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WCC Reaffirms Call for Universal Ratification of International Human Rights Law
Contact: Media Office, +41 79 507 6363
 
GENEVA, Switzerland, Dec. 11, 2015 /Christian Newswire/ -- In a statement issued on the occasion of the International Human Rights Day on 10 December, the World Council of Churches (WCC) Commission of the Churches on International Affairs (CCIA) expresses deep concern over the many challenges that still remain in securing human dignity and rights for all.

Looking back at declarations made at the WCC inaugural Assembly in 1948, the CCIA states that "sixty-seven years later, our concerns have not diminished." Observing the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights and the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights as forming the bedrock of international human rights law, the CCIA continues to note that "still today, 27 countries have ratified neither of them, and eight states have ratified only one."

"Faced with both persistent and new challenges to the realization of human rights for all without discrimination, our call for cooperation and action must be renewed and strengthened," the statement continues.

Therefore, "on this International Human Rights Day, the World Council of Churches joins the call for universal ratification of both covenants; the vision of human dignity is incomplete without the totality of civil, political, economic, social and cultural rights and freedoms," the CCIA affirms.

Read the full WCC Statement on International Human Rights Day

Commission of the Churches on International Affairs

Read also, Statement by Brot für die Welt: Für ein Europa der Menschen und der Menschenrechte! (in German)

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 345 Protestant, Orthodox, Anglican and other churches representing more than 550 million Christians in over 120 countries, and works cooperatively with the Roman Catholic Church. The WCC general secretary is the Rev. Dr Olav Fykse Tveit, from the [Lutheran] Church of Norway.