A recent statement also condemns extrajudicial killings
by the World Council of Churches | Special to Presbyterian News Service
Photo by Sam Balye via Unsplash
“The family members of the thousands killed under the previous Duterte administration are still working for justice and accountability but have few legal options in local and national courts,” reads a World Council of Churches statement on the human rights situation in the Philippines.
The recent statement goes on to condemn “in the strongest possible terms the extrajudicial killings and other grave human rights violations being committed in the Philippines, and calls upon the government of the Philippines to take all necessary measures to stop these violations, to uphold human rights, to ensure that impartial investigations are carried out to hold perpetrators accountable, and to engage seriously and constructively with the three-year United Nations Joint Programme on Human Rights in the Philippines.”
The WCC’s central committee, which includes the Rev. Dr. Neal D. Presa, Moderator of the 220th General Assembly (2012) of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.), also expressed its condolences to the families of the victims, especially to the families of church workers, pastors, and priests who have been among the victims of extrajudicial killings.
The statement affirms the National Council of Churches in the Philippines, member churches, and ecumenical partners of the WCC, and other faith-based organizations and religious workers, “for their courageous work with and for the poor in the face of violent opposition” and supports their call for the government and the National Democratic Front of the Philippines … to “resume the formal peace negotiations and to address the root causes of the armed conflict.”
The WCC central committee usually meets every two years and serves as the chief governing body of the WCC between assemblies. This year’s meeting is the first since the central committee was elected at the WCC 11th Assembly in Karlsruhe, Germany, in 2022.
Read the entire statement by the central committee of the World Council of Churches on the human rights situation in the Philippines here.
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