The worldwide issues of mass incarceration, exploitation and forced labor will be addressed at the ThirteenthAnnual National Gathering of Ecumenical Advocacy Days for Global Peace with Justice, to be held April 17-20, 2015, in Washington, D.C.More than 1,000 Christian advocates are expected to meet under the theme "Breaking the Chains: Mass Incarceration and Systems of Exploitation."

Their goal: to build the movement to shake the foundations of human exploitation, including a prison-industrial system that incarcerates millions of people in the United States and abroad.

The U.S. makes up only five percent of the world's population yet holds nearly a quarter of the world's prisoners. Still, "imprisonment" is a worldwide problem and takes various forms, as everywhere people around the world remain trapped in detention centers, prisons, factories and drug wars that bind and dehumanize individuals for political or economic profit.

Ecumenical Advocacy Days will include prayer, worship, advocacy training, networking and mobilization to face the reality of mass incarceration and corporate exploitation, and call for national policies that bring liberation both to the prisoner and to a world in need of restoration - all culminating with EAD's Congressional Lobby Day on Capitol Hill. CWS Washington Office staff help organize the annual EAD gathering. This year CWS staff from Latin America will lead a workshop on mass incarceration in Latin America.

Conference venue is the Doubletree Hotel, Crystal City, Washington, D.C. Visit  http://advocacydays.org/2015-breaking-the-chains/ for more information and to register.