This Library contains documents from all recent United Church governance meetings, including General Council and its Executive. It will also soon include “Our Beliefs Explained” official policy documents dating back several decades. If you can't find something you think should be included, contact gcbusiness@united-church.ca.
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The 1979 Annual General Meeting of the DWO (Division of World Outreach) moved that a statement on human rights be prepared for presentation to the 28th General Council. The statement is presented for endorsement by the General Council.
Notwithstanding many international efforts toward securing peace with justice in the Middle East and creating a better understanding of the issues, there has been no significant progress towards a just settlement of the problems in the Middle East since the General Council last met in 1974. The Geneva Conference has not reconvened at the time of writing. The Arab States and the Palestinians continue to regard the Palestine Liberation Organization as the only legal representative of the Palestinians, and Israel remains adamant in its refusal to sit in a Conference with the PLO.
THEREFORE BE IT RESOLVED: 1 THAT this General Council reaffirm the stated opposition of the United Church to, “…the testing and use of nuclear weapons anywhere in the world as being a miscarriage of man’s stewardship for human life, the earth and the resources of creation as revealed in Christ”;
WHEREAS the United Nations Charter is revised every ten years; and WHEREAS it is the conviction of this Committee that the government of Canada should be lending all possible support to reform of the UN Charter and the more effective working of the United Nations in the pursuit of world peace:
WHEREAS conditions in the Middle East have continued to deteriorate, the numbers of homeless and their suffering have increased, the threat of major war continues, and the chief hope for settlement and peace still seems to be in the implementation of action of the U.N. Security Council by Resolution 242, unanimously adopted on November 22nd, 1967, which Affirms that the fulfilment of Charter principles requires the establishment of a just and lasting peace in the Middle East which should include the application of both the following principles: Withdrawal of Israeli armed forces from territories occupied in the recent conflict; Termination of all claims or states of belligerency and respect for and acknowledgement of the sovereignty, territorial integrity and political independence of every State in the area and their right to live in peace within secure and recognized boundaries free from threats and acts of force; and Affirms further the necessity for guaranteeing freedom of navigation through international waterways in the area; achieving a just settlement of the refugee problem;
