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The World Forum for the Collective Rights of Peoples starts in Girona

Delegations from Quebec, Basque Country, Faeroe Islands, Kurdistan and other 20 different stateless peoples and nations participate in a conference on globalization and the right to self-determination · The international delegations will also attend as international observers the consultation for Catalan independence to be held in Girona on Sunday.

The World Forum for the Collective Rights of Peoples is starting on Friday -St. George Day, Catalonia's patron saint- in Girona as one of the World Social Forum thematic forums. It will gather members of civic movements, political parties, autonomous governments and intellectuals from stateless nations across the globe.

The forum, organized by CIEMEN with the support of the Catalan Agency for Cooperation Development, will consist of round tables and debates on the right to self-determination, identity, territory, environmental crisis and the idea of collective rights of peoples in relation with the globalization process.

The meeting is attended (see the list) by more than 30 delegates from at least 20 different nations. Among the most distinguished participants there are Daniel Turp, vice-president of the Parti Québécois and professor of constitutional law; Belkacem Lounes, president of the Amazigh World Congress; Christian Troadec, mayor of Carhaix (Brittany); Gustavo Quilaqueo, president of the Mapuche party Wallmapuwen and Bekir Kaya, mayor of Wan (North Kurdistan).Representatives of the Faeroe Islands, Basque Country, Galicia and Aosta Valley will also attend the Forum, as well as renowned personalities from the anti-globalisation movement such as the Brazilian Moema Miranda (IBASE), and from other South American civic movements such as the Colombian Viva la Ciudadanía.

Apart from the working sessions and debates (open to the public on Saturday, but private on Sunday, see the programme) the Forum will held on Friday an opening ceremony at Girona's Jardí de la Infància, including parliaments by different delegations and a concert by La Carrau. Furthermore, the delegations will participate as international observers in the Consultation on the independence of Catalonia which will be held in Girona on Sunday.

Precedents in Brazil

The World Forum for the Collective Rights of Peoples is a thematic forum on self-determination and a continuation of the initiative CIEMEN launched during the World Social Forum 2009 held at Bélém do Pará (Amazonia, Brazil). It consisted of the Space for the Collective Rights of Peoples, which placed the issue of self-determination as one of the key themes of the World Social Forum.

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