7th Annual Symposium
on the Role of Religion and Faith-based Organizations in International Affairs

January 26 2021, 8:00 am – 12:30 pm EST

Symposium to examine role of religion and the UN in working for gender equality in 2021

January 19, 2021

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

MEDIA ADVISORY

TEXT: Senior UN staff, representatives from faith groups and members of civil society will be presenting at the 7^th Annual Symposium on the Role of Religion and Faith-based Organizations in International Affairs on January 26, 2021. This year’s event will focus on “2021: A defining year for accelerating gender equality, equity and justice,” with a series of presentations and discussions on issues including multi-stakeholder collaboration to accelerate gender equality, equity and justice, the urgency for achieving it, women advancing peace and security, and multilateralism and the intersection of religion and human rights.

The Symposium will examine these issues in light of the major issue facing the world today, including the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, the broader gender justice landscape including the Commission on the Status of Women, Generation Equality Forum, and others. “Pre-existing social inequalities including gender inequalities have been highlighted and new ones created, which will continue to exacerbate these crises unless resolved,” the organizers state in the event concept note.  “The COVID-19 pandemic has caused untold suffering and economic hardship, all the more so as it connected to the raging crises of gender inequality, racism, structural economic injustices and climate change.”

Who:  Speakers include:

Dr. Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka, Executive Director, UN Women
Mr. Ib Petersen, Deputy Executive Director, Management, UN Population Fund
Ms. Alice Nderitu, UN Special Advisor on the Prevention of Genocide

Dr. Ibrahim Salama, Chief, Human Rights Treaties Branch, Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR)

Mr. Anwar Khan, President, Islamic Relief USA
            Rabbi Laura Janner-Klaus, former inaugural Senior Rabbi to the Movement for
            Reform Judaism
            Mr. Rudelmar Bueno de Faria, General Secretary, ACT Alliance

Where: Streaming on YouTube: https://youtu.be/hZzHAsZRQfw

When: Tuesday, January 26, 2021 8:00am-12:30pm (EST).

Media package: https://actalliance.org/documents/symposium-2021-media-package/

Sponsors: ACT Alliance, General Board of Church and Society of The United Methodist Church, Islamic Relief, Seventh-Day Adventist Church, Soka Gakkai International, United Religions Initiative, World Council of Churches and UN Women and UNFPA, for the UN Inter-agency Task Force on Religion and Development

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MEDIA CONTACTS
ACT Alliance: Simon Chambers simon.chambers@actalliance.org 

World Council of Churches: Marcelo Schneider msc@wcc-coe.org 

Islamic Relief: David Hawa dhawa@irusa.org 

General Board of Church and Society – The United Methodist Church: Kurt Adams kadams@umcjustice.org

URI: Isabelle Ortega-Lockwood, iortega@uri.org isabelle@uri.org , Gaea Denker gdenker@uri.org 

UN Women: Ines Esteban Gonzalez ines.esteban.gonzalez@unwomen.org

Five years ago countries around the world agreed on a plan to tackle the climate crisis. As a result, the Paris Agreement was born, and an era of international cooperation to deliver climate action began. 

The Paris Agreement has already delivered concrete results, and various national, regional and international decisions and initiatives since then have made direct reference to the climate accord. 

It is important to note that the Paris Agreement itself will not deliver the results that are urgently needed to stop the climate crisis. There is no top-down mechanism that requires countries to take the necessary action, nor is there a compliance system to ensure that the broad and ambitious goals of the Paris Agreement are met. 

Despite this, the Paris Agreement’s, Ambition Mechanism, has the potential to facilitate scaled-up climate action over time. Through this mechanism, parties are expected to revise their national climate plans every five years, after which, a stocktake of the updated pledges and commitments will signal the level of climate action that must still be taken. The first round of updated plans are to be submitted by 2020.

We are now reaching the end of the year, and despite promises from parties to update their climate plans, only twenty countries have done so. While there is still time before the end of the year, some countries have announced that they will only submit their updated climate plan in 2021.  

On the one hand, the urgency that was addressed in Paris five years ago has become even more significant, as people and communities, particularly in poor and vulnerable countries, continue to suffer from more frequent and intense cyclones, heatwaves, droughts and floods. It has become clear that the temperature target of 1.5°C is in fact, a matter of survival for many people.

On the other hand, there have also been some positive developments as we continue to witness enhanced innovation, mobilisation and action in response to the climate emergency. For example, investors are increasingly divesting from fossil fuels; countries are adopting new laws to promote a green transition, and more and more people are starting to shift their purchasing patterns, behaviours and ways of life towards more climate-friendly habits. 

Today, we celebrate the existence of a global climate change agreement that promotes climate action around the world, and tomorrow, we get back to work to scale up climate action to levels that will allow us to reach the goals of the Paris Agreement. 

Written by Mattias Söderberg, on behalf of the ACT Alliance Climate Justice Reference Group. 

Civil society organisations in the Philippines are suspicious of the intent of the Anti-Terrorism Act of 2020 that the Philippine congress passed this year. President Duterte’s administration has insidiously made it difficult for civil society organisations to engage and influence the country’s development. Only a few months after this law passed, ACT Alliance member National Council of Churches in the Philippines (NCCP) has reported increased harassment incidences from the military in the conduct of their work with the communities since they have been red-tagged or identified as a communist organization in a presentation made by the Department of National Defense to the Philippine congress last year. 

The National Council of Churches in the Philippines (NCCP) was established in 1963 and is the largest group of mainline Protestant and non-Roman Catholic churches in the Philippines. Aside from ACT Alliance, NCCP is also a member the World Council of Churches and the Christian Conference of Asia, and represents close to twelve million protestant adherents. NCCP members serve the communities by providing emergency assistance to disaster-stricken families and communities, assistance to small community-based projects, solidarity support (financial, material, technical assistance) to workers on strike, displaced urban and rural poor, and families of victims of human rights violations. NCCP is a strong advocate for human rights and environmental protection as part of their core mission. In 2017, the Philippine Faith-Based Organisations Forum (FBO PH) was formed by NCCP together with the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of the Philippines-NASSA/Caritas Philippines and the Philippine Council of Evangelical Churches-Philippine Relief and Development Services, Inc. FBO PH forms the largest network of Christian churches and institutions in the Philippines. 

Delays in humanitarian aid

Since the Anti-terrorism Act was passed, NCCP and their members have been subjected to malicious propaganda and different forms of harassment by the government. NCCP has long been working with the communities in the Philippines through their member churches that are rooted in these communities. Last year, NCCP was one among a number of humanitarian and service-oriented organizations in the list of “front organizations of local communist terrorist groups” presented by the Philippine Department of National Defense in a congressional hearing.

NCCP decried the baseless and unfounded inclusion of its name. “Such red-tagging by the state may delay, impede, or even prevent the delivery of much-needed services to marginalized communities especially in the midst of disasters. Organizations like the NCCP should all the more be encouraged and supported especially in a context where human rights are attacked, and fear and insecurity constantly loom”, NCCP wrote in a resolution. Further, the General Convention of the NCCP approved to seek a dialogue with the Department of National Defense and/or other appropriate government bodies to resolve this matter. The ACT-member responded to the threat immediately. The campaign to stop the attacks on human rights defenders, including the church institutions and its people, gathered huge local and international support.

Impact on COVID-19 Responses

In March 2020, the Philippines implemented a strict lockdown to contain the spread of COVID-19. Until now there are different forms of curfews and quarantine measures in place in the country, varying by region and set by the Local Governmental Units. Intercity and inter-province travel is restricted, and domestic air travel remains limited.

Check points have been setup in several places where Filipinos require to have a pre-approved pass to be able to travel from one point to another. These checkpoints and passes have slowed down NCCP’s COVID-19 response. Despite that, they reached more than 3,167 families providing them food and cash assistance – particularly people who had the difficulty to travel even to the markets, with the restrictions in place. Yet in these check points, NCCP and their church members’ staff and volunteers were questioned and harassed, often their intention to visit and support vulnerable groups become a point of suspicion. 

While lockdowns are in effect, the Philippine government passed the Anti-Terrorism Act that would further restrict access to humanitarian assistance and movement of aid workers. This further compromised the civil society action, particularly those implementing humanitarian response: churches, service-oriented groups, and humanitarian organizations impartially helping those who are most vulnerable and marginalized even more.

“Chilling effect” on humanitarian work instead of support

UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Michelle Bachelet at the end of June 2020 formally presented her office’s report on the situation in the Philippines to the UN Human Rights Council during its 44th session, stating that “The law could have a further chilling effect on human rights and humanitarian work, hindering support to vulnerable and marginalized communities”.

Solidarity among faith-based organisations

NCCP issued a statement on Saturday, 3^rd July 2020. ”It is a travesty against God’s will as the Anti-Terrorism Act gives the government, or even just a few persons in the Anti-terrorism Council, the absolute power that determines what course people’s lives will take by putting forward a very vague definition of terrorism”, it declared, and continued that the measure will “insidiously” strip away respect for human rights and was likely to be “misused and abused” by those who wish to “lord it over” the people, obliterate opposition, and quell even the most legitimate dissent. “This bill will cause a further shrinking of democratic space and weakening of public discourse that will be detrimental to our nation”, the statement says. The Philippine FBO Forum bringing together constituencies from the Catholic, Protestant and Evangelical churches showed solidarity though issuing statement of support to NCCP and released opposition to the Anti-Terrorism Act of 2020 as it poses threat to the civil and political rights, including the right to freedom of religion and to exercise ministry in furtherance of religious beliefs.

ACT Alliance’s support

In September 2020, amid continued violence in the Philippines, international church groups and human rights organisations demanded for an independent, impartial investigation into atrocities that characterize President Duterte’s administration. An “International Ecumenical Convocation on the Defense of Human Rights in the Philippines” was carried out on 17th September 2020, with ACT Alliance as one of the sponsors. In a “Unity Statement for the Protection and Promotion of Human Rights in the Philippines”, the church leaders affirmed support for Filipinos who are enduring a “deteriorating situation of civil liberties and human rights”. It is signed by ACT Alliance as well as many of its member organisations and international ecumenical partners.

Photo Paul Jeffrey

The El Impenetrable area of ​​the Province of Chaco, Argentina, has suffered cycles of recurrent droughts and floods for the last 20 years. This year, the drought added to the emergence of the COVID-19 pandemic, and has made families of small farmers and indigenous communities in the area more vulnerable.

In a solidarity response to this situation, ACT Alliance Argentina Forum members and partners CREAS, SEDI, Hora de Obrar, and CWS joined to provide a rapid response fund to support to Junta Unida de Misiones (JUM)- an institution which has accompanied indigenous peoples in the area for more than 50 years, in an humanitarian project: “Access to water as a fundamental right for the full enjoyment of life.”

“Access to water is one of the most perverse forms of inequality and the consequence of a development model based on profit and lack of care for Creation. This joint initiative of the ACT Argentina Forum with the indigenous peoples in the Chaco is a concrete testimony of ecumenical diakonia in challenging times and a sign of hope,” emphasized Mara Luz Manzoni, Regional Director of CREAS.

“It seemed important to us to unite and accompany the JUM and the Chaco in the face of the seriousness of the situation of the drought and the fires. The best way was to create a rapid response fund to alleviate the situation. The sum of the contributions of each organization can have a concrete, rapid and accurate effect,” expressed Nicolás Rosenthal, executive director of the Hora de Obrar Foundation.

The project focuses on the construction and improvement of water infrastructures, both for human consumption and for agricultural and livestock use, as well as training in its construction and maintenance for rural community leaders in the municipalities of Castelli and Miraflores, Chaco. This initiative also seeks to reactivate the production of crops for families to both eat and sell. Both the drought and pandemic have impacted crop production, destabilizing food security for the population.

María del Pilar Cancelo, Executive Director of SEDI, an organisation invited to the ACT Argentina Forum, said, “The challenge of the Alliance is precisely the joint action of the churches, which makes it possible to join efforts and resources, to have greater impact, speed, and witness. This articulation between institutions is only a starting point, a challenge that we wish to sustain and enrich from this experience and the learning that arises”

For Martín Coria, CWS Regional Coordinator for Latin America and the Caribbean, “This collaboration can be replicated for the benefit of more faith-based organizations such as JUM that, throughout the region of the South American Gran Chaco, accompany the struggle of indigenous peoples for their land and for water, for their dignity and rights ”

According to the JUM, in recent years there has been an increase in the frequency of prolonged droughts in Chaco. The lack of rain causes the loss of plant production, forest fires, high mortality of animals, and also a sharp drop in sales due to social isolation. This leads to decreases in the nutritional and sanitary health of the population, accompanied by forced migration from the countryside to the city.

Raúl Romero, the JUM coordinator, said in relation to the project “The response and support of the ACT Argentina Forum have been critical to strengthening rural communities in the territory, who face the drought and the pandemic in the Impenetrable zone of the Chaco, where they did not have access to a resource as vital as water.”

Faced with this panorama, as the ACT Argentina Forum, we articulate in ecumenical cooperation with the JUM, which together with public organizations will strengthen this initiative to guarantee the right to water through education processes in relation to the care and rational use of water and maintenance of existing infrastructures.

In this way, it will seek to benefit more than 200 members of farming families and indigenous communities, in the targeted area, through the construction and repair of reservoirs, cleaning and deburring of dams, and repair of wells. The people who will benefit from the initiative will be small producers, informal workers an artisans, who have seen their production and marketing affected, as well as the population groups in risk in relation to COVID-19.

The regional Gender CoP Asia Pacific is happy to invite everybody interested to a webinar within the framework of the campaign “16 days of activism”.

• Dr. Beulah Shekhar, Emeritus Professor in Criminology and Victimology of the Karunya Institute of Technology & Sciences in Coimbatore, India, has plenty of practical and theoretical experience in regard to all forms and consequences of gender-based violence.
• Reverend James Bhagwan as General Secretary of the Pacific Conference of Churches in Fiji will bring in the theological reflection of the topic, based on his work in the Pacific area.

The webinar is moderated by Cyra Bullecer, ACT Alliance Regional Representative Asia Pacific.

Tuesday, 8^th December 2020, 11.30 am Bangkok time – open invitation

(the webinar will be followed by the meeting of the regional Community of Practice and conclude at 1 pm Bangkok time)

To join the webinar on Zoom: https://bit.ly/39j1Yqp, ID 897 0156 6719, PC 924510