December 2005
:: World AIDS Day events in Geneva and Bern
:: WCC to host Indigenous caucus to UN
:: Latin America, small arms and violence
:: Events around the WTO Conference in Hong Kong
<span style="font-weight: bold; "» World AIDS Day at the Ecumenical Centre
<span style="font-weight: bold; "» 1 December, Geneva, Switzerland
"Don't turn your back on AIDS. Keep the promise" is the central slogan of this year's World AIDS Day events being organized at the Ecumenical Centre in Geneva by UN organizations, Geneva-based ecumenical organizations - the World Council of Churches, Lutheran World Federation, World YWCA and Ecumenical Advocacy Alliance - diplomatic missions, and the International School of Geneva. The events will include conferences, films, exhibits, information booths, an ecumenical worship service in the Ecumenical Centre chapel, a candlelight march and a torchlight parade.
The slogan lifts up what is seen as today's major AIDS challenge: to "keep commitments to stop AIDS at all levels: personal, community, organization, governmental".
<span style="font-weight: bold; "» Kobia speaks at AIDS event in Bern - Medicines for Africa
<span style="font-weight: bold; "» 1 December, Bern, Switzerland
25,000 petitions calling on the Swiss government, pharmaceutical industry and churches to make a far greater effort to ensure African populations access to anti-retroviral treatments are to be presented to government, business and church representatives on 1 December in Bern at 18:00.
With the slogan "Africa needs medicines. Now!", events outside the Swiss parliament building will include the lighting of 8000 candles laid out in the shape of Africa, a public interview with World Council of Churches general secretary Samuel Kobia; and presentation of the petitions. Representing the Swiss Protestant and Catholic churches, Rev. Thomas Wipf and Bishop Amédé Grab will explain the positions of their respective churches on this issue. The petition campaign was jointly organized by the Bethlehem Mission Immensee and Swiss Interchurch Aid (EPER).
www.bethlehem-mission.ch/aids/fr/index.shtml
<span style="font-weight: bold; "» WCC to host Indigenous caucus to UN
<span style="font-weight: bold; "» 3-4 December, Geneva, Switzerland
The WCC will host Indigenous leaders participating in a caucus at the 11th session of the working group on a draft United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples. Meeting at the WCC headquarters before the session, some 150 caucus participants from all parts of the world will review the progress of the draft declaration, and work towards a common strategy during the session, which takes place in Geneva from 5 - 16 December 2005.
It is hoped that the draft declaration will be finalized at the session, and thus be ready for submission to the General Assembly for final approval.
www.ohchr.org/english/issues/indigenous/groups/groups-02.htm
<span style="font-weight: bold; "» Latin American workshop on small arms and violence
<span style="font-weight: bold; "» 5-7 December, Buenos Aires, Argentina
"For churches promoting peace: violence and peace in Latin America and the Caribbean" is the title of a regional church workshop to take place in Buenos Aires, Argentina, 5-7 December 2005. It will consider case studies on small arms and urban violence in Brazil and Argentina, the militarization of Colombia's long-running civil conflict, and the impact of violence on women, youth and Indigenous communities. Participants will work on a peace curriculum for church and school use. The workshop, which comes on the eve of the 2006 Latin America focus of the WCC's Decade to Overcome Violence, is sponsored by the Latin American Council of Churches (CLAI) and the WCC Commission of the Churches on International Affairs.
www.clai.org.ec [Spanish only]
<span style="font-weight: bold; "» Day of prayer on trade
<span style="font-weight: bold; "» 11 December (Sunday), worldwide
Churches around the world are being asked to make Sunday 11 December a day of "prayerful support" to the Geneva-based Ecumenical Advocacy Alliance's efforts to promote "trade for people" at the World Trade Organization's (WTO) upcoming (13-18 December) Ministerial Conference in Hong Kong. EAA is offering worship materials on trade and human rights for incorporation into regular worship services on that day. The aim is to "raise awareness of the WTO negotiations and the impact global trade has on us all". The materials touch in particular on the right to health and the right to food.
<span style="font-weight: bold; "» Ecumenical women's forum on life-promoting trade
<span style="font-weight: bold; "» 12-14 December, Hong Kong
Around 60 women working for economic justice in their communities and feminist economists from all regions will participate in an ecumenical forum on life-promoting trade scheduled to coincide with the WTO's upcoming Ministerial Conference in Hong Kong. The forum will focus on "two critical WTO agreements where the stakes for women are particularly high: the Agreement on Agriculture (AOA) and the General Agreement on Trade in Services (GATS)". It will draw up an action plan as well as an ecumenical women's letter to WTO director-general Pascal Lamy and the trade ministers of WTO member countries.
The forum is being organized by 12 international, Hong Kong and Swiss church-based organizations including the World Council of Churches.
Additional information: womenandgloby@yahoo.com
