The way
of
the cross

Religious freedom was a particular WCC concern in the early years. But the churches came increasingly to see all human rights as indivisible. In many places churches have been active and effective defenders of people's rights; and the WCC has offered them an international platform for this advocacy.

An intense and focused engagement by the WCC in defending human rights came in the 1970s, when military dictatorships replaced civilian governments all over Central and South America. Much of the world turned a blind eye to the abuses by these totalitarian regimes; indeed, in the climate of the cold war, they were sometimes even supported as an alternative to communism.

The WCC's Human Rights Resource Office for Latin America worked tirelessly to support courageous efforts by churches and related groups to protect the victims and sustain the forces of liberation.

This experience was on the minds of the delegates to the Vancouver assembly when they made their statement on human rights:

We have moved beyond mere reflection to concrete engagement in human rights struggles. In doing so we have discovered how difficult and painful it is to cope with human rights and their violations. We have found that in promoting the rights of women, youth, children and disabled persons, the churches need to examine and often alter their own structures and methods of operation. In struggling for justice many Christians are experiencing the way of the cross.