This year marks the anniversary not only of the World Council of Churches (WCC) but also of the United Nations Universal Declaration on Human Rights.

Recalling the historic role of the WCC in formulating “this foundational instrument of modern international human rights law,” the statement forcefully reasserts its crucial, indeed indispensable character and import, especially at a time when human rights are increasingly in jeopardy, the report says, even in states and regions where they were previously acknowledged.

The WCC, it says, “strongly reaffirms the commitment of the WCC to the principles of human rights and to the commitments expressed in international human rights law as codified in the UDHR and the family of international human rights treaties.”

Nor is religious commitment to human rights an arbitrary cultural or ideological preference; it is rooted, the statement says, in core biblical and Christian convictions. “All human beings are created in the image of God, equal, and infinitely precious in God’s sight and ours.” Further, it states, “Jesus Christ has bound us to one another by his life, death and resurrection, so that what concerns one concerns us all.”