Switzerland

“ACT Alliance recognizes the deep and mutually enriching connections between religion and human rights. As a matter of fact, long before the current human rights instruments were developed in the 20th century, there were religious communities that upheld human dignity and advocated for people who suffered from exclusion and discrimination.” – Rudelmar Bueno de Faria, […]

The huge impacts of businesses on the communities in which they operate often bring benefits, but companies can disregard and even harm people’s rights in pursuit of economic gain. The World Council of Churches (WCC), ACT Alliance and the Lutheran World Federation (LWF) hosted a side event at the 6th United Nations Forum on Business […]

by Julia Jawtusch, Bread for all In the first day of the COP23 a group of development, church-based organisations (Caritas France, CIDSE and Bread for the World, Bread for all, both members of ACT Alliance) joined forces with the global peasant movement “La Via Campesina” for two side-events on the topic of agroecology. We decided […]

PRESS RELEASE The World Council of Churches, ACT Alliance and Lutheran World Federation – together representing more than half a billion Christians worldwide – are issuing a united call for action on climate justice, the largest call of its kind in history. In a joint video message released on 5 November, leaders of the three […]

  Geneva, 22 Sep 2017 – ACT Alliance joined with other NGOs today in presenting a statement at the UNHCR Standing Committee session.  The statement calls upon governments in the Global North to be more active in addressing the global refugee crisis and emphasizes the importance of civil society participation and inputs from the regions […]

ACT Alliance General Secretary Rudelmar Bueno de Faria has begun his tenure with ACT by focusing on enhancing ACT’s relationships with the United Nations and other global agencies.  In his first weeks he has held meetings with UNICEF, UNFPA, UN Women, UNDP, the UN Deputy-Secretary-General´s office, the UN Secretary-General’s Special Adviser on the Prevention of […]

ACT Alliance, together with a range of other ecumenical actors, today issued a joint ecumenical statement for World Refugee Day 2017. Calling the unprecedented global refugee crisis “an opportunity to grow together,” the statement calls on all of us “to build bridges of solidarity rather than walls of division.” Reflecting on the statement’s assertion that, […]

  Ecumenical leaders, ACT secretariat staff, WCC and LWF leaders, the ACT governing board and others gathered in Geneva yesterday to celebrate John Nduna’s work with first ACT International and then as General Secretary of ACT Alliance since its founding. John was praised for his ecumenical approach, his ability to lead in difficult times, and […]

PRESS RELEASE   In this day and age, famine cannot be tolerated, not just because every human being is valued in God’s sight and has the right to eat but also because starvation singles out the weakest and most vulnerable from among us. It is the moral duty of wealthy nations to do all they […]

  “Give us today our daily bread.” We know the prayer, we need the prayer and the prayer reminds us of who is the ultimate giver. But the next prayer seems to deal with something totally different: “Forgive us our trespasses as we forgive them that trespass against us”. It does not. On this Global […]

    The Horn of Africa is once again hit by drought. It is not the first time but this time it is critical. The current drought is projected to become the worst in decades, even worse than the one that led to the 2011 East Africa famine.[1] The good news, providing hope, is that […]

  When Rudelmar Bueno de Faria joins the ACT Alliance as the new General Secretary on June 1, he will arrive with 25 years of experience working in the ecumenical family. Rudelmar has worked with LWF World Service and the WCC in a wide range of roles. “I had the opportunity to work in different […]

PRESS RELEASE GENEVA, SWITZERLAND – The Governing Board of the ACT Alliance is pleased to announce the appointment of Rudelmar Bueno de Faria as the new General Secretary of ACT Alliance. He will begin his term as General Secretary on 1st June 2017, relocating to Geneva at that time. Rudelmar brings a wealth of experience to […]

  ACT Alliance is joining with UNICEF and other partners to launch a programme called Refugees Welcome.  This programme is an opportunity for ACT and its members to stand in solidarity with the world’s 65 million displaced persons, over half of whom are children.  Many ACT members have been responding to the needs of refugees […]

  There are still some people out there who believe that faith and Christianity are in complete contradiction with human rights. I don’t. In fact, most faith-based justice and rights proponents believe that faith values and principles support human rights. For example, according to James Wood[1]  ‘The creation of humankind in the image of God […]

PRESS RELEASE Leaders from various faiths today came together to hand an interfaith statement to the UNFCCC Executive Secretary calling for clear action to move from polluting fossil fuel use towards clean renewable energy sources. Representatives from Christian, Hindu, Jewish, Muslim and Buddhist communities among others showed their united support for the full and ambitious […]

PRESS RELEASE Delegations from the ACT Alliance, Lutheran World Federation (LWF) and World Council of Churches (WCC) at the United Nations climate conference in Marrakech, Morocco, 7-18 November, are jointly demanding a more rapid transition to a low-carbon economy based on clean energy in order to stem rising global temperatures. The faith-based organizations are represented […]

In order to better understand the impact of climate change in people’s lives, a face-to-face meeting can be extremely helpful. The encounter with young Catharin made me realise that Climate Change has an undeniable human face. Catharin, eight years old, is the youngest moderator on a community radio in Cara Sucia, El Salvador, severely affected […]

PRESS RELEASE   Governments must act now to address economic and social inequalities that divide people and countries, benefiting only a few and forcing the many into cycles of poverty, vulnerability and marginalization, international humanitarian and development network ACT Alliance has said. Commenting as the World Wealth Report from CapGemini was released today, ACT Alliance said […]

PRESS RELEASE Cecilia Richard, 33, harvests millet in Captain, a village in southern Malawi that has been hard hit by drought in recent years, leading to chronic food insecurity, especially during the “hunger season,” when farmers are waiting for the harvest. ACT Alliance has worked with farmers in this village to switch to alternative, drought-resistant […]

Hari Maya Bhujel hugs her grandson, 5-year old Utsab, in Majhitar, a village in the Dhading District of Nepal where Dan Church Aid, a member of the ACT Alliance, has provided a variety of support to local villagers in the wake of a devastating 2015 earthquake. Photo: Paul Jeffrey   The first-ever World Humanitarian Summit […]

As a global alliance, with presence in more than 140 countries, primarily at the local and national levels, ACT Alliance members are well positioned to respond to local emergencies enabling a rapid response and minimising damaging impacts of disaster. Rooted in faith, the alliance uses community-based frontline responders, even in disasters that do not make […]

  As the fourth UN Business and Human Rights Forum starts today in Geneva, Switzerland, faith based organisations from Africa, Asia, Europe and Latin America have called for more robust standards to hold businesses accountable to human rights.In a public event held at the Ecumenical Center in Geneva organised by ACT Alliance, the World Council […]

Less than one month after the bombing of the Médecins sans Frontières (MSF) Trauma Centre in Kunduz, Afghanistan that resulted in the deaths of at least 30 staff and patients, the humanitarian community is again outraged at the aerial attack on another MSF medical facility in Haydan, Yemen. ACT Alliance deplores these attacks, and stands […]

Today a statement signed by 154 religious leaders from different faith groups has been handed over to the Executive Director of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, Christiana Figueres. While negotiators representing 194 countries gather in Bonn this week to work on a draft text for December’s climate conference in Paris, religious leaders […]

ACT member HEKS has been working in Albania since the beginning of the nineteen-nineties. By networking with strong partner organisations, including one of the four biggest NGOs in Albania, HEKS is succeeding in improving the lot of marginalised groups who are particularly adversely affected by the weak state and who are denied access to education, […]

The Civil Society Partnership for Development Effectiveness (CPDE) has assessed international policies such as the Millennium Development Goals and concluded that they cannot be met with economic growth as the driver of development. Instead, it promotes political leadership and commitment to sustainable approaches. However, aid budgets are in decline, and in many parts of the […]