World Day Against the Death Penalty Petition

Got an email from Amnesty International Australia today...

"Today, Wednesday 10 October, is World Day Against the Death Penalty.

In the coming weeks the UN General Assembly will vote on a Moratorium on
capital punishment. Over 20,000 people worldwide are awaiting execution by their
own governments. Amnesty International takes a consistent and principled stance
against the death penalty, and continuously campaign for unconditional reversal
of every sentence.

We believe that human rights are inalienable and belong to everyone
regardless of their ethnicity, religion or status.

Now is a time for a worldwide end to capital punishment. Sign the petition to Abolish the Death Penalty. "

Let's remember to stand up for justice.

International Women's Day

Celebrate International Women's day by:

1. Showing the women in your life how much you love and appreciate them; and



2. Support Amnesty International's Stop Violence Against Women campaign.

Wilberforce abolished slavery... or did he?

With Amazing Grace in the cinemas in America, there are some great articles emerging about slavery. The article Free at last on Christianity Today.com is truely worth a read. Here are some snippets...

Two hundred years after William Wilberforce campaigned to abolish the slave trade within the British Empire, slavery continues. Experts estimate there are 27 million slaves worldwide today, probably more than at any time in human history. About 17,000 are trafficked annually into the United States.
"They are not slaves in a metaphorical sense," notes International Justice Mission founder Gary Haugen. "They are held in forced servitude by other human beings."

Modern-day slave trading, called human trafficking, funnels slaves into two types of forced servitude: sex and labor.

Between the 1700s and 1860s, lawmakers banned slave trade and ownership in Europe and the Americas. In 1948, the United Nations condemned it in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. Worldwide, many Christians have considered the victory complete and have found other causes to champion. The laws, however, merely drove slavery underground, and some nations do not enforce existing laws.
Modern slavery thrives through deception and secrecy. Traffickers lure millions of victims through lies, fraud, and coercion. A trafficker may offer to smuggle someone into a nation for legitimate work, such as becoming a waitress or nanny. Later, the unsuspecting target discovers the evil bait-and-switch: The actual labor is sinister and exploitive, with no pay, insane hours, and physical brutality. By then, escape is nearly impossible. Traffickers confiscate passports.
They relocate captives where they cannot speak the local language. In one infamous case, police caught traffickers after they had enslaved 1,000 mute or deaf Mexicans, whom they had lured into the U.S. to beg.
Traffickers instill hopelessness through violence and death threats against the slave or his or her family members. Bribed law enforcement officials look the other way.
Bonded labor is another ancient form of slavery that survives. Also known as "debt bondage," it is rampant in certain parts of Asia. A loan shark or trafficker lends money to someone who works at a very low wage to pay it back. The debt may not be paid off for decades and can be passed along to family members, sometimes enslaving generations.

Read the full article here.

Small Groups study on poverty & justice

I found this on the Catalyst website. I am considering using it for my small group from church if they are keen...

Small Group Studies
Interested in getting a discussion going on global justice and advocacy? Then why not try our discussion guides?
A Time to Speak
This four part guide will help participants explore what it means to build their lives around God's heart for a just world and recover the prophetic vocation of calling on leaders to enact justice. The format is four articles that are read and then discussed. Both the articles and the discussion questions are provided.

Get into it! :)