Everything is ready to inaugurate the World Social Forum 2009, a process where alter-globalisation movements from around the world gather to coordinate world campaigns, share and define organizing strategies. It will take place in Belém do Para, Brasil, right on the banks of the Amazon. The Forum will host a great deal of innovations, such as the participation of a Catalan organization that will coordinate one of the thematic areas.

CIEMEN has invited representatives of 30 stateless nations across the world to participate in the area of Collective Rights of Peoples, which will host debates, talks, conferences, round tables and other activities for three days (January 29, 30 and 31). The area will consist in two big tents with a capacity for 350 and 200 people, a press office and information stands. The activities will focus on topics related to collective rights of peoples: self-determination, minoritised languages and indigenous peoples, land rights, etc.

The area for Collective Rights of Peoples, which has the support of the Catalan Agency for Development Cooperation, constitutes an unprecedented activity in the history of the Forum mainly due to two reasons. Firstly, because the right to self-determination will be a core theme, and secondly because a Catalan organization will be coordinating it for the first time. The activities will be allocated to the fifth largest area in the Forum out of a total number of 17 tents.

Members of organizations from the Catalan Countries, Galicia, Tamil Eelam, Kurdistan, Corsica, Basque Country, Palestine, Balochistan, Mapuche People, Imazighen People and indigenous peoples from all over the world, particularly South America, will participate in the activities and will contribute to draft a final Declaration which will include the conclusions of seminars and a common agenda for the future.

Andreu Felip, director of the Catalan Agency for Development Cooperation, and Quim Arrufat, member of CIEMEN and project co-ordinator, have presented the initiative in Barcelona. Arrufat stated that "what we want to say is that another world is not possible if the right to self-determination of nations is not respected", and said that the aim is "to set up a worldwide network comprising peoples which have their national rights restricted or unresolved".

A blog will follow the activities
The activities are to be followed on a blog at http://autodeterminaciofsm2009.wordpress.com. It will host the program, news, photos, information on the ongoing activities and the contact information of CIEMEN members attending the event.