SOCIAL MOVEMENTS AND GRASSROOTS' GROUPS - December 2009
Third Solidarity Visit and Human Rights Mutual-Learning Workshop
ESCR-Net is very pleased to share that the Social Movements and Grassroots Working Group has received a grant from the American Jewish World Service to hold a Third Solidarity Visit and Human Rights Mutual-Learning Workshop. During the Nairobi Meeting, the members of the group identified the right to land, territory and natural resources as one of their priority areas of concern and the need to find further spaces for sharing and mutual learning as a central objective to pursue. While the program for the gathering needs to be defined by the participating partners, we anticipate that it will focus on the right to land and will provide an opportunity for the groups to further learn from each other on this issue as well as to advance conversations on strategies for solidarity and mutual support. We are also very happy to announce that some of our Brazilian partners--MST and Terra de Direitos--have expressed their willingness to host this event. Both of these groups have an impressive track record in working to ensure the right to land for small-scale farmers in Brazil.
Video Documentary Project
As mentioned on our prior newsletter, the ESCR-Net Secretariat, in collaboration with the Media Mobilizing Project and the Social Movement Working Group, is advancing the Social Movement Working Group Documentary Project. The main objectives of the project are to (i) create a documentary tool for mutual learning on common challenges faced by social movements (particularly connecting local struggles to the changing international context), effective human rights strategies (and related lessons), and successful examples of or guidance for beneficial collaborations; and (ii) visually represent an emerging network of social movements and grassroots groups using the human rights, particularly ESCR, framework, to assist in further organizing efforts. The experiences and expertise of members present at the Social Movements and Grassroots Groups Gathering in Kenya form the content of this documentary. The documentary will be ready for a worldwide release soon. For more information, contact Suad Elías at selias@escr-net.org.