‘The Effects of COVID-19 on Trafficking in Persons’ will be focus of upcoming CCA Consultation

Programme Review and Programme Direction

Two key deliberative sessions during the 15th CCA General Assembly are the Programme Review and Programme Direction sessions.

The Programme Review and Programme Direction sessions will both be conducted in three groups relating to the CCA’s programme areas, namely, (i) General Secretariat (GS), (ii) Mission in Unity and Contextual Theology (MU) and Ecumenical Leadership Formation and Spirituality (EF); and (iii) Building Peace and Moving Beyond Conflicts (BP) and Prophetic Diakonia (PD).

Assembly participants will have the option to join one of three groups for both the Programme Review and Programme Direction sessions. For the sake of coherence, the assigned group will remain the same for both sessions.

General Secretariat

The General Secretariat oversees the coordination of programmatic, administrative, and financial activities of the organization. The GS comprises various departments such as church and ecumenical relations, relations with ecumenical partners, finance, administration, and communications, which provide crucial support and services for the implementation of programs and contribute to the overall functioning of the CCA.

Programmes: Relations with member churches and councils, ecumenical partners; advocacy at the United Nations; ecumenical responses to emerging issues in solidarity; income development and finance; and communications.

Mission in Unity and Contextual Theology (MU) and Ecumenical Leadership Formation and Spirituality (EF)

Under the MU programme area, the CCA accompanies Asian churches to strengthen their mission and witness in multi-religious contexts, revitalise and nurture church unity and the Asian ecumenical movement, and develop contextual theological foundations.

Programmes: Asian Movement for Christian Unity (AMCU); Congress of Asian Theologians (CATS); Asian women doing theology in the context of wider ecumenism; contextualisation of theology in Asia and ecumenical theological education.

The EF programme area focuses on nurturing and developing ecumenical leaders in Asia. The programme aims to enhance spiritual formation and theological understanding, enabling people to actively engage in ecumenical dialogue and collaboration.

Programmes: Ecumenical Enablers’ Training in Asia (EETA); Asian Ecumenical Institute (AEI); Youth and Women Leadership Development; Ecumenical Spirituality and Nurturing of Contextual Liturgical Traditions; Asia Sunday

Building Peace and Moving Beyond Conflicts (BP) and Prophetic Diakonia and Advocacy (PD)

The BP programme area is dedicated to promoting peace, justice, and reconciliation in Asia’s diverse contexts. Through training, advocacy, and dialogue, the programme addresses the root causes of conflicts, empowers communities, and fosters sustainable peacebuilding initiatives.

Programmes: Pastoral Solidarity Visits; Churches in Action for Moving Beyond Conflict and Resolution; Young Ambassadors of Peace in Asia (YAPA); Ecumenical Women’s Action Against Violence (EWAAV); Eco-Justice for Sustainable Peace in the Oikos.

The PD programme area focuses on promoting justice, human rights, and social transformation in Asia. Through advocacy, capacity-building, and raising awareness, the programme addresses systemic injustice, empowers marginalised communities, and advocates for prophetic actions and meaningful change.

Programmes: Human Rights advocacy; Migration, Statelessness, and Trafficking in Persons; Asian Ecumenical Disability Advocacy Network; Asian Advocacy Network on the Dignity and Rights of Children (AANDRoC); Ecumenical Solidarity Accompaniment and Diakonia in Asia (ESADA); Health and Healing; Good Governance; Action Together to Combat HIV and AIDS in Asia (ATCHAA).

No preference updated.

01 March 2022

The Christian Conference of Asia (CCA) will organise an Asia Regional Consultation on ‘The Effects of COVID-19 on Trafficking in Persons’ on 29 and 30 March 2022.

The two-day Consultation, which will be held online, will focus on the emergence of new risks and challenges to victims and survivors of human trafficking in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Given the multiple effects of the pandemic on people’s lives and the spike in economic need, debt bondage, and forced labour, many people across the world and specifically in Asia are at risk of becoming victims of human trafficking. Labour trafficking, both within countries and beyond borders, has increased; due to school closures and loss of parents’ jobs, a great many children are being forced to work and are being trafficked. Women and girls constituted the most detected victims of human trafficking before the outbreak, and now, in the midst of the pandemic, they are being specifically targeted by traffickers.

Representatives from the CCA’s member churches and councils as well as interested individuals who attend this Consultation will learn from the resource persons, receive up-to-date information, and engage in timely situational analyses about the nature, contexts, current situations, human rights violations, emerging trends and patterns of trafficking in persons. They will also become acquainted with relevant policy developments in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic, and with the way these policies relate to their countries.

Registrations for the two-day Consultation will close on 20 March 2022.

The Consultation on 29–30 March 2022 will begin at 10:00 and end at 15:30 Bangkok (Thailand) time on both days.

The online registration link and the Background Information note can be found below: