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1. During the past years thousands of asylum seekers from the Horn of Africa and Northern Africa have disappeared in the Sinai desert region while crossing the border between Egypt and Israel. The Sinai desert is a traditional transit route for people from Ethiopia, Eritrea, Somalia and Northern African countries escaping political turmoil, hunger and poverty and hoping to end up in Europe. The people of Eritrea have been facing deep political and human rights crises, due to which around 2,000 people are attempting to flee from Eritrea every month. They end up in the hands of human trafficking rackets or fall victim to organ theft. It is out of sheer desperation, in order to escape conflict, political turmoil and deteriorating human rights situations that people take such risky journeys. However, instead of safe passage to Israel, the refugees find themselves in desert detention centres in Sinai, where they are abused in the most dehumanizing manner.

Indigenous Peoples have the oldest living cultures in the world. Three hundred to five hundred million Indigenous Peoples today live in over 72 countries around the world, and they comprise at least 5,000 distinct peoples. The ways of life, identities, well-being and very existence of Indigenous People are threatened by the continuing effects of colonization and national policies, regulations and laws that attempt to force them to assimilate into the cultures of majoritarian societies. A fundamental historical basis and legal precedent for these policies and laws is the "Doctrine of Discovery", the idea that Christians enjoy a moral and legal right based solely on their religious identity to invade and seize indigenous lands and to dominate Indigenous Peoples.

We, the participants of the International Study Consultation on Freedom of Religion and the Rights of Religious Minorities - drawn from churches, church related organisations, academia, civil society and human rights organisations and the legal profession in 23 countries in Africa, Asia, the Middle East, the Americas and Europe - met in Istanbul, Turkey as part of an international study consultation organised by the Commission of the Churches on International Affairs of the World Council of Churches. The Consultation analysed the situations of rights of religious minorities and freedom of religion in various contexts.

Ahead of the UN Conference on Climate Change in Durban, South Africa, 28 November - 10 December 2011 (UNFCCC COP17), the WCC general secretary, the Rev Dr Olav Fykse-Tveit, reiterates the WCC call for climate justice.

The island of Malta located in the Mediterranean Sea between Italy and the shores of Tunisia and Libya was the setting for the last plenary meeting of the Joint Working Group between the Roman Catholic Church (RCC) and the World Council of Churches (WCC) before the forthcoming WCC assembly in 2013 in Busan (Korea). Malta has been at the crossroads of Europe, Northern Africa and the Middle East throughout its history.

Ten years after the 9 September 2001, when thousands of people from more than 90 countries were killed in a coordinated assault on targets in the United States, the WCC general secretary reflects on the legacy of pain, grief, disorder and enmity, and on the power and meaning to be found in supportive prayers and other expressions of compassion.

Voicing an appeal for the renunciation of violence by all sides in ongoing political conflict in Syria, the general secretary of the World Council of Churches has stated, "it is particularly urgent that the army and government security agencies cease the indiscriminate use of force" against demonstrators, moving instead to protect all Syrian citizens' lives, dignity, human rights and fundamental freedoms.

A call to churches worldwide to educate people about racism, this declaration was made by church leaders from across the Americas and Caribbean at the end of a conference held 22-24 June 2011 in Managua, Nicaragua.

In a public statement issued 4 May 2011 in Geneva, Switzerland the general secretary of the World Council of Churches, Rev. Dr Olav Fykse Tveit, said that the power and political will being used in Libya to protect the safety and interests of the Libyan people «must be directed away from the use of armed force» and «channelled into negotiations to end the bloodshed» now consuming Libya.

In a public statement issued 5 April 2011 in Geneva, Switzerland the general secretary of the World Council of Churches, Rev. Dr Olav Fykse Tveit, expressed deep concern regarding the ongoing violence and killings of a large number of civilians in Cote d'Ivoire, including women and children, particularly in Duekoue and Abidjan.

The WCC Central Committee, meeting in Geneva 16-22 February 2011, approved this Statement on Indigenous Peoples in Australia.

Statement of Indigenous theologians from different parts of the world, who met in the city of La Paz, Bolivia, on their dialogue with the Commission on World Mission and Evangelism, the mission among indigenous people and the preservation of both traditional and Christian spiritualities.

Statement on the ratification by the US Senate of the New Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty between the United States and Russia

Statement from the WCC conference on Racism Today and the Rationale for continued ecumenical engagement, Cleveland, Ohio, 26-29 August 2010

Rev. Dr Olav Fykse Tveit on the anniversary of the nuclear bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki

The Rev. Dr Olav Fykse Tveit's comment on the signing of the New Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty (New START) by Presidents Medvedev and Obama in Prague, 8 April 2010.

In this statement, the WCC general secretary Rev. Dr Olav Fykse Tveit calls for the immediate and unconditional cancellation of Haiti's foreign debt.

Statement from the World Council of Churches (WCC) to the High-Level Ministerial Segment of the 15th Session of the Conference of the Parties - COP15 - to the UNFCCC and the 5th Session of the Meeting of the Parties to the Kyoto Protocol - CMP5
Delivered on behalf of the World Council of Churches and its Ecumenical Partners

A group of Palestinian Christians representing a variety of churches and church-related organizations have issued this animated and prayerful call for an end to occupation of Palestine by Israel on 11 December 2009.

Statement from the Asia-Pacific Women's Hearing on Poverty, Wealth and Ecology in Chiang Mai, Thailand, 02-03 November 2009.