Interfaith Call for Ecocide Law II

Interfaith Call for Ecocide Law II, 24 November

This webinar invites you to be a part of Faith for Ecocide Law, an international, interreligious coalition for Ecocide as an international crime within the International Criminal Court.

Nov 24, 4 pm – 6.15 pm CET (check your timezone), online on Zoom

Speakers: Azza Karam (Religions for Peace), Rabbi Awraham Soetendorp, Gopal Patel (Bhumi Global), Timothy Winter, a.k.a. Sheikh Abdal Hakim Murad (Cambridge Muslim College), Henrik Grape (World Council of Churches), Pella Thiel (End Ecocide Sweden). See below.

Ecocide law is a practical and powerful step for new rules in common to respect and revere the Creation, Mother Earth. Listen to perspectives from different faith traditions and meet others to discuss what we can do together to promote ecocide law! The webinar is in two parts: (1) introduction to ecocide law and perspectives from faith traditions, (2) reflect together on what you can do in your own context.

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Speakers:

Azza Karam

Prof. Dr. Azza Karam serves as the Secretary General of Religions for Peace – the largest multi-religious leadership platform with 92 national and 6 regional Interreligious Councils. She also holds a Professorship of Religion and Development at the Vrije Universiteit in Amsterdam. Professor Karam has served in different positions in the United Nations since 2004. She is the founder of the Multi Faith Advisory Council of the UN IATF-R&D, and has coordinated engagement with members of a Global Interfaith Network for Population and Development with over 600 faith-based organizations from all regions of the world, representing all religions and interreligious affiliations.

Prof Timothy Winter, a.k.a. Sheikh Abdal Hakim Murad

Prof Timothy Winter, a.k.a. Sheikh Abdal Hakim Murad, is currently the Sheikh Zayed Lecturer of Islamic Studies in the Faculty of Divinity at Cambridge University. He has published and contributed to numerous academic works on Islam. He is also the founder of the Cambridge Muslim College. Prof Winter has been the main force behind the decade-long project to build the Cambridge Central Mosque, Europe’s first eco-mosque, opened in April 2019 and designed with a high degree of environmental sustainability. His most recent book is ‘Travelling Home: Essays on Islam in Europe’.

Gopal Patel

Gopal D. Patel has been a faith-based environmental activist, campaigner and consultant for over 10 years. He has spearheaded the development of environmental initiatives engaging religious communities and leaders in India, East Africa, Europe and North America.

He is Co-Founder and Director of Bhumi Global, a non-profit organization that works to educate and mobilize Hindu communities globally for environmental action. Gopal acts as an Advisor to number of interfaith and environmental initiatives, including the WWF Beliefs and Values Programme, the Yale Forum on Religion and Ecology and the Parliament of the World’s Religions. He also currently serves as co-chair of the UN Multi-faith Advisory Council.

Henrik Grape

Rev Henrik Grape is ordained in Church of Sweden (Lutheran). He has worked at the national office of Church of Sweden since year 2000 as Officer in Sustainable Development. Member of ECEN (European Christian Environmental Network) steering committee since 2005 and World Council of Churches (WCC) working group on climate change since 2006. Today he is seconded to WCC as Senior Advisor on Care for Creation, Sustainability, and Climate Justice and the coordinator of the working group on climate change. He was in the planning group of the Uppsala Interfaith Climate Summit (2008) and in the working group that drafted the Church of Sweden Bishops conference bishops letter on Climate Change 2014/2019. He has been a delegate in the WCC delegation to UNFCCC COP:s since 2006 and the head of the delegation since 2016.

Rabbi Awraham Soetendorp

Rabbi Awraham Soetendorp is an award-winning human rights advocate, lecturer, writer, environmental activist and champion of civil society. Born in 1943 in Amsterdam, the Netherlands, Rabbi Soetendorp was saved from the Nazis by a righteous couple and survived as a “hidden child.” He was instrumental in the reestablishment of Jewish communities in the Netherlands. Rabbi Soetendorp is the rabbi emeritus of congregation Beth Jehuda in The Hague and former president of the European region of the World Union for Progressive Judaism. He is a founding member of Green Cross International, Earth Charter commissioner and a Millennium Development Ambassador.

Pella Thiel

Pella Thiel is a maverick ecologist who works with relational, systemic activism, change processes and leadership för a society in harmony with nature. She is co-founder and chairperson of End Ecocide Sweden and knowledge expert in the UN Harmony with Nature initiative. Pella coordinated the first Earth Rights Conferences in Sweden. She is also the co-founder of Swedish hubs of international networks like Transition Network Sweden, and Save the Rainforest Sweden. She teaches ecopsychology and is a part of the eco-psychology/art/activist NGO Lodyn.

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