6 November 2021, Glasgow, Scotland, United Kingdom: A woman carries a sign reading 'Our Children deserve a future', as tens of thousands of people - including environmental groups, children, youth, charities, climate activists, trade unionists and indigenous people - march through Glasgow city centre on Saturday, calling for climate justice and for world leaders to address the climate emergency. Glasgow hosts the United Nations climate change conference COP26, where world leaders gather to negotiate a response to the ongoing climate crisis and emergency. Photo: Albin Hillert/Life on Earth A symposium on "Securing People’s Wellbeing and Planetary Sustainability” will be held 24 January. The 2023 symposium is the ninth of its kind, all related to the role of religion and faith-based organizations in international affairs. Organized by the World Council of Churches (WCC) and a variety of other faith-based partners, the symposium, an online event, will open with a high-level panel consisting of a UN official, faith-based representative, and member state. A moderator will introduce the theme of the symposium, both in the context of the history of the symposium and the urgency and saliency of the current theme. Speakers will explore how inequalities unraveled by the COVID-19 pandemic and varied forms of human-induced activities, especially climate change, illustrate the urgency of revisiting the nexus between people’s needs, wellbeing, physical integrity, and human dignity and the planet’s sustainability and ecological integrity. Discussions will lay bare a variety of existential threats to human and planetary security. This symposium will explore how to better address these threats and more through the discourse and practice of faith-based organizations and partners in the UN system, including member states, civil society actors, and other international and regional organizations committed to human and people’s security. The event will present grassroots perspectives, experiences and voices from the ground that will give evidence to what makes them secure or insecure and therefore what needs to be done. The concluding session will feature speakers from all of the symposium entities–faith-based groups, UN system, governments– who will provide key ideas about what needs to be done next. This session is envisioned to inspire action and impart a strong call for collaboration and partnership on the key learnings from the symposium. The WCC’s participation in the promotion of all editions of the symposium is facilitated by the Ecumenical Office to the United Nations, the WCC and ACT Alliance’s focal point for advocacy initiatives at the United Nations headquarters in New York City. Registration link Learn more about the 2023 edition of the symposium SSOURCE>WCC |