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Some people don’t exist – on paper, that is. Indeed, millions of people are not recognized as citizens by the law of any country.

As a United Nations high-level meeting on ending AIDS led to the adoption of a new political declaration to fast-track progress toward combating HIV and AIDS, the faith community responded, both with words of commendation and a call for changes.

“An ongoing process of learning human rights as a way of life and as relevant to peoples’ daily lives, for women and men to participate in implementing the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), will create a political culture of human rights that will enrich all cultures and religions to create a new future for humanity”, said Shulamith Koenig, founder of People's Movement for Human Rights Learning (PDHRE), during a brainstorming event on Human Rights and the SDGs, held in New York, on 12 May. “That’s something Nelson Mandela already called for”, added Koenig.

During the 29 years Virgine Nasrawi has worked in the Talbiah refugee camp, located 40 kilometers south of Amman, the Jordanian capital, she has witnessed many changes. And the sudden influx of refugees from neighbouring Syria, caused by the devastating civil war in that country, is the most dramatic.

“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.

The heads of two German Protestant churches and the moderator of the country’s Reformed Alliance say the situation for refugees on the border between Greece and the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia is intolerable and more European aid is needed.

On March 24, Argentina commemorated the 40th anniversary of the military coup that lasted until 1983 and constituted a deep trauma in Argentina’s national history. Local member churches of the WCC and ecumenical organizations expressed their solidarity with the victims and stressed the importance of keeping the memory alive.

In line with the WCC-UNICEF partnership and the commitment to support children through churches, a guide for consultations with children and adolescents is now available for downloading - in view to provide feedback by 2 May.

Racism, racial discrimination, xenophobia and intolerance negate the essence of human beings by negating their origins and identities. This year marks the fifteenth anniversary of the 2001 World Conference against Racism, Racial Discrimination, Xenophobia and Related Intolerance held in Durban, South Africa.

Policymakers, programme managers, and service providers — including faith communities — must use more human rights norms and standards to guide a global response to HIV, said a statement submitted by the Ecumenical Advocacy Alliance, an ecumenical initiative of the WCC, to the Human Rights Council on 11 March in Geneva.

The WCC's commitment to child rights and gender justice is manifested by its support for Together for Girls' Every Hour Matters campaign, which was launched earlier this week. The campaign aims to increase awareness of the critical importance of quickly accessing post-rape care.

Participants in a recent conference on the refugee crisis in Europe, hosted by the WCC, said they felt energized by the reports from a multitude of activities undertaken by churches from Lebanon to Finland through Serbia, Greece and Germany.

Churches in Europe have a crucial role to play in responding to the arrival of refugees in Europe, Germany's interior minister has told a gathering in Geneva of governments, United Nations agencies, church and faith groups and civil society organizations.

Renowned for his friendly attitude and his inspiring speeches, nothing seems impossible for this man. He has faced a multitude of difficulties including severe illness and persecution. At age 62, he committed to rebuild the church in the only officially declared atheist state.

Ghanaian Joyce Larko Steiner spends her life fighting child trafficking and child labour in her country.

International humanitarian and development faith based networks have urged governments preparing for next week's COP21 United Nations climate summit in Paris to do their outmost to reach a fair, binding, and ambitious agreement as vulnerable people continue their daily struggle to adapt to the increasing adverse effects of climate change.

“Children need to know their place in the church. And that is at the front, not the back”, said Bishop Raphael Opoko from the Methodist Church of Nigeria, speaking at a round table discussion on promoting the rights of children held on 19 November at the Ecumenical Centre in Geneva.

A coalition of faith-based organizations is emphasizing a joint approach in addressing unprecedented levels of violence against women and girls.

It is raining. It is cold and windy. Autumn is in the air in northern Greece. We have just arrived at the Idomeni refugee camp in northern Greece, on the border between Greece and the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia (FYROM). The fast-approaching winter poses as great a threat to the refugees as do the smugglers. In the worst case, winter means death.

The WCC general secretary Rev. Dr Olav Fykse Tveit has expressed deep concern over the renewed wave of violence in Jerusalem. In a letter to WCC member churches in Palestine and Israel, he expressed solidarity with the churches and peoples of the land, and affirmed WCC’s commitment to justice and peace in Palestine and Israel.