ECUMENICAL ORGANIZATIONS EXPRESS CONCERN OVER SWISS IMMIGRATION VOTE

Three international ecumenical organizations based in Geneva, Switzerland, have expressed deep concern over the 9 February Swiss referendum in which a majority of 50.3 percent of voters backed new restrictions on immigration.
   
WCC TO HOST WORKSHOP ON HUMAN RIGHTS AND NUCLEAR DISASTERS

A workshop on “human rights and nuclear disasters” hosted by the WCC and led by lawyers and doctors from France, Japan, Canada, Belarus and Switzerland will be held on Friday, 28 February at the Ecumenical Centre, Grand Saconnex, Geneva.
   
CHURCH IN PHILIPPINES LAUNCHES BOOK ON HIV AND AIDS

A resource book on HIV and AIDS has recently been launched by a member church of the WCC promoting visions of a strengthening partnership among churches and faith-based organizations in the Philippines to address country’s HIV epidemic.
   
SENTURIAS NAMED TO HUMAN RIGHTS BOARD IN THE PHILIPPINES

Dr Erlinda N. Senturias, a physician, educator, ecumenical activist and former WCC staff member from the Philippines, has been named by President Benigno Aquino III to the nation’s new Human Rights Victims’ Claims Board.
   
HOPES FOR PEACE IN SYRIA SHARED WITH MEMBERS OF SYRIAN OPPOSITION

“The immediate end of the suffering of the people in Syria must now be the focus for all parties in the Geneva 2 talks,” WCC general secretary Rev. Dr Olav Fykse Tveit said in a meeting today, 14 February in Geneva with members of the Syrian opposition. And “this includes all parties in the conflict,” he added.
 CHURCHES EXPRESS CONCERN ON INTERNALLY DISPLACED PERSONS AND SOUTH SUDAN

Strong concerns were expressed by the WCC Executive Committee over the increasing number of internally displaced persons and the on-going conflict in South Sudan in statements adopted by the committee on 12 February, during its meeting in Bossey, Switzerland.