WCC News: Justapaz shares peace-building work in Colombia

Justapaz—the Mennonite Christian Association for Justice, Peace and Non-violent Actions—shared with the World Council of Churches (WCC) an overview of its work related to peace-building in Colombia. Martin Nates, director of Justapaz, and Diana Archilla, lawyer and coordinator of the Peace & Reconciliation Programme of Justapaz, met with WCC general secretary Rev. Prof. Dr Jerry Pillay, WCC progamme director for Public Witness and Diakonia Rev. Dr Kenneth Mtata and director of the WCC Commission of the Churches on International Affairs Peter Prove at the Ecumenical Centre in Geneva. Photo: Grégoire de Fombelle/WCC 11 October 2023 Martin Nates, director of Justapaz, and Diana Archilla, lawyer and coordinator of the Peace & Reconciliation Programme of Justapaz, met with WCC general secretary Rev. Prof. Dr Jerry Pillay, as well as other WCC staff, and also met with Colombian Ambassador H.E. Gustavo Gallon at the Ecumenical Centre.  “We have been working for 30 years with evangelical and Christian churches, and social movements, to promote peace, human rights, and access to justice,” explained Nates.  The Justapaz team presented a video that portrayed testimonies and voices of church leaders and organizations related to Justapaz’s work in peace-building. Justapaz also supports the prevention of forced disappearances, working with churches in 35 different territories of  Colombia.  Archilla described the humanitarian aspect of Justapaz’s work. “There was a bilateral ceasefire from the government with some of the armed groups, but those groups don’t carry out those bilateral ceasefires amongst themselves, so that leads to attacks between them—with the population being in the middle,” she said. In addition, young men are often forcibly displaced, she added.  “When you are 18 years old, the state obligates men to carry out their military service, so this leads to a situation in which that young person cannot return to his territory because the armed group says he’s working with the state and not with them—and therefore he is forcibly displaced,” said Archilla.  Pillay shared with Justapaz details on how the WCC, with the Colombian Episcopal Conference, United Nations Mission in Colombia, and Organization of American States, has been appointed as a permanent accompanier for peace talks with the Estado Mayor Central (EMC) FARC-EP in Colombia. Photos of the visit of Justapaz to the WCC See more

The World Council of Churches promotes Christian unity in faith, witness and service for a just and peaceful world. An ecumenical fellowship of churches founded in 1948, today the WCC brings together 352 Protestant, Orthodox, Anglican and other churches representing more than 580 million Christians in over 120 countries, and works cooperatively with the Roman Catholic Church. The WCC general secretary is Rev. Prof. Dr Jerry Pillay from the Uniting Presbyterian Church in Southern Africa. Media contact: +41 79 507 6363; www.oikoumene.org/press Our visiting address is: World Council of Churches 150 route de Ferney Geneve 2 1211 Switzerland