Mobilizing Moral Influence and Governance to End the Systemic Injustices of Racism, the Legacy of Colonialism and Slavery

8th Annual Symposium on the Role of Religion and Faith-Based Organizations

in International Affairs

Mobilizing Moral Influence and Governance to End the Systemic Injustices of Racism, the Legacy of Colonialism and Slavery
25 January 2022
8:00 – 12:30 EDT

Click here to register

PROGRAM

Moderators for the Day: Ms. Quinn Wonderling, Senior Coordinator of United Nations and International Affairs, General Board of Church and Society of The United Methodist Church and Rev. Audri Scott Williams, Global Peace Walker and Spiritual Director of the Spiritual Enrichment Center in Dothan, AL, USA

8:00 Welcome and Housekeeping
Outline of the purpose and agenda for the Symposium

8:10 Opening Session: Perspectives from the UN system, government and faith organizations on their work to increase the urgency and saliency of the issue and integrate efforts to overcome systemic injustices in their work

H.E. Alice Wairimu Nderitu, Special Adviser of the UN Secretary-General on the Prevention of Genocide
H.E. Mr. Miguel Angel Moratinos, High Representative of the UN Alliance of Civilizations
Member State Representative (TBC)
Ms. Diene Keita, UN Assistant Secretary-General and UNFPA Deputy Executive Director (Programme)
Dr. Azza Karam, General Secretary, Religions for Peace
Mr. Rudelmar Bueno De Faria, ACT Alliance Secretary General

8:55 Session 2: Deepening understanding of how pernicious and all-encompassing racism, and the legacy of colonialism and slavery remain today

Moderator: Rabbi Burton Visotzky, Jewish Theological Seminary

Support: Simon Chambers, ACT Alliance

Panelists:

Dr. Ganoune Diop, General Secretary, International Religious Liberty Association
Ms. Manjula Pradeep, Human rights activist and lawyer, Gujarat, India
Ms. Sara Hamood, Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, Geneva
Ms. Hayley Ramsay-Jones, Representative to the UN, Soka Gakkai International, Geneva
Dr. Sanjoy Bhattacharya, Professor, University of York, UK, and Head, WHO Collaborating Center for Global Health Histories

10:00 Session 3: Showcasing innovative experiences and concrete actions for positive change change throughout the international community

Moderator: Rev. Philip Vinod Peacock, Executive for Justice and Witness, World Communion of Reformed Churches

Support: Ms. Donna Bollinger, Advocacy Officer, World Council of Churches

Panelists:

Ms. Miriam Ekiudoko, UN Working Group of Experts on People of African Descent
Dr. Masiiwa Gunda, Programme Executive for Programmatic Responses on Overcoming Racism, World Council of Churches
Ms. Maytha Alhassen, Religion and Public Life in Media and Entertainment Fellow, Harvard University, Co-Executive producer, Ramy
Mr. Tahil Sharma, North America Regional Coordinator, United Religions Initiative (URI)
Ms. Ruth Messinger, former President of American Jewish World Service (AJWS)

Q & A

11:05 Session 4: The panel aims to promote policy recommendations and practical steps to strengthen partnerships among diverse stakeholders, including faith-based organizations, the UN System, and non-governmental entities in different regions. The panel will focus on how to turn our analyses about the historic injustices and legacies of slavery, colonialism and racism into effective campaigns for justice by faith-based and religious bodies and into public policies implemented by governments and multilateral bodies. Giving examples of what is already being done along these lines through your organization and experience will be a must.

Moderator: Rev. Dr. Liberato Bautista, Assistant General Secretary, UN and International Affairs-General Board of Church and Society of The United Methodist Church and President, Conference of NGOs in Consultative Relationship with the UN

Support: Ms. Monica Willard, United Religions Initiative

Panelists:

H.E. Ambassador Francisco Duarte Lopes, Permanent Representative of Portugal to the UN in New York
Dr. Abbas Barzegar, Director, The Horizon Forum
Mr. Cooper Christiancy, JD, Research and Advocacy Advisor to the United Nations Special Rapporteur on contemporary forms of racism
Ms. Vanessa Griddine-Jones, JD, LL.M., Executive Director, Congressional Black Caucus Institute
Ms. Audrey Kitagawa, JD, President/Founder of the International Academy for Multicultural Cooperation
Dr. Abubakar Kabwogi, Founding Secretary General, Africa Council of Religious Leaders

Q&A

12:10 Concluding Remarks

Drawing from the Symposium discussions, highlighting key points and recommendations to end the systemic injustices of racism, the legacy of colonialism and slavery

Ms. Quinn Wonderling and Ms. Audri Scott Williams, Symposium Moderators
Dr. Ryan Smith, Chair, Symposium Planning Group and Programme Executive, Ecumenical Office to the UN and Representative to UN Headquarters
Ms. Ana Jimenez, UN Inter-agency Task Force on Religion and Sustainable Development

MORE ABOUT THE SYMPOSIUM:

The 8th Annual Symposium on the Role of Religion and Faith-based Organizations in International Affairs, entitled
“Mobilizing Moral Influence and Governance to End the Systemic Injustices of Racism, the legacy of Colonialism and Slavery”, will be held virtually 8:00 – 12:30 EDT on Tuesday 25 January 2022.

This edition of the Symposium will focus on the urgent need to transform our world, exposing and redressing the systemic injustices of racism, colonialism and slavery that continue to pervade all aspects of society – local, national and international. As a common table bringing together institutions of governance and of moral and cultural influence, it will explore how the lingering historical injustices shape the social inequalities that have been exposed by crises of global proportions including Covid-19.

The Symposium also aims to contribute to a move towards healing and reconciling our world. It will identify solutions and concrete recommendations for how the UN and governments, in partnership with religious bodies, faith-based groups and other stakeholders, can foster an antiracist and anticolonialist society – a society based on the genuine embrace of the whole human family as one humanity, bound by the imperative of respect of every person’s dignity and inalienable worth.

Context

Racism and concomitant concerns of racial discrimination and xenophobia, colonialism and redress for historic slavery, as well as ending modern-day forms of slavery have become highly topical.

From the United Nations Security Council and Human Rights Council’s hearing from human rights and land defenders to movements against systemic injustices like Black Lives Matter to the recognition of graves of indigenous children, the world cannot ignore the history and necessity for changes in the systems that allowed and encouraged abuses to occur.

The International Decade for People of African Descent, which began in 2015, is drawing to a close. 2021 is the twentieth anniversary of the World Conference Against Racism held in Durban, South Africa. And on September 21, 2021, UN Secretary-General António Guterres submitted his report ‘Our Common Agenda’ to the General Assembly which states that “New approaches to proactively support the participation in public affairs of those who have traditionally been marginalized, including minority and indigenous groups, are also necessary.”

When it comes to addressing the lingering transgenerational traumas of slavery, several remarkable projects have seen the day, including the UNESCO project “Healing the Wounds of Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade and Slavery”. There is also the multiplication of commissions for truth and reconciliation showing unprecedented determination and global mobilization to address the scourge of racism. The upcoming Decade of Indigenous Languages (2022 – 2032) will focus on indigenous language users’ human rights. These, and many more initiatives, all provide immediate occasions for faith-based organizations to partner with UN agencies to contribute to the healing of people and the planet, and of international relations.

Shaping a just, inclusive, and sustainable future for the human family and the planet we all inhabit is a common task. Sounding a wake-up call, “Our Common Agenda” emphatically warned that “We need a pathway that protects people and the planet, allowing for sustainable development. This means broad shifts in what prosperity and progress mean, how to incentivize and measure them, and how to evaluate policies.” Addressing the intersecting pandemics and crises must be aimed at the achievement of a truly intercultural, multireligious, and pluralistic world.

Injustices have been done to real people, real nations, and the planet we share. The healing of our world and redressing the legacy of colonialism must be global, multilateral, intercultural, and multifaceted. Antiracism is a commitment to protect human rights and a sustainable future. We cannot postpone action.

Inequalities are forcing public institutions to revisit other crises that are intersecting with racism. Public discourse today is much more welcoming of a re-examination of people and institutions and their entanglement and complicity with racism, colonialism, and slavery.

Today, international institutions, governments, and religions have the historic opportunity and responsibility to address the multiplicity of injustices—local and international, global and planetary. With our heightened awareness of the intersecting character of these crises, analysed through the lens of gender, race, class, sexuality, ethnicity, and indeed of culture and religion, the time of reckoning is upon us.

Today, racism and attendant issues actively subverts our best imagination of what makes for peace and justice, for mercy and compassion, for dignity and equality. We must reverse course and redress historic grievances and forge a new future.

The self-appropriated rights to possess indigenous minds, lands and other resources have been embraced by religions and faith-based institutions embodied through policies based on manifest destiny, exceptionalism, and the Doctrine of Discovery.

Increasing signs of building a better future appear when religions, religious institutions and philosophies are unashamedly repudiating their past complicities with slavery, colonialism and racism. It is equally a sign of enlightened maturity for nations to recognize and repudiate their violent past of colonial aggressions, of abuses, and of violations of people’s human rights and the integrity of their communities.

The Symposium will address the ways in which the historic injustice of slavery, colonialism, and racism have lingered in our midst and exacerbate the many current challenges facing our world. It will explore how forms of ethnocentrism, tribalism, casteism, classism and colorism damage human relations and how such relations have been put asunder by classifications of power and supremacy, of superiority and inferiority, among human beings and their communities.

To overcome and abolish the intersecting crises brought about by slavery, racism, and colonialism, we must go beyond symptoms to the root causes. Addressing these crises, in fact, is a condition sine qua non for the healing that is desperately needed on all levels. The role of religion, as much as nation-states, in these intersecting historic and contemporary pandemics and crises are tangible.

Revisiting the various slaveries, colonialisms and racism in their historic intersections and social intersectionality will provide unique perspectives regarding how they have brought much suffering, lingering inter- and transgenerational traumas and deaths, not only of people of African descent but also indigenous peoples and peoples of color.

Antiracism must be one of the common goals in which the UN and its multilateral bodies work together on with religious and faith-based organizations.

The 2022 edition of the Annual Symposium is promoted by:
World Council of Churches
United Nations Alliance of Civilizations (UNAOC)
United Nations Office on Genocide Prevention and the Responsibility to Protect
United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA)
General Board of Church and Society, United Methodist Church
Milstein Center for Interreligious Dialogue
Islamic Relief USA
ACT Alliance
Seventh-Day Adventist Church
United Religions Initiative
Soka Gakkai International

Racism, Land, and Food

Warm greetings from Geneva!

On behalf of our colleague, Dr. Manoj Kurian, Coordinator of the Ecumenical Advocacy Alliance (EAA) of the World Council of Churches, we are happy to share with you an invitation to attend an upcoming webinar on Racism, Land, and Food.

New York, Bogota 09:00-11:00; London 14:00- 16:00; Geneva 15:00-17:00, Johannesburg 16:00-18:00, Nairobi 17:00-19:00, New Delhi 19:30-21:30, Bangkok 21:00-23:00

Objectives for the Webinar:

• Explore the intersections of food, land and racial injustice.

• Discern key lessons from initiatives and good practices that work to overcome the impact of racial injustice and inequity on food sovereignty.

• Reflect on how the Holy Scripture can assist and guide in bringing justice, dignity and rights to marginalised communities with regard to food and land

Register here: https://us02web.zoom.us/meeting/register/tZEvduGspj4iHtceXhhER9aLh9wJeRPv1hB1

Background documents: https://seafile.ecucenter.org/d/d35a42625eaf40b29c9b/

Languages: English and Spanish

Brief description:

Worldwide, communities are increasingly experiencing poverty due to severe climate changes and lack of access to fertile farmlands and the deploying of fertile farmlands for cash crop farming at the expense of food production. In fact, in many countries, especially, former colonies, the most productive farmlands are shared by the very rich, normally descendants of the colonisers/ other privileged classes and castes and some indigenous elites, while the masses continue to try to eke out a living from their inherited but tired lands that have been farmed without rest over decades if not centuries. In some instances, the rich have used their access to financial and material resources to coerce poor farmers to plant and grow cash crops for the export market at the expense of growing staple crops, however, the rewards from cash crops are great for the merchants and exporters while starving the poor farmers who are left without any significant returns from their cash crops and without food.

This webinar seeks to explore the intersection of these two injustices across the globe. It helps to consolidate the analytical, advocacy and practical resources, to explore, understand and expose the effects of the combined force of food, climate and racial injustice.

Resource persons

· Rev. Chebon Kernell, Indigenous Perspectives Executive Director, Native American Comprehensive Plan, United Methodist Church, USA

· Dr. Fransina Yoteni, Gereja Kristen Injili Di Tanah Papua (GKITP)- Evangelical Christian Church in Tanah Papua, Member of the Central Committee of the WCC, West Papua, Indonesia

· Dr. Betty Ruth Lozano Lerma, Director of Research, Fundación Universitaria Bautista (Unibautista), Colombia

· Dr. Mervyn Abrahams, Pietermaritzburg Economic Justice & Dignity Group, Republic of South Africa

· Mr. Angelious Michael, Coordinator, Partnership and Youth Desk at Jeypore Evangelical Lutheran Church, Orissa, India

· Rev. Elton Williams, Pentecostal Minister championing Food sovereignty, Antigua and Barbuda

· Dr. Angelique Walker-Smith, Senior Associate for Pan African and Orthodox Church Engagement, Bread for the World. Member of the Central Committee of the WCC, USA

Moderators: Ms. Katlego Mohuba (South Africa) & Mr. Tsiry Nantenaina (Madagascar)

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CoNGO Notes: For more information on the Committee of Religious NGOs at the United Nations, please visit rngos.wordpress.com. For more information on the NGO Committee on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, please visit facebook.com/NGOCoRIP. For more information on the NGO Committee on Social Development, please visit ngosocdev.org. For more information on the NGO Committee on Disarmament, Peace, and Security, please visit ngocdps.wordpress.com. For more information on the NGO Committee on Human Rights, please email the co-chairs at bobbinassar@gmail.com or bknotts@uua.org.