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Summit Minister Joins Faith Leaders in Appeal to UN
Asking High Commissioner on Human Rights to Hold President Trump Accountable for War Crimes in Killing of Suleimani
Summit minister Rev. Dr. Robin Tanner has joined a group of prominent U.S. faith leaders in urging the United Nations High Commissioner on Human Rights to hold President Donald Trump accountable for war crimes in connection with the assassination of General Qassim Suleimani, an act that threatens to set off an escalation of violence in the Middle East.
Dr. Tanner, co-minister of Beacon Unitarian Universalist Congregation in Summit, New Jersey, added her name to a letter addressed to Michelle Bachelet, UN High Commissioner for Human Rights. Lead authors are the Rev. Dr. William J. Barber II, President of Repairers of the Breach, and the Rev. Dr. Liz Theoharis, Executive Director of Kairos, who serve together as National Co-Chairs for the Poor People’s Campaign: A National Call for Moral Revival.
Among those endorsing the appeal are representatives of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.), the United Church of Christ, Disciples of Christ and the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America as well as the Unitarian Universalist Service Committee and Jewish, Islamic, Buddhist and Sikh groups.
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Quoting Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. who called war “the enemy of the poor,” Dr. Barber said the appeal addressed the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, because the human rights of poor people are routinely violated in war.
“We know that it is the poor -- the poor of Iran, the poor of Iraq, the poor of all the Middle Eastern countries, and indeed the 140 million poor and low-wealth people in our own country who will pay the highest price for another illegal and immoral US war in the Middle East,” Dr. Barber said.
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The faith leaders are requesting a meeting with the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights. They are further requesting that all religious leaders and moral advocates throughout the world join in urging the United Nations intervention.
WHO: Religious Leaders and Moral Advocates
WHAT: Text of letter to UN High Commissioner: bit.ly/PPCUNLetter
WHEN: TODAY: Friday January 10th
