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Filipina church emergency programme manager Minnie Anne M. Calub looks to the prophet Isaiah for inspiration in rebuilding her country after the worst recorded typhoon smote her nation of islands in November 2013.

Deeply concerned for migrants in many regions, especially those “driven to undertake journeys of desperate risk and danger”, the WCC Executive Committee has declared: “All members of the international community have a moral and legal duty to save the lives of those in jeopardy at sea or in transit, regardless of their origin and status.”

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.

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.

In South Asia, where conflicts are often fueled by religion, a WCC conference stressed the role of Christians and Hindus as eminent stakeholders in their common search for justice and peace – beyond majority and minority politics.

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

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.

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

Jayonta Adhikari, a Bangladeshi member of the WCC Central Committee, speaks about socio-political realities for Christians in his country, aspirations for protection of human rights, as well as what the WCC's call for a “pilgrimage of justice of peace” means for the region’s churches.

Thirteen years after the bomb attack at the Catholic Church of Baniarchar in Bangladesh which killed ten people and injured more than twenty, religious groups hold rally in Dhaka demanding justice.

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”.

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.

Human rights defenders from Bangladesh, gathered in a meeting sponsored by the WCC, are calling the international community’s attention to the severe persecution of Bangladesh’s religious and ethnic minorities.

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.

The World Council of Churches (WCC), as a fellowship of 345 churches from around the world, expresses deep sadness and sympathy for the devastating loss of life and property in the Philippines caused by the super typhoon Haiyan.

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.

A three-day WCC consultation has featured diverse perspectives from Asia, Africa, Middle East and Europe on the politicization of religion and how this phenomenon contributes to discrimination and persecution of religious minorities around the world.