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According to an Indian church worker, the violence against Christians in the Indian state of Orissa last year was not a one-time event but the consequence of a fragmented society. However, the results of the recent general elections are heartening.

Claims made by the Philippines government to a good human rights track record "are utterly false", Rev. Berlin Guerrero told the United Nations Committee against Torture this week. A victim of torture himself, Guerrero said the government of Gloria Macapagal Arroyo is "remiss in its responsibility to prevent torture".

Two global church organizations have congratulated the Durban Review Conference on the adoption of its outcome document, while regretting that the latter makes no mention of the plight of hundreds of millions of people affected by caste-based discrimination.

Caste-based discrimination in India may be 3,500 years old, but something new is unfolding. An emerging liberation movement has consciously chosen not to focus on Dalits' victimhood, but on the latent strength of the Dalit people, drawn from their own history and culture.

By Maurice Malanes (*)

An international ecumenical consultation has appealed to the government of Sri Lanka and the rebel movement Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) to halt fighting in order to free tens of thousands of civilians trapped in a war zone in the north of the country.

Jointly issued by LWF and WCC

Issued jointly by the World Council of Churches and the Conference of European Churches

Governments, civil society organizations and Christian agencies have expressed their disappointment that the ministerial declaration adopted at the World Water Forum in Istanbul does not include a reconfirmation of water as a human right.

Recounting stories such as the alleged forced poisoning of a young couple, speakers at the Global Ecumenical Conference on Justice for Dalits which opened in Bangkok, Thailand, on 21 March gave a face to the 3,500-year-old system of caste-based discrimination, detailing practices many would consider unthinkable in the 21st century.

Jointly issued by LWF and WCC

Peace-building initiatives and housing and education issues will be highlighted when a team of ecumenical representatives from around the world visits churches, ecumenical organizations and civil society movements in Israel and Palestine from 7 to 14 March.

By Jonathan Frerichs (*)

"Enough is enough! The Colombian people want and deserve peace." With this message, members of a Living Letters team began their journey home after visiting this South American country on behalf of the World Council of Churches (WCC) in early December.

WCC general secretary Rev. Dr Samuel Kobia was one of ten world religious leaders who signed a statement entitled "Faith in Human Rights" at an International Inter-religious Conference in The Hague, Netherlands on Wednesday, 10 December.

The message that climate changes threatens human rights and must therefore be considered an ethical issue will be brought to the United Nations Climate Change Conference currently under way in Poznań, Poland by a delegation representing the World Council of Churches (WCC).

The myth according to which host countries are "victims" of migration needs to be challenged, as in fact their economies benefit from the exploitation of the migrants' work.

"As Christians, we are called to stand with those who are victims of oppression, poverty or violence," Rev. Elenora Giddings Ivory, director of the World Council of Churches (WCC) programme on Public Witness said in advance of the WCC's United Nations Advocacy Week, 16 to 21 November in New York.

By Fredrick Nzwili (*)