WORLD SOCIAL FORUM
The World Social Forum 2009 closed on Saturday (31st February) after three days of activities in the Brazilian city of Belém do Para.
One of the main core themes for this years' Forum was the 'Collective Rights of Peoples', in which Catalan organizations and agencies took over the responsibility for organizing debates, conferences, talks and other activities for invited representatives of 30 stateless nations from across the world. This was the first time that the theme of 'Collective Rights of Peoples' had been used by the Forum, which included activities running along the themes of self determination, indigenous peoples and minoritised languages, at one of the biggest venues in the event.
CIEMEN (Escarré International Centre for Ethnic Minorities and Nations), with whom the League has worked with in the past on the Universal Declaration of Human Rights document, was one of the principle organisers of the 'Collective Rights of Peoples' theme. Working alongside CIEMEN was the Catalan Agency for Development Cooperation, who's Director, Andreu Felip, said:
"...what we want to say is that another world is not possible if the right to self-determination of nations is not respected" adding that the aim was "to set up a worldwide network comprising peoples which have their national rights restricted or unresolved".
At the end of the Forum, the representatives were asked to contribute to a final Declaration, based on the discussions that had taken place, to set a common agenda for the future.
A blog was also set up to follow the activities of the 'Collective Rights of Peoples' event, which can be found among the links below:
World Social Forum 2009
Blog:
CIEMEN:
Photos
J B Moffatt Director of Information Celtic League 04/02/09
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