Advocating for Justice

“Our work starts with listening and it hopefully ends with transformation,” says Thea Hummel. Since 1st June 2025, she is the new Head of Advocacy of the United Evangelical Mission (UEM), leading the four-person department.

 

Human Rights as a Starting Point

 

The UEM understands advocacy as standing up for justice – not on behalf of other people, but at their side. The perspectives of these people determine direction and focus of this commitment, which may be directed towards society, politics, business, or even courts. The name “Advocacy” (Latin advocatus – lawyer) recalls this origin. Within the UEM, advocacy is one of the five fields of work that together are “mission.”

 

Starting from human rights, Hummel and her department support the UEM member churches in different areas. These include peace and anti-discrimination, as well as gender justice, environmental and climate protection. The UEM is involved in two important networks: the Sri Lanka Advocacy and the West Papua Network, for which Hummel also worked some years ago. Both networks represent the concerns of affected people in Brussels, Geneva, Berlin, and other places.

 

The member churches are part of the history of their countries and therefore contribute to addressing old and new conflicts: In Sri Lanka, for example, the MC-SL* works on reconciliation after the civil war; in Germany, churches confront their role in colonialism. And in the current conflicts in DR Congo and West Papua, churches call for peace and dialogue, opening channels of conversation.

 

Three Regions, Different Issues

 

Alongside Hummel, the Advocacy Department also includes Irma Simanjuntak as Advocacy Officer Asia, Rev Prof Dr Jean-Bosco Kambale Kahongya as Advocacy Officer Africa, and Sarah Vecera as Advocacy Officer for Intersectional Justice, with a focus on anti-racism in church in the German region.

 

At present, Simanjuntak is joining forces with churches and local people in North Sumatra to oppose a pulp company, “PT. Toba Pulp Lestari.” Since 1998, the company, with a current licence covering 36,000 hectares of land, has caused massive land rights conflicts and deforestation. Simanjuntak says: “Much injustice has been caused because living spaces have been taken over by capitalists. Here, we work together with churches to ensure the availability of fair living spaces for vulnerable groups.”

 

Kahongya works in Tanzania with the Wagogo people. Their traditional songs in Kiswahili are being digitally recorded and shared. What is special: these old songs address the protection of children’s rights. In Germany, Sarah Vecera invited a diverse group of people to contribute to her book “Gemeinsam anders,” (together different) writing about Germany’s society and its structures in order to enable mutual understanding: “The readings are going well,” she says.

 

Thea Hummel herself is particularly committed to gender justice, diversity, inclusion, and anti-discrimination. In June, she conducted leadership training for women from all three UEM regions. A solidarity visit in August to the GKI-TP* in West Papua strengthened not only political work on the ground but also the bonds within the UEM community.

 

For more information on the work of our Advocacy Department (formerly Justice, Peace and Integrity of Creation, JPIC) and on our current Human Rights Campaign, please visit our website.

 

 

 

*MC-SL = Methodist Church of Sri Lanka

 

*GKI-TP = Gereja Kristen Injili di Tanah Papua (Evangelical Christian Church in the Land of Papua)