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Azad is a refugee from the north of Aleppo, Syria and is currently in The Jungle camp in Calais, France. “It’s hard here” says Azad, and then falls quiet. “People are hungry, cold, afraid and we can’t do anything”. He’s sitting cross-legged on the floor of a small shelter.

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.

During the 4th United Nations Forum on Business and Human Rights, the WCC, in collaboration with the ACT Alliance and Lutheran World Federation, organized a side-event on “Faith-based organizations’ contribution to the protection of communities’ land rights: lessons learnt and good practices from Africa, Asia and Latin America” at the Ecumenical Centre in Geneva.

A delegation representing churches and ecumenical bodies around the world met for an historic international ecumenical visit and meeting in the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea from 23 to 30 October.

Today 35 bishops and church leaders from 20 countries gathered in Munich, Germany to discuss the refugee situation and the role of the churches in Europe.

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.

They are there every day, each month of the year – as they have been for the last 13 years. They have become a natural element in the chaos of life in Israel and Palestine. Their presence is appreciated. They provide safety and stability. Their sole weapon is a pen, or a camera. They see and listen; they analyze and report back.

In a high level panel on Climate Change and Human Rights held at the United Nations in Geneva, Switzerland, the WCC general secretary Rev. Dr Olav Fykse Tveit said that despite all negative conditions “we have the right to hope” – not as a matter of passive waiting but as an active process towards justice and peace, in which human rights should play a key role.

Displaced by the armed offensive of the so-called Islamic State in Iraq and Syria and their brutal purge of Yazidis and Christians, along with Sufi, Shiite and Sunni Muslims, from northern Iraq, members of these communities have begun to speak out about their experiences, their longing for security, and their hopes for the future.

Even as hundreds of thousands of people displaced by the self-proclaimed Islamic State of Iraq and Syria militant attacks find refuge in the towns of the Kurdistan region of northern Iraq, agencies assisting these internally displaced persons warn of a huge unmet humanitarian need exacerbated by the looming onset of winter.

The WCC has issued an urgent call to the United Nations for an immediate response to the killing of Christians and others by the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria (ISIS) militant fighters.

Attacks on civilians and the denial of human rights continues in the Nuba Mountain region of Sudan.

Following clashes between protesters and police in Venezuela, which left around 20 people dead in February, the WCC president for Latin America and the Caribbean, Rev. Gloria Nohemy Ulloa Alvarado, expressed concern over the violence. She made these comments on 10 March, conveying solidarity with the churches in Venezuela.

At the Human Rights Defenders Forum, former U.S. President Jimmy Carter called the abuse of women the “most pervasive and unaddressed human rights violation in the whole world.” This abuse, he stressed, is contrary to the basic premise of every religion, including Christianity.

In developing countries, many Christians are faced with issues of corruption, war, hunger, oppression, killings and new forms of terrorism, said Rev. Dr Ibrahim Yusuf Wushishi, general secretary of the Christian Council of Nigeria, an ecumenical organization representing member churches of the World Council of Churches in Nigeria.

The Department of Ecumenical Relations and Development (DERD) of the Greek Orthodox Patriarchate of Antioch and All the East has delivered around 75,000 humanitarian aid kits to an estimate of 280,045 individuals in Syria amidst its on-going conflict.

By Jonathan Frerichs (*)

Many church and civil society representatives have expressed disappointment over the lack of vision and ambition in the outcomes of the Rio+20 summit, which took place in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, this June. Yet the affirmation of the human right to water and sanitation is one aspect among others in the results that the future work of the ecumenical movement for sustainability and eco-justice can build on.

Church leaders in the United States along with farmers and consumers will fast from 5 to 10 March to protest the retailer Publix’s rejection of the groundbreaking Fair Food Program in Florida. "... Theirs [Publix'] is a morally indefensible position and they can't look the workers in the eye," said Rev. Bernice Powell Jackson, president of the World Council of Churches for the North America region.

Myanmar was visited by an ecumenical solidarity team representing the World Council of Churches (WCC) from 4 to 9 August 2011 as part of the council’s commitment to accompany churches in conflict situations. This was a follow-up to a WCC Living Letters team visit to Myanmar in late 2010.