01.11.2009
Council Actions on International Affairs and Human Rights Issues
Call for Action and Leadership against Human Trafficking
The theme of the October 2009 Council meeting “Upholding Human Dignity: Confronting Human Trafficking” was further emphasized in some of the Council decisions.
Receiving recommendations from the Program Committee for International Affairs and Human Rights, the Council affirmed that its rejection of practices and activities that turn human beings into commodities, especially for the purposes of forced or exploitative labor, sexual exploitation, forced marriage, armed conflict or so-called organ harvesting.
The governing body therefore called on all LWF member churches to acknowledge and address the challenges related to theological, spiritual, ecclesiological and Christian anthropological dimensions of human trafficking. Churches were asked to provide leadership in preaching and other forms of public witness against the commercial exploitation of human beings.
The Council urged churches to speak out and work against marginalization and stigma of vulnerable persons, and to address issues of poverty, exclusion and insecurity.
The Council also reminded the LWF member churches of their obligation to offer compassion, counseling and support to victims of trafficking, and the need to promote the reintegration of the affected people in the community in order to reduce the risk of repeated trafficking.
The churches’ role was underlined in not only challenging the widespread impunity enjoyed by traffickers, but also in insisting on the establishment of appropriate and effective laws against human trafficking. The Council urged the Lutheran communion’s churches to join local, national or international actions or campaigns against human trafficking, and support ecumenical and interfaith cooperation on this issue.
LWF member churches, Department for World Service country programs and partners in countries that had not ratified the Trafficking Protocol were urged to challenge their governments to ratify the Protocol.
Tribute to Christians’ Role in Peaceful 1989 Revolution in Former GDR
The Council meeting coincided with the 20th anniversary commemorations in the former German Democratic Republic (GDR) of peaceful demonstrations in the city of Leipzig that marked a turning point in the democracy protests, which was followed by the opening of the Berlin Wall on 9 November 1989 and free elections in March 1990.
The LWF governing body adopted a public statement in which it commemorated the role played by church people in the former GDR “in inspiring and mobilizing popular resistance to an oppressive government, through prayer and non-violent action for peace and freedom.”
The LWF Council statement noted, “These events culminated on 9 October 1989, when after prayers in the churches of Leipzig an estimated 70,000 people took to the streets bearing candles and prayers against guns and the threat of violence. The faith and courage of those people remains an example to all of us today, and calls us to reflect again on the role of the church in proclaiming God’s peace and justice and confronting violence and oppression wherever God’s people suffer.”
Justice for Dalits
The Council also received the “Bangkok Declaration and Call”, issued by the March 2009 joint LWF and World Council of Churches (WCC) global ecumenical conference on justice for Dalits in Bangkok, Thailand, and commended it to LWF member churches and programs.
The Council affirmed that caste and related discrimination contradict the Christian teaching that all are created equal and in the image of God. The governing body called on LWF member churches in both caste-affected and other countries to challenge their governments to make a firm global commitment to the elimination of caste-based discrimination, and implement measures to fulfill that commitment.
While expressing support for the ongoing work of the UN human rights treaty bodies and other international organizations to address untouchability and caste-based discrimination, the LWF governing body called for the adoption of the draft UN Principles and Guidelines for the Effective Elimination of Discrimination Based on Work and Descent in order to provide an appropriate basis for the international community to address caste-based discrimination as a global concern.
Israel-Palestine
The Council re-affirmed its support for restarting negotiations for the implementation of a just, two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, including a shared Jerusalem. It noted with concern the current efforts by Israelis to change the status quo in the Holy Basin in and around that city (the Old City, Silwan and the Mount of Olives).
It endorsed strongly the August-September 2009 statement by the WCC Central Committee with regard to Israeli settlements in the Occupied Palestinian Territory.
The Council deplored actions, such as revocation of residency rights, home demolitions, and denial of permits, which reinforce the trend of Christian emigration from the Holy Land, “a place where the Christian community can continue to be a bridge-builder with the other two Abrahamic faiths for peace.”
The LWF governing body re-affirmed its support for the ministries and witness of the LWF and the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Jordan and the Holy Land in their quest for continued witness for justice and peace in the region.
It reiterated the importance of the Ecumenical Accompaniment Program in Palestine and Israel as a tangible act of solidarity and witness for peace, and called on churches to continue to support the program and facilitate the presence of accompaniers from churches in the global South.
Climate Change
Receiving the committee’s recommendations on climate change, the Council reiterated the call to member churches contained in the June 2008 Council’s resolutions, urging further involvement and deepening of theological and ethical reflection and action on climate change. Relevant materials and resources produced by the LWF and from the WCC and other ecumenical partners were commended to the member churches.
Further to the symbolic prayer and action on climate change (see page 1) the Council called upon all member churches to observe 13 December 2009 – during the UN Climate Change Conference in Copenhagen – as a day for prayer, confession and action on the issue of climate change, to ring church bells or to take other symbolic solidarity actions. The General Secretary was asked to produce and make available liturgical material for use by member churches on this occasion.
Representatives of the LWF communion attending the Copenhagen conference, and LWF member churches around the world, were asked to advocate for an agreement that is based on justice and to speak out for the vulnerable and poor. The Council called upon the Lutheran communion to highlight especially the impacts of climate change on food insecurity and increasing human vulnerability, including phenomena such as climate change migration and climate change refugees;
Further effort was urged in insisting that the international community establish a fair, equitable, legally-binding agreement to succeed the Kyoto Protocol, in order to achieve the target of 40 percent reduction of developed country carbon emissions by 2020;
The Council noted that the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change had clearly indicated that if global warming is to be limited to between 2.0 and 2.4°C, global emissions would peak no later than 2015. This would stress again the critical urgency and unprecedented magnitude of the challenge of climate change and its threat to humanity and the rest of creation.
The LWF governing body called for the establishment of just and adequate means of financing climate change mitigation and adaptation in developing countries, with the aim to improve adaptation to the worst consequences of global warming, reduce emissions, and deploy ‘clean’ technologies. Such funding, the Council noted, “must not be drawn from existing development cooperation budgets or commitments.”
The important insights and wisdom of indigenous people were underlined as integral to ethical and sustainable relationships with creation.
