COE (Communiqués de presse), Switzerland
Council of Europe
Oct 2 2007

THE INTERNATIONAL RESPONSIBILITY TO PROTECT PEOPLE AT RISK APPLIES TO
DARFUR, WCC EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE SAYS

There is an "international responsibility to protect people at risk
in the Darfur region of Sudan and in neighbouring Chad," affirmed the
World Council of Churches (WCC) executive committee, calling upon the
Councils member churches to bring that responsibility "to the
attention of their governments".

In a "Minute on Darfur" approved at its 25-28 September meeting in
Etchmiadzin, Armenia, "where [a] genocide [that happened] nearly a
century ago still casts a deep shadow," the WCC governing body
encouraged the Councils member churches to "provide humanitarian aid
to Darfur through Action by Churches Together (ACT) International and
to hold its people in their prayers".

According to the United Nations, in Sudans Darfur region, more than
200,000 people have been killed, more than 2.5 million driven from
their homes to live in camps, and more than 4 million directly
affected by the conflict. The violence has spread across the border
into neighbouring Chad.

Since July 2004, ACT International and Caritas Internationalis have
put in place a joint Darfur Emergency Response Operation. This
initiative has channelled resources from some 60 Catholic,
Protestant, and Orthodox organisations and their back-donors from
around the world into one of the largest humanitarian programs in
South and West Darfur, delivering essential services over a long
period to several hundred thousand people.

The WCC executive committee based its recommendation to the Councils
member churches on an emerging international norm affirmed by the WCC
9th Assembly in February 2006. Known as "responsibility to protect,"
the norm sets a new standard of protection for civilians when a state
cannot or will not protect them. It defines state sovereignty in
terms of duties and obligations for the well being of civilians
rather than as an absolute power, and does not exclude – but limits –
the use of force in protective interventions for humanitarian
purposes.

Full text of the WCC executive committee Minute on Darfur:

ACT Caritas Darfur Emergency Response Operation:
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WCC and the "responsibility to protect":