Displaying 121 - 140 of 186

Tveit offers input at religion and development meeting

At a consultation on religion and development on 28 September, WCC general secretary Rev. Dr Olav Fykse Tveit shared thoughts on an emerging global religion and development agenda. The meeting was convened by the ACT Alliance. Tveit and other participants shared their thoughts on how faith-based and humanitarian groups can work together to help reach the UN Sustainable Development Goals.

Lecture: Women of Power

03 October 2016

Whilst women around the world are slowly getting better represented in top level leadership positions in political and social spheres, many barriers still remain. As the linkage between women's empowerment and development, prosperity and peace is increasingly recognized and the issue is moving higher up on the global agenda, the WCC in collaboration with the International Alliance of Women invites media and the general public to a lecture by Norwegian politician and researcher Torild Skard.

Geneva, Switzerland

Keeping the Faith in Development: Gender, Religion and Health

20 September 2016

UNAIDS, UNFPA, UNWomen (as part of the United Nations Inter-Agency Task Force on Religion and Development), the World Council of Churches - Ecumenical Advocacy Alliance, & the Wijngaards Institute for Catholic Research will co-host a symposium to launch three reports examining the intersections and areas of contention between health, human rights & lived theology during the United Nations General Assembly.

Salvation Army Auditorium, New York City, United States

Rio: faith leaders affirm human dignity before the Olympic games

Representatives from over 25 faith expressions and from more than 30 civil society organizations gathered for a public event in downtown Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, during the opening week of the 2016 Olympic games to affirm the dignity of human beings and the planet Earth and the defense of human rights.

AIDS 2016: “Stigma kills more people than HIV”

More than 150 people attending the interfaith pre-conference, which opened on 16 July in Durban, heard urgent challenges to reduce stigma and discrimination; increase access to HIV services; and defend human rights as key elements of ending AIDS as a public health threat by 2030.

WCC pastoral letter calls for recommitment to tackling HIV and AIDS

Despite huge progress since AIDS was first identified 35 years ago, the threat of AIDS still haunts much of the world. 21 million people currently have no access to treatment of HIV, and AIDS-related illnesses are now the leading cause of death for adolescents in Africa. More than 2 million people are newly infected annually. The world is facing the catastrophe of 6 million AIDS-related orphans, and this figure is growing.

In Ghana, women bring open minds, honest words

As they talk during a workshop in Ghana, women are collectively asking a question: “Is it not time for women and girls to raise their voices to say what they want as mothers, as widows, as single parents, and as God’s children?”

God’s forgotten children

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

African churches commit to working for the elimination of statelessness

“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.

Human rights standards must guide global response to HIV, WCC urges

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.

WCC supports new campaign against sexual abuse

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.

WCC welcomes monitoring of ceasefire in Colombia

“Recognizing Colombia’s ownership of the implementation of the Final Peace Agreement,” the UN Security Council decided on 25 January to establish a 12-month political mission of unarmed international observers, responsible for the monitoring and verification of the laying down of arms in the country.

WCC/UN conference calls for coordinated action on refugee crisis

Following the WCC/UN High Level Conference on the Refugee Crisis in Europe, which took place at the Ecumenical Centre Geneva on 18-19 January, a statement has been issued entitled "Europe’s Response to the Refuge Crisis, From Origin to Transit, Reception and Refuge, A Call for Shared Responsibility and Coordinated Action”.