Newsline: Church rep attends UN NGO meeting on Sustainable Societies, Responsive Citizens

[CoBNews <CoBNews@brethren.org>]

Newsline: Church of the Brethren News Service, News Director Cheryl
Brumbaugh-Cayford, 800-323-8039 ext. 260, cobnews@brethren.org

Brethren representative attends UN conference in Bonn

(Sept. 21, 2011) Elgin, IL -- Church of the Brethren representative to the 
United Nations, Doris Abdullah, earlier this month attended a conference for 
non-governmental organizations (NGOs) on the topic "Sustainable Societies, 
Responsive Citizens: Commit-Encourage-Volunteer." She is chair of the UN NGOs' 
Human Rights Sub-Committee for the Elimination of Racism, Racial 
Discrimination, Xenophobia, and Related Intolerance, and is a board member of 
On Earth Peace. 

Following are her observations on the conference: 

"From Sept. 3-5 over 1,400 citizens from 70 different countries came together 
in Bonn, Germany, at the 64th United Nations DPI/NGO Conference. On Dec. 5, the 
UN General Assembly will consider a resolution declaring 2012 the Year of 
International Volunteers. The volunteer citizen will be at the heart of 
sustainable development from this day forward. 

"Brethren will not need a UN resolution to become volunteers, for volunteering 
remains a core value in Brethren commitments to love, peace, and justice. I 
felt a familiar comfort in the roundtable discussions on the 'Role of Civil 
Societies in a Fast Changing World' and workshops such as the one on 
'Strengthening Social Cohesion through Voluntary Civil Engagement.'

"I gathered new information at workshops on 'Sustainable Farming in El 
Salvador' and 'Unknown Volunteers,' which I deemed helpful to understanding 
gender, war, and poverty. Three shorts films produced by ATD Fourth World, set 
in Guatemala, France, and Rwanda, depicted the relationship of poverty and 
gender, and the correlation between war, peace, and development. 

"A big disappointment was that human rights were hardly mentioned, and there 
was a shortage of participation by the corporate world. A sustainable developed 
future will depend heavily on the responsive policies of industry acting in 
concert with governments, plus citizen volunteers.

"This conference was the beginning of international discussion on building 
"Sustainable Societies, Responsive Citizens." The conversation will continue in 
Rio de Janeiro in June 2012, where projections are for upwards of 50,000 people 
to attend.

"I was struck by a moment during the opening ceremony in Bonn. A young girl of 
13 put her hands over the mouth of the mayor and told him, "Stop talking. Start 
acting." Whether 1,400 or 50,000 people gather for a conference, it will not 
make a dime's worth of difference if no actions are taken from these meetings 
to reduce poverty, empower women, stop racism and gender discrimination, find a 
solution to lessen dependency on carbon energy, stop the selling of weapons to 
the underdeveloped world, respect justice, and respect all life. 

"Some have said that volunteer is a term that means nothing to people in less 
developed countries. However, all societies value helping their neighbor, when 
the neighbor is in trouble and cannot do for themselves. For volunteering is an 
action taken by one person on the behalf of another, and is not just talk."

The Church of the Brethren is a Christian denomination committed to continuing 
the work of
Jesus peacefully and simply, and to living out its faith in community. The 
denomination is based
in the Anabaptist and Pietist faith traditions and is one of the three Historic 
Peace Churches. It
celebrated its 300th anniversary in 2008. It counts some 123,000 members across 
the United
States and Puerto Rico, and has missions and sister churches in Nigeria, 
Brazil, the Dominican
Republic, Haiti, and India.

># # #

>For more information contact:

>Cheryl Brumbaugh-Cayford
>Director of News Services
>Church of the Brethren
>1451 Dundee Ave., Elgin, IL 60120
>800-323-8039 ext. 260
>cobnews@brethren.org