Again-digital).
In 2010, the president of Chile made Harper a Grand Officer of the Order Bernando O’Higgins. In 2014, the Argentine president conferred on him the highest civilian decoration, Order Comendador de Mayo, in honour of his work for human rights in Latin America. On the latter occasion, Harper offered these observations:
“Today the challenges facing the world community of nations not only persist but become more intense. The World Council of Churches, an instrument of unity and service to humanity, strives to accompany churches and groups related to them in critical situations to defend human rights and human dignity, fighting impunity, demanding punitive justice, and building just and peaceful societies.”
Recalling his experience of working with human rights organizations throughout the region and the world, he concluded: “The lessons speak for themselves. They serve not only as part of the collective memory but above all as criteria as we face the struggles of today, revealing new and contemporary forms of religious intolerance, violence against women and children, racism, xenophobia, discrimination against minorities, poverty and socio-economic injustice in the world.”
Among his books are O Acompanhamento: Ecumenical Action for Human Rights in Latin America 1970-1990 (WCC Publications, 2006) and Escape from Portugal: The Church in Action – The Flight of 60 African Students to France (Chalice Press, 2015).
Read the condolence letter from the WCC general secretary to Chuck Harper's family