An employee of a state-funded charity in Belgium says the aim is to distract from the allies' treatment of Palestinians.

Brigitte Herremans, who works for Catholic organisations Broederlijk Delen and Pax Christi, made the comments on Flemish Radio 1. Read more

Eighty experts engaged in global non-violent struggles have gathered this week to develop a new moral framework that rejects ethical justifications for war.

They also hope Pope Francis's next excyclical will be on peacemaking, and that it will pick up their concerns.

The conference from April 11 to 13 is being co-hosted by the Pontifical Council for Justice and Peace and Pax Christi International.

Terrence Rynne, a US theologian who is attending the event, said he considers it "phenomenally important".

"Coming out of it, Pope Francis might see his way clear to articulate a fresh vision of peacemaking to the Church," said Rynne.

Conference organisers said that just war teaching "can no longer claim centre stage as the Christian approach to war and peace".

"After more than 1500 years and repeated use of the just war criteria to sanction war rather than to prevent war, the Catholic Church, like many other Christian communities, is rereading the text of Jesus' life and re-appropriating the Christian vocation of pro-active peacemaking," they stated.

"Emphasising the need to work for a just peace, the Church is moving away from the acceptability of calling war 'just'," they continued.

"While clear ethical criteria are necessary for addressing egregious attacks or threats in a violent world, moral theologians and ethicists should no longer refer to such criteria as the 'just war theory', because that language undermines the moral imperative to develop tools and capacity for nonviolent conflict."

As part of their goals for the conference, organisers state they seek a "new articulation of Catholic teaching on war and peace, including explicit rejection of 'just war' language".

They state that they want "an alternative ethical framework for engaging acute conflict and atrocities by developing the themes and practices of nonviolent conflict transformation and just peace".

Sources

• National Catholic Reporter
• Image: World for Travel

Frederika is a former staff member of the SKP (Justice and Peace) office of the Diocese of Jayapura, now studying in Australian National University in Canberra. She has been visiting New Zealand to renew contacts with Pax Christi and Caritas who have been partners with SKP and other agencies in development projects in her country.

During her short visit, she has met with members of the Maori Women's Welfare League, Te Runanga o te Hahi Katorika, Caritas, Women's International League for Peace and Freedom, Indonesian Human Rights Committee, Peace Movement Aotearoa and Pax Christi as well as the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade and interested members of Parliament.

She also travelled to Dunedin to address students and staff at the Centre for Peace and Reconciliation Studies and has conducted seminars on the current situation in West Papua in Auckland, Wellington and Dunedin.

In her meetings here, Frederika has stressed the need for the development of solidarity networks with other Pacific people, particularly women, so that her people can survive in the face of intensive development imposed by the government of Indonesia and high levels of migration from other parts of Indonesia.

This has led to the marginalisation of the Papuan people and often heavy-handed treatment extending to human rights abuse at the hands of military and police. She feels that the shared experience of other indigenous people, particularly women, will assist her people in their struggle to maintain their identity and human dignity as they develop new forms of economic and social development.

She has been deeply impressed by the ways in which Maori and Pasifika women have created strong organisational skills to help them preserve and hand on traditional values. She hopes that the contacts she has made will develop into strong networks to return a positive spirit to her own people, particularly the young.

In leaving New Zealand, Frederika hopes that this visit can be followed by further exchanges which will assist in the sharing of cultural values as well as the growth of solidarity among the women of the region.