PEACE for LIFE - A people's forum and movement for global justice and peace

Peace for Life’s Second People’s Forum is scheduled to take place in Bogotá, Colombia on March 20-23, 2009. The People’s Forum is a regular event primarily envisioned as a space, a tribunal where stories about people’s struggles are expressed and aspirations are articulated; it also functions as PfL’s equivalent of a general assembly. READ ON »

PfL, ECOT, Philippine groups probe impacts of global tourism

The Ecumenical Coalition on Tourism, a church-related advocacy group, partnered with Peace for Life and Philippine-based organisations to jointly organise a three-day national consultation on tourism. READ ON »

Tourism in the Philippines:
A View from the Underside (Unity Statement)

“... We believe that tourism can be a good instrument of understanding and solidarity among cultures and people—if we link the population to an ethos of protecting the environment, if we relate the people’s history of struggle with their present situation, if we affirm the people’s cultural and social life, and if we pursue the people’s aspirations for justice, human rights, democracy and sovereignty....” READ FULL TEXT »

Oikotree ceremonial launch to be hosted by PfL

Peace for Life will host the formal launching of Oikotree, a new ecumenical project that aims to identify and live out spiritualities that put justice at the heart of faith. The event, which will take place in Manila on 11-16 December, is being jointly organised by WARC,
CWM and the WCC. READ ON »

Oikotree – putting justice at the heart of faith – Oikotree concept paper (2008.01.24)

Urgent appeal for help:

Death, disease, displacement, disappearances... The toll on human life continues to rise as one humanitarian crisis after another unfolds across the globe. Right now, we make a particular appeal for

Mindanao’s war refugees
Displaced from their homes due to the government’s all-out offensives against the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (Letters of appeal)
India’s minority Christians
Persecuted by communal violence and religious intolerance sweeping across northern India
Sri Lanka’s northern civilian population
Trapped in war zones with the government’s intensified military campaign against Tamil separatists
Colombia’s indigenous people of Cauca
Whose appeal for an audience with President Uribe was met by outright aggression by state security forces (Letter of appeal)

Poster for the International
Opinion Tribunal on Human
Rights Violations in Colombia,
15-17 Sept. 2008, Belgium

RELATED RESOURCES:

COLOMBIA: Brussels Declaration Concerning Human Rights Violations in Colombia – verdict of the International Opinion Tribunal on Human Rights Violations in Colombia, 15-17 September 2008, Belgium
INDIA: Statement on Religious Violence and Intolerance in India – WCC Executive Committee (2008.09.26)
INDIA: Condemn the Orissa Violence – statement by Centre for Study of Society and Secularism (CSSS) and Institute of Peace Studies and Conflict Resolution (2008.09.03)
PHILIPPINES: The Collapse of Peace in Mindanao – International Crisis Group (2008.10.23)
SRI LANKA: Statement on Humanitarian Crisis in Sri Lanka – WCC Executive Committee (2008.09.26)
SRI LANKA: The War and International Solidarity (2008.09.22) and Humanitarian Crisis Has Larger Implications (2008.09.15) – Dr. Jehan Perera

Palestine Solidarity

Mideast subgroup plans next steps for Palestine solidarity

The PfL Mideast Subgroup met in New York on March 14-16 to evaluate the Interfaith Peace Pilgrimage and Solidarity Visit to Palestine-Israel and plan the next steps that need to be taken based on the recommendations of the Amman Conference on Justice for Palestine. READ ON »

PfL-led team visits Occupied Palestine

Peace for Life embarked on an Interfaith Peace Pilgrimage and Solidarity Visit to Palestine-Israel on November 4-13, 2007 in the hope of getting its faith-based network actively involved in the ongoing global campaign to end Israel’s illegal occupation of Palestine. READ ON »

PLEDGE OF COMMITMENT: People of Faith with Palestine in Struggle

“... For the US Empire, the ‘primary, vital focus’ is the Middle East; Occupied Palestine is at the centre of this imperial project and dreams of conquest. Today, meeting on the 60th anniversary of the adoption of the UN Resolution 181 partitioning Palestine and on the eve of the 60th year of the Palestinian Nakba (catastrophe), our commitment drives us to engage more strenuously in the struggle to break the yoke of empire, build a global community of justice and peace, and be in solidarity with the resistance for the liberation of the Palestinian people...” READ FULL TEXT »

Peace Charter

Workshop on the Adoption of the People’s Charter on Peace for Life

Some members of the PfL network, led by Co-moderator Kim Yong-bock, embarked on a project to draft a people’s peace charter. The project has completed the drafting phase and steps to further enrich the document and initiate the process of its adoption are now being planned. READ ON »

PEOPLE’S CHARTER ON PEACE FOR LIFE (Final Draft for Adoption)

“A People’s Charter on Peace has been a felt need among peace movements and peace workers for a long time. This is in recognition of two factors: one, there is a new geopolitical context at the beginning of the twenty-first century; two, most declarations on peace are from inter-state or state related institutions. The need was for a peace charter from a people’s perspective.” READ FULL TEXT OF THE DRAFT»

Shared thoughts...

Seeing Through the Eyes of the Other

Farid Esack, writing about his visit to Israel and Palestine (2008.08.12)

“We were 23 South Africans from a variety of backgrounds… all of us having earned our stripes in our country’s liberation struggle. It was known as the South African Human Rights Delegation to Israel and the Palestinian Occupied Territories.... Ordinarily, I do not have much time for anything that smells of even-handedness in what I regard as situations of obvious injustice and I had a number of reservations about the trip. But I went and I am really glad that I went.” READ ON »

Cry Tears for Burmese People

Emma Cantor, in a letter about her recent trip to Myanmar (2008.05.23)

“Your prayers become so important at this time in the lives of Burmese people. About 128,000 of them are missing, dead and devastated... and the numbers are going up as there is no way to make a quick response to the crisis. As you know, the Burmese people have been in bondage for so many years by political oppression and militarization, more so today as the government imposes tight restrictions on relief operations.” READ ON »

Thoughts on Terror

Yoginder Sikand, on the spate of violence sweeping across India (2008.09.16)

“As in the case of many previous deadly blasts across India over the past decade or so, there is much speculation about the real masterminds behind the recent blasts in New Delhi. Depending essentially on who you are—which these days has largely come to mean for many people which religious community one identifies with—the monsters behind the carnage could possibly be disgruntled Muslims or Islamist terrorists (for many Hindus) or Hindutva militants (according to many Muslims).” READ ON »

Letter to an Israeli in Christmas Time

The Wall: a ubiquitous presence
in Occupied Palestine

Bernard Sabella, passing on his ‘season’s greetings’ (2007.12.20)

“This is the time of feasts and holidays. We are on our second day of Eid El Adha, the Muslim feast of sacrifice; Hanukkah, the Feast of Lights, was celebrated few days ago. Christmas is around the corner. As we celebrate our separate holidays, it is clear that we have not yet found the middle ground that would enable all of us to genuinely share the celebrations of each other.... Turning a blind eye to politics is sure to bring people together. This is a surrealistic a position as imagining that there is no concrete wall surrounding Bethlehem, the town of nativity.” READ ON »

Resources ...

Faith-based resistance to Empire

Justice Movements and Spirituality: A View from Cuba – Mark Lewis Taylor
Manila Declaration: An Ecumenical Faith Stance Against Global Empire for a Liberated Earth Community – statement, WARC Theological Consultation on Empire, 13-15 July 2006

Palestine, Iraq and the Middle East

Eunice Santana, moderator of
Peace for Life, giving a blessing
in readiness for pouring libation
at the root of a rescued Olive
Tree, Palestine, Nov. 2007.

Restoring the Palestinian Vineyard with Its Fullness for All – Rev. Lee Hong-Jung (2008.06.07)
The Empire and the Middle East – Ninan Koshy (2007.11.11)

People’s struggles for peace and justice

The arbitrary deprivation of life – Basil Fernando (2008.05.30)
Christian Discipleship In A Broken World – statement, WCC Ecumenical Institute of Bossey seminar on “Religions: Instruments of Peace or Causes of Conflicts?”, 11-16 May 2008
ECUADOR: Change Triumphs In Ecuador’s Constitutional Referendum – Helga Serrano and Eduardo Tamayo (2008.10.09)
NEPAL: Sustainable Peace and Change? – International Crisis Group, Sep 2008
PHILIPPINES: Honouring The Memory of Bishop Alberto Ramento (2008.10.03)

Gender perspectives on war and hegemonies

Exploring the Reality and Theological Challenges of Ecology, Economy and Empire from Feminist Perspectives – WARC and WCC (2008.08.18)
AWC statement on sexual violence by US soldiers – Asia Wide Campaign Against U.S. and Japanese Aggression and Domination of Asia (2008.02.20)

Militarisation, militarism and US bases

US troops leave Ecuador, When will they leave Honduras? – Eduardo Tamayo, translated from Spanish by Helga Serrano (2008.10.09)
Statement on the 17th anniversary of the rejection of the RP-US Military Bases Treaty – US Troops Out Now! Mindanao Coalition (2008.09.15)
Article 9 and the Militarized World: What Can We Do? – Chandra Muzaffar, Nov 2007
No Bases Network born in the Middle of the World – Helga Serrano (2007.03.27)

Life’s resources and the global economy

A Moral Economy of Tourism – Dr. Everett Mendoza (2008.10.22)
WCC general secretary’s statement on the global food crisis – issued on World Food Day, 16 October
World Tourism Day 2008: A South Perspective – Ecumenical Coalition on Tourism (2008.09.27)
African Church Leaders’ Statement on climate change and water – All Africa Conference of Churches (2008.06.05)
Overcome humanity’s “greed”: Churches respond to the food crisis – WCC, ACT International, ACT Development, Ecumenical Advocacy Alliance joint news feature (2008.06.05)