Give your oppinion about the Human Rights Caucus!

One of the main issues on the agenda of World Social Forum (WSF), right from the beginning in 2001 involved Human Rights. The number of activities and of organisations organising workshops, seminars and others grew so quickly that already in 2003 concerns were raised among the HR community about the lack of coordination leading to duplication and waste of time and opportunity.

This lead, at the 2005 Porto Alegre Forum, to a basic mechanism for information exchange –, the human rights Caucus which, together with the Forum organisers’ efforts at ‘agglutination’ improved the situation. In 2006 –the year of the polycentrics in Mali, Pakistan and Venezuela- little was on the issue. For the Nairobi-Forum in 2007, the Human Dignity and Human Rights Caucus organised a central venue, an ambitious joint programme with hight profile personalities such as Mary Robinson and joint registration. Around 80 organisations, local, regional and international, decided to carry out their activities within the framework of the HDHRC. More information: http://hdhrc.over-blog.com/categorie-10210054.html

A brief evaluation of this experience concluded that it was useful to maintain the basic structure of the Caucus, with a small, half-time secretariat guaranteeing communication, specifically to enable working together in the WSF-framework. In 2008, the Caucus did not find a broad (i.e. international) base for HR activities for the Global Day of Action: the core-group did organise competition on innovation in bringing forward HR-issues. There were around 60 innnovative proposals from all around the world. The caucus also attempted to bring human rights issues to the WEF in Davos. More information on: http://hdhrc.over-blog.com/categorie-10210051.html

The recent 2009-Social Forum in Belém saw the organisation of a consolidated HR-programme, centred mainly on the Human Rights Tent and with significant participation of the Brazilian HR organisations and networks. For more information see: http://hdhrc.over-blog.com/categorie-10310426.html

In summary, with a constituency interested in using the Forum as an effective platform for debate, exchange and strategising on Human Rights, the Human Rights Caucus has gained an element of continuity but at the same time programmes organised at the Fora show a very varied pattern of participation and representativity.

It is now necessary for the Caucus to reflect on these experiences a) to see whether there is a need on the side of the HR community for such a structure/mechanism and, if so,b) what it would look like and how it could or should function. To help the core-group members organise a debate and come up with answers, we would appreciate your response to the following questions and your comments and suggestions

Name of your organisation/country.

1. Which Fora did you attend?

2. Did your organisation see itself as part of the Caucus?

3. If so: what benefits/advantages –if any- did you see in terms of your participation in the Fora?

4. What problems/limitations did you experience?

5. What suggestions could you offer on the future of the Caucus:

   • in terms of organisation?

   • In terms of coordination-process and programming?