FIAN International at the World Social Forum in Dakar
Heidelberg, February 3, 2011: FIAN International will join the World Social Forum in Dakar, Senegal from February 5 to 11. A FIAN delegation composed of representatives from Nepal, Burkina Faso, Germany and the International Secretariat will be participating in various activities related mainly to land grabbing. FIAN, together with peasants', environmental, development and other human rights organizations, will be discussing strategies to stop land grabbing. The idea is to build on the joint CSOs’ position developed during the last session of the Committee on World Food Security in October 2010 in Rome. FIAN expects that the WSF this year will significantly contribute to strengthening alliance building among the groups’ struggle against all forms of land dispossession.
In several activities (see list below) FIAN will present an analysis of land grabbing from a human rights perspective highlighting in particular the extraterritorial human rights obligations of investing states and the international community. Moreover, FIAN will show how human rights tools can be used to support resistance against land grabbing.
Regarding the campaign of the OP/ESCR (Optional Protocol to the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights), FIAN International Secretariat together with FIDH and Amnesty International will organise a joint seminar. Moreover the responsible country officer will participate in meetings of the International Food Security Network (IFSN) to integrate the issue of the right to food and its justiciability.
The activities of FIAN International Secretariat will be held at the WSF’s venue, at the agricultural fair organized by the Pan-African Platform of Peasant Organizations FIARA and in M’Bour.
Timetable of FIAN’s activities:
February, 5 to 6, WSF:
African validation meeting on the “Proposal to the FAO Guidelines on Responsible Governance of Land and Natural Resources Tenure.”
In cooperation with the International Planning Committee for Food Sovereignty (IPC)
February, 6 to 9, M’bour:
Land grabbing in Africa – Dangers and Challenges
In cooperation with Caritas Senegal, Misereor and NAD
February 7, 9am to 12.30pm, FIARA:
Land grabbing discussion
In cooperation with La Via Campesina (LVC) and the West African Network of Agricultural Producers (ROPPA).
February 7, 12.30pm to 3.30pm, WSF:
Land grabbing in Africa
In cooperation with the African Network for the Right to Food (RAPDA) Bread for the World, ICCO and FECCIWA.
February 8, 12.40pm to 5pm, WSF:
A new international instrument to demand social justice: The new United Nations complaints mechanism for violations of the rights to food, housing, health, education and water
In cooperation with the International Federation of Human Rights (FIDH) and Amnesty International.
February 8, 16.30pm to 7pm, WSF:
Land grabbing in Africa and human rights remedies
In cooperation with LVC and Friends of the Earth International (FOEI).
February 11, WSF:
Assembly of convergence on land grabbing
In cooperation with LVC, FoEI, ROPPA, CCFD-Terre Solidaire and Peuple Solidaires. All organizations interested in supporting a common statement on land grabbing are invited to join this assembly.