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World Council of Churches (WCC) acting general secretary Rev. Prof. Dr Ioan Sauca expressed shock at the recent suicide bombings in Kampala, Uganda, for which the so-called ‘Islamic State’ group has reportedly claimed responsibility.

“Statelessness renders people’s vulnerability to abuse and to denial of their rights invisible to national authorities. In this sense the right to a nationality is a threshold issue for access to protection of all other human rights - almost a 'right to have rights'”, said Peter Prove, director of the World Council of Churches (WCC) Commission of the Churches on International Affairs (CCIA), following a regional training workshop on birth registration and gender discriminatory nationality laws in Africa, organized by the WCC in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, 11–13 May.

“La apatridia hace que la vulnerabilidad de las personas a los abusos y la denegación de sus derechos sea invisible para las autoridades nacionales. En este sentido, el derecho a una nacionalidad es primordial para el acceso a la protección de todos los otros derechos humanos, se trata casi de un ‘derecho a tener derechos’”, dijo Peter Prove, director de la Comisión de las Iglesias sobre Asuntos Internacionales del CMI, tras un taller regional de capacitación sobre el registro de nacimientos y las leyes de nacionalidad discriminatorias por motivos de género en África, organizado por el CMI en Addis Abeba (Etiopía) del 11 al 13 de mayo.

The African continent bears witness to the tragic consequences of the manipulation of religion to incite violence. Yet it is also the home of untold instances of the power of religious leaders and actors to exert a positive influence, said panellists at an international meeting in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, today.

“Science and religion can provide solutions to poverty and injustice.” This was the theme of the 3rd International Conference on Sustainable Alternatives for Poverty Reduction and Ecological Justice (SAPREJ) in Kampala, Uganda, on 4-7 April. The conference was organized by the Kyambogo University and the WCC economic and ecological justice programme.

The WCC general secretary, the Rev. Samuel Kobia, wrote a letter to Uganda's President Yoweri Kaguta Museveni, saying that the WCC was "saddened and distressed to receive the news from Uganda regarding a proposed law against homosexual individuals [...], which also proposes the death penalty to be meted to homosexual individuals who are HIV positive".