The 2013 edition of the World Social Forum took place between the 26 to the 30th of March in Tunisia. A lot can be said about World Social Forums, as always, but this one event will for sure mark history.
As Tawfeeg Ben Abdallah Coordinator of the African Social Movement and member of the WSF International Council stated : « This is one of the most important international event that hapened in Tunisia since the independence. » And indeed, the global conssensus on the success of the forum is the best proof of what a turning point this Forum is for the social movements of the Arab world.
Dear friends and supporters of the World Social Forum process:
Recently, we commemorated the tenth anniversary of the 2003 war in Iraq. Sadly, all the protesters who shouted “No blood for oil!” were correct. The regime had to step down but freedom could not be gained for the Iraqi people through war and occupation. Today, the situation is critical in Iraq in both humanitarian and political terms. Iraqi social movements and civil society organizations are part of a wave of popular protest, that has been countered with bloody repression by the government. Courageous activists are everyday risking their lives in the struggle.
Appel d’Ameer Makhoul à toutes celles et tous ceux qui le soutiennent depuis ses trois premières années d’emprisonnement et à tous ceux et toutes celles qui sont aux côtés du peuple palestinien et des peuples dont le droit à l’autodétermination est remis en cause au nom d’un nouvel ordre mondial qui sème la terreur, la guerre et la misère.
Four Saudi activists are under investigation after forming a human rights group on April 3, 2013, and could face prosecution for “establishing an illegal organization,” Human Rights Watch said today. Saudi authorities should immediately cease harassing the four founding members of the group, the Union for Human Rights (UHR), and give it an operating license, Human Rights Watch said.
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Lebanon, Israeli police say. Micky Rosenfeld, an Israeli police
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Amnesty International has on World Water Day urged the Israeli authorities to end discriminatory practices against Palestinians in the Occupied Palestinian Territories that violate their right to adequate water supplies.
Many of the Palestinians living in the West Bank and featured in the October 2009 Amnesty International report Troubled Waters – Palestinians Denied Fair Access to Water – face continuing serious Israeli obstacles to accessing water.
"Almost six months after our report, the Israeli government still maintains control over water resources in Occupied Palestinian Territories. Palestinians are allowed only a fraction of the almost unlimited supplies provided to illegal Israeli settlements," said Malcolm Smart, Director of Amnesty International's Middle East Programme.
Paris-Geneva-Copenhagen, March 17, 2010. The Observatory for the Protection of Human Rights Defenders and the Euro-Mediterranean Network for Human Rights (EMHRN) denounce the continued harassment faced by Syrian human rights defenders and prisoners of conscience.
On March 10, 2010, the first public hearing of the trial of human rights lawyer Mr. Muhannad Al-Hassani, President of the Syrian Organisation for Human Rights “Sawassyah”, Commissioner of the International Commission of Jurists (ICJ) as well as one of the four nominees for the Martin Ennals Award 2010, was held before the Second Chamber of the Damascus Criminal Court in the presence of numerous human rights activists and lawyers, foreign embassies representatives, and international observers, notably Mr. Abdessatar Benmoussa, former President of the Tunis Bar Association mandated by the ICJ, the Observatory and the EMHRN to attend the hearing.
Algeria Summit States Should Urge End to Murders, Kidnappings
(Dakar) - Al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM) has in recent months stepped up targeting tourists and aid workers for murder and kidnapping in Mali, Niger, and Mauritania, Human Rights Watch said today. AQIM should immediately and unconditionally free hostages in its custody and end attacks on civilians, Human Rights Watch said.
The organization also called on foreign ministers from Algeria, Burkina Faso, Chad, Libya, Mali, Mauritania, and Niger, meeting today in Algeria, to categorically denounce AQIM's attacks against civilians, as well as a threat by AQIM made in a March 11 statement to Spanish Daily El Pais, which underscored the group's willingness to attack civilians. The threat suggested Spain would be "paid in kind" in "a war that does not distinguish between civilians and militants."
Samir Amin is a Franco-Egyptian economist, a member of the International Council of the World...
That the Israel-Palestine conflict grinds on without resolution might appear to be rather...
“The Arab world is on fire,” al-Jazeera reported on January 27, while throughout the...
