A public meeting by the Global Convergence of Land and Water
Struggles
Thursday December 10th, from 13:00 to 17:00
Small-scale
food producers and consumers, including peasants, indigenous peoples, hunters
and gatherers, family farmers, rural workers, herders and pastoralists,
fisherfolk and urban people – the frontline communities – are increasingly
confronted by the grabbing of natural resources and by systematic violations of
human rights. They are also directly affected by the impacts of climate
destruction. The climate change mitigation schemes of the United Nations
Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) which are presented as
“solutions” to the man-made climate crisis are false solutions given that they
are intrinsically linked to these resource grabs and human rights violations.
At
this public event, you will get the unique opportunity to listen to and engage
in conversations with representatives of frontline communities from all regions
of the world. These leaders of the struggle for climate justice participate in
panel sessions and will discuss the false solutions to the climate crisis of
the UNFCCC, the real solutions which are rooted in peoples’ knowledge and
experiences, and how the Global Convergence on Land and Water Struggles can
advance the struggle for systemic change.
Why
this meeting?
Double impact: One of the most immediate effects of the false solutions to the
current man-made climate crisis is people’s loss of access to land and water –
the very natural resources upon which people depend for their livelihoods and
food sovereignty. Privatisation and financialisation of nature is the intended
result of UNFCCC schemes such as REDD+ and it is well known to dispossess
masses of people. Already pushed to the fringe, deprived of access to land and
water in rural and urban settings, frontline communities also face the
increasingly frequent natural disasters that are caused by the climate change –
and the inability of governments to agree to real solutions.
Systemic
changes: the real solutions articulated by frontline communities derive from
local livelihood strategies and practices. A commonality of the diverse – and
locally adapted – real solutions, is that these build on the needs and
interests of the people and require a fundamental shift away from solutions
that are developed by and for a minority elite. In this way, real solutions are
intrinsically linked to the necessity of systemic changes.
The Global Convergence on Land and Water Struggles unpacks and further develops
the real solutions through frontline dialogue. The public event will advance
this dialogue by giving the platform to frontline communities and ensuring
space for interaction with the audience. In short, the convergence will show
the way forward.
The
event is divided into three panel sessions: false solutions, real solutions,
and showing the way forward.
About the Global Convergence of Land and Water Struggles
“We,
social movements, grassroots organizations and civil society organizations
engaged in the defense of the rights to land and water are fighting back,
asserting our rights and providing real solutions. We believe that peoples’ access
to and control of land and water is essential to peace, to stopping climate
change, as well as to fulfilling fundamental human rights and guaranteeing a
dignified life for all.”
Dakar to Tunis: Declaration of the Global Convergence of Land and Water Struggles.
The
Global Convergence of Land and Water Struggles is an initiative initiated and
led by grassroots organizations and social movements in order to link and
strengthen the struggles for food and peoples’ sovereignty and human rights.
This process started in October 2014, as several social and grassroots
movements from Africa as well as civil society organizations gathered at the
African Social Forum in Dakar to protest against all forms of natural resource
grabbing and the systematic human rights violations that accompany them.
Sharing their ideas, they recognized the essential solidarity between their
struggles and decided to meet again at the World Social Forum to continue this
dialogue with movements and organizations from all over the world.
The
declaration “Rights to Water and Land, a Common Struggle. Dakar to Tunis
Declaration of the Global Convergence of Land and Water Struggles” sets out the
vision, principles and aspirations of the Convergence and is intended to serve
the process of building a strong and united movement struggling for the
enforcement of public policies based on food and peoples’ sovereignty in order
to realize the human rights to food and nutrition, water, land and territories,
seeds, and others. The Global Convergence of Land and Water Struggles is a
response by local communities and grassroots organizations around the world who
assert their rights, provide real solutions and resist and struggle against the
threats to their lives and well-being, particularly through the appropriation
of natural resources by companies, governments, elites, and speculators.