As people flee places torn by war and strife and scramble for refuge in more secure European countries, churches, migrants and advocates will seize this kairos moment to gather together for the 6th International Consultation of the Churches Witnessing With Migrants (CWWM) in Istanbul, Turkey. The consultation will take place before the 8th Global Forum on Migration and Development (GFMD) as an alternative people’s voice.
The CWWM Istanbul consultation will be held on October 10-11 (Consultation proper) and October 12-13 (finalization of documents and strategy sessions for informing the CWWM members’ participation in the Civil Society Days of the GFMD). The consultation will provide a venue to “think and act together” using the CWWM framework, and collectively as a tripartite structure (of migrants, migrant-serving organizations, and church and ecumenical institutions). It will also be an occasion to discuss the policies of migrant/refugee destination countries against the justice and development principles of CWWM. The Istanbul consultation will aim at developing strategies, mechanisms and protocols, on how migrants, migrant-serving organizations, and church and ecumenical institutions, respond to the urgent life and death situations facing forced migrants.
The consultation will further challenge churches to heighten both their acts of justice and acts of mercy. Acts of mercy include the significant role that the churches take in providing emergency and humanitarian assistance to forced migrants. Acts of justice involves the churches advocating for structural and systemic change, including acts of solidarity with migrants and refugees, raising their prophetic voices, and challenge the walls and fences that restrict freedom of movement.
The Churches Witnessing With Migrants (CWWM) is an international platform for common advocacy of migrants, migrant advocates, churches and ecumenical bodies. CWWM believes that migrants are human beings who cannot be reduced to mere commodities to be traded and exchanged in the global market. It affirms that freedom of movement of peoples is a human right and that forced migration is a violation of basic human rights. It works for development justice as a general framework for advocacy. The NCCP and Migrante International, who compose the secretariat, initially conceived the CWWM. From the initial consultations held successively in Manila, Athens, and Mexico, and subsequent larger gatherings for the fourth international consultation in New York (2013) and fifth consultation in Stockholm, Sweden (2014) the participation in CWWM has significantly grown.
The National Council of Churches in the Philippines will be represented by Mr. Mervin Sol H. Toquero, the Acting Program Secretary of the Program Unit on Faith, Witness and Service, and Ms. Jimarie Snap Mabanta. They will be joined by Ms. Rina Anastacio of Migrante International, who is also part of the secretariat. Around 40 participants will join the consultation coming from South and Southeast Asia, the Middle East, Europe, Africa, South, Central, and North America.
