Panels approve resolutions targeting world issues The Layman Online Wednesday, May 28, 2003 215th General Assembly Denver, Colo. May 24-31, 2003 General Assembly news index DENVER – The 215th General Assembly will be asked to approve several resolutions on issues in the world, including the AIDS crisis, nuclear proliferation, SARS, Iraq and Korean reunification. The General Assembly Committee on Global Ministries unanimously approved a "Resolution on Africa," prepared by the Advisory Committee on Social Witness Policy, that calls on Presbyterians "open ourselves to Africa afresh," and to join "with African sisters and brothers in the struggle for peace, justice, and the wholeness that is God's will for all people." The resolution includes such elements as encouraging congregations to prepare "AIDS Home-Based Care Kits" to be used in caring for someone with AIDS; strengthening mission and other partnerships; increasing funding for self-development of people, HIV/AIDs abatement and the "diseases of poverty;" and advocating for basic human rights. Another resolution affirms "the urgent need of the Taiwanese people for health services and information pertaining to the SARS epidemic, to be provided by the World Health Organization." The Committee on Peacemaking approved two resolutions calling on the United States to fulfill its commitments "under the Nonproliferation Treaty and move together with the other nuclear powers, step by carefully inspected and verified step, to the abolition of nuclear weapons. As steps toward this goal, we call on the United States to do the following: "1. Renounce the first use of nuclear weapons. "2. Permanently end the development, testing, and production of nuclear warheads. "3. Seek agreement with Russia on the mutual and verified destruction of nuclear weapons withdrawn under treaties, and increase the resources available here and in the former Soviet Union to secure nuclear warheads and material and implement destruction. "4. Strengthen nonproliferation efforts by ratifying the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty, finalizing a missile ban in North Korea, supporting U.N. inspections in Iraq, locating and reducing fissile material worldwide, and negotiating a ban on its production." Another resolution calls upon the "United States to support the United Nations as the international entity that can be the most helpful agent for coordinating the rebuilding of Iraq. It encourages all nations to work together through the United Nations toward reconstruction in Iraq after the war." The committee also approved a document titled "A Joint Statement on Peace and Reunification of Korea," presented by the Advisory Committee on Social Witness Policy, and "A Call to Listen to Our Partners in the Midst of Crisis Situations."

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