WORLD SOCIAL FORUM
The World Social Forum Organising Committee can be contact by email: forum@forumsocialmundial.org.br The website is www.forumsocialmundial.org.br DAWN is represented on the international advisory committee for planning the World Social Forum.
DAWN Informs Supplement for the World Social Forum 2003
"Abortion is a global political issue -- why the Social Forum must engage"
There is likely to be a far higher profile of feminists at the 2003 World Social Forum in Porto Alegre, 23-28 January. Women, including DAWN representatives Gigi Francisco and Celita Eccher (REPEM), have been active in the WSF International Committee, and women have taken responsibility for two of the five themes of the 2003 Forum.
These themes are
• Principles and Values on Human Rights and Democracy; and
• Political Power, Civil Society and Democracy. Leading feminists will participate in these sessions.
The other three themes are Democratic and Sustainable Development, Media and Culture: countering hegemony, and Democratic World Order and Peace.
DAWN is also supporting efforts for a better space to allow women to dialogue and strategise.
The DAWN team to WSF 2003 will include Sonia Correa, Viviene Taylor, Gita Sen, Celita Eccher, Gigi Francisco, Magaly Pazello and Marina Durano.
ASIA SOCIAL FORUM
DAWN is participating in the Asia Social Forum, Hyderabad 2-7 January 2003, and is supporting the Women’s Initiative. DAWN representatives at the ASF include Gigi Francisco and Vanita Mukherjee.
The Women’s Initiative is a grouping of locally-based women’s organisations who are planning a four-hour women’s conference as part of the ASF programme. The broad theme of the conference is women and globalisation and there will be four main topics of discussion led by panels on:
• Working women as generators of wealth - covering all sectors including agriculture, unorganised and organised work, private, public and household, how the produce has been appropriated by other sections of society, the further marginalisation of women, increasing problems due to globalisation, rollback of laws for working women, and their search for justice, etc.
• Women, their basic needs and natural resources - that will cover security, food security, health, education, social support structures, access and rights to land, seed, private property, etc.
• Women and violence - to deal with sectarian, communal, ethnic and religious violence, militarisation & war, state violence, patriarchal & domestic violence etc.
• Women’s fight for democracy and freedom - covering neo-colonialism, facism, imperialism, freedom struggles, fight for equality, social justice, human rights, etc.
The ASF will have two plenary sessions, two conferences daily, and up to 25 parallel seminars and 50 workshops daily. The main themes include Peace and Security; Ecology, Culture and Knowledge; and Alternatives and People’s Movements.
Is a more feminine world possible? by Cândido Grzybowski
Sociologist, Director of IBASE, February 2002
DAWN Informs Supplement for the World Social Forum 2002
*PORTUGUESE
IGTN statement
Changes to the Agenda
DAWN is on the international advisory committee for planning the 2002 World Social Forum in Porto Alegre, 31 January - 5 February 2002. For the first World Social Forum, DAWN joined with the Feminist Articulation of the Marcosur (Southern Community) to change the agenda and include feminist panelists in the main Forum panels. The Brazilian organising committee wholly accepted the changes.
DAWN took part in the first Forum, a new annual event for the promotion of human rights, social justice and sustainable development that was held in Porto Alegre, Brazil, January 25-30, 2001. It is timed to take place as the World Economic Forum, held annually in Davos, Switzerland, meets.
Sonia Corrêa, Celita Eccher and Gigi Francisco, represented DAWN at the Forum, along with REPEM and IBASE's researchers. DAWN Latin America has joined the initiative with the Southern Community to disseminate information about the political importance of participating in this space for construction of a planetary citizenship, as well as supporting the changed agenda.
The World Social Forum is intended to provide a space for building economic alternatives, exchanging experiences and strengthening South-North alliances, as well as providing an opportunity to mobilise civil society internationally. It has developed as a consequence of a growing international movement that advocates greater participation of civil societies in international financial institutions such as the International Monetary Fund and World Trade Organisation. For decades these institutions have been making decisions that affect the lives of people all over the world without a clear system for accountability and democratic participation.
The Organising Committee is building alliances with organisations in the Americas, Africa, Asia and Europe to develop the Forum. Topics for discussion include building economic policies that promote human development, the influence of multi-national corporations in local communities, and organising against gender and racial discrimination. The four main themes are the production of wealth, access to wealth and sustainability, civil society and the public arena, and democracy and citizen power. The Forum was not a decision-making body, but participants were able to disseminate proposals from organised meetings.
