2011 DECEMBER 16

Peace for Life’s Programme on Women, war and Empire will be launching “Women for Peace Against Fundamentalisms”, a five-year project aimed at creating international alliances among women of faith who are working to end all forms of religious violence, including hate crimes and terrorism fueled by religious extremism.

Coordinating the project is Dr. Kathryn Poethig, facilitator of the programme team on women, war and Empire.

An 11-member Steering Committee will convene in February next year to discuss and finalise the framework and design of the project. The meeting will be hosted by the Interfaith Institute for Justice, Peace and Social Movements at the Simon Fraser University in Vancouver, Canada. Read more about the project »

 

 

 

MOVEMENT UPDATE

Consolidating a Brazilian response to Kairos Palestine

2011 DECEMBER 2

Dr. Nancy Cardoso writes about Brazil’s First National Meeting of Solidarity with the Palestinian People, held on 25-28 November in Sao Paulo, which brought together 108 Palestinian and Brazilian leaders and guests from Bolivia, Chile and Argentina. The conference, supported by Peace for Life, aimed to articulate solidarity with Palestine in Brazil creating consensus among social movements, social pastoral and human rights organizations whose complex political differences have historically created difficulties for the realization of solidarity. Read full report »

 

The Bethlehem Call

2011 DECEMBER 10

Statement of faith commitment from more than 60 Christians from 15 countries joining Palestinians in the Kairos for Global Justice Encounter/Conference in Bethlehem. Palestine, on 4-10 December 2011. The conference was organised by Kairos Palestine. Read the full statement »

 

The Right to Water
A Policy of Denial and Forced Displacement
in the Occupied Palestinian Territory

2011 NOVEMBER 29

An excerpt from the briefing paper submitted by the Palestinian Council of Human Rights Organisations (PCHRO) to the European External Action Service, the EU body tasked to review the implementation of the EU-Israel Action Plan in 2011, pointing out the body’s failure, in its previous progress reports, to consider "a key human rights issue": the right to water. Read more »

 

Durban outcome is not enough, says WCC

WORLD COUNCIL OF CHURCHES - NEWS

2011 DECEMBER 9

In a statement read on 9 December to government members from around the world at the United Nations climate summit in Durban, South Africa, the World Council of Churches (WCC) reaffirmed the need for a fair, ambitious and binding treaty to effectively address climate change effects on vulnerable communities. Read news release>>

 

Take responsibility for global biosecurity

Statement of Pax Christi International to the Seventh Review Conference

of the Biological and Toxin Weapons Convention (BTWC)

5-22 December 2011, Geneva

In an open letter to the States Parties to the convention, Pax Christi International called upon all people of goodwill to contribute to biosecurity, reminding the international community of its “responsibility to protect” (R2P) the security of all people, and to take all possible precautions to prevent states or terrorist groups or individuals from obtaining or using biological and toxin weapons. Read full statement »

 

STATEMENT

Pilgrim’s Progress in Solidarity, Sociability & Sensitivity:
Inter-facing Feminist Theology, Dalit Theology
and Tribal/Adivasi Theology

2011 NOVEMBER 20

Statement issued by the participants of the National Seminar on “Building Theologies of Solidarity: Interfacing Feminist theology with Dalit theology and Tribal/Adivasi theology”, held on November 18-20 in Bangalore, India in response to the demand for “mutual solidarity in overcoming jointly the powers of casteism, patriarchy, capitalism, fundamentalism”. Read the full statement »

 

STATEMENT

Save Jeju Island! Don't bomb Gureombi!
U.S. troops out of Korea now!

2011 NOVEMBER 17

Statement released by the Asia Pacific Anti-US Bases Network expressing solidarity with the people of South Korea in their call for the immediate halt to the impending blasting of Gureombi, the volcanic rock along the coastline of Gangjeong Village, part of the continued development of a U.S. military naval base in Jeju. Read full statement »

 

LECTURE

The New Social Media and the Reshaping
of Communication in the 21st Century

2011 OCTOBER 25 | DOHA, QATAR

Special lecture delivered by Dr. Hans Köchler, president of the International Progress Organization, at the Ninth Doha Interfaith Conference, 24-26 October 2011, which dealt with the theme, “Social Media and Inter-religious Dialogue: A New Relationship”. Experts and representatives of the three monotheistic religions from over 50 countries presented papers on the pros and cons of social communication tools and their implications for interfaith dialogue. Read the paper »

 

OTHER NEWS

• Philippine theological response to Kairos Palestine: a time to end silence
• Equal rights for all the measure for assessing freedom of religion
• Indian lawmakers affirm Muslim and Christian Dalits' just cause
• Groups call on Durban to rethink tourism's role in climate change
• Palestinians deserve UN membership —U.S. church leaders

… AND RESOURCES:

• I.P.O. statement on the International Day of Solidarity with the Palestinian People
• Reclaiming the Good News of the Holy Land and the Imperative of Interfaith Solidarity to Resist Empire: A Philippine theological response to Kairos Palestine
• Russel Tribunal Cape Town Session finding: Israel subjects Palestinians to apartheid
• Libya recolonised
• Bil'in model of wall resistance
• Religion, radicalism and peace
• Is hypocrisy sanctified?
• My EAPPI experience