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Young ecumenical leaders from Asia have met in Siam Reap, Cambodia to examine how religious traditions can offer resources to overcome religious violence in a changing Asian context.

The WCC general secretary has sent a letter to the President of the Republic of Indonesia H. E. Joko Widodo appealing for clemency for the 10 death row prisoners scheduled for imminent execution in Indonesia.

The WCC general secretary Rev. Dr Olav Fykse Tveit has expressed concern and grief over the destruction caused by the cyclone in Vanuatu. In a letter issued to the WCC member churches in Vanuatu and the Pacific region, Tveit offered his prayers for the people and churches.

After a concerted examination of the evidence presented at the Vienna Conference on the Humanitarian Impact of Nuclear Weapons and two earlier conferences, 44 of the states present called for a ban on nuclear weapons. The host government Austria added momentum with a specific, cooperative pledge to “fill the legal gap for the prohibition of nuclear weapons” and eliminate them.

Participants in a recent WCC consultation in Myanmar have stressed the need to equip churches and ecumenical organizations to build peace, human security and human dignity in order to move beyond conflicts, towards a world of peace.

Indigenous peoples have a role to play in the struggle against climate change, indigenous faith leaders said during a panel at the Interfaith Summit on Climate Change held at the Church Center for the United Nations in New York City.

Los pueblos indígenas tienen un papel que desempeñar en la lucha contra el cambio climático, dijeron los líderes religiosos indígenas durante un panel en la Cumbre Interreligiosa sobre el Cambio Climático celebrada en el Centro de la Iglesia para las Naciones Unidas en la ciudad de Nueva York.

Scattered throughout the recent history of Indigenous Peoples are national treaties, declarations and laws that languish in obscurity or are brushed aside and ignored.

Dispersos en la historia reciente de los pueblos indígenas están tratados nacionales, declaraciones y leyes que languidecen en la oscuridad o son descartadas e ignoradas.

To raise awareness of the impact of climate change, representatives of churches, ecumenical organizations and the United Nations stood together in the sea in Apia, Samoa, in prayerful solidarity with those vulnerable to rising sea-levels and extreme weather events.

Amidst the reality of tensions often fueled by religions, a group of Christian, Muslim and Jewish youth has formed a multi-faith community. As part of an interfaith summer course sponsored by the WCC, this community wants to work for the protection of creation – a concern they say is common to all faith traditions.

En un contexto de tensiones muchas veces relacionadas con los distintos grupos religiosos, un grupo de jóvenes cristianos, musulmanes y judíos ha creado una comunidad interreligiosa. En el marco del curso de verano "Construyendo una comunidad interreligiosa" organizado por el CMI, este grupo tiene el propósito de trabajar para el cuidado de la Creación, una preocupación que comparten todas las tradiciones religiosas.

Fr Rex R. B. Reyes, Jr. vividly remembers what he calls “the fateful morning of 8 November” 2013.

As young people help to facilitate the meeting of the WCC's governing body, they are pursuing a collective pilgrimage of their own.

A communiqué adopted at a WCC consultation describes human trafficking as a “serious human rights violation” and its consequences are “most horrific results of the economic and social disparities that increase the vulnerability of millions of people”.

The WCC general secretary, Rev. Dr Olav Fykse Tveit, offered condolences on the death of Fr Siketi Tonga, general secretary of the Tonga National Council of Churches. A priest with the Anglican Church, Tonga passed away last week and was laid to rest in Nuku’alofa on Saturday, 12 April.

In an ecumenical consultation held in Colombo, Sri Lanka, Joy Ngozi Ezeilo, the United Nations Special Rapporteur on Trafficking in Persons, called human trafficking a criminal activity, on rapid increase in the world. Ezeilo said that not a single country or entity has yet been able to stop this practice, and the magnitude of this problem is enormous.

The WCC will hold an international consultation exploring links between migration, human trafficking and modern slavery. The focus of the gathering concerns thousands of migrants faced with violence, abuse and exploitation during their perilous journeys as well as in the countries to which they migrate.

A resource book on HIV and AIDS has recently been launched by a member church of the WCC promoting visions of a strengthening partnership among churches and faith-based organizations in the Philippines to address country’s HIV epidemic.

Dr Erlinda N. Senturias, a physician, educator, ecumenical activist and former WCC staff member from the Philippines, has been named by President Benigno Aquino III to the nation’s new Human Rights Victims’ Claims Board.