AMECEA Justice and Peace is a Department within the larger AMECEA which is an acronym for Association of Member Episcopal Conferences in Eastern Africa.This is a Catholic Bishops' organization that was started way back in 1961 for the purposes of solidarity and collaboration in common pastoral matters. The scope of the Association covers Kenya, Uganda, Tanzania, Ethiopia, Eritrea, Sudan, Malawi and Zambia. Through this structure, the bishops of this region have addressed various issues affecting the lives of our people that include and not limited to, health, education, governance, poverty and other social problems.
In response to the above challenges, the Fathers of AMECEA have over time been putting in place structures that would specifically handle the above concerns.
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| Chairman of AMECEA Justice and Peace Desk, Rt. Rev. Martin Mtumbuka |
AMECEA’S
JP VISION
Goal
To
promote Justice and Peace in the society and to work towards change of unjust
structures, as an integral part of evangelization.
Mandate
of Justice and Peace
1. To
Gather and disseminate information on Justice and Peace issues affecting the
region, monitoring and analyzing these issues at AMECEA level as well as
establishing points of engagement with relevant regional/international
institutions/bodies for lobby and advocacy.
2.To
empower AMECEA JP Commissions by providing information on relevant Justice and
Peace issues in the region.
3.To
create links with regional and international institutions/bodies
that has common concerns on Justice and Peace issues.
4.Organizing
AMECEA Justice and Peace workshops on selected regional thematic areas.
AMECEA
Justice and Peace, a “desk” within the Pastoral Department, is inspired by the
Gospel values and the Social Teaching of the Church; committed to the promotion
of justice, respect of human dignity and integrity of all creation through:-
1 Evangelization
2 Peace Building
3 Witnessing
4 Formation and Training
5 Research
6 Advocacy
7 Conscientization
8
Dialogue
- For God’s people especially the poor and the marginalized (Luke 4: 16-19)
Aims of Justice and Peace Desk
To
promote the commitment of the Church towards justice and peace in society as an
integral dimension of the evangelising mission of the Church in the AMECEA
countries.
To
recommend the implementation of just structures within the society and the
Church that would promote the social thought and action of the Church.
To
collaborate with other institutions committed to work for the transformation of
society, so that God’s kingdom and His plan for the world can become a reality.
Goals
·
To
gather and exchange information with other groups and commission within AMECEA
region working for justice and peace.
·
To
make analysis of AMECEA regional situations, developments and issues relevant
to justice and peace.
·
To
promote capacity building at national, diocesan and institutional level through
workshops and sessions and to encourage establishment of Justice and Peace
structures.
·To
build up solidarity among AMECEA countries by supporting justice and peace
commissions to engage in lobbying on issues of concern of within the member
countries.
·To
enhance commitment in common actions and stronger collaboration that will
strengthen networking within national, religious justice and peace commission
and with other international justice and peace groups outside the Africa
region.
·To
encourage the introduction of Justice and Peace programs in the formation of
the clergy, religious and the laity in the formation houses of religious
congregations and Christian formation to enhance the commitment towards justice
and peace.
Objectives
1.To see a well
established justice and peace desk at national and diocesan level of all AMECEA
countries.
2.To fulfill the
goals and aims of the AMECEA justice and peace.
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| AMECEA Justice and Peace Coordinator, Rev. Fr. Jude Waweru |
A Brief Historical Background
The Pontifical Commission of Justice and Peace (JP)
was created by Pope Paul VI in 1967 after the VAT II as a need to promote the
ideals and the values of social justice and world peace. The particular work of
the office can be divided into two phases. The first one starts with the
creation of the commission in 1967 to 1976 when Motu Proprio Justitium et Pacem was published. This
period was characterized by a phenomenal growth of national JP Commissions
especially in Latin America, Western Europe, North America, US and Canada; a bit less in Asia and Africa with an
exception of South Africa.
Initially these commissions operated in consultation with the pontifical
commission but overtime, national commissions were responding to their local
social needs. This trend made the commissions carry out their activities with
little if any reference to the pontifical Commission.
The second phase is marked by the
call to the local commissions by Pope John Paul II to collaborate more with the
pontifical commission in JP activities. In his Apostolic Constitution of 1988,
Pope John Paul II reorganized the Commission by putting it under the Roman
Curia. Further, it was to relate to particular churches through the National
Episcopal Conferences. Social Doctrine of the Church was placed at the heart of
Justice and Peace work. The then Undersecretary of the Pontifical Commission Rev.Roger
Heckel S.J wrote to the Episcopal Conferences asking them to deepen their
direct relationship with the office for the benefit of local churches. To date,
Justice and Peace commissions at different levels of the Church work in
collaboration with Pontifical Commission drawing insights from Gospel message
of Jesus Christ and the lived experience of the Church’s teaching magisterium,
a ‘true expert in humanity”
Consistent to the above spirit, African Bishops in
their message of the 12th SECAM Plenary Assembly (October 2000)
committed themselves to work for justice in society and in the Church
structures. They also made an appeal to the African and International
communities to commit themselves to strive for Justice and Peace, and to stop
the exploitation and domination of the African people. Faithful to this call the
AMECEA JP Desk was formed to make reality this commitment in society and in the
Church. In February 2002, the AMECEA
Justice and Peace Desk was established at the AMECEA secretariat under
the Pastoral Department.
AMECEA JUSTICE AND PEACE STRUCTURES
AMECEA
(Association of Member Episcopal Conferences in Eastern Africa) Justice and
Peace is a Desk under the Pastoral Department of AMECEA whose Secretariat is in
Nairobi, Kenya. AMECEA is a service
organization for the National Episcopal Conferences of the eight countries of
Eastern Africa, namely Eritrea,
Ethiopia, Kenya, Malawi,
Sudan, Tanzania, Uganda
and Zambia.
Somalia and Djibouti are
affiliate members.
As such,
AMECEA Justice and Peace is the regional office coordinating all the national
Justice and Peace Commissions of the above mentioned countries. These national
Commissions have been able to lobby their respective Governments through
pastoral letters written annually by the Bishops. Some Commissions (Uganda and Zambia) have also established a
Parliamentary Liaison Desk to particularly lobby their Government.
The national
Commissions in turn coordinate the Diocesan Justice and Peace Commissions who
are in-charge of Justice and Peace issues in their respective Dioceses. These
in turn coordinate the activities of the Parish Justice and Peace Commissions
which have been established in all the Dioceses. At the grassroots level, Small
Christian Communities serve the local needs of the Church.
AMECEA is a
member of SECAM (Symposium of Episcopal Conferences of Africa and Madagascar) and
is one of the ten regions of SECAM. The other regions are;
- Association of Episcopal Conferences of Central Africa (ACEAC) which serves Rwanda, Burundi and Congo – Zaire. Its head office is at Kinshasa, Democratic Republic of Congo.
- Association of Episcopal Conferences of the Region of Central Africa (ACERAC) serving Congo, Central Africa, Chad, Cameroon, Equatorial Guinea, Gabon. Its head office is at Brazzaville, Republic of Congo.
- Association of Episcopal Conferences of Anglophone West Africa (AECAWA) which covers Gambia, Ghana, Liberia, Nigeria and Sierra Leone. Its headquarters are in Abuja, Nigeria.
- Assembly of Catholic Hierarchy of Egypt which covers Egypt and Oriental Church in Africa. It is headquartered in Cairo, Egypt.
- Episcopal Conference of the Indian Ocean (French Speaking) (CEDOI) which serves Agalega, Chagos, Comoros, Mauritius, Reunion, Rogrigues, and the Seychelles.
- Regional Episcopal Conferences of West Africa (French Speaking) (CERAO). It serves Burkina Faso, Benin, Ivory Coast, Guinea, Mali, Mauritania, Niger, Senegal, Togo and Cape Verde. It is headquartered in Cote d’Ivoire.
- Regional Episcopal Conferences of North Africa (CERNA) covers Algeria, Tunisia, Morroco and Libya. Its headquarters are in Alger – Gare, Algeria.
- Inter-Regional Meeting of Bishops of Southern Africa (IMBISA) covers Angola, Botswana, Lesotho, Namibia, Mozambique, South Africa, Swaziland, Zimbabwe, Sao Tome and Principe. Its headquarters are in Harare, Zimbabwe.
- Episcopal Conference of Madagascar which specifically serves Madagascar.
SECAM also
has a Justice, Peace and Development Department which coordinates various
activities of the JP Regional offices. Some of the areas being focused on at
the continental level are; lobby against bad government policies, economic
issues e.g. external debt and the Economic Partnership Agreements (EPAs).
