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In a letter dated 21 December 2010, the WCC general secretary expressed thanks to Philippine president Benigno S. Aquino III for the release of 43 community health workers and other health professionals who have been imprisoned since their arrest on 6 February in Morong, Rizal province. Military authorities held the detainees on suspicion of being associated with the New People's Army movement.

“May 2010 is when it all started", Yna (not her real name), mother of 17-year-old Yuri, told a group of international church representatives who had come to the Philippines in early December in order to review the human rights situation there. "A group of military men were sent to live in our village and to observe the general election that was to take place. They did not leave even after the election was over. We knew why they stayed: they...

Peace as a universal human right has been the focus of an international congress co-sponsored by the World Council of Churches (WCC). The WCC worked in collaboration with the Spanish Society for International Human Rights Law (SSIHRL), Forum 2010 and the Institute for Peace Studies (Alexandria, Egypt) to organize the International Congress on the Human Right to Peace, held on 9-10 December 2010 in Santiago de Compostela, Spain.

“Good intentions are not enough,” said the secretary of the Philippine department of justice, Leila de Lima, during a meeting with the World Council of Churches (WCC) delegation currently visiting the Philippines. She met with the “Living Letters” team on Friday 3 December.

A World Council of Churches (WCC) consultation on ecumenical accompaniment in Colombia was held in Geneva on 2-3 December. The consultation decided to explore ways to initiate an international ecumenical accompaniment programme as a contribution to the Colombian peace process.

“Your presence here is a sign that we are not alone in these times of massive human rights violations,” Fr Rex Reyes, general secretary of the National Council of Churches in the Philippines, told a delegation of Christians from Australia, Canada, Indonesia, Europe and Africa on 2 December.

“We believe in change and ask that you continue to pray for us.” This was the message an international team of church representatives heard again and again, as they visited people and churches in Myanmar recently.

WCC general secretary Rev. Dr Olav Fykse Tveit, has said that "force and military power will not resolve the problems" in a 24 November statement issued as an expression of concern over tensions on the Korean Peninsula.

An international team of church representatives will pay a solidarity visit to churches, ecumenical organizations and civil society movements in the Philippines from 1 to 5 December. It will be the last in a series of "Living Letters" visits to various countries organized ahead of the International Ecumenical Peace Convocation in May 2011.

Christians involved in church-based gender justice movements say that men must develop a sense of positive masculinity in order to counter increasing levels of violence by men against women. Citing reports by the United Nations and human rights groups that the extent and type of violent attacks on women is escalating, representatives of global church organizations say initiatives aimed at changing male patterns of behaviour are urgently needed.