On this episode of the Podcast we have the privilege of being able to hear from the Principal Youth Court Judge here in Aotearoa/New Zealand, Judge Andrew Becroft. We talk about his career, challenges and also look at the topic of justice from his perspective.

The following is reprinted with permission from the author, Dr. Howard Zehr, Professor of Restorative Justice at Eastern Mennonite University’s graduate Center for Justice and Peacebuilding and the editor of The Little Books of Justice and Peacemaking series. I have read the book in that series titled “Restorative Justice” which was authored by Dr. Zehr and would highly recommend it to anyone looking for a good introduction to the topic. Dr. Zehr also serves as [...]

In this edition of the Podcast, with the Sri Lankan government declaring the defeat of the Tamil Tigers and the Red Cross pulling back from it’s aid operations with the victims of recent events due to the government restricting access, we thought we would catch up with Ian McInnes, one of our programme officers and the former director of our partner organisation in Sri Lanka to get an update on the latest events and TEAR [...]

Last night I had the wonderful opportunity to have dinner with friends – it wasn’t a normal dinner with friends though. In the room were a number of people representing different countries. At the dinner table there were 5 from Aotearoa, 1 from the Congo, 1 from India, 1 from the UK and our 2 esteemed guests who the dinner was for from the Philippines. The organisations represented at the table included TEAR Fund, CAP [...]

Imagine how you’d feel if I planted a flag in your front garden and claimed that your house, land, assets, you yourself and your family belonged to me by right of my moral, intellectual, racial and military superiority. If you behave I might let you stay on as my cook or gardener – unpaid of course. If you resist I’ll shoot you down, sell your children and award myself for bravery. Outrageous – definitely. But [...]

There are many stories out there now about the first meeting between Obama and Netanyahu as President and Primie Minister, most are based on the press briefing. You can read all the conjecture from reporters, but it is also good to see the thing they are reporting on for yourself, so here is the press briefing for you to watch.

God is a God who commands and orders justice, and justice is a form of order. God’s order is good. The Creator God of Scripture takes the earth from being ‘tohu’ and ‘vohu’ (wild & waste – formless & void) to being more and more ordered.  And places humans at the crest of the wave of creation – investing them (us!) with the duty of working with God to bring His good, loving, wise order [...]

In this episode of the Podcast we talk to one of the people from our partner organisation in the Philippines, the Center for Community Transformation (CCT). CCT primarily works in micro-enterprise around the Philippines but has now also started a ministry working with street dwellers in Manila. We chat with Maricar about this work.

Sometimes when I squash a bug I think about the tiny, mysterious, irreplaceable spark of life I’ve snuffed out. Even if I could perfectly rebuild the body of the bug I couldn’t put the life back into it. But I still kill mosquitoes and wasps with extreme prejudice. A girl I knew was so pro life she disliked walking on grass for fear of squashing insects. She disarmed all the rat traps in her college [...]

New York – The United Nations General Assemblys election of Human Rights Council members today was marred by lack of competition in three of the five UN regional groups, the NGO Coalition for an Effective Human Rights Council said. Although Azerbaijan was defeated in a competitive election, other rights abusers benefited from the lack of choices, said the human rights groups. In most regions, the number of candidates was equal to the number of open [...]