wfn.org | WCC NEWS: Christian Leaders Advocate for Human Rights in Honduras

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World Council of Churches - News Release

Contact: +41 22 791 6153 +41 79 507 6363 media@wcc-coe.org
For immediate release - 22/10/2009 16:26:09

CHRISTIAN LEADERS ADVOCATE FOR HUMAN RIGHTS IN HONDURAS AFTER

>COUP

Ecumenical Delegation to Meet With High-Level Officials to
Promote Peace and Reconciliation

An emergency delegation of international Christians leaders,
representing the World Council of Churches and the National
Council of Churches of Christ of the USA, will arrive in
Washington, DC today to advocate for the cessation of widespread
human rights violations in Honduras, a country torn apart by the
coup d’état staged on June 28. The six-person delegation,
including American, European, Honduran, and Argentinean leaders,
will meet with the General Secretary of the Organization of
American States and State Department officials to urge firmer and
more decisive action to restore democracy and ensure full
compliance with rule of law and respect for fundamental human
rights in Honduras. The suffering and insecurity of the people of
Honduras has reached crisis proportions, and long delays in
resolving the situation following the June 2009 coup are
unacceptable. 

The delegation’s high-level meetings in Washington, D.C. follow
two delegations to Honduras this summer: the World Council of
Churches “Living Letters” delegation met with church and civil
society groups in early August, and the Latin American Council of
Churches led a pastoral visit in late September. Both visits
strongly urged the return of President Manuel Zelaya in order to
hold free and legal elections within the country’s constitutional
framework. Noemi Madrid de Espinoza, a member of the delegation
who also participated in the “Living Letters” visit to Honduras,
reiterated the call for the end of “repression, arrests, forced
disappearances and violence directed against the population and
especially against women.” 

The General Secretary of the World Council of Churches has also
previously written to the General Secretary of the Organization
of American States on behalf of the Churches to advocate for the
re-establishment of constitutional order and an end to human
rights abuses in Honduras. WCC UN Representative to the UN, Chris
Ferguson, notes that “churches in Honduras feel called to
accompany the people in creating dialogue and promoting a message
of healing and reconciliation. The repression and violations of
Human Rights must stop and new bridges must be built to create a
society which is based on justice and respect for all.

Members of the delegation:

Rev. Dr. Bernice Powell Jackson, President, North America, World
Council of Churches 
Rev. Dr. Michael Kinnamon, General Secretary of the NCCCUSA 
Lic. Noemi Madrid de Espinoza, Vice Moderator of the Commission
of the Churches for International affairs of the WCC, and
President (Administration) of the Theological Community of
Honduras 
Bishop (Emeritus) Aldo Etchegoyen, Evangelical Methodist Church
of Argentina, and Co-President of the Permanent Assembly of Human
Rights of Argentina 
Rev. Christopher Ferguson, Representative to the United Nations
of the World Council of Churches 
Michael Neuroth, Policy Advocate on International Issues, United
Church of Christ, Justice and Witness Ministries

This press release is sent out jointly by the World Council of
Churches (WCC) and the National Council of Churches USA (NCCCUSA
( http://www.ncccusa.org/ ))
For press inquiries and to schedule interviews please contact
Michael Neuroth at neurothm@ucc.orgor (202) 230-2276. 

Ecumenical team encourages Honduran churches to stand by the
people
http://www.oikoumene.org/en/news/news-management/eng/a/article/1634/ecumenical-team-encourage-1.html

Additional information:Juan Michel,+41 22 791 6153 +41 79 507
6363media@wcc-coe.org

The World Council of Churches promotes Christian unity in faith,
witness and service for a just and peaceful world. An ecumenical
fellowship of churches founded in 1948, today the WCC brings
together 349 Protestant, Orthodox, Anglican and other churches
representing more than 560 million Christians in over 110
countries, and works cooperatively with the Roman Catholic
Church. The WCC general secretary is Rev. Dr Samuel Kobia, from
the Methodist Church in Kenya. Headquarters: Geneva, Switzerland.