World Council of Churches Central Committee adopts statements on public issues
21.02.2005 · English, Архив 2005
The World Council of Churches Central Committee, at its meeting which took place from February 15 to 22 in Geneva, adopted on February 21, 2005, a number of statements on public issues.
In particular, the participants honoured the memory of the victims of the Armenian Genocide, the 90th Commemoration of which is marked this year. It was also recommended to continue to follow the human rights situation in Vojvodina in Serbia-Montenegro. The WCC Central Committee supported the United Kingdom Government’s initiative to promote the development of African countries by, among other things, 100% debt relief to the poorest of them. In a special memorandum, the highest collegiate body of the WCC acting between the assemblies spoke out in support of the rights of migrants including those who have no legal right to enter a particular country.
The WCC Central Committee also adopted a statement on the rights of indigenous peoples, especially their right to preserve their languages. It states that the translation of the Bible into many of these languages has helped to preserve them, and scriptural translation is being made by the United Bible Society into more than 500 languages. The WCC Central Committee called upon the churches which once unjustly occupied indigenous peoples’ lands to inter into negotiations concerning their return.
A special document issued by the WCC Central Committee is devoted to the economic measures taken by some churches with regard to the Middle East conflict. The participants took note of the action of the Presbyterian Church in the USA which initiated a process of selective divestment from multinational corporations ‘involved in the occupation’. Churches with investment funds were recommended to use these funds responsibly, in support of peaceful solutions of the Middle East conflict.
Special attention was given to the situation in Iraq. The statement adopted by the Central Committee on this issue, after a detailed description of how the WCC stand on Iraq had developed, rejected the assertion of ‘global war on terror’ as justification of the war on this country. The WCC reconfirmed that the military actions in Iraq are illegal under the UN Charter and other norms of international law. The document states among other things that the 200 billion dollars allocated by the USA to use in this war would provide safe drinking water to every child in need in the world for 15 years thereby saving 25 million lives. Those who used the false pretext of terrorist connection and weapons of mass destruction to start the war ‘will be judged by history’, the statement declares. At the same time, the statement condemns the acts of violence committed today against innocent civilians, such as the bombing of churches, mosques and other buildings, the taking and murdering of hostages as well as torture and humiliation of prisoners. The world community is called to open debate on a timetable for the reduction and withdrawal of the US-led coalition and for removal of foreign military bases from Iraq.
The statement on detainees held at the American base in Guantanamo affirms that the grounds for their detention as formulated by the US Government ‘undermine the universal principles of jurisprudence and are in violation of the fundamental rights of the detainees’. It calls the United States to grant the Guantanamo detainees their legitimate rights and to give access to them to pastoral and humanitarian services.
The WCC Central Committee adopted also a statement on countries affected by the tsunami. Regret was expressed that these countries had no access to the advance warning technology that would have saved thousands of lives. The Central Committee expressed concern for the roofless women and children who may find themselves in the hands of human traffickers exploiting people as sex slaves and sweatshop labour. The Central Committee commended the stand taken by the Catholic and Protestant Сhurches in Indonesia which called to reject the wrong use of humanitarian mission for ‘christianizing’ local people.
In a separate document, the Central Committee welcomed the establishment of the International Criminal Court. At the same time, the WCC Central Committee described the intention of the USA not to ratify the Statute for the ICC as ‘an inexcusable attempt to gain impunity from the crimes defined in the Statute’. The participants in the meeting urged that the ICC be given the widest possible jurisdiction to ensure political balance.
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