Activities on Justice and Peace promotion

The Ethiopian Catholic Church has been promoting justice and peace at the national level and in the country through 10 diocesan settings by raising awareness on the issues of human rights, ethnicity, conflict and conflict management and transformation, and reconciliation. 

Major Activities accomplished so far by the justice & peace Coordination Office of ECS

·         Establishment and formation of Justice and Peace Desks in all diocesan secretariats. At present there are 11 justice and peace activities coordinating offices in all 10 diocesan secretariats, where Archdioceses of Addis Ababa has two branch offices.

·         Awareness raising training on basic and specific human rights for community leaders, religious leaders, government officials at different administrative regions,

·         Promotion of Catholic Social Teaching for clergy, religious men and women, laity, formation of justice and peace clubs in the catholic and government schools,

·         Extensive training on peace building and conflict resolution for communities, government officials, prison administrators,

·         Consultation meeting with secretaries general, CMRS representatives and bishops for guidelines as to how to proceed with the justice and peace initiatives by overcoming the challenges of repressive government (New Legislation)

·         Collaborative effort with other religious groups in the country: Networking and formation of consultative forums, conducting joint workshops for different religious members,

·         Effort of integration of justice and peace initiatives with other areas of the Church’s commitment to serve the society.

·         Development of strategic planning (2007-2011) for justice and peace unit.

However, the following are areas which need due consideration and timely address at present:

Ø  Tension between different religions, Christians and Muslims,

Ø  Low level of awareness on basic concepts of human rights, economic justice, rights and responsibilities,

Ø  Lack of instruction on the Catholic Social Teachings and permanent values and principles enshrined in it,

Ø  Address ethnic issues and ethnic politicization which has rendered difficulty to address issues of human rights and promotion of social justice,

Ø  Power struggle and corruption has left the poor and marginalized members of society more vulnerable,

Ø  Cultural values  degradation => moral authority of the Church is less considered,

Ø  The effect of globalization and global community => risks of conflict through bickering along ethnic line,

Ø  Semblance “democratization” process has left majority at risk,

Ø  Formation of leadership within the Church, community and in the country at large,

Strategy of Implementation

v  Consultation workshop on the purpose and concept of Justice and peace within the Church,

v  Awareness raising through training, seminars and workshops

v   Build the peace building capacity of community elders to play a leading role in the process of conflict transformation within their respective communities,

v  Build the peace building capacity of the local government officials that they may be accountable, transparent, just and fair in process of building civilized democratic society,

v  Train the legal bodies, law enforcement bodies and prison officials on human rights respect,

v  Train the community representatives, law enforcement bodies on early warning and early response mechanism,

v  Train religious leaders on the importance of reconciliation through Justice and peace

v  Establishing networking relationship with and among Diocesan Catholic Secretariat and faith-based organization who engaged in conflict transformation and reconciliation

v  Promoting traditional structure of conflict resolution mechanism through training of community leaders,

v  Spread out the Social Teaching of the Church at the community level in all the dioceses and in the schools, seminaries and formation houses through designing curriculum 

v  Enhance inter-diocesan and intera-diocesan networking to share experiences and information in relation to justice and peace and human rights issues

v  Lobby and advocacy

Major Achievements and Impacts

v Established  Justice and Peace clubs in various parishes, Catholic Schools and in some Universities

v  Established partnership with faith based organizations

v  The Justice and Peace program activities are recognized by the Civil Authority

v  Established good relationship with the government at the Federal and Regional levels to collaborate on Conflict transformation and human rights respect

v  Raised awareness on the fundamental values of reconciliation through Justice and Peace within community and Religious leaders, and government officials of various dioceses,

v  Increased participation of the government officials in promotion of human rights respect in various jurisdiction of the Church.   

v  The rights of minority improved which shows some hopeful indicators such as: attending Holy mass within the same Church, Children start to go to the same school, play together, eat together, elders site side by side to discuss common issues etc.

v  Built the capacity of Justice and Peace coordinators of Various Diocesan Secretariat on peace building on Conflict transformation and analysis, and role of the Church in Reconciliation in view of promoting human rights respect.

v  Increased community participation in the process of peace building for better transformation of community at the grass-root level.

v  Produced modules on Human rights, Catholic Social Teaching and Peace building in local languages

Impacts

v  Reduced litigation due to continuous awareness raising on the values of human dignity and human rights issues and alternative dispute resolution mechanism though the intervention of community elders, 

v  Reduced early marriage through active intervention of teachers and community participation on the importance of education for development ,

v  Reduced the degree of discrimination of minority groups through active participation of religious leaders, teachers and government officials,

v  Traditional conflict resolution mechanism strengthened and appreciated to resolve the conflict at the grass root level,

v  Justice and Peace clubs that were established in various Catholic School become the protagonist of the development of culture of peace, dialogue and mutual recognition and respect within the school and respective communities

Limitations

The recent diocesan needs assessment for the purpose of strategic planning process has revealed that there are capacity limitations in the areas of financial, human and material resources to address the justice and peace issues sufficiently. In addition to these, the following issues also need to be given appropriate consideration:

Ø  Fear of implication with present political situation in the country,

Ø  Insufficient knowledge/ experience in the field of J&P and Social Teaching of the Church. As a result possible conflicts of interest from some clergy, sisters and laity.

Ø  Difficulty to match priority of the Church with the priority and requirement of donors,

Ø  Lack of integration of pastoral with social and development activities of the church,

Ø  Not clearly addressing the priorities,

Ø  New Civil Society and Charity (NGO) legislation as a threat, though there is no clear indication of its application to the church organization.

Future Strategies and Foreseen Plans

In order to address the promotion of social justice in the community, the Church considers the following agenda as priority areas to focus on:

Ø  Promotion of social justice in view of promoting integral human development ,

Ø  Address violation of human rights in due time,

Ø  Strive to eradicate all forms of injustices which would block the development of human person,

Ø  Ensure democracy and good governance through extensive awareness creation programs,

Ø  Inculcate in society permanent values and principles of CST, (=> principles and values for Democratization process)

Ø  Promote peace and reconciliation between different ethnic, religious, and political groups,

Ø  Empowerment of civil society - and devolution of power,

Ø  Create tolerance and peaceful coexistence among different ethnic groups to enhance solidarity among local community,

Ø  Promote the right to life and other fundamental human rights,

Ø  Advocate for the provision of equal access to resources as to ensure economic justice and equality,

Ø  Introduce justice and peace and catholic social teaching in the curriculum of seminaries, and schools,

Ø  Promote and support the initiatives of justice, peace, human rights, development of civic education, and governance issues at all levels by making the Church's position clear, (=>Pastoral letters of the Bishops etc..)

Ø  Re-emphasize civic education and teaching on moral values and human rights in ECC programs, (=>at all levels)

Ø  Capacity building for promotion of transparent, efficient and result oriented leadership and management style in the Church and society at large,

Ø  Integrate social development and pastoral activities; make the social teaching of the Church known to all.

Address: 

                        Ethiopian Catholic Secretariat
                        P.O.Box 2454
                        Addis Ababa, Ethiopia
                        Tel:  (251) 111 55 03 00
                        Fax: (251) 111 55 31 13
                        e-mail: ecs@ethionet.et

This page was last updated on 10/10/2009