wfn.org | WCC to highlight treatment of refugees and internally

["Sheila Mesa" <smm@wcc-coe.org>]

displaced people at UNHCR

World Council of Churches
Press Release, PR-02-12
For Immediate Use
18 March 2002

WCC to highlight treatment of refugees and internally displaced
people at UN Human Rights Commission 

The treatment of internally displaced people (IDPs) and refugees
is being highlighted by the World Council of Churches (WCC) at
the 58th session of the United Nations Commission on Human Rights
(UNCHR) beginning today, 18 March, and continuing through 26
April.  

The WCC has filed a written submission on the conditions in
detention camps of refugees in Australia and of IDPs in Sri
Lanka. Representatives from churches in Australia and Sri Lanka
will be attending the UN sessions to draw attention to these
conditions.  

While focusing on these two situations, the submission states
that "The problems faced by refugees and IDPs are not confined to
any one particular region.... Inadequate attention is paid to
their plight, which is compounded by restrictive state policies
and discriminatory practices. On pretext of national security,
the state often derogates from adopting and practising
internationally accepted norms and standards of human rights in
respect of refugees and IDPs. This practice should be challenged
and denounced."   

Members of an ecumenical strategy group on Indonesia, together
with representatives of ELSHAM, a human rights organization that
works closely with the churches in West Papua, will be lobbying
for a visit of Special Rapporteurs to Indonesia.  

A representative of the Centre for Legal Aid and Assistance
(CLAAS) in Pakistan will attend the UNCHR session for the first
time to network and lobby for amendments to blasphemy laws.  

The WCC will be following the processes related to the rights of
Indigenous Peoples, including the Permanent Forum and the draft
declaration.  

In addition, the WCC will monitor developments in relation to
such thematic issues as religious intolerance, socioeconomic and
cultural rights, impunity and country-specific situations in
Colombia, Haiti, Sudan, India, Nigeria and the Occupied
Palestinian Territories. Representatives from church-related
partners in Haiti and Nigeria will be attending the Commission. 

Clement John, programme executive in the WCC International
Relations team, notes that the foci of WCC's interventions at the
UNCHR come out of its regular human rights work in cooperation
with regional and national partners. He noted that, while
addressing ongoing concerns about civil and political as well as
socioeconomic and cultural rights, the WCC "is called to respond
to pressing new challenges faced by churches as a result of
complex political emergencies".  
______________________

Internally-displaced persons (IDPs) 

IDPs are "persons or groups of persons who have been forced or
obliged to leave their homes or places of habitual residence, in
particular as a result of or in order to avoid the effects of
armed conflict, situations of generalized violence, violations of
human rights or natural or human-made disasters, and who have not
crossed an internationally recognized state border" (1998 Guiding
Principles on Internal Displacement by the Representative of the
Secretary General on Internally-Displaced Persons). While a
"refugee" - someone crossing an international frontier - becomes
eligible for international protection and assistance, such
assistance is much more problematic for someone in similar
circumstances displaced within his or her home country.  

Background information on the WCC's participation in the 58th
Session of the United Nations Commission on Human Rights can be
found at
http://www.wcc-coe.org/what/international/chr2002-index-e.html 

For further information and interviews with representatives of
the WCC delegation, please contact Karin Achtelstetter, Media
Relations Officer, Tel.:  (+41.22) 791.61.53,   Mobile:  (+41)
79.284.52.12

**********
The World Council of Churches (WCC) is a fellowship of churches,
now 342, in more than 100 countries in all continents from
virtually all Christian traditions. The Roman Catholic Church is
not a member church but works cooperatively with the WCC. The
highest governing body is the assembly, which meets approximately
every seven years. The WCC was formally inaugurated in 1948 in
Amsterdam, The Netherlands. Its staff is headed by general
secretary Konrad Raiser from the Evangelical Church in Germany.

World Council of Churches
Media Relations Office
Tel: (41 22) 791 6153 / 791 6421
Fax: (41 22) 798 1346
E-mail: ka@wcc-coe.org 
Web: www.wcc-coe.org 

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