Category Archives: TOLERANCE & SOLIDARITY

Barcelona demonstration calls for the reception of refugees

TOLERANCE AND SOLIDARITY .

An article from the Huffington Post Spanish edition (Translated by CPNN and reprinted with respect to the principles of ” Fair use “)

“Enough excuses! Let’s go now!” Under this motto, tens of thousands of people have taken to the streets of Barcelona as convened by the organization “Casa Nostra, Casa Vostra” to demand that Spanish authorities put in place immediately a plan to welcome the thousands of refugees that arrive each day to Europe fleeing the horror of war.

The demonstration, attended by some 160,000 people according to the police and around 500,000 according to the organizers, started in the Plaza Urquinaona of the Catalan capital and marched to the promenade via the Via Laietana and Doctor Aiguader Street. The idea is to march to the Mediterranean Sea, where last year 5,000 people died while trying to reach the European continent.


(Click on the photo to enlarge)

The protest emulates the historic mobilization of Barcelona in 2003 against the war in Iraq. The organizers asked participants to dress in blue to give the image of a blue tide moving from the center of the city to the sea.

The first block of the march was formed by the thousands of volunteers of the “Volem Acollir” (We want to welcome) campaign, followed by members of refuge and immigration related groups, then a third block formed by other social organizations and a fourth by political and institutional representatives.

Up to 900 organizations joined the initiative (mostly Catalan, but also from other parts of Spain) and more than 70,900 people have signed their manifesto, including personalities from the political, cultural and associative world.

The mayor of Barcelona, ​​Ada Colau, present in the mobilization, expressed confidence that the city “will become the capital of hope, the defense of human rights and peace.”

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(Click here for the original Spanish version of this article)

Question for this article

The refugee crisis, Who is responsible?

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Speaking to reporters, the mayor said she is “excited” by the massive turnout, and she stressed that the demonstration is a message for the states of Europe to establish “safe routes” for immigrants. She also pointed out that the demonstration may inspire more events in other European cities with calls for “hope and life.”

The Minister of the Presidency of the Generalitat, Neus Munté, called on the European Union to go “beyond” its asylum policies and establish safe corridors for refugees. He assured that Catalonia is prepared to welcome the refugees and that it considers the demonstration this Saturday as a “unanimous cry” to highlight the situation of refugees.

The first secretary of the PSC, Miquel Iceta, stated that the western countries have caused the crisis of the refugees by its interventions in the Middle East. He stated that “nobody is innocent”, and demanded that we not allow the modern crusaders to cause the death of people in the Mediterranean. “The refugees are simply fleeing from hunger and war,” he insisted, and he called for all voices to be united to encourage institutions to make welcome policies.

Parliament President Carme Forcadell also called on the European Union institutions to change their “harmful” policies on refugees with the aim of welcoming more people and recalled that in February 2016 the Parliament adopted two declarations against the EU agreement with Turkey. “We hope that the demonstration will help other cities and states in Europe to do the same so that we can change these policies that go against the spirit of the EU,” he said.

For her part, the CUP deputy in the Parlament Gabriela Serra lamented that the Mediterranean has become a sea formed by “a mantle of 5,000 dead.” She expressed a deep indignation towards all institutions for their inaction: “Starting with ours.” “We are here to ask for action and we say that the Spanish government is failing,” she said, and she criticized the fact that of the 4,500 refugees that the State has promised to host, only 200 have arrived.

The deputy of Ciudadanos in the Parlament Sonia Sierra demanded the establishment of a common European policy for the reception of refugees, and she called for assistance to Italy and Greece to improve the conditions of the refugees there. She criticized the host agreements reached by the European Union with Turkey because they violate human rights, according to her, and she pointed out that the central government has breached its reception commitments.

Europe, TOLERANCE & SOLIDARITY

From the “jungle” to the theater, refugees replay their exile to Europe

TOLERANCE AND SOLIDARITY .

An article from Culturebox , France Info (translated by CPNN)

The actors are Sudanese, Afghans and Iraqis and a few weeks ago they lived in the “jungle of Calais.” This is where they made their debut as actors by attending a theater workshop. From this work was born a play, “To be or not”, the poignant narrative of their long and dangerous journey to Europe, a play that, they hope, will change the outlook of people on migrants


Video of the theater

There was a lot of emotion that evening in this small room in Montreuil. Some spectators held back their tears. Facing them on stage were a dozen young men, refugees who have just played in their first theatrical play. The history of their lives, the history of their flight to Europe, and all the dangers they faced in hoping to have a better life.

Ignorance and fear

After months spent in the “jungle of Calais,” these men are accommodated in a reception and orientation center in Croisille near Arras. They have been able to continue the theater workshops begun in Calais with two young directors.

From this collaboration was born this spectacle where the apprentice actors replay their journey, including how they crossed the Mediterranean, piled up for several days on boats too small, without water and without food, with the constant fear of capsizing like thousands of others before them.

War, exile, the omnipresence of death, and at the end of the road, another obstacle, as Bertrand Degrémont says very well, our ignorance and our fears. By telling their story, sharing it, they hope to erase, a little, these fears, and change the outlook of the people on the refugees.

(Thank you to Kiki Chauvin, the CPNN reporter for this article)

(Click here for the original French version of this article)

Questions for this article
Europe, TOLERANCE & SOLIDARITY

2016 WFUNA Young Leader is Zimbabwean

TOLERANCE AND SOLIDARITY .

An article from the Herald

Zimbabwean youth Bernard Bebe has been selected as the World Federation of United Nations Associations Young Leader of 2016 following his outstanding contribution towards the United Nations Sustainable Development Goal 16.

Bernard, of the Zimbabwe United Nations Association ZUNA, was selected after a rigorous process supported by an evaluating committee composed of three members of the WFUNA Youth Advisory Council in addition to WFUNA secretariat staff.

The top three nominees were interviewed based on their contribution to the development of the UNA Leadership qualities, overall work on peace and security issues and their strong understanding of elements contained in UN Sustainable Development Goal 16.

Bernard had been actively involved in the field of peace for a year In 2013 he joined UNA-Zimbabwe whilst he was a second-year student at Bindura University of Science Education.

He is in the national team responsible for organising Peace Day in Zimbabwe through a coalition of peace activists from both civil society and the Government.

Currently, he is working to proactively counter religious conflicts through a programme called Religious Tolerance in which he is working mostly with different religious groups in Zimbabwe to cultivate a culture of peace.

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Question for this article

Is there a renewed movement of solidarity by the new generation?

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Bernard works mostly with youths from high schools and universities. He has also been actively involved in ending gender based violence against women and girls.

He is also a trained human rights activist who has a keen interest in promoting women rights.

Speaking after the nomination Bernard said he was humbled by the recognition from such a renowned world body.

“This shows that the world is now appreciating the efforts of youths and at the same time taping into their potential,” he said.

“UN Security Council Resolution 2250 on Youth, Peace and Security has empowered us youths to step up our efforts in bringing about peace in our community therefore I will continue towards the attainment of Sustainable Development Goal number 16 which focus on promoting peace, justice and strong institutions.

“My message to other youths out there is that lets use our time to volunteer and bring positive change to our community especially in as far as these sustainable development goals are concerned because we are the SDG Generation,” said Bebe.

WFUNA supports and encourages youth engagement and participation in the United Nations Associations and United Nations Youth Associations around the world through the WFUNA Youth Network.

Every year, WFUNA sets a theme and calls for nominations for young people from the WFUNA Youth Network working within that theme.

From the nominations, the WFUNA secretary-general and WFUNA youth advisory council select three young leaders to be interviewed.

After each nominee is interviewed, a final candidate will be selected as the WFUNA young leader of the year. A WFUNA young leader of the year has to be able to inspire other youth to be involved in global issues

Africa, TOLERANCE & SOLIDARITY

Morocco: Madagh hosts eleventh World Meeting of Sufism

TOLERANCE AND SOLIDARITY .

An article from Libération (translated by CPNN)

The 11th edition of the World Meeting of Sufism opened Saturday in Madagh, province of Berkane under the slogan “Sufism and culture of peace: universal vision of Islam for the values ​​of living together and the peace of civilizations “.

This meeting, organized under the patronage of His Majesty King Mohammed VI, is an opportunity to highlight the contributions of Sufism to build peace, give special care to living together and constructive cooperation among countries. Organizers in a note of presentation of this annual meeting, added that the objective is to “show Islam in its true face, tolerant, advocating peace and respect for all civilizations.”

Speaking on this occasion, Mounir El-Kadiri Boudchich, Director of the meeting, welcomed the fact that this intellectual and spiritual encounter has become, over the years, a meeting of choice for scholars and researchers to discuss issues related to the coexistence and living together between religions and cultures of peace, stressing the importance of the theme chosen for this edition insofar as the culture of peace is now at the center of the concerns of the whole world.

For several centuries, the presence of the Zaouiya in Morocco has continued to cultivate these values ​​on a large scale and to train men of exception, able to incarnate and make them radiate, estimate the organizers, adding that the Morocco of today is a worthy heir of this history, holding high its values ​​which makes it a particular case but also an example to be followed.

“Culture of Peace: Concept and Meanings”, “Culture of Peace in Islam: Contents and Expressions”, “Culture of Peace: Individual, Social and Cultural Dimensions”, “Sufism and Culture of Peace” Peace: Historical Examples “,” Culture of Peace and Practice of Spiritual Diplomacy “and” Sufism and Green Peace “.

On the sidelines of this edition, meetings and conferences will be organized in Oujda and Berkane to make known Sufism as the foundation of the Moroccan identity.

Several other activities are also planned in the margins of this edition, including “a village of solidarity” dealing with the creation of associations and cooperatives in the Oriental region and solidarity and social economy, training sessions for local journalists and meetings dedicated to ecology dealing with the importance of the protection of the environment in Islam.

“The Sufi approach can not be identified with a philosophical discourse on peace, it is rather characterized by a practical method aimed at purifying man from the evil inclinations inciting him to evil, conflict, hatred, domination or violence,” explains the initiators, adding that today’s societies in search of stability and development “will undoubtedly find in the Sufi model and methodology an inspiration to found peace at the individual, family and social levels, the economy and the environment “.

The history of Morocco, which has long been the supreme land of Sufism, is a testimony to a peace founded on the spiritual purification of man, the same source points out, emphasizing the predominant role played by the zaouiyas in The rooting of values ​​of tolerance, cohabitation and respect for others.

(Click here for the original French version of this article)

Question for this article
Mideast, TOLERANCE & SOLIDARITY

Cherán. 5 years of self-government in an indigenous community in Mexico

TOLERANCE AND SOLIDARITY .

An article by Alejandra González Hernández and Víctor Alfonzo Zertuche Cobos for openDemocracy (Translation by Andrea Janet Serna Hernández and Itzel Cruz Ruiz)

The struggle of Cherán is one of the most important emerging social movements of recent years in Mexico, both for its visibility and for the political, economic, social and cultural alternative that the community is building. It is a lively movement, with its campfires still burning, still fighting and resisting. Its experience has inspired indigenous communities throughout Mexico, who seek respect for their rights, territory, institutions and culture.


The second Council took charge on September 1st, 2015.
Authors’ photograph
(click on photo to enlarge)

San Francisco Cherán, is an indigenous community of the Purépecha town located in the state of Michoacán, Mexico. It has a territorial extension of 221,000 square kilometers and a population of 14,245 inhabitants, making it the largest Purépecha community in terms of territory. It originally counted some 27,000 hectares of forest. The main economic activities are agriculture, livestock farming and the production of wood and cork products.

Cherán is the only municipality inhabited mainly by indigenous Purépecha, a culture that seeks to preserve its identity and cultural traits, which are closely linked to concerns about the fertility of the land and care of resources. The community of Cherán has occupied this territory since before the colonization process. It has conserved its own institutions to organize itself in the political, cultural, economic and social sphere, and this has been reflected in its social dynamics. The inhabitants of the municipality have combined their own practices with the national law, in a dual law regime.

However, recently, particularly between 2008 and 2011, this community experienced one of its worst periods of crisis due to the insecurity and violence arising from the municipal authorities’ complicity with organized crime. They cut down a wide swathe of Cherán’s forests unannounced and extorted, threatened, kidnapped and murdered the villagers. They carried out these activities in broad daylight.

The state and federal authorities showed no will to address the resulting mayhem and violence suffered by the community and to protect the common patrimony of the people (territory, forests and water). The Purépecha community of Cherán decided to take the problem into their own hands.

Beginnings of the movement

The movement of the indigenous community of Cherán emerged at dawn on April 15, 2011. Ordinary people decided to confront the criminal organizations that came down from the hill with several vans loaded with wood. Thus began the resistance of the Purepecha community of Cherán. Women and men, children and adults concentrated on the site named “Calvary” to defend life, their security, territory, forests and the dignity of the community. Regardless of political affiliation, belief or religion, all the inhabitants of Cherán joined together on that April 15 without thinking where their insurrection would lead them.

From that day on, the “comuneros” decided to organize under their own scheme, driving away organized crime. After the expulsion of the municipal authorities, an “organizational structure” composed of a general coordination and 12 commissions took over the control of the entire community. They built barricades on all the accesses to the municipality and started to establish guard posts to enable comuneros to defend themselves in the four neighborhoods of the municipality. Some 200 campfires – of which several have remained active up to this day – were set up at these guard posts and became the symbols of the resistance, and the will of the comuneros to free themselves from organized crime and corrupted authorities. With the slogan “for the defense of our forests, for the safety of our comuneros” they aimed at defending their natural resources, valued as a heritage and as a sacred good of the community.

At the same time, the problem of Cherán became visible to several sectors of Mexican society and resonated with them. Similar problems were suffered by indigenous communities throughout the country, including the devastation of natural resources, human rights violations and social exclusion. All of this was aggravated by the involvement of organized crime and the lack of will or any action on the part of the authorities to solve the situation.
From the spaces known as “campfires” and the “organizational structure”, the comuneros began to discuss, to reflect on alternative projects and actions to solve the problems they were suffering. They quickly identified that political parties did not guarantee the security and cultural continuity of Cherán. On June 1, 2011, the community general assembly decided not to take part in the elections for the state governors and legislators and the municipal presidents that were to be held in 2011 and not to allow the installation of polling stations in the municipality. Instead, they decided to exercise their right to appoint their own authorities through their own normative systems.

The rights to autonomy and self-determination had been recognized by international treaties as well as by the national legal system. Cheran thus decided to move forward along this path and to eliminate the local political party system, with the slogan of “No more political parties in the community”. It thus asked the electoral institute of the state of Michoacán to organize the appointment of new municipal authorities of the community under the traditional system of “uses and customs”.

The state authorities tried to stop the movement of Cherán. In September 2011, the Electoral Institute of Michoacan issued a negative response, declaring it had no authority to authorize such a mode of elections. To the social and political mobilizations that were the bases of the movement until then, the comuneros now decided to add the adoption of a legal strategy to defend its autonomy and alternative project.

The legal strategy of the movement

Cherán decided to mobilize the law as a political and legal strategy. They used state (and hegemonic) law in a “counter-hegemonic sense” to materialize their struggle for self-determination and to form their self-government. In response to the EIM (Electoral Institute of Michoacan), the community decided to judicialize its right to “autonomy and self-determination”. They demanded in the courts the right to choose their own authorities based on the system of “uses and customs”, through a “Trial for the Protection of the Political-Electoral Rights of the Citizen” in the Electoral Tribunal of the Judicial Power of the Federation (ETJPF, or TEPJF by their initials in Spanish).

Two months later, on November 2, 2011, the Superior Chamber of the ETJPF ruled in favor of the indigenous community of Cherán. It recognized that Cherán had the right to request the election of its own authorities through its “uses and customs” and ordered the EIM to organize this election, after free and informed consultation with the entire community.

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(Click here for the Spanish version of this article)

Question for discussion

The understanding of indigenous peoples, Can it help us cultivate a culture of peace?

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Following this triumph of a counter-hegemonic use of state law and the ETJPF decision, a “free, prior and informed consultation” was organized in the community to decide whether or not it wanted to appoint its new authorities through its “uses and customs”. The result of the consultation was positive. In January 2012, a democratic election was duly held, giving rise to the constitution of a new government figure: the first indigenous municipal government, called “Mayor Council of Communal Government” (Concejo Mayor de Gobierno Comunal), composed of 12 “K’eris” (seniors) chosen among the “comuneros” and “comuneras” (members of the community), three for each of four districts. There is no hierarchy among them, that is to say, all occupy the same position within the communal government. They were appointed for a 3-year period 2012-2015.

The first time, a “uses and customs” election was organized by the EIM and by the community itself, respecting its own procedures, through a kind of ritual, without ballot boxes and without political parties. It differs from the model of “uses and customs” in the Southern Mexican state of Oaxaca, as the later system only serves a procedural function in the election of its authorities. In the case of Cherán, there was a “transformation in the structure, logic and relations of the municipal government”, when the hierarchical figures of “president, elected representatives and councillor” disappears and the government becomes a genuinely collegial body.

The new communal government

Following these elections, the seat of the city council or municipal palace was transformed into the “Communal House of Government”. The police were replaced by a “community round”. The municipal president, representatives and councillors take part in a “Common Council of Communal Government”; Likewise, “operational councils” have been constituted as well as “commissions” for civil affairs, social development, procurement and conciliation of justice, education, culture, health, identity, campfires, water, cleanliness and youth. All them are aware that the maximum authority is the “General Assembly” composed of all the inhabitants of Cherán.

From April 2011 to February 2012, Cherán’s social movement moved considerably forward, both in its political and legal struggles. Winning the right to elect its own authorities and exercise their right to self-determination allowed them to establish a solid basis – the communal government – for the continuation of the emancipatory movement. The path towards autonomy was set up. But the journey went far beyond constituting a government under the system of “uses and customs”.

Other legal struggles of the movement and the second Council

In 2012, shortly after the appointment of the first mayoral council and already as Cherán’s authorities, the community returned to the courts to start another trial, this time in the Supreme Court of Justice of the Nation (SCJN), against the Governor and the Congress of the State of Michoacán. The latter had overhauled the Political Constitution of this region in matters of indigenous rights without having consulted the Cherán community, thereby overlooking another of the core rights of indigenous peoples and communities.

The ruling given by the SCJN in the trial of 2014 secured the dual character of Cherán, as both a municipality and as an indigenous community. This was officially recognized for the first time. As a result, the tribunal also established that in its capacity as an “indigenous municipality”, Cherán must be consulted on all legislative and administrative matters that interest or affect them as a community and as an indigenous municipality.

The issues brought to trial by Cherán and given legal backing by the highest courts in Mexico represent a major achievement. However, despite these judicial successes that have ratified the indigenous rights of the community, lawmakers in Michoacán have refused to amend the laws on matters integral to the municipality which involve recognition of Cherán’s indigenous municipality. Likewise, in electoral matters, the elections and authorities by “uses and customs” have also not been recognized.

Given the refusal of the state to cooperate, Cherán has continued to resist through communal organization in its campfires, neighborhood assemblies, and general assembly. Comuneros and comuneras get involved in the decisions of their community and support their local authorities. In 2014, Cherán had to go back to court once more, to remind the authorities of the rights it had won. Following that trial, the process of elections by “uses and customs” has finally been incorporated into the Electoral Law.

In 2015, Cherán’s struggle succeeded in integrating “previous, free and informed consultation” into state law. It prevented the state Congress from approving a “Law of Mechanisms of Citizen Participation” which did not recognise the consultation rights of indigenous peoples and communities. This mechanism is essential to ensuring communities’ participation in decision-making processes through their traditional procedures. Cherán made the consultation “binding”, which has opened a door for all indigenous communities in the state of Michoacan to get their voices heard in decision making processes

2015 was also the year of the appointment of the second Mayoral Council of Communal Government. The community decided to continue with its project of autonomy, self-determination and self-government. The political parties tried to interfere in the process of the renewal of the Council. Their failure to do so and the successes of Cherán in the tribunals gave considerable strength to the second election of the local authorities and to the second Council of Communal Government that took charge on September 1, 2015.

5 years of resistance and struggle

On April 15, 2016, the movement of Cherán celebrated its fifth anniversary. They organized an event with a strong cultural dimension and forums of dialogue fostering conversations on topics such as dispossession and war against the peoples, women and territory, autonomy, education for the defense of the territory. The celebration was closed with an event on the main square of the community, where the inhabitants remembered their dead companions and recalled the difficult road that they had travelled, the fear of living under insecurity, the impotence they felt when their forests were devastated. They also remembered the purpose of their struggle, a movement “for justice, security and the reconstitution of their territory”.

The movement has found many allies and support, notably among indigenous communities and progressive movements in Mexico. It has notably been accompanied in its struggle by the “Collectivo Emancipaciones”, that gathers young researchers who share a “political position committed to progressive social movements and from judicial support of social processes where the defense of human rights is relevant”. Since 2011, this Collective has been providing judicial support to the indigenous community of Cherán and has been working benevolently with the community as well as with other indigenous communities in the state of Michoacán.

To build and rebuild a lifestyle based on a communal government through its “uses and customs” has been the major task of these five years. The road has not been easy. The community continues to face a broad list of systemic enemies including the administrative bureaucracy, political parties, organized crime and state resistance to recognizing the rights of indigenous communities. The achievements of the community of Cherán remain under constant threat.

(Thank you to Janet Hudgins, the CPNN reporter for this article)

Latin America, TOLERANCE & SOLIDARITY

USA: 13 Minnesota churches eye ‘underground railroad’ for those facing deportation

TOLERANCE AND SOLIDARITY .

An article by Frederick Melo from the Twin Cities Pioneer Press

The rhetoric on immigration during the presidential campaign season has struck fear into the hearts of many foreign-born families, and a new network of Minnesota churches is mobilizing to respond.

The Lutheran Church of the Redeemer on St. Paul’s Dale Street already maintains 22 shelter beds for the homeless in its basement, where families with no other place to go often spend the night on a temporary basis. The Rev. James Erlandson said those beds may soon serve a different purpose: offering sanctuary to those facing deportation.

“That’s a moral stand that we’ve taken,” Erlandson said. “We want to say: ‘Don’t increase deportations.’ Let’s fix our immigration system, and offer a path to citizenship so our neighbors don’t live in fear.”

On Tuesday, clergy and religious leaders from 30 congregations gathered at the Church of the Redeemer to announce that 13 churches across Minnesota have agreed to open their doors to immigrants, whatever their circumstances, even those sought by law enforcement.

For the 13 “sanctuary churches” like the Church of the Redeemer, that means being prepared to house those who might face deportation, and shuttling them from church to church as the need arises.

In practical terms, how long any given church would be able to house a family remains unclear, but church officials on Tuesday referenced the Underground Railroad that helped hide and guide southern slaves to freedom.

“That’s unknown,” said the Rev. Mark Vinge of the House of Hope Lutheran Church in New Hope, “but we know that the Lord will guide us.”

Rather than house those living in the U.S. illegally outright, some “sanctuary support” congregations have agreed to assist the faith-based network with donations of food, money, clothing and toiletries, or prayer vigils, news conferences and legal assistance. Meanwhile, 20 churches are still discussing details with their congregations or church councils and contemplating whether to join the new Sanctuary or Sanctuary Support networks, and in what capacity.

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Questions related to this article:

The post-election fightback for human rights, is it gathering force in the USA?

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The churches are all affiliated with ISAIAH, a faith-based coalition of racial and social justice advocates based on University Avenue in St. Paul.

“We’re also seeking legal counsel to understand (our rights),” said the Rev. Grant Stevenson, an ISAIAH staff member. “What we know for sure is that standing on our faith we cannot allow families to be torn apart because someone ran for president on a platform of hate.”

The pastors acknowledged that the details of President-elect Donald Trump’s immigration plans remain unknown, but they said his tough rhetoric has created an atmosphere of unease, though one that has been building for years.

Returns (including voluntary departures and sending border-crossers back across the U.S.-Mexican border on buses) exceeded 8 million under President George W. Bush, and removals (formal, documented deportations) hit a historic high of more than 2 million under President Barack Obama.

“If there is an event of mass deportation, we’ll be ready,” said ISAIAH spokeswoman Janae Bates.

An ISAIAH guide sheet notes that “guidelines are at the discretion of individual churches and their congregants,” but the goal is have individuals or families “reside in your place of worship for an undetermined amount of time while the community of Sanctuary works on the ‘Stay of Removal’ orders for each person.”

Vinge said his 13-member church council met a week ago to discuss whether to name House of Hope a sanctuary church. His house of worship is active in helping the homeless and worked with Southeast Asian refugees in the 1970s, following the Vietnam War. Still, he said the prospect of housing a family “24 hours a day, 7 days a week” gave some members pause.

“Others wondered if maybe we should just be a ‘supporting congregation,’ helping others do this,” Vinge said. “But in the end we want to be part of this.”

During a joint presentation to reporters Tuesday, Vinge took the microphone to quote from the Bible, Leviticus 19:33-34: “When a foreigner resides among you in your land, do not mistreat them. The foreigner residing among you must be treated as your native-born. Love them as yourself, for you were foreigners in Egypt. I am the Lord your God.”

North America, TOLERANCE & SOLIDARITY

USA: Inside the Churches That Are Leading New York’s Sanctuary Movement

TOLERANCE AND SOLIDARITY .

An Article from The Nation Magazine

On the Tuesday after the election, two dozen pastors gathered in the back room of a Lower Manhattan church to begin plotting the resistance. Most of the faith leaders were immigrants, and all of them members of the New Sanctuary Coalition of New York City, an interfaith network of congregations, organizations, and activists. Since its founding in 2007, the coalition has worked on the front lines in the fight to protect undocumented New Yorkers from detention and deportation.


Members of the New Sanctuary Coalition of New York City protest in front of the Federal Plaza’s immigration services building. (New Sanctuary Coalition of New York City / Facebook)

The meeting began with a prayer—“We pray you will give us all the right to remain in justice, in solidarity and in truth”—delivered by a soft-spoken Mexican priest, first in Spanish, then in English. Updates from the past week followed—reports of congregations in crisis, sleepless nights spent consoling worried parents, tearful children afraid to go to school. The mood was tense but focused, and before long they’d arrived at the main item on the agenda.

“We are here today to discuss the future of physical sanctuary,” said coalition director Ravi Ragbir, a towering Trinidadian immigrant who once spent two years in immigration detention over a wire fraud conviction. Since his release, he’s managed to avoid deportation through prosecutorial discretion, though he fully expects to be among the first targets of the upcoming raids. “It’s time for us to start thinking more radically.”

Since it emerged nine years ago, the coalition has acted in two distinct capacities. Publicly, they advocate for the city’s undocumented residents, lobbying for reforms while hosting legal clinics and solidarity events. Many of the group’s best known actions, like their monthly prayer walk around Federal Plaza to protest deportations, fall into this category. The second capacity, called physical sanctuary, is more discreet. Premised on the quasi-legal expectation that federal agents will not raid houses of worship, physical sanctuary is the act of secretly housing immigrants facing deportation. Sometimes the tactic is used to provide a temporary safe haven during an overnight raid, while other times it involves housing an immigrant for months as they await a court ruling. At least eleven Christian congregations in the city currently offer physical sanctuary.

The purpose of the meeting, Ragbir explained, was to begin thinking about how to expand the number of congregations dramatically before Donald Trump takes office. “We need to reach out to every group in this city, to every representative,” he said. “We need faith leaders to step up and show their support for physical sanctuary, because the present situation is only going to get worse.”

The present situation, Ragbir noted, is that the United States is currently expelling immigrants at a rate unprecedented in history. Under Obama, at least 2.4 million immigrants have been deported—a 21 percent jump from the previous record, held by George W. Bush. And these raids aren’t just happening in border states, like Arizona and Texas. Just a few weeks before the election, Immigrations and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents rounded up 25 undocumented workers during a raid on four restaurants in Buffalo. Such workplace sweeps were especially common during the Bush years, and as the legal director of the New York Immigration Coalition recently told The New York Times, the model may serve as a blueprint for the coming administration.

Should President Donald Trump decide to ramp up deportations—as he has repeatedly promised—there’s very little the rest of the government could do to stop him. While he’ll need funding from Congress to increase the size of ICE, there are currently 14,000 ICE officers, agents, and special agents already in place. In the past, only a fraction of those officers have worked on tracking down undocumented immigrants, but a single memo from President Trump could reshape the focus of the agency overnight.

The gathered faith leaders were painfully aware of the human cost of such an amped-up deportation regime. They know firsthand what it’s like to lose members of their community to ICE sweeps—to watch a parishioner banished to Mexico, forced to leave behind her two children, Michel and Heidy, ages nine and 13; to see a Haitian father of four sent to an immigrant detention center for a twenty-year-old drug conviction. In some cases, the coalition has blocked these measures by working through the available legal channels. In others, a more creative approach has been necessary.

(Article continued in the right column)

Questions related to this article:

The post-election fightback for human rights, is it gathering force in the USA?

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“Our number one job right now is protect people,” Donna Schaper, minister at Judson Memorial Church and a founder of the New Sanctuary Coalition, told the group. “We’re about to enter a new, more radical phase of this movement. We need to get organized, fast.”

And so that’s what they did. For the next ninety minutes, the faith leaders deliberated on their fast-approaching future. “How do we make sure a person can find us at 5 a.m. when ICE descends on their neighborhood?” asked one pastor. “What are the minimum necessities my church needs in order to offer physical sanctuary?” asked another. And finally, the question on so many people’s lips: “What is the single most important thing we need to do next?”

* * *

Two days after the meeting, Ravi Ragbir stood in the basement of a different lower Manhattan church, addressing another circle of weary faces. About forty undocumented immigrants sat in silence before him, a mix of first-timers and long-serving members of the New Sanctuary Coalition. The goal of the meeting was to provide a different sort of sanctuary—a venue for the community to, in the words of one activist, “be part of a movement that creates spaces where people can live in dignity.”

“We are here today to talk about our rights,” Ragbir began, a translator helping him reach the mostly Spanish-speaking crowd. “And to answer your questions of what comes next.” Over chicken noodle soup, Ragbir and his fellow organizers did their best to address the concerns of the group. These questions were different than the ones they’d fielded Tuesday—less focused on the future of resistance than the pressing issues of the moment.

One woman wondered if ICE could access the data she’d turned over to IDNYC, the municipal identification card used by many undocumented New Yorkers. Another spoke of her husband, currently awaiting a court hearing at a New Jersey immigrant detention facility, and the impact that Trump’s presidency could have on him. The most common fear was about the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) initiative, an executive action issued by President Obama in 2012 to provide temporary work authorization and deportation protections to the children of undocumented immigrants. Donald Trump has promised to “immediately terminate” the action, though it remains unclear what that would mean for the roughly 800,000 young immigrants currently receiving DACA protections.

“If he does repeal it, I don’t know what will happen to my son,” said Judith, an undocumented resident of the United States for twenty years and longtime member of the coalition. Her two teenage sons have lived here their entire lives, but her oldest, 23, was born in Puebla, Mexico. After qualifying for DACA, he was able to get a work permit, a social security card, and a driver’s license. “It was such a relief for him,” she said. “But it feels like we are going back to the past.”

After the meeting ended, as the group filed slowly out of the church basement, Judith remained behind to help clean up. “I wish they could see that we’re not here to break the laws,” she told me. “We are not here because we want to steal their jobs.” Asked what she expected to change under a Trump presidency, she seemed reluctant to speculate. “Trump has said so many things,” she said, “but I don’t know what he’s going to do.”

For Judith and so many others, this is the frustrating new reality: While Trump’s most incendiary rhetoric may be aimed at immigrants, he remains defiantly ignorant of the complex web of laws and executive actions that govern our immigration system.

Eventually, Judith conceded that deportation remains a real threat. She tries to stay optimistic, she said, but the thought of her family being torn apart was never fully out of her mind. “Sometimes we, as parents, do feel guilty because we brought them,” she said softly. “But we always thought that we would do better here.” Still, it’s not Trump’s potential policies that top her list of concerns right now. “What is more scary is that millions of people think the same way he does,” she said. “How can we make millions of people change the way they think?”

That may seem like a rhetorical question, but it’s not. In Judith’s view, the ultimate goal of the sanctuary movement is to create a universal solidarity with immigrants, even among those who’d like to see her expulsion. It’s a radical idea, but one grounded in a lifetime of faith and activism.

In the meantime, Judith could can find solace in leaning on her community. “I know the people will support us in any situations,” she said, gesturing around the now empty room. “Our work is to grow this group as big as possible, so that everyone understands what we go through.”

North America, TOLERANCE & SOLIDARITY

Global Survey on Youth, Peace and Security

TOLERANCE AND SOLIDARITY .

From the website of the Youth4peace survey

The United Network of Young Peacebuilders and Search for Common Ground, on behalf of the inter-agency Working Group on Youth and Peacebuilding, are looking for your help!

We want to map youth organisations and initiatives building peace and preventing violence, to identify what they are doing, what impact they have made and their needs and goals for the future. If you are active, volunteering or professionally, within youth organisation or initiative working on topics related to peace and security, we would be very grateful if you could take 30 minutes to answer this Global Survey on Youth, Peace and Security.

survey

The survey findings will contribute to the Progress Study on Youth, Peace and Security mandated by UN Security Council Resolution 2250 and as such your answers will inform the future development of youth participation in peace and security.

[editor’s note: See CPNN article, UN Security Council adopts resolution on Youth, Peace and Security]

Note on data protection:

The information you provide will be kept anonymous and will only be used for purposes of aggregation for analysis by UNOY Peacebuilders and Search for Common Ground. If you want, you can also indicate that you accept having your contact information shared publicly. This is completely up to you, we will not share your information if you do not want us to. If you do accept sharing your contact information, we will include information about your organisation in a database of youth peace organisations and initiatives currently under development.

Instructions

This survey should be filled by one person per organization or initiative. Before you start, please check with your colleagues to make sure they haven’t already completed the survey on behalf of your organization or initiative. Given that the survey covers a range of topics related to your organization’s work, it may be helpful to seek input from your colleagues.

The survey consists of five brief sections:

Section 1: Profile
Section 2: Areas of Work and Methods
Section 3: Results and Impact
Section 4: Challenges and Issues
Section 5: Recommendations

For any questions on the survey, please contact Imre Veeneman, Program manager at UNOY Peacebuilders at survey@unoy.org.

Take part in the survey HERE.

Thank you for your participation!

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global, TOLERANCE & SOLIDARITY

Niger: Niamey opens a forum on the culture of peace through religious dialogue in the subregion

TOLERANCE & SOLIDARITY .

An article in Mali Actu (Source: Xinhua News Agency) (translation by CPNN)

Education for the culture of peace through intra and inter-religious dialogue is at the center of a forum of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) since Tuesday in the Nigerien capital, Niamey, under the presidency of the Head of State of Niger Mahamadou Issoufou. This important meeting, which is in its first edition will last two days, welcomes the delegations of the 15 member countries of ECOWAS as well as important religious figures.

niger
Niger President Mahamadou Issoufou, Archive photo / REUTERS / Brian Snyder

According to President Mahamadou Issoufou, in his opening remarks, this forum comes at a time when the Sahelo-Saharan zone, notably the Lake Chad basin, faces terrorist threats. “In this region, people kill, rape and plunder in the name of Islam. Elsewhere, we are witnessing the exploitation of other religions for political, economic and social purposes, “he said.

In his opinion, it is therefore normal to promote education for the culture of peace through intra-and inter-religious dialogue in the ECOWAS region.

According to Nigeria’s Minister of Culture, Assoumana Malam Issa, the forum aims to guarantee the economic development and social integration of the fifteen member countries of ECOWAS, an area that today faces “political and social crises and tensions, both thnic and religious, that slow down the momentum in which this organization was launched.”

Several socio-cultural factors are at the root of the instability observed in the member states. They include “misunderstanding, interpreting and distorting precepts within religions, ignorance, injustice (real injustice or suspected), and mutual suspicion, as well as intolerance and extremism, the root causes of conflict.”

Thanks to the remarkable presence of the different religious confessions of the countries, it should be possible “to establish an interreligious dialogue, to bring about harmonious relations between the religions, to discuss the peaceful coexistence through the education of the faithful on the need to build a culture of peace, to inculcate in religious leaders a culture of interreligious dialogue of action in order to transform religious pluralism into a factor of social development “.

ECOWAS was established in 1975 to promote the socio-economic integration of States through the free movement of goods and persons. It comprises 15 member states namely Benin, Côte d’Ivoire, Niger, Nigeria, Guinea Bissau, Senegal, Mali, Liberia, Sierra Leone, Burkina Faso, Togo, Cape Verde , The Gambia, Guinea-Conakry, and Ghana.

(Click here for the original French version of this article)

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Africa, TOLERANCE & SOLIDARITY

Muslim Council of Elders, Anglican Church meeting ends on high note in Abu Dhabi

TOLERANCE & SOLIDARITY .

An article from the WAM Emirates News Agency

A two-day meeting of the Muslim Council of Elders and the Anglican Church ended today on a high note, with participants stressing the importance of promoting the principle of citizenship as people enjoy the same entitlements and responsibilities towards their countries and communities.

muslim-anglican
Muslim Council of Elders
(click on photo to enlarge)

They also emphasised the necessity of working on building a world that is based on understanding including the Muslim-Christian dialogue, with an aim of effectively bridging the gap that hinders the understanding of others and agreed that that the dialogue will contribute to the efforts of combating both extremism and the undermining of minority rights.

At the end of the meeting,which was co-chaired by Dr. Ahmed Al-Tayyeb Grand Imam of Al-Azhar and Chairman of the Muslim Council of Elders, and Justin Welby Archbishop of Canterbury, a joint communique was issued. The full text of the communique follows: The Delegations of both the Anglican Church and the Muslim Council of Elders in the meeting organized from 2-4 November 2016 Abu Dhabi, the United Arab Emirates.

In a historical meeting between the Episcopal/Anglican communion and the Muslim Council of Elders, chaired by the Grand Imam of Al Azhar Dr. Ahmed Al Tayyeb, and the Archbishop of Canterbury Justin Welby, took place in Abu Dhabi, the United Arab Emirates, from 2-4 November 2016 in the fourth round of meetings between elders from the East and the West titled “Towards an Integrated World”.

The two-day meeting included four sessions that focused on the dialogue between religious leaders, religious pluralism, experiences of coexistence and promoting a culture of peace. The meeting witnessed speeches from the Grand Imam of Al Azhar and the Archbishop of Canterbury on the role of religious leaders in addressing the current challenges facing the World.

The meeting included four main themes: religious pluralism, the experiences of common co-existence, the role of religion in promoting citizenship and consolidating principles of human flourishing, and the obstacles facing dialogue and co-existence and their possible remedies.

During the meeting, discussions and interventions focused on the vital role of religious leaders and adherents in peace-building, sustaining human values, disseminating religious concepts that encourage tolerance, cooperation between religious followers in combating extremism, hatred speech, and restoring hope in peoples’ hearts and minds, and empowering young people to be effective actors in their communities.

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How can different faiths work together for understanding and harmony?

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The participants stressed the importance of promoting the principle of citizenship as people enjoy the same entitlements and responsibilities towards their countries and communities.

We concluded with a number of recommendations as follows: – The necessity of working on building a world that is based on understanding including the Muslim-Christian dialogue, with an aim of effectively bridging the gap that hinders the understanding of others. The dialogue will contribute to the efforts of combating both extremism and the undermining of minority rights. As such, we encourage our wider communities to develop similar dialogue based initiatives as among the mostly powerful tools in consolidating societal peace in all communities.

– Organize mutual youth based meetings between Muslim and Christian university students, which embrace intellectual discourses on tolerance and coexistence.

– Produce documentary films in various languages that track, document and underline the historical and contemporary experiences of co-existence. These will be suitable materials to be broadcast or air on TV channels and other forms of social media that have been proven effective more than gatherings and meetings.

– Develop a five-year academic research program on the pillars and values of tolerance and coexistence. Researchers from both sides, Muslims and Christians, will be invited to contribute to the research and produce publications in various languages. The program will contribute to the Muslim-Christian Dialogue through articulating it with post- graduate studies in the concerned universities.

– Digitize all the Muslim-Christian dialogue initiatives, including audio-visual materials, studies, and conferences’ proceedings, and upload them on the internet, to be accessible to the participants in this conference, and other concerned people.

– Highlight and benefit from the multiple initiatives in promoting the values of tolerance, co-existence, participation, primarily the experience of the Ministry of Tolerance in the United Arab Emirates, and the experience of the House of Family in Egypt. These initiatives characterized by working on the ground through a variety of communities including work encompassing women and young generation. We affirm the work of these initiatives in establishing a model of genuine citizenship including Muslims and Christians in Egypt.

– The necessity of work promoting a culture of dialogue at different levels. We affirm the importance of respecting each other’s faith at all levels.

– We commit ourselves to work together for the common good in fighting illiteracy, poverty and disease.

– Lastly, the participants from both the Muslim Council of Elders and the Anglican Church call on all religious leaders, politicians, decision-makers and influential community leaders to encourage the values of justice, peace and cooperation for all nations and peoples regardless of the difference in religion, gender, race, or any other factor.

Mideast, TOLERANCE & SOLIDARITY