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A set of recommendations advocating the rights of stateless persons was presented by a World Council of Churches (WCC) delegation at the First Global Forum on Statelessness organized by the UNHCR and Tilburg University in The Hague, Netherlands.

To give visibility to the voices of stateless people in our society as well as to strategize together in how to support protection of their rights, a consultation was held by church organizations in Den Dolder, the Netherlands, in preparation of the UNHCR First Global Forum on Statelessness to be held from 15 to 17 September in The Hague.

WCC announced it will hold an Interfaith Summit on Climate Change in September in New York City.

An urgent call for protection of human rights, peace and security in the Middle East and South Sudan was recently issued by the National Council of Churches of Christ in the USA at its first Christian Unity Gathering from 18 to 20 May in Washington, D.C.

Churches in the United States, including member churches of the WCC, have called on the Obama administration to open up a high-level dialogue with Cuba aimed at normalizing relations between the two countries.

In an ecumenical harvest, a spate of European and North American church bodies are entering agreements recognizing each other’s baptisms.

Five of the world’s major arms exporters are among a group of mostly European countries ratifying the world’s first Arms Trade Treaty today, 2 April, a year after the treaty was adopted by the United Nations General Assembly.

An “inter-generational dialogue on faith, culture, HIV and sexual reproductive health and rights” was initiated on 11 March in New York City by the World YWCA in partnership with the WCC and other international organizations. The dialogue was organized as a side event at the United Nations 58th Session of the Commission on the Status of Women.

The WCC Executive Committee has condemned the use of drones or Unmanned Aerial Vehicles saying that they pose “serious threats to humanity” and the “right to life” while setting “dangerous precedents in inter-state relations”.

The plenary on justice at the WCC 10th Assembly brings into focus the core of its theme “God of life, lead us to justice and peace.” Following on diverse reflections from around the world on Christian unity, Asia and mission, the assembly plenary on 6 November in Busan, Republic of Korea, highlighted struggles for justice.

Migrants are reduced to mere commodities, traded and exchanged in the global market, according to a declaration issued by churches calling for an end to this gross violation of human dignity. The declaration was issued on the occasion of the Second United Nations High Level Dialogue on International Migration and Development in New York City, USA.

World leaders at the United Nations last week backed two steps in relation to the Arms Trade Treaty, promoted by churches, to make people safer through new laws to control deadly weapons.

Patriarch Irinej of the Serbian Orthodox Church has addressed the United Nations (UN) in New York at its High Level Forum on the Culture of Peace.

The ecumenical calling of churches and exploring different ways of renewing their commitment towards justice and peace was a significant focus during the WCC general secretary Rev. Dr Olav Fykse Tveit‘s recent visit to churches in the United States.

The WCC general secretary Rev. Dr Olav Fykse Tveit has expressed condolences following the death of Brother Jeffrey Gros, recalling his significant contributions to Christian unity and ecumenical dialogue as a Catholic theologian.

Events in Northeast Asia this year “dramatize how much the region and the world still live in the shadow of mass destruction”, the WCC general secretary said in a comment on the 68th anniversary this week of the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki in 1945. “The God of life calls all of us to take up [the survivors’] tireless cry and make certain that a Hiroshima or Nagasaki bombing can never happen again.”

Church leaders and government officials in Cuba have said that religious reforms introduced during the past two decades have improved religious policies in Cuba over earlier restrictive practices in place since 1959.

At the Human Rights Defenders Forum, former U.S. President Jimmy Carter called the abuse of women the “most pervasive and unaddressed human rights violation in the whole world.” This abuse, he stressed, is contrary to the basic premise of every religion, including Christianity.

Working in alliance with churches is strategically important, said a UN representative at the recent assembly of the Latin American Council of Churches.

The WCC general secretary Rev. Dr Olav Fykse Tveit, offered prayers and support for advocacy against violence on behalf of the WCC member churches in light of the bombing at the Boston Marathon on Monday, 15 April.