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The tenth edition of the Symposium on the Role of Religion and Faith-based Organizations in International Affairs will take place on 23 January online, and will explore the theme “Human Rights and Dignity: Toward a Just, Peaceable, and Inclusive Future.” 

Organized by the World Council of Churches and a variety of other faith-based partners, the symposium, an online event, will open with a high-level panel consisting of a UN official, faith-based representative, and member state. The theme of the 2023 edition is "Securing People’s Wellbeing and Planetary Sustainability".

The 8th Annual Symposium on the Role of Religion and Faith-based Organizations in International Affairs, entitled "Mobilizing Moral Influence and Governance to End the Systemic Injustices of Racism, the legacy of Colonialism and Slavery", will be held virtually 8:00 – 12:30 EDT on Tuesday 25 January 2022. 

A webinar on 19 November—part of an ongoing series—will remember past massacres that took place in the Middle East.

In the context of the 76th session of the UN General Assembly, this webinar will explore both the tremendous achievement of the decolonization of land and people and the legacies of colonialism and their effects on people and the environment.

The Symposium will address cooperation among faith-based organizations, UN system entities, and other engaged regional and international non-governmental entities, and will focus on the intersections of these themes with human mobility, migration and displacement.

The United Nations Office on Genocide Prevention and the Responsibility to Protect, the World Council of Churches and the KAICIID Dialogue Centre, in cooperation with the Permanent Missions of Italy and Spain, are co-organizing a consultation "Bearing Witness: Combating Human Trafficking and Forced Migration".

Religious actors representing different faiths from a broad range of countries participate in the meeting, including Burundi, the Central African Republic, Chad, Cote d'Ivoire, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Ethiopia, Guinea, Kenya, Liberia, Malawi, Nigeria, Rwanda, Somalia, South Africa, South Sudan, Sudan, Tanzania, Uganda and Zimbabwe. They will work together over two days to develop a strategy to prevent and counter incitement to discrimination, hostility and violence in the region.

The event is co-organized by the United Nations Office on Genocide Prevention and the Responsibility to Protect, the International Dialogue Centre (KAICIID), the World Council of Churches, and the Network for Religious and Traditional Peacemakers.

This event will feature discussion based on practical examples of peace and reconciliation, healing of memories, and transitional justice. It is promoted by the Permanent Mission of the Republic of South Africa to the United Nations, the World Council of Churches and the United Nations Office on Genocide Prevention and the Responsibility to Protect.

The United Nations Office on Genocide Prevention and the Responsibility to Protect, the Network for Religious and Traditional Peacemakers and the World Council of Churches will promote a meeting to discuss the role of religious leaders in preventing incitement to violence that could lead to atrocity crimes.