Transcript The All India Christian Council

The All India
Christian Council
Purpose: to protect and serve the
Christian community, minorities, and the
oppressed castes
 Founding: Birthed in 1999 in the wake
increased persecution by the wing
Hindutva activists
 Members: Thousands of Indian Christian
denominations, organizations, and lay
leaders

Quick Facts

Constitution key points:
◦ A commitment to the unique person of the
Lord Jesus Christ and His compassion to a
needy humanity.
◦ A commitment to secular, pluralistic and
democratic India.

Leadership:
◦ Reflects diversity of India and of Christianity
◦ 23 state chapters
Quick Facts (cont.)

Key activities:
◦ Fact Finding Teams
◦ Proactive, educational seminars on religious
freedom, caste discrimination
◦ Press statements & conferences
◦ Advocacy domestically, internationally
◦ Co-operation with other religious minority
groups, key Dalit-Bahujan leaders
Short History
Churches and priests/pastors attacked in
late 1990s
 Hindutva lies and harassment increased
 aicc united the three streams of
Christians in India:

◦ Protestant independents & Charismatics
◦ Protestant mainlines
◦ Catholics
Short History (cont.)

Later, other Christian groups joined:
◦ mission agencies
◦ NGOs
◦ trusts

About 75,000 people at first rally in
Hyderabad, March 1999
The aicc today
 23
State Chapters actively involved in
the advocacy for the victims of
Christian Persecution
 Legal help for victims of religious
violence
 Advocacy/publicity on violence
against Christians, lower castes
 Disaster relief and rehabilitation
Future Goals

Training courses (i.e. human rights, freedom
of faith and conscience, right to information)
People's Tribunals on violence against
Christians, civil rights issues
 Expanding ties with civil society groups
 Litigation against anti-conversion acts
 New networking of Christians at state &
district level

Project

“Advanced Human Rights Seminars”
for community transformation.
Purpose

Purpose: The program will develop the
skills of the participants in order to make
them resource persons in their
communities. The participants are mainly
invited of those who have shown a
particular interest in working with Human
Rights related problems.
Short term Objective

Seek to give 1,500 community leaders in
three years in depth training in human
rights issues and encourage them to
connect with the local government and
other religious communities etc..
Long Term Objectives:

The long-term goal is to see a growing
network of human rights activists who
use the existing laws to advocate for
victims and pursue the rule of law for
perpetrators. Also, the Christian minority
community should become less isolated
and more integrated with other
communities – including progressive
Hindus who have been victimised but
now pursue justice.
Positive Impact

The National seminar helped
participants to upgrade their
knowledge skills and gave them
tools and confidence to invent
solutions for the issues of Human
Rights.
Positive Impact
Leaders come together to establish
support groups regionally
 Increase in reporting of the
incidents of Human Rights violation

Positive Impact
Meet community leaders from
different region and share their
strengths and failures from their
experience
 Meet both Government and nongovernment prominent leaders in
the field of Human Rights at the
conference get access to higher
layers to get justice

THANK YOU