News | Public Affairs and Religious Liberty Department

Geneva, Switzerland... [PARL News] Representatives of the Seventh-day Adventist Church are speaking this week to the full sessions of the United Nations Commission on Human Rights, the highest world body dealing with such matters.

"It's a great privilege, as well as a tremendous responsibility, to share our Adventist perspective with the ambassadors and delegates of 191 countries in the large meeting hall," says Dr. Jonathan Gallagher, main representative for the Adventist church. "To be able to address this audience of maybe 700 top-level people on behalf of the world church is an amazing opportunity that we enthusiastically endorse.

Dr. Jonathan Gallagher with H.E. Aboudou Assouma, Representative of Togo and Constitutional Court Judge.

Part of the room showing the Commission in session.

But even more important than the speeches is the direct interaction with ambassadors, Gallagher adds. "In talking directly with ambassadors and country representatives, especially of nations where there are major concerns, we can make a real difference," he says. "Most of these discussions cannot be reported as they are obviously of a very sensitive nature, but this kind of diplomacy is very helpful for the church and for others, especially those who are persecuted for their faith."

The Commission runs from March 15 to April 23. More details of the church's involvement at the Commission and the statements made to the plenary sessions can be found at http://un.adventist.org.

We are already dead,” Muhayimana recalled thinking. “I wished we could just disappear.” Her pregnancy was not conceived in love, or in a casual encounter. It was what women in Africa call a pregnancy of war.

Muhayimana is one of 250,000 women who were sexually assaulted during the Rwanda genocide. Muhaiyimana survived three years of slavery in the militia’s forest encampments and emerged with a son and pregnant with a daughter.

Today, these children are known as les enfants de mauvais souvenir, the children of bad memories. These children are uttered only in whispers, a taboo even among relatives (in Muhayimana’s case many of her relatives were killed). The country’s struggle to explain to the children how they were conceived mirrors Muhayimana’s situation. She is waiting for the right moment to tell her son, and a daughter born two years later, where they came from.

Muhayimana named her son Claude Hope, hoping maybe for the love and bonding to grow and for a better life for her child. “Mama, why don’t we have a dad?”

Muhayimana placed Claude Hope on her lap and said, “Because of the war,” she answered. “It was a terrible war in Rwanda and now your father is in heaven.”

But Claude persisted, “Why don’t we have any aunties?” he asked. “Why no uncles? No cousins? Did they all die with Daddy too?”

For now, Muhayimana repeats softly that there was a war and many people died, including their father and all of their relatives.

It was exactly 10 years ago when many in the international world watched helplessly as children, fathers, mothers, and grandparents were slaughtered in what is considered one of the greatest crimes against humanity in the second half of the twentieth century

In 1994, over 800,000 people were murdered in one hundred days. Known as “the land of a thousand hills,” Rwanda is a tiny country of only 26,000 square kilometers (about the size of Maryland) with a pre-genocide population of seven million.

On March 26, 2004, U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan addressed ambassadors and diplomats around the world in a solemn moment. He said the events of 10 years ago, and the failure of the world to respond, “must leave us always with a sense of bitter regret and abiding sorrow.”

Mr. Annan is calling on all people of the world – “everywhere, no matter what their station in life, whether in crowded cities or remote rural areas,” – to observe a minute’s silence at noon local time in every time zone on April 7, which has been marked by the General Assembly as the International Day of Reflection on the Genocide in Rwanda.

Speaking on behalf of the Seventh-day Adventist World Church president, Dr. Jan Paulsen, comments that, “The Adventist Church in Rwanda is a large community, and the scars of 1994 run as deep in this family as in the rest of the nations. The depth of their suffering and our failure to respond as we should have fills us with grief and sorrow. Both what happened and its ongoing legacy must not be forgotten. Our prayer is that God will heal and comfort.”

Representing the Adventist Church to the United Nations in New York and Geneva, Dr. Jonathan Gallagher says, “The whole international community recalls with great sadness the events of ten years ago. At this time of the tenth anniversary of this unmitigated tragedy, Adventists call for strength and determination to prevent any similar disaster in the future, and to continue to work on reconciliation and healing. On this International Day of Reflection proclaimed by the United Nations, it is important for the worldwide community to reflect deeply on the fundamental human rights, especially the right to life, and how such rights can be strengthened in today’s world.”

The Seventh-day Adventist Church has held consultative status with the Economic and Social committee of the UN (ECOSCO) since 1985. The Church is consulted on a wide range of different subjects including religious freedom, human rights, health, medical work, and education. The Church benefits from such representation and seeks to partner where appropriate in UN-sponsored activities, such as literacy development, humanitarian aid, human rights education, anti-narcotic drug programs, and conventions and declarations of mutual interest.

Dr. Jonathan Gallahger, UN Liaison director for the Adventist Church, with Ginna Lewis, hostess on RADIO 74.

The Commission on Human Rights opened its 60th Session on March 15, less than a week after the terrorist attacks in Madrid shook the European continent.

Brian Cowen, minister of foreign affairs of Ireland, who spoke on behalf of the European Union, said, "We meet today under the shadow of the most tragic terrorist attacks in Europe since World War II. The fight against terrorism is a global priority. It's the responsibility of states to fight terrorism in full respect of human rights and freedoms."

Dr. Gallagher seen with students he brought from Collonges to observe the Commission for Human Rights.

Assisting Dr. Gallagher in Geneva is Juan Perla, UN Liaison assistant, who helped read the first intervention on behalf of the Seventh-day Adventist Church. Juan has also assisted in drafting and translating the Church's intervention into French and Spanish. Dr. Gianfranco Rossi (a retired church worker and religious liberty expert) and Juan have also contacted various ambassadors regarding the dealty penalty for conversion. The Church is submitting interventions on "Rights of the Child," "Minorities," "Violations of Human Rights," and "All Forms of Discrimination."

On April 1, Dr. Gallagher was interviewed by RADIO 74, a bilingual radio station that broadcasts in Haute-Savoie. Its sister network, RADIO 74 International, transmits broadcasts to several local adventist radio stations in the United States. [UN Liaison staff]

[Produced by the United Nations Liaison Office, Department of Public Affairs and Religious Liberty.]