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From diverse regions and churches, hundreds of people drew together in 2021 to find ways to end child abuse. Through a campaign called “Out of the Shadows,” churches held workshops, trained champions, distributed materials, and augmented the drumbeat for awareness, buoyed by resources from the World Council of Churches (WCC) and its partners.

As churches and other groups battle sexual and gender-based violence, it is urgent to include men in trainings and amplify the issues for global accompaniment and support, church women leaders, lay members and gender advocates recommended at a recent church human rights training in the Nigerian capital, Abuja.

Many women and girls are still struggling to attain their fundamental human rights, despite churches and the systems of the world affirming the equality of men and women, a church human rights training for young women and girls in Nigeria heard recently.

A webinar on 8 December, entitled “From Combatting Racism to Overcoming Racism, Racial Discrimination and Xenophobia: the Old and the New for the Present and the Future of Racial Justice,” publicly launched a new World Council of Churches (WCC) programme while commemorating the 50th anniversary of the WCC Progamme to Combat Racism.

A webinar on 6 December—last in an ongoing series— remembered past massacres in Europe. Panellists explored questions such as: How do we recognise these tragedies, and celebrate the survival, resistance, resilience, and heroes of these communities? How do we honour their martyrdom? What is done to prevent these victims from falling into amnesia or denial?

When Rev. Lamont Anthony Wells, African Descent Lutheran Association national president, reflects on his experience as one of 18 participants from around the world to participate in the United Nations' Fellowship Programme for People of African Descent, he thinks of it as a unique opportunity to advocate for racial justice.

For the people of the Indonesian province of West Papua, human rights have significantly deteriorated throughout 2019 and 2020, as demonstrated by the latest biennial report issued by the International Coalition for Papua. In this context, the West Papuan Council of Churches issued a moral call to the international community on behalf of their people.

A recent webinar, “Debt Cancellation as Anti-Racism in times of Black Lives Matter protests,” explored how debt cancellation for African and other developing countries can be an instrument for overcoming racism.

A recent webinar remembered past massacres that took place in the Middle East, and speakers underscored the importance of telling the stories so that that past is not forgotten.

In the first of a two-part webinar series on “Missing and Murdered: Addressing Femicide and Sexual and Gender-based Violence in our Global Context,” speakers on 25 November urged religious leaders and all people to be aware of the root causes of femicide and gender-based violence—and act now to end them.

Although it is unfolding in a mixed context of political and economic upheavals, tragic conflicts, exploitation, and enormous opportunities, growth, and successes, the African experience of diakonia and development has a lot to teach the world, a workshop for senior African church leaders heard.

Over 23-29 October, a Global Conference of Africa and Africans in the Diaspora (AAD) revisited the historical 1945 Manchester Pan-African Conference and critically reviewed progress made since then. Speakers and participants also worked to determine and develop effective global strategies to radically change the lot of Africans and people of African descent globally—and thereby defeat the scourge of racism in the world.