Water mtgs at World Social Forum, Brazil 2005

Right to Water, 10 November 2004

Friends,

Many people have contacted us and made inquiries regarding plans for the World Social Forum in Porto Alegre, Brasil in 2005. Please find below a list of water workshops we have proposed in collaboration with many other groups. If you plan to attend the WSF, we would like to invite your participation, partnership, ideas, and suggestions about preparing these water workshops. Also, please share with us other workshops that are being planned so that we can combine and coordinate our efforts to the benefit of all!

1. Water: Human Right or Commodity?

The workshop will affirm and defend the right to water as part of the global commons. Participants will present testimonies regarding the struggles in their cities, towns and countryside to protect water as a public good and a human right. Following testimonies representing key struggles from organizations around the world we will open the floor to questions and comments from the participants.

Sponsors and associates: Red Vigilancia Interamericana para la Defensa y Derecho al Agua, Public Citizen (USA), Council of Canadians (Canada), REDES-FoE Uruguay and the Commission for the Defense of Water and Life (CNDAV), FENTAP (Peru), ASSEMAE (Brasil), FECON (Costa Rica), Centro por la Defensa de los Consumidores (El Salvador), Bread for the World (Germany) and many others.

2. Social Movement Strategies to Defend Water: Challenging the International Finanical Institutions and free trade agreements.

The workshop will provide an analysis of the water privatization policies and strategies of governments and international financial institutions that rob citizens and communities of our common wealth and pass it to transnational corporations. A panel of special guests will present successful movement strategies that have been used to challenge water privatization projects and policies across the globe including mobilization, direct action, civil disobediance, legal, electoral, and media strategies.

Sponsors and Associates: Red Vigilancia Interamericana para la Defensa y Derecho al Agua, Public Citizen (USA), Council of Canadians (Canada), REDES-FoE Uruguay and the Commission for the Defense of Water and Life (CNDAV), FENTAP (Peru), ASSEMAE (Brasil), FECON (Costa Rica), Centro por la Defensa de los Consumidores (El Salvador), Bread for the World (Germany) and many others.

3. Toward the World Water Forum in Mexico 2006: Strategies for the Right to Water In 2006 the Fourth World Water Forum will take place in Mexico City.

As in Kyoto, Japan in 2003 this meeting will be the scene of many conflicting visions about the future and management of the world's water resources. Social movements for the right to water and against privatization will need to plan our strategies to block the Fourth World Water Forum from legitimizing the privatization agenda that will benefit the transnational companies and the G-7 governments. This workshop will serve as a starting point to begin coordinating our plans and activities to challenge the Fourth World Water Forum.

Sponsors and Associates: Public Citizen (USA), Council of Canadians (Canada), REDES-FoE Uruguay and the Commission for the Defense of Water and Life (CNDAV), Polaris Institute, Red VIDA, Bread for the World (Germany), Corporate Europe Observatory (CEO) and many others.

4. Speak-out! The Need for a United Nations Treaty on the Right to Water.

Join social movements from around the world in discussing how to create a campaign for a United Nations treaty on the right to water. The goal is to create a broad, multinational coalition advocating for a global legal framework on the right to water. The idea of campaigning for a treaty was one of the goals supported by the civil society organizations that participated in the People's World Water Forum in Delhi, India in January 2004. Advocates for an international water convention believe that binding international law is needed to establish the right to water for all people; to guarantee the right to water for coming generations; to prevent water from being privatized and degraded as a tradable good, among other compelling reasons.

Sponsors and Associates: Public Citizen (USA), Council of Canadians (Canada),Swiss Coalition of Development Organizations, Centre of Housing Rights and Evictions, FIAN International, Bread for the World Germany, Comision Nacional en Defensa del Agua y la Vida, Red VIDA, Both Ends, Ghana National Coalition Against Privatization, IBON, Development VISIONS and others.

Sara Grusky Water for All Campaign Public Citizen Phone: (202) 454-5133 Website: www.wateractivist.org