Weekly Action - 18 September 2023 - UN General Assembly

 

UN General Assembly

This Tuesday 19 September the High-Level Segment of the UN General Assembly begins.  This is the time every year when leaders from countries around the world travel to New York to take part in debates over the global issues of the day.  A major priority this year for many will be the state of democracy around the world.  Democracy has faced significant pressures in recent years.  The growing threat and influence of authoritarian states like Russia and China looms large on the international scene.  And many traditionally democratic countries like the US, UK, Brazil, Hungary and multiple others have taken worrying moves recently towards more authoritarian tendencies.  Protecting, strengthening and spreading democracy has never been more important. 

 

The importance of democracy

One of the key areas that a major report from Arise, The Arise Manifesto, looks at in detail is what standards for democracy, human rights and good governance countries should have, and what works best to bring them about.  As Christians, we read in the Bible how God wants all governments, everywhere, to rule well, with justice, fairness, impartiality and integrity (Arise Manifesto, pg 79 – 85).  As Jeremiah the prophet said, “Hear the word of the LORD to you, king of Judah, you who sits on David’s throne – you, your officials and your people who come through these gates.  This is what the LORD says: Do what is just and right.  Rescue from the hand of the oppressor the one who has been robbed.  Do no wrong or violence to the foreigner, the fatherless or the widow, and do not shed innocent blood in this place.” (Jer 2: 2 – 3)  In our modern world, democracy has been one of the most effective ways of making sure this Biblical principle is put into practice.  Democracies have a much better track-record of governing well and effectively with justice, and good standards of human rights, civil liberties and basic freedoms than autocratic states do (Arise Manifesto, pg 102 – 108). 

 

Reform Movements

Where dramatic improvements in democracy, good governance and human rights have occurred, they have overwhelmingly been the result of mass, peaceful, grassroots movements of people putting pressure on their governments to reform (Arise Manifesto, pg 108 – 119).  Movements like the one we are currently witnessing in Iran (the focus of this week’s Arise weekly blog).  For over a year courageous young people have paid a high price to put enormous pressure on the regime for greater freedoms, human rights and democracy following the tragic death of young Masha Amini, who died in custody after being arrested by Iran’s notorious morality police for wearing her headscarf too loosely.  In recent decades peaceful reform movements have had dramatic success in Serbia, Madagascar, Georgia, Ukraine, Lebanon, Nepal, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, East Germany, Slovenia, Mali, Bolivia, the Philippines, Zambia, South Korea, Chile, Argentina, Haiti, Brazil, Uruguay, Malawi, Thailand, Bulgaria, Hungary, Nigeria, and many other countries.  Of course such movements require great courage and perseverance from those involved.  They are not guaranteed to succeed every time.  But overwhelmingly the power of ordinary people peacefully refusing to submit is remarkable.

 

Christians at the heart of Reform Movements

Throughout history, Christians and churches have played a hugely important central role in such reform movements (Arise Manifesto, pg 283 – 303).  They have worked well alongside journalists, academics, activists, students, trade unions and others in the movement.  Supporting such bottom-up Reform Movements (and the Christians that are so often at the heart of them) is one of three key focus campaigns for Arise. 

This week will you take action as part of Arise’s Reform Movements campaign, to support brave democracy and human rights activists in countries all around the world?

 

Take Action

Speak out in advocacy

Contact the Foreign Secretary James Cleverly via social media.  Ask him to ensure that the UK scales up support for pro-democracy and human rights reform movements around the world, in the ways that those movements want.  This might involve spotlighting and publicly condemning specific incidents, diplomatic pressure, targeted sanctions, recovering and returning stolen national assets, travel bans for regime members, offering asylum for activists who have had to flee, or multiple other actions.

Pray

Pray for protection and peace for those who continue to bravely demand human rights, greater freedom, democracy and change, in countries around the world, day after day.  Pray for the Christians amongst them who are playing their part.  Pray for change and reform, for governments that are truly democratic and respect all human rights.

Give

Give to Christian organisations like International Justice Mission, and to secular groups like Freedom House, Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch, who are doing crucial work protecting human rights globally.

Practical Action

Get involved in the decision-making by joining a political party, and in due course running for office at local or even national level.  Use your position within that party to advocate for support for Reform Movements and other policies that establish social justice, eliminate poverty, restore the environment and build God’s Kingdom.

Ethical Consumption

Try and avoid buying products and services from companies whose operations (inadvertently or not) are helping to prop up unjust regimes.  Check out the Ethical Consumer website for guidance on this.

 

Encourage us and others by letting us know what actions you have taken – message us at info@ariseuk.org, or via Twitter, Instagram or Facebook.

 

Find out more

It’s great to take this action as individual Christians, but even better to come together with others to pray, discuss, worship, learn, have fun and take action together.  Contact Arise if you are interested in joining or starting a local Arise group in your church or area.  If you are already in an Arise group, take this action to your wider church, and get them all to do it too.

Find out more in the Arise Manifesto, Arise’s big picture, researched, Biblical, holistic and practical vision for a better world.  It looks at what the Bible says, and what we can learn from the best data and the world’s leading experts on the five major areas of evangelism, discipleship, social justice, development and the environment.  It then draws these lessons together into a practical road map for the changes we need to see in our world, which the Arise movement campaigns to achieve.

Found this action online, or sent it by a friend?  Sign up to receive weekly actions from Arise directly.