Search results

With an intervention delivered by Max Weber, a student at the Ecumenical Institute at Bossey, the World Council of Churches expressed deep concern for human rights in Haiti. 

The World Council of Churches, in an intervention before the UN Human Rights Council, called upon the UN to ensure that counter-terrorism laws and practices, including efforts to combat terrorism financing, do not unjustly curtail the legitimate activities of civil society organizations, impede civic space, or hinder humanitarian endeavors in the Philippines. 

In a pastoral letter to the Korean Christian Federation, World Council of Churches acting general secretary Rev. Prof. Dr Ioan Sauca expressed “very deep Christian concern” over the COVID-19 outbreak in the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea.

World Council of Churches (WCC) director of the Commission of the Churches on International Affairs Peter Prove presented, via video message, an intervention at an “International Ecumenical Solidarity Gathering for Human Rights and Peace in the Philippines” held 7 October.

As human rights violations worsen in the Philippines, religious leaders there are urging global solidarity for their increasingly urgent quest for justice.

The National Council of Churches (USA) has joined with other humanitarian and human rights organizations in writing the US Congress to urge that obstacles keeping nongovernmental organizations from addressing the “devastating potential for COVID-19’s spread” within the nation of North Korea be removed.

An ecumenical delegation coordinated by the World Council of Churches (WCC) visited Indonesia on 15-22 February, including the provinces of Papua and Papua Barat - where increasing violence and discrimination against indigenous Papuan people was recently highlighted in a joint statement by five UN human rights mandate-holders.

Une délégation œcuménique coordonnée par le Conseil œcuménique des Églises (COE) s’est rendue en Indonésie du 15 au 22 février, visitant notamment les provinces de la Papouasie et de la Papouasie occidentale, où, selon une déclaration commune récente de cinq mandataires des Nations Unies travaillant dans le domaine des droits de la personne, les violences et les discriminations à l’encontre des populations papoues autochtones se multiplient.

Members of a church-backed coalition have called on Indonesia to open access to West Papua for international journalists, independent observers, human rights organizations and the International Red Cross.

Expressing concern regarding recently announced US measures related to refugee admissions and entry into the US by seven Muslim-majority countries, the World Council of Churches (WCC), ACT Alliance (ACT), and The Lutheran World Federation (LWF) affirmed that faith calls all Christians to love and welcome the stranger, the refugee, the internally displaced person - “the other.”

Le Conseil œcuménique des Églises (COE), ACT Alliance (ACT) et la Fédération luthérienne mondiale (FLM) ont fait savoir leur préoccupation à propos des mesures américaines récentes relatives à l’accueil et à l’entrée aux États-Unis des réfugiés en provenance de sept pays à majorité musulmane. Ces organisations ont déclaré que la foi appelle les chrétiens à aimer et à accueillir l’étranger, le réfugié, les personnes déplacées, autrement dit : « l’autre ».

To promote open discussions on the theological and practical discourse, narrative and experiences on implications for the work of the multi-religious organizations on religion, violence and extremism, the WCC, along with the General Board of Church and Society of The United Methodist Church and the General Conference of Seventh-Day Adventists held a Symposium on the Role of Religion and Faith-Based Organizations in International Affairs.

Amidst intimidation, illegal arrests, disappearances, torture and killings in Tanah Papua resulting from tensions between the Indonesian authorities and the Papuan pro-liberation groups, churches seek justice, peace, dignity and security for the Papuans.

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.

A court decision in the Dominican Republic annulling the citizenship of an estimated 200,000 Dominicans of Haitian ancestry has been strongly criticized by church leaders, including the presiding bishop of the Episcopal Church.

Des responsables d’Église ont vivement critiqué la décision d’un tribunal de République dominicaine de déchoir de leur citoyenneté 200'000 Dominicains d’origine haïtienne.

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.

The “pilgrimage is both a way to continue working for the one ecumenical movement and a way to move forward in our times that offer new dimensions, opportunities and practices,” said the WCC general secretary Rev. Dr Olav Fykse Tveit.