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Concern about undue pressure exerted by the European Union on African, Caribbean and Pacific countries to sign interim Economic Partnership Agreements (EPAs) by the end of the year has been expressed by World Council of Churches general secretary Rev. Dr Samuel Kobia in a 6 December letter to EU commissioner for external trade Peter Mandelson. The interim agreements open up local markets to competition with European companies without adequate legal frameworks and infrastructure in place, and they address issues which are still contentious within a deadline that prevents parliamentary discussion. Therefore these agreements represent an imminent danger of revenue loss for those countries, hindering their poverty eradication efforts, the letter affirms.

Revised figures for the HIV epidemic which drop the estimated number of people living with HIV worldwide to about 33 million have been welcomed by church workers active in the response to HIV and AIDS around the world as a sign of hope and a challenge to keep promises. The Ecumenical Advocacy Alliance (EAA) collected their views.

Calling for alternatives to enforced free trade, churches and church-related organizations world-wide, along with other religious groups and community partners, are gearing up for the Trade Week of Action, 14-21 October.

The World Evangelical Alliance (WEA) is ready to join the World Council of Churches (WCC) and the Vatican in supporting a code of conduct to guide activities seeking converts to Christianity.

An ecumenical report and a call to action documenting human rights violations in the Philippines will be launched today in Geneva (Palais des Nations, Room XXVII, 14:00), within the framework of the current session of the UN Human Rights Council.

"The capacity of the ecumenical movement to respond to the challenges of today's world depends to a large extent on more creative and future-oriented forms of co-operation and networking," said World Council of Churches (WCC) general secretary Rev. Dr Samuel Kobia today. Kobia was speaking at the first assembly of ACT Development, a new alliance of churches and related organizations working on development.

The war on terror will "never" be won "as long as there are conditions in the world that make people desperate," like dehumanizing poverty, disease and ignorance, Nobel laureate and former Archbishop Desmond Tutu told ecumenical participants at the start of the 2007 World Social Forum (WSF) in Nairobi.

Ceremonies in Nairobi's Holy Family Roman Catholic Basilica and All Saints Anglican Cathedral and a procession from one to the other church are part of events being organized by the All Africa Conference of Churches/Caritas Ecumenical Platform to mark the opening of the 7th World Social Forum (WSF).

World AIDS Day is a unique moment each year when all of humanity is challenged to reflect on the way that HIV and AIDS affects us and how we can respond to the pandemic.

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Trade should be for the benefit of people and people should not be sacrificed for the sake of trade. That was a key affirmation in the World Council of Churches (WCC) central committee statement on just trade, which calls on the churches "to encourage their governments to continue working for a new multilateral trade mechanism, with a new set of multilateral trade rules which are just and democratic".

Dr Peter Piot, Bishop Mark Hanson, Canon Gideon Byamugisha, Rev. Rick Warren and his wife Kay, and Erik Sawyer are among speakers at ecumenical and interfaith pre-conferences taking place on the eve of the world's largest HIV/AIDS conference.

By Manuel Quintero*

A brief visit by World Trade Organization (WTO) director-general Pascal Lamy to the Ecumenical Centre in Geneva on Thursday 29 June gave World Council of Churches (WCC) general secretary Samuel Kobia an opportunity to share ecumenical concerns on economic justice and international trade, and for Ecumenical Advocacy Alliance (EAA) board member Richard Fee to present a religious leaders' petition for justice in trade negotiations, with/to the organization.

"Keep the promise" is the title of a new teaching resource on advocacy and HIV/AIDS produced by the WCC-related Ecumenical Advocacy Alliance (EAA) with support from UNAIDS, the World AIDS Campaign and the World Health Organization.

Churches need to build youth participation so that young people can

by Mark Woods, Walt Wiltschek and Stephen Webb (*)

"A world without poverty is not only possible but is in keeping with the grace of God for the world" affirms a call that will play a central role at the 9th Assembly of the World Council of Churches (WCC) in Porto Alegre, 14-23 February.

Marking a new stage in ecumenical efforts to overcome poverty and injustice, churches and related organizations have agreed to move ahead with the establishment of a new global alliance for development.