wfn.org | Church leaders demand that governments at G-8 Summit deliver massive increase in resources t

["WCC Media" <Media@wcc-coe.org>]

World Council of Churches
Update 03-26
For Immediate Use
2 June 2003

Church leaders demand that governments at G-8 Summit deliver massive increase
in resources to fight HIV/AIDS

Cf. Press Update, UP-03-25, of 22 May 2003
Cf. Press Release, PR-03-19, of 20 May 2003
Cf. News flash, NF-03-12, of 6 May 2003

Despite new US and French promises to provide more funding for the global
fight against HIV/AIDS, international church leaders who gathered last week
in Berlin, Germany, demanded that their governments pledge and deliver
massive amounts of new funding for the fight against HIV/AIDS. They are
joined by church leaders throughout the world in this call for urgent action
at the G-8 summit.  

The international church leaders who met last week in Berlin through the
Ecumenical Advocacy Alliance (EAA) campaign on HIV/AIDS called on "all
governments during the G-8 meeting (1-3 June) to pledge and deliver an
additional USD 1.4 billion" for the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis
and Malaria (GFATM). The World Council of Churches (WCC) helped initiate and
participates in the EAA.

Dr Christoph Benn, an advisor to the WCC programme on HIV/AIDS, added: "It
was the G-8 that initiated the Global Fund, and they must continue to commit
the necessary resources to make the instrument an effective one, along with
continuing their individual, bi-lateral commitments in battling HIV/AIDs,
tuberculosis and malaria.  When the summit is over, we must see firm pledges
delivered this year for at least an additional USD 1.4 billion for the work
of the Global Fund.  We will be checking the math and holding our leaders
accountable."

The Alliance is a broad ecumenical network for international cooperation in
advocacy on HIV/AIDS and global trade.	With more than 85 participating
churches and related organizations committed to a common three-year advocacy
campaign on HIV/AIDS, it reaches hundreds of millions of Christians around
the world.

For further information, see the full text of the press release from the
Ecumenical Advocacy Alliance : 
http://www.e-alliance.ch/eaapr.jsp 

For further information, please contact the Media Relations Office,  tel: +41
(0)22 791 64 21 / 61 53

**********

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
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