As a group of three laureates of the “National Human Rights Award in Colombia” engaged in meetings with diplomats and United Nations representatives in Geneva, a tray lunch event was organized on 8 June at the Ecumenical Centre by the World Council of Churches and ACT Alliance to offer the delegation the opportunity to share about the deterioration of the peace process in the country and the importance of international solidarity.
In a recent visit to the United States, a group of four laureates of the “National Human Rights Award in Colombia” engaged in meetings in Washington and New York City with government officials, diplomats, and United Nations (UN) representatives. They spoke of the deterioration of the peace process in the country and the importance of international solidarity.
As many communities worldwide battle to get food to the table, a World Council of Churches (WCC) webinar titled ‘Racism, Land and Food' highlighted the intersections of food, land, and racial injustices on food sovereignty over generations of dispossessed groups.
En una carta dirigida el 13 de julio al Consejo de Seguridad de las Naciones Unidas, el Diálogo Intereclesial por la Paz en Colombia (DiPaz), plataforma intereclesial para el diálogo por la paz en ese país, hizo un llamado a la comunidad internacional para que inste al gobierno colombiano a que reanude la plena aplicación del acuerdo de paz y fortalezca los canales de diálogo para resolver problemas sociales.
In a 13 July letter to the United Nations Security Council, the Diálogo Intereclesial por la Paz en Colombia (DiPaz), an interchurch platform for dialogue for peace in Colombia, called on the international community to urge the Colombian government to resume the full implementation of the peace agreement and strengthen channels of dialogue to resolve societal issues.
The same week Brazil reached half a million deaths by COVID-19, my parents got the first dose of the vaccine. On my way to work, I pass through a vaccination post full of people, and through a cemetery full of grief. The past year and few months were a mix of fear, indignation and anger for me. But also a time where I saw generosity and hope bloom.
476 million indigenous people live around the world, of which 11.5% live in our Latin American region. In these years that we are going from the COVID 19 pandemic in our territories (indigenous or tribal at the Latin American level), the presence of many extractive companies, mainly uranium and lithium, has increased, land traffickers and among other monoculture companies with fires for the cultivation of oil palm, logging, putting vulnerable peoples at greater risk than what is already experienced.
As the Ecumenical Fraternity Campaign begins in Brazil, World Council of Churches interim general secretary Rev. Dr Ioan Sauca shared his hope that the campaign will bring a unique opportunity to express concrete solidarity and support to the work of churches engaged in expressing Christian unity.
El brutal asesinato de Joao Alberto Silveira Freitas, un hombre negro de cuarenta años, a manos de dos guardias de seguridad blancos en la puerta de un supermercado de Porto Alegre (Brasil), el 19 de noviembre –víspera del Día Nacional de la Conciencia Negra–, ha desatado la indignación en todo el país. Las iglesias miembros del Consejo Mundial de Iglesias (CMI) han condenado el asesinato y han expresado su profunda preocupación por la injusticia racial sistémica en Brasil.
The brutal killing of Joao Alberto Silveira Freitas, 40, a black man, at the hands of two white security guards outside a supermarket in Porto Alegre, Brazil, on 19 November, the eve of National Black Consciousness Day, has sparked outrage across the country. World Council of Churches (WCC) member churches raised their voices to condemn the killing and to express deep concern regarding systemic racial injustice in Brazil.
Within the context of confinement to prevent the spread of COVID-19, multifaceted violence persists in Colombia, as well as violations of the rights of social leaders, Indigenous, Afro-Colombian and peasant populations.
Rev. Dr Olav Fykse Tveit, general secretary of the World Council of Churches (WCC), received former Brazilian President Luiz Inácio "Lula" da Silva, at the Ecumenical Centre on 6 March, in Geneva, Switzerland.
El Rev. Dr. Olav Fykse Tveit, secretario general del Consejo Mundial de Iglesias (CMI), recibió al expresidente de Brasil, Luiz Inácio “Lula” da Silva, en el Centro Ecuménico de Ginebra (Suiza) el 6 de marzo.
The World Council of Churches (WCC) has just published two new Bible studies penned by authors from Colombia. Both focus on aspects of the WCC Pilgrimage of Justice and Peace.
“We express our deepest concern with regard to the search for peace in Colombia, and we call upon the Colombian government and all armed actors to refrain from targeting social leaders and communities in conflict zones”, said Rev. Frank Chikane, moderator of the World Council of Churches’ (WCC) Commission of the Churches on International Affairs (CCIA), in light of the recent killings of social leaders in Micoahumado, South Bolivar, and elsewhere around the country.
“Expresamos nuestra profunda preocupación con respecto a la búsqueda de la paz en Colombia, y exhortamos al Gobierno colombiano y a todos los actores armados a abstenerse de atacar a los líderes sociales y a las comunidades de las zonas de conflicto”, dijo el Rev. Frank Chikane, moderador de la Comisión de las Iglesias para Asuntos Internacionales (CIAI) del Consejo Mundial de Iglesias (CMI), ante los recientes asesinatos de líderes sociales en Micoahumado, en el sur de Bolívar, así como en otros lugares del país.
From 18-20 September, the World Council of Churches (WCC) is hosting in Buenos Aires, Argentina, a regional meeting of some 30 people with responsibilities for ecumenical relations in several churches in the region of Latin America and the Caribbean.
Del 18 al 20 de septiembre, el Consejo Mundial de Iglesias (CMI) acoge en Buenos Aires, Argentina, la reunión regional de unas 30 personas a cargo de las relaciones ecuménicas en varias iglesias de la región de América Latina y el Caribe. Se trata de la primera reunión de este tipo que sigue la dinámica de las reuniones mundiales de la Red de Responsables Ecuménicos que tienen lugar cada dos años en la sede central del CMI en Ginebra, Suiza.