Early in July, the WEA Geneva Office had the pleasure to welcome Nadia Hamberg, representing Verre Naasten, a Dutch organization partnering with the WEA Geneva office, during the UN Human Rights Council 59th regular session.
This was an opportunity for Hamberg to learn more about WEA’s active engagement for human rights and the right to freedom of religion or belief, in order to better share with churches in the Netherlands the important work that Evangelicals are doing at the United Nations in Geneva.
Verre Naasten is a Dutch mission organization that helps churches in fulfilling their desire to share Jesus’ love, supporting local churches and Christian organizations in the Netherlands and abroad that are fully engaged in mission work.
“Before I went to Geneva, I did not know that the work of WEA was so important,” said Hamberg, “and it is wonderful to see how you can make an impact and bring about change in situations where Christians live in sometimes very difficult circumstances.”
Hamberg was able to read an oral statement during the Council, on behalf of our national member, the Italian Evangelical Alliance (AEI), about religious freedom issues affecting Evangelical churches in Italy. “It opened my eyes, and I saw how important it is to give Christians a voice and a platform in the political arena,” Hamberg stated after her week experience in Geneva.
Dr. Janet Epp Buckingham, Director of the WEA Geneva Office, commented that “it is wonderful to witness the transformative experience of seeing the Human Rights Council in action. We are pleased to see that Ms. Hamberg learned a great deal about the importance of the United Nations in upholding human rights during her few days in Geneva.”
Bringing awareness to partners and increasing capacity of WEA members
“It is not always easy for our partners and national alliances to understand exactly what we do at the UN,” said Markus Hofer, WEA Communications and Advocacy Officer to the UN. “Bringing people like Ms. Hamberg to see firsthand the concrete work we do helps raise awareness of our advocacy efforts and makes the urgency and usefulness of the support that organizations like Verre Naasten and our members provide to our office more tangible, so that we can effectively amplify the voice of our evangelical brothers and sisters affected by ongoing human rights and religious freedom violations.”
The WEA also invests in training and equipping national alliance leaders for greater national-level capacity to make progress in countries where religious persecution and violations of human rights are common.
WEA’s advocacy efforts during the 59th session of the UN Human Rights Council
Our team in Geneva also had the opportunity to intervene in other debates during this Human Rights Council session, including a joint oral statement with WEA’s World Freedom Network (WFN) and the Salvation Army on human trafficking, an oral statement in collaboration with Open Doors International on religious freedom in Burundi, and a statement about religious freedom in Bolivia, in collaboration with the National Association of Evangelicals of Bolivia (ANDEB), the Observatory of Religious Freedom in Latin America (OLIRE), and the International Institute for Religious Freedom (IIRF).
An opportunity to partner with us!
WEA’s UN offices in Geneva and New York need to increase capacity to respond to the advocacy requests from our global evangelical constituency. If you are interested in becoming a partner and supporting our advocacy work, please contact us.
For donations, please visit www.worldea.org/donate where you may choose the option of donating to Global Advocacy.
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