Blog: Perspectives

The World Social Forum was conceived by its founders as a place where the anti-globalization movement and social actors, social movements, networks, unions, and NGOs can exchange experiences and define and clarify common agendas. This goal is reflected in the 14-point Charter of Principles that, since 2001, serve as a conceptual framework for this process in motion.

The proposal results from the analysis of the current situation of social movements, with contradictions and differences between all of them; where indigenous people’s movements are pitted against farmers’ movements or women’s movements and where women’s movements distance themselves from sexual diversity movements. The Forum creates space and opportunity to stop this and to build a strong synergy and convergence between different social actors that can be limited and ineffective separately. Today, North Africa features a strong popular movement in which there has been a very favorable political context for social movements that would not be possible without this synergy.

Como dije anteriormente, se puede esperar que un Foro Social Mundial sea complejo y algo caótico, pero el Foro Social Mundial en Dakar ha superado todas las expectativas.
En uno de los comentarios sobre el post anterior nos preguntan: Quién decide donde se lleva a cabo el Foro? Hoy, todos los participantes nos hemos hecho la misma pregunta. Los organizadores evalúan sus responsabilidades. Lo que parecía ser un habitual retraso en la definición del programa hizo eclosión hoy dejando al descubierto serias fallas organizativas. Hasta el primer día del Foro no se había definido un programa que diera cuenta de los lugares y horarios de las actividades.

Al parecer un desacuerdo entre las autoridades de la Universidad Cheikh Anta Diop y los organizadores locales en quienes el Comité Organizador General delegó la responsabilidad logística del Foro no permitió que se definieran los tiempos y espacios de las actividades. Las autoridades de la Universidad se negaron a suspender su cronograma regular de clases para dar lugar al Foro, según se había convenido. Como resultado, el cronograma de las actividades del día aparece cada mañana en lugares estratégicos donde la gente se agolpa para decidir en que participar. Esto solo para caminar erráticamente por el campus universitario y finalmente encontrar que el lugar destinado para la actividad estaá ocupado por un grupo de alumnos y su profesor dictando sus clases regulares.

My same experiences of disorientation and erratic wandering around the campus to search in vain for workshops were repeated to me in conversations and occasional meetings with activists during the night and morning. There were many who decided to transfer their activities to their own hotels. Many of us missed “The Q Spot,” the Nairobi tent that hosted the very full LGBT agenda. However, already in the second and final day of workshops the initial discomfort was gone and everyone knew, more or less what to expect and where they could find the space or the group they wanted to meet. This did not encourage the expected interaction among the various social movements, but at least appointments scheduled the day before allowed the continuity of dialogues.

This is what also happened in the tent occupied by the Lesbian and Gay Equality Project. Gradually the place was filled with attendees who came to the meeting scheduled the day before. Many had been invited by others or somehow had received the information since last night and this morning. he activity scheduled today at the tent was a round-table discussion on, “Visions of Diversity within Africa: The role of progressive organizations/activists in the struggles against homophobia.”

Each World Social Forum shows a glimpse of the chaos that results when civil society comes together in all the splendor of its plurality and diversity. If you are looking for order, straightforward proposals, reassuring conclusions, and smooth coordination of joint actions and if you love vertical and hierarchical leadership, this is not the place for you. The World Social Forum is a space for multiple voices, for dialogue and mutual understanding, for diversity and plurality and all the turmoil and disorganization that results from it. I believe that as part of a vulnerable sector of society LGBT groups and activists should love these more pluralistic arenas.

However, each World Social Forum event bears the imprint of the host country. This may be seen in the supreme freedom, solidarity, and self-determination in Porto Alegre to the distressing verticalism of Caracas. In the case of Dakar I also noticed a particular local imprint: an absence of visibility for LGBT people. Thanks to the committed activism of their creators and coordinators, spaces for sexual orientation and gender identity and expression have always been important and principle features of each chapter of the World Social Forum. This has been true from Porto Alegre to Belem do Para and from Mumbai to Nairobi. However, in Dakar, despite the superhuman efforts of the organizers, everything was different from the beginning.

OutRight Action International stands in solidarity with Uganda’s lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) community in strongly condemning yesterday’s killing of human rights defender David Kato. OutRight Action International joins groups across the world to demand that the Ugandan government immediately denounce David’s murder, thoroughly and impartially investigate this heinous crime and ensure the safety of all LGBT Ugandans.

November 20th, 2010 marked the 12th annual Transgender Day of Remembrance. On this day we remember those who have been killed by hatred and prejudice against transgender people and raise public awareness to combat violence against transgender people.

On Transgender Day of Remembrance, IGLHRC also celebrates the tremendous work of transgender activists and human rights defenders committed to promoting and protecting the human rights of transgender people. This is a powerful opportunity to insist that transgender rights are human rights, and that all members of the global community have an obligation to stop violence against transgender people.

Despite its relatively young existence Zambia has attempted four times to amend her constitution. For the Zambian LGBT community the most recent efforts to make a credible, durable and legitimate constitution, have in fact dealt the community a severe blow. The National Constitutional Conference (NCC) – the official body tasked with driving the reform process and rewriting the constitution – recently included a clause that forbids marriage between people of the same sex in the draft constitution. Friends of Rainka, an LGBT organization in Zambia condemned the move by the NCC as a direct attack on an already vulnerable community – and one that may overshadow any successes that the community has made to date. This condemnation is only one step in the response of activists to this threat to the human rights of LGBT people in Zambia.

To increase awareness and understanding of the constitution making process and to strengthen the capacity of activists to respond to its outcomes and implications for LGBT rights in Zambia, 12 Zambian LGBT activists and 4 allies attended a training on Constitutional Reform in Zambia: Managing the Impact from October 28-29, 2010 in Lusaka Zambia.