Activities

To be held at the University of Winnipeg, convened by the Chair of Mennonite Studies, Royden  Loewen.

The conference will bring a broad range of speakers together to present analytical, academic, scholarly and  practitioner-based perpspectives.   The Conference will cover a range of rights such as freedom of religion, freedom of expression, freedom from hunger and will include both Civil and Political rights as well  Economic cultural and social rights as they relate to Mennonites.   Tensions between individual approaches and community approaches to human rights will be explored.  

Just Food? An Exhibit on the Right to Food from a Faith Perspective

Is food ever just food?  Food is not only something to be routinely prepared and consumed.  Food is essential for human life. Without food there is hunger, conflict and death.  With food there is vitality, community, and celebration. 

 Is food always just food?  Food is not always justly accessible.  Access to food depends on fair and efficient systems for production and distribution.  The food insecurity for many people around the world indicates that our food systems are unjust. Is the abundant food available to some of us just food, when it is not equally accessible to others? 

An exhibit on the Right to Food from a Faith perspective is in preparation and is expected to open in spring of 2010. Keep checking here for more information.  See attached purpose statement.

New Lenses? A Mennonite Look at Human Rights. What do human rights look like from a Mennonite perspective? That was the question being pondered at New Lenses? A Mennonite Look at Human Rights, a January 13, 2007 consultation at Canadian Mennonite University (CMU) sponsored by the Mennonite Committee on Human Rights. For more information, click here. 

The Mennonite Committee on Human Rights completed a six-session continuing education course at Canadian Mennonite University on “Human Rights through a Mennonite Lens,”  September 2007 - March 2008. Instructors: Paul Doerksen, Ph.D., history and Bible teacher, MBCI; Ismael Muvingi, Ph.D. (cand.), Instructor in Conflict Resolution Studies, Menno Simons College The course was facilitated by Kenton Lobe and Wendy Kroeker.Questions of human rights shape a wide range of contemporary political, economic, cultural, and religious debates. Struggles over human rights are present in many situations in Canada and around the world. But what are "human rights," and what are their evolving definitions? How have Mennonites understood human rights? How does the modern formulation of human rights augment or detract from theological formulations of justice and community? Co-taught by a theologian and a human rights lawyer, this course took participants on a journey to explore these and other questions on human rights."   Foir more information see the attachment below.

The Committee has submitted a concept paper to the Canadian Museum for Human Rights. This paper suggests ways that Mennonite experience and understandings relating to peace, reconciliation, religious freedom, and restorative justice (among other things) can make a helpful contribution to the Museum.

Read Concept Paper