Special Meeting UN Security Council on Christians Middle East: WCA sends 3 critical recommendations
Tomorrow, 27 March, there will be a Special Meeting of the UN Security Council (UNSC), that discusses the situation of Christians and other minorities in the Middle East. The WCA sent all Members a critical letter that contains three important recommendations and called upon them "to take a leadership position" on this neglected issue. The meeting will be chaired by France who convened the meeting after repeated calls from Russia, Lebanon and the Holy See. The Patriarch of the Chaldean Catholic Church from Baghdad, His Holiness Louis Raphaël I Sako, has also been invited for a historical opportunity to address the UNSC on behalf of the endangered Christians of the Middle East.
Distinguished Members of the Security Council,
I refer to the UNSC meeting to be held on 27 March 2015 in relation to the near death of the Christians of the Middle East. Our UN NGO representation of Christians in the affected region compels us to urgently request your adoption of a clear RESOLUTION that includes the assurance of the survival of Eastern Christianity in its birthplace. To accomplish this critical aim, we make the following three (3) recommendations.
- Appoint a UN High Commissioner for or a Special Rapporteur on the threatened Christians of the Middle East to monitor their alarming and deteriorating situation in their ancient homeland. The mandate of this Office shall include meeting with representative organizations, visiting affected areas in countries such as Syria and Iraq (including refugees in Lebanon, Jordan and Turkey), the publication of letters, press releases and semi-annual progress reports as well as the hosting of public awareness events such as conferences, hearings and seminars, which aim to effectively represent the voice of the voiceless Middle Eastern Christians.
- Create a UN Fund for the threatened Christians of the Middle East. In the absence of state sponsored aid to the indigenous Christian groups in the Middle East, it is of critical importance to create a Fund that covers both humanitarian aid and development aid. Further, due to the mass exodus of the Christians in the past decades, targeted help to the diaspora communities in order to organize themselves, safeguard their endangered cultural heritage and protect their communal identity. In the case of the Aramean (Syriac) Christian people, for instance, their Aramaic mother tongue, which is widely known as the language of Jesus, is severely endangered, in their homeland as well as in their worldwide diaspora.
- Call for and observe an International Day of Solidarity with the threatened Christians of the Middle East on 7 August, the day on which in 2014 more than 160,000 Aramean Christians were uprooted overnight from their ancestral land in Mosul. Such an easy to implement proposal, as in the case of the International Day of Solidarity with the Palestinian People, will help to increase public awareness of their hitherto neglected plight. It will also enable the Christian populations to more effectively seek and obtain help from governments, who often do not dare to publicly support the persecuted Christians of the Middle East, due to known reasons.
We ask the UNSC to take a leadership position on this critical issue and look to the long term future of the indigenous Christians in the region. The World Council of Arameans (Syriacs) requests your help to ensure that the Christians remain in their homeland to continue their role as peace makers, cultural entrepreneurs and ambassadors who carry the values and ideals that were the foundation for Western civilization.
We believe that the UNSC has now the last chance to repair the broken ethno-religious mosaic of the Middle East. Otherwise, we fear that in the next decade the New Middle East will descend into a horrific battlefield between ethnic and religious groups, including Jews and Muslims in general and Sunnis and Shiites in particular.
The Aramean Christians, who are the indigenous people of Turkey, Syria, Iraq and Lebanon, look anxiously forward to the outcome of your critical meeting. We hope that you will take firm decisions and find a solution to the critical question of the survival of the endangered Christian populations in the Middle East, who continue to suffer from genocide, ethnic cleansing and other crimes against humanity.
We thank you kindly in advance for your urgent consideration and support, and remain yours sincerely.
Download the above letter in PDF
