Justice and Peace

Human Rights • Gender justice • Climate justice • Interfaith and Peace

Advocating for human rights, gender justice, climate justice, and interfaith engagement and peacebuilding

The LWF advocates for a just, peaceful, and reconciled world. The witness, voice, and decades of experience of our member churches, country programs, and communities help shape our efforts to influence policies, legislation, and decisions at different levels.

Local to global to local

Our advocacy begins with the communities we serve, connects to national and regional levels, links to global policy processes, and channels back to the national and local contexts to transform those realities. We call this our local to global to local (L2G2L) approach to advocacy.

Human rights-based

As a communion of churches deeply engaged in the humanitarian and development sectors, the LWF aims to uphold human dignity as a reliable and convincing voice. We strive to ensure human rights for all people, particularly the vulnerable and oppressed, ensuring their concerns are heard and addressed. Legal frameworks such as international human rights and humanitarian law shape our analysis and actions. This is our human rights-based approach to advocacy.

Faith-based

The Christian faith strengthens our work for justice, peace, and reconciliation. Our Christian values shape our understanding of people as bearers of the image of God and the whole of creation as a gift of which we must take care. We call this is our faith-based approach to advocacy.

The LWF works with like-minded organizations within the wider ecumenical and faith family, civil society, and peoples’ movements for maximum impact on the thematic areas of human rights, gender justice, climate justice, and interfaith and peace

The LWF delegation to the New York Climate events participated in the "Largest Climate March" in history, held 21 September, in New York City. Photo: #Fast for the Climate: Nikola Taylor

Human Rights

In all our human rights advocacy, we hold governments accountable for their human rights obligations, particularly in the context of international United Nations frameworks.

Gender justice

All people are created in God’s image as equals in rights and dignity. That is the theological concept on which gender justice is based. Gender justice recognizes and addresses systems and situations of imbalance and injustice to help transform relationships between people

Programmatic Subsites

Climate Justice

LWF’s advocacy for creation care and climate justice

Interfaith and Peace

LWF’s advocacy for peace through interfaith dialogue. Conversations among people of different faith traditions and working together contribute to mutual understanding and trust between faith communities, social communities, and nations.