Be informed:
Thinking Justice

Did you know …

… that there are 17 internationally agreed goals for global development by 2030 – the Sustainable Development Goals/SDGs?

The United Nations’ 2030 Agenda, launched in 2015, formulates 17 goals and a joint action plan for a good life everywhere in the world. These major common goals are based on the realisation that the global challenges of our time can only be overcome by working together. Injustice and destruction directed against human beings and the environment usually have a far-reaching consequences that do not stop at borders.

The preamble and thus joint declaration of the 2030 Agenda contains five key messages which were then set as a total of 17 goals:

People: We are determined to end poverty and hunger, in all their forms and dimensions, and to ensure that all human beings can fulfil their potential in dignity and equality and in a healthy environment.

Planet: We are determined to protect the planet from degradation, including through sustainable consumption and production, sustainably managing its natural resources and taking urgent action on climate change, so that it can support the needs of the present and future generations.

Prosperity: We are determined to ensure that all human beings can enjoy prosperous and fulfilling lives and that economic, social and technological progress occurs in harmony with nature.

Peace: We are determined to foster peaceful, just and inclusive societies which are free from fear and violence. There can be no sustainable development without peace and no peace without sustainable development.

Partnership:  We are determined to mobilize the means required to implement this Agenda through a revitalized Global Partnership for Sustainable Development, based on a spirit of strengthened global solidarity, focused in particular on the needs of the poorest and most vulnerable and with the participation of all countries, all stakeholders and all people.

Contributing to peace and justice

Goal No. 16 of the 17 goals specifically aims at “peace, justice and strong institutions“, although steps taken for all 17 development goals contribute to this. Goal 16 is a particular challenge to all of us – including the churches – to become more active worldwide as reminders, mediators and motors in the context of global challenges.

The Christian message offers the opportunity to intervene.

The Evangelical Lutheran Mission in Lower Saxony (ELM) is also committed to work with its partner churches around the world to make a more peaceful and just life possible. But it is just as important to change what is possible or to make something new possible in private life, e.g. in one’s own family, at work, at school, through involvement in associations, in the context of a partnership group or congregation.

Marisa Kretzschmar