wfn.org | LWF Council calls for support of Jubilee 2000 campaign

[FRANK_IMHOFF.parti@ecunet.org (FRANK IMHOFF)]

LWF COUNCIL
Press Release No. 05/98

LWF Council calls for support of Jubilee 2000 campaign
Urges celebrating millennium by canceling poorest countries debts

GENEVA, 15 June 1998 (lwi) - The Lutheran World Federation (LWF) Council
has urged the general secretariat and the LWF s 124 member churches to
encourage and support the involvement in the Jubilee 2000 campaign. The
campaign seeks to provide debt relief for the world s poorest countries by
the year 2000.

"The LWF recognizes the persistence and escalation of the international
debt crisis, and that appalling human suffering is a consequence in many
heavily indebted countries," noted the introduction to the Council
resolution.

"The manner in which these debts were incurred and in which the crisis
developed indicate a heavy responsibility on the part of the wealthier
countries and the international financial system, as well as on the part of
certain undemocratic and despotic regimes in some poorer countries, whilst
those who suffer most the consequences of unsustainable debt, the poor, are
the innocent victims."

The resolution asked the LWF and member churches to focus especially "on
ways in which the resources released by debt cancellation can be channeled
directly to relieving the suffering of the poor in the countries
concerned."

The concept of a jubilee dates back to the Old Testament, where Mosaic law
called for forgiveness of debts every seventh year [Deuteronomy 15:1].
Jubilee 2000, a broad ecumenical initiative, calls for the monies used for
servicing the debts to be channeled into policies that benefit the poor.

In other actions related to international affairs and human rights, the
Council:

+    encouraged member churches to participate in this year s celebration
of the 50th anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR)
and increasing "awareness in their churches and national contexts about the
principles and concepts inherent in the UDHR."

+    noted increasing reports of human rights violations in Ethiopia and
called upon Ethiopian authorities to halt arbitrary detention.

+    asked parties to the Middle East peace process and its sponsors "to
take extraordinary steps to resume active negotiations and implementation
of the commitments previously made."

+    "deplored" the recent acceleration of Israeli settlements in Arab
territory and, for the sake of the peace process, asked Israeli authorities
to prevent further activities of this type.

+    reaffirmed the LWF s work for the eradication of land mines.

+    broadened the function of the LWF s Special Fund for Peacemaking to
make it global instead of just the Middle East and Central America.

*       *       *
Lutheran World Information
Editorial Assistant: Janet Bond-Nash
E-mail: jbn@lutheranworld.org
http://www.lutheranworld.org/