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By Doris R., Ecumenical Accompanier in Yanoun, and the EAPPI summer team 2010

The World Council of Churches (WCC) general secretary Rev. Dr Olav Fykse Tveit has denounced the extrajudicial killings of Benjamin Bayles and Jovelito Agustin, both lay ministers of the Philippine Independent Church.

An ecumenical delegation including Fr Rex Reyes (general secretary of the National Council of Churches in the Philippines and a president of the Christian Conference of Asia) and Marie Hilao-Enriquez (chairperson of the human rights group Karapatan) presented the human rights situation in the Philippines at a lunch discussion with staff at the Ecumenical Centre in Geneva, 7 June 2010.

A Living Letters team of the World Council of Churches (WCC) will pay a solidarity visit to Nigeria from 15-20 May 2010.

An international ecumenical delegation visiting Turkey at the end of November has encouraged the country's authorities to improve the situation of religious minorities. The exercise of religious freedom, the legal status of churches, including property issues, and the right to religious education were on the agenda.

Ecumenical Delegation to Meet With High-Level Officials to Promote Peace and Reconciliation

The World Council of Churches (WCC) general secretary Rev. Dr Samuel Kobia urged the Nigerian President Umaru Musa Yar'Adua to "ensure the safety of all citizens" as well as seeing that "all perpetrators [of] acts of violence and human rights violations are brought to justice".

By Fredrick Nzwili (*)

Dispelling the myth of "a little peaceful country", an international ecumenical Living Letters team visited Uruguay and discovered how violence manifests itself at the levels of family life, the state and youth, and how the churches in this South American country seek to overcome it.

By Maurice Malanes (*)

Jointly issued by LWF and 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.

Two international ecumenical bodies called on the UN, the South African Development Community and the African Union "to increase [their] efforts to address the rapidly deteriorating situation in Zimbabwe". Emergency aid, postponement of the run-off election and the responsibility of the international community to intervene in protection of the people are amongst the main concerns.

Philippine human rights activists reiterated their call on the UN Human Rights Council to "keep pursuing our government to stop the extrajudicial killings and other human rights violations". The UN body is meeting in Geneva 2-18 June.

In face of what he called "escalating human rights violations," the World Council of Churches (WCC) general secretary Rev. Dr Samuel Kobia announced stronger ecumenical advocacy efforts to bring the Philippines under international scrutiny.

By Maurice Malanes (*)

The central committee of the World Council of Churches (WCC) has appealed to the United Nations and the African Union to endorse a plan for a sustainable peace process between the government of Uganda and the "Lord's Resistance Army" (LRA).

Deep concern about "the increasing use of detention to restrict and deter cross-border movement by asylum seekers and other migrants" prompted the World Council of Churches' (WCC) Global Ecumenical Network on Uprooted Peoples (GEN) to circulate a statement on this issue at a meeting in Geneva this week of the United Nations High Commission for Refugees' (UNHCR) Executive Committee.

Free photos available, see below

By Hanna Smidt(*)