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Minister of Human Rights of The Democratic Republic of the Congo Andre Lite Asebea visited WCC headquarters in Geneva on Thursday to discuss the human rights situation in Congo with the general secretary of the World Council of Churches, Rev. Dr Olav Fykse Tveit.

A new concern for South Sudan is emerging, as African religious leaders warn that the failure to implement the latest peace agreement could push the young nation back into war.

The leaders spoke in Nairobi on 12 September, the day the world’s newest nation marked a year since the signing of the Revitalized Agreement on Resolution of the Conflict in South Sudan.

A recent seminar for adolescents and young people from the Nairobi city slum Schools of Hope Clubs invited participants to address their perceptions of what it means to be a man or a woman.

As South Africa grapples with a gender-based violence crisis, president Cyril Ramaphosa is convening, on 18 September, the entire parliament for a special session on how to create a society in which women feel not only safe, but enjoy human rights equal to men. With 52,420 sexual offences reported in the last financial year - and many unreported - hundreds of thousands of people in South Africa are publicly saying “#EnoughIsEnough.” Churches and faith communities are a vocal, visible part of this call for change. Will the momentum grow? Will we stand with the women of South Africa?

Moravian women pastors and evangelists have said: “Enough is enough: no more rape and violence against women." Women leaders of the church marched in the streets of Mbeya town in Tanzania wearing black on Thursday to officially launch the Thursdays in Black global campaign to stand against rape and violence.

The Council of Churches in Zambia released a press statement on 3 September indicating its refusal to submit thoughts on a controversial bill that would change the nation’s constitution.

Dr Agnes Abuom is moderator of the World Council of Churches (WCC) Central Committee. From Kenya, Abuom is a laywoman in the Anglican Church of Kenya.

Christian Aid and Christian Solidarity Worldwide are among 30 global agencies demanding urgent international action to halt violence in Sudan, where women have been leading pro-change and democracy protests.

When Sudanese women join the mass protests for change and reforms, demonstrators revere them as Kandakes or Candances – the queens of the ancient African Kingdoms of Kush.

Social media was awash with messages of love on Valentine’s Day, but from Thursdays in Black supporters, the flowers came with strong messages that love is not violent.

Women in Liberia participated in the Thursdays in Black campaign by staging a peaceful demonstration in the streets of Margibi County against the growing waves of violence against women and girls.

At a meeting in Harare on Tuesday this week, church and civil society leaders in Zimbabwe strongly rejected all forms of violence and urgently called upon the state to restore the rule of law and constitutionalism in the exercise of state power.

The life of Rev. Dr Rena Joyce Weller Karefa-Smart is being remembered and commended this week by the WCC fellowship after her passing last week. Karefa-Smart was the first Pan African woman to graduate in 1945 from Yale Divinity School. She was a champion for global ecumenism over the course of a long and distinguished career. An attendee of the first WCC Assembly, she was also a procession leader and author of the liturgies at the second WCC Assembly in Evanston, Illinois (USA).

The WCC-EHAIA programme organized a workshop on 27-29 November during which young people in Nigeria could highlight positive masculinity and femininity.

A worship service at the Glasgow University Chapel on 25 November featured recorded contributions by World Council of Churches (WCC) deputy general secretary Dr Isabel Apawo Phiri as well as two other women who have dedicated their lives to promoting gender justice.

As a result of a consultation on 9-10 November in Washington, D.C., Pan African Women of Faith have released a Call to Action toward a vision of sustainable communities and an end to hunger and poverty.

Last month, three members of Nigeria’s Christian community spoke to Government representatives in Geneva, spotlighting the challenges that children, and particularly girls, face in their society. Their meetings took place ahead of the Universal Periodic Review (UPR) of their country, at the United Nations this week.

World Council of Churches general secretary Rev. Dr Olav Fykse Tveit expressed shock and dismay at the news on 6 November of the kidnapping of 79 students and three staff, including the principal, from the Presbyterian Secondary School, a boarding school in Bamenda, in the northwest region of Cameroon.

The World Council of Churches (WCC) welcomes the award of the 2018 Nobel Peace Prize to Ms Nadia Murad and to Dr Denis Mukwege for their work against “sexual violence as a weapon of war and armed conflict”.

Thirty years ago, the founders of the Ecumenical Decade of Churches in Solidarity with Women were searching for ways to not only help women across the globe seek justice but also highlight their contributions to churches and the world.