‘Human Rights, Protection Mechanisms and Ecumenical Advocacy.’
20-25 October 2012
Human rights is never partial
It is not possible that people demand their individual human rights while neglecting or abusing the human rights of other people or other groups of people. “If the human rights of an individual is violated, it is a violation not only of the human rights of that individual but of the whole community where he or she belongs to,” said Mr. Basil Fernando, an expert on human rights in Asia and a former director of Asia Human Rights Commission. This understanding is rooted in the concept of the image of God in each person in the context of communal life, which is also ingrained in Asian culture.
This understanding has inspired the thirty participants representing churches from Myanmar, Philippines, Indonesia, Thailand, Vietnam, India, Bangladesh, Pakistan Sri Lanka, Hong Kong and Korea, who attended the Training on ‘Human Rights, Protection Mechanisms and Ecumenical Advocacy.’ This program that was held from 20-25 October 2012 in Bangkok Christian Guest House was organized by the Commission of the Churches on International Affairs (CCIA) of the World Council of Churches and the program unit of Justice, International Affairs and Development and Service (JID) of the Christian Conference of Asia
In a Bible Study session, Rev. Ebenezer Joseph, General Secretary of NCC Sri Lanka underlined the inspiring message of the Bible that God the Creator cares for the life of the people. God listens to the cry of the suffering people, whose rights are threatened, oppressed, tortured by others in power. God delivers them from their bondages. The compassion of God should be the basic conviction and motivation for the churches to care for others and uphold the dignity of others especially those who are marginalized, tortured and exploited.
Dr. Mathews George Chunakara, Director of WCC-CCIA, Ms. Christina Papazoglau, Executive Secretary of WCC-CCIA and Ms. Janejinda Pawadee, Consultant for CCA-JID, resource persons of the program, facilitated awareness building and understanding of the human rights situation in Asia, international human rights and protection mechanisms, rights of women and children, the struggle of minority communities in Asia, and assisted the particiapants in discussing possible ways to move ahead to accompany the Asian churches for human rights protection and global advocacy.
Churches are called to advocate for the dignity of domestic migrant workers
This Training was followed by a workshop on Regional and Global Advocacy on Rights of Domestic Migrant Workers in Asia, from 25-26 October 2012, at the same place.
Participants representing churches from the so-called “sending countries” (Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, Pakistan, India, Indonesia, Myanmar, Thailand and Philippines) and “receiving countries” (Hong Kong and Korea) shared their knowledge and experiences with regard to the situation of the domestic migrant workers from their perspectives. The participants came from different backgrounds ranging from pastors of local congregations where many migrant workers come from (India, Sri Lanka, Indonesia); a pastor from Korea who have served migrant workers in Korea; church workers from Thailand who had accompanied migrant workers in Taiwan and from Hong Kong who work with ‘Christian Action,’ an organization that addressed the concerns of domestic migrant workers; and women secretaries of churches and national councils of churches from a few Asian countries.
Rev. Yohana Taruk, a pastor of Toraja Church from Indonesia, presently serving a local congregation in a remote area where many migrant workers from Toraja come from, was herself a domestic migrant worker working in Hong Kong some years ago. Sharing her experiences she said that “everybody has a dream, and I also had one. But not all dreams can be achieved immediately. I came from a simple family. My parents could not send me for higher education due to their financial constraints. I decided to become a migrant worker in Hong Kong to earn money to support my family and hoping to continue my studies. I had gone through the hard experiences of many migrant workers whose rights were suppressed by their employers, such as being underpaid, long working hours, minimum holidays, and harassment.” Further she suggested that churches need to assist the parishioners and communities to understand the complex issues of being migrant workers and the human cost caused by the separation of the family members. She underlined that it would be helpful if the “church forms a support group to accompany the migrant workers in making decisions and in giving proper information about the possible challenges faced by the migrant workers.”
Dr. Mathews George Chunakara introduced the UN Convention and ILO Convention on Domestic Migrant Workers and Ms. Christina Papazoglau highlighted the Advocacy on Rights of Domestic Migrant Workers at the UN and ILO. The participants further discussed the prophetic role of the churches in Asia in advocating the rights and dignity on domestic migrant workers.
Rev. Dr. Henriette Hutabarat Lebang
26 October 2012
posted by communications on Sunday, October 28, 2012
