Charter of principles

The World Social Forum (WSF) is the largest gathering of civil society to find solutions to the
problems of our time. Started in 2001 in Brazil, the WSF brings together in each of its edition tens
of thousands of participants to more than a thousand activities (workshops, conferences, artistic
performances …) on various themes (social, solidarity economy, environment, human rights,
democratization … ). A charter of principles describes what is and is not the WSF process, the
values and goals of its participants, as well as important operation rules.

 
Charter of Principles of the World Social Forum
The committee of Brazilian organizations that organized the first World Social Forum, held in
Porto Alegre from January 25 to 30, 2001, after evaluating the results of that Forum and the
expectations it raised, consider it necessary and legitimate to draw up a Charter of
Principles to guide the continued pursuit of that initiative. While the principles contained in this
Charter – to be respected by all those who wish to take part in the process and to organize new
meetings of the World Social Forum – consolidate the decisions that were adopted at the Porto
Alegre Forum and ensured its success, they extend the scope of those decisions and define
orientations that flow from their logic.
 
1. The World Social Forum is an open meeting place for reflective thinking, democratic
debate of ideas, formulation of proposals, free exchange of experiences and forging
effective action on the part of organizations and movements of civil society that are
opposed to neoliberalism and the domination of the world by capital and any form of
imperialism, and are also committed to building a global society directed towards fruitful
relationships among people and between humankind and the planet.
2. The World Social Forum at Porto Alegre was an event localized in time and place. From
now on, in the certainty proclaimed at Porto Alegre that “another world is possible”, it
becomes a permanent process of seeking and building alternatives, which cannot be
reduced to the events supporting it.
3. The World Social Forum is a worldwide ongoing initiative. All the meetings that are held
as part of this initiative have an international dimension.
4. The alternatives proposed at the World Social Forum stand in opposition to globalization
led by the large multinational corporations and by the governments and international
institutions at the service of their interests, with the complicity of national governments.
They are designed to consolidate a globalization based on the values of
solidarity that, as a new stage in world history, will respect universal human rights and
all citizens – men and women – of all nations, as well as the environment and will be
underpinned by democratic international systems and institutions at the service of
social justice, equality, and national sovereignty.
5. The World Social Forum brings together and interlinks organizations and movements
of civil society from all the countries in the world, but does not seek to be a body
representing world civil society.
6. The meetings of the World Social Forum do not have a deliberative character. That is,
no one will be authorized, on behalf of the Forum or in any of its regularly held meetings,
to express positions to be considered attributable to all its participants. The participants in
the Forum shall not be called on to take decisions in the name of the body, whether by
vote or acclamation, on declarations or action proposals that would be binding on all or
the majority, and that are proposed to be the decisions of the Forum as such.
 7. Nonetheless, organizations that participate in the Forum’s meetings must be assured the
right, during such meetings, to deliberate on declarations or actions they may decide on,
whether singly or in coordination with other participants. The World Social Forum
undertakes to broadly circulate such decisions, through the means at its disposal,
without directing, hierarchizing, censuring, or restricting them, but as deliberations of the
organizations or groups of organizations that made the decisions.
8. The World Social Forum is a plural, diversified, non-confessional, non-governmental
and non-party space that, decentralized and based on network functioning, interrelates
organizations and movements engaged in concrete action from the local to the
international level to built another world.
9. The World Social Forum will always be a space open to pluralism and to the diversity of
activities of the organizations and movements that decide to participate in it, as well as
the diversity of genders, ethnicities, cultures, generations and physical capacities,
providing they abide by this Charter of Principles. Neither party nor military organizations
shall participate in the Forum. Government leaders and members of legislatures who
accept the commitments of this Charter may be invited to participate in a personal
capacity.
10. The World Social Forum is opposed to all totalitarian and reductionist views of
economy, development and history and to the use of violence as a means of social
control by the State. It upholds respect for human rights, the practicing of real
democracy, participatory democracy, peaceful, equal, and solidarity-based relations,
among individuals, peoples, ethnicities, and genders and peoples, and condemns all
forms of domination and all subjection of one person by another.
11. As a forum for discussion, the World Social Forum is a movement of ideas that prompts
reflection, and the transparent circulation of the results of such thinking concerning
the mechanisms and instruments of domination by capital, on the media and actions to
resist and overcome that domination, and on the alternatives proposed to solve the
problems of exclusion and social inequality that the process of capitalist globalization with
its racist, sexist and environmentally destructive dimensions is creating internationally
and within countries.
12. As a framework for the exchange of experiences, the World Social Forum encourages
mutual recognition and understanding among its participating organizations and
movements. It places special value on the exchange among its participants, particularly
on what society is doing to center economic activity and political action on meeting
the peoples’ needs and respecting nature, in the present and for future generations.
13. As a space for interaction, the World Social Forum seeks to strengthen and create new
national and international links among organizations and social movements, that –
in both the public and private spheres- will increase the capacity for non-violent social
resistance to the process of dehumanization the world is experiencing and to the violence
employed by the State, in addition to strengthening socially oriented initiatives current
being undertaken through the activities of these movements and organizations.
14. The World Social Forum is an ongoing effort that encourages its participating
organizations and movements to place their activities, from the local level to the national
and international level as questions of global citizenship, and to introduce onto the
global agenda the change-inducing practices that they are experimenting with in
building a more solidarity-based new world.

# Year City Country

I 2001 Porto Alegre  Brazil

II 2002 Porto Alegre  Brazil

III 2003 Porto Alegre  Brazil

IV 2004 Mumbai  India

V 2005 Porto Alegre  Brazil

Bamako and Caracas (January)  Mali and   Venezuela

VI 2006

Karachi (March)  Pakistan

VII 2007 Nairobi  Kenya

VIII 2008 No specific location

IX 2009 Belém  Brazil

X 2010 Porto Alegre  Brazil

XI 2011 Dakar  Senegal

XII 2012 Porto Alegre  Brazil

XIII 2013 Tunis  Tunisia

XI
2015 Tunis  Tunisia
V

XV 2016 Montreal  Canada

XV
2018 Salvador, Bahia  Brazil
I
Created as a counter event to the ‘World Economic Forum’ which for years is held at the end
of January in Davos, the World Social Forum was set up in Porto Alegre, Brazil, in 2001.
Some Brazilian civil society leaders had understood very well that the world shaped in Davos
by world economic and political leaders was the neo-liberal world of profit, the world of the
privileged, the world of the 1% that continues to exclude the other 99%. But these Brazilian
leaders also knew that nowhere was written that the world had to be neoliberal and capitalist.
Instead, they thought it was necessary to come together to shape a world where everyone has
its place with respect and dignity, and they shared the conviction that this other world was not
just one of the many utopias of history, but that it was possible. Thus, the slogan ‘Another
world is possible’ describes their vision and programme very well.  

Since its inception, the WSF has been a democratic space for meetings and dialogue for
movements, social organisations, popular associations, civil society organisations, organised
community groups, and all the anti-capitalists and alter-globalists of the planet. The WSF was
conceived as an enormous circus tent that was always expanding, under which a collective
process of resistance and alternatives, mobilisation and struggle was played out, with
convergence, alliances and networking as its main tools. It was only a little later that it
became clear that resistance and struggle were not enough and that it was also necessary to
propose and transform.

It took courage, even boldness, to imagine that organisations from all over the world would
accept the invitation to come to Porto Alegre to discuss a subject as inspiring as it is
nebulous: the possibility of building another world, a better one this time.

Background
The 2021 Social Forum will be convened as humanity faces the profound, unprecedented and
multiple crises from the COVID-19 pandemic that continues to pose a threat to the social and
economic fabric of countries worldwide, in addition to the immediate health crisis. Alarming
statistics providing insights into the extent of the damage are routinely released by the WHO,
including updates of the massive number of people infected and of COVID-19 related
fatalities.

The COVID-19 pandemic is exposing and exacerbating longstanding social and economic
inequalities and patterns of discrimination in the enjoyment of human rights. Collapsing
global trade, falling remittances, sharp reversals of capital flows, and currency depreciation
pose particular challenges to poorer nations. Within countries, the poor, as well as
marginalized and vulnerable groups such as older persons, women and girls, members of
ethnic and other minorities, indigenous peoples and LGBTI persons are particularly affected.
The devastating impacts of the pandemic further exacerbate the forces of conflicts and
climate change, which were already slowing down the progress made so far in reducing world
poverty. The World Bank expects that in 2021, the estimated COVID-19-induced poor is set
to rise to between 143 and 163 million.

These challenges are occurring in a context of globalization, population growth and

demographic shifts, shedding light on the world’s interdependency and interconnectedness.
International cooperation and solidarity are indispensable to effectively responding to the
pandemic and related global crises, and to realizing peace, human rights and sustainable
development. As United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights Michelle Bachelet put
it:

“The COVID-19 pandemic is a test to us all and to societies and systems. To come out of it
stronger we need to show solidarity. To be most effective, measures to stop the spread of the
virus need to include actions to protect the most vulnerable […] It is precisely in times of
crisis that human rights values can help us steer the best course. We need to come together
and continue working for the common good with conviction and determination.”

Local, national, regional and international responses to the crises must match their unique
nature and scale. Many States have had to take extraordinary measures to protect the health
and well-being of their populations, often at great cost to their societies and economies. It is
of vital importance that socio-economic responses to COVID-19 are human rights-based. The
international community, both States and non-state actors have a critical role to play in
preventing and mitigating the human rights impact of the crisis and in ensuring that the
measures taken to support the economic recovery comply with human rights standards.

COVID-19 is a test of societies, of governments, of communities and of individuals. It is a

time for solidarity and cooperation to tackle the virus, and to mitigate the effects, often
unintended, of measures designed to halt the spread of COVID-19. Respect for human rights
across the spectrum, including economic, social, cultural, and civil and political rights, will be
fundamental to the success of the response and recovery from the pandemic.

The 2021 Social Forum

In 2021 the Social Forum will take place on 11 and 12 October in Room XVII at the Palais des
Nations in Geneva and online. In accordance with resolution 44/22 of the Human Rights
Council, it will focus on “good practices, success stories, lessons learned and challenges in the
fight against the COVID-19 pandemic, with a special focus on international cooperation and
solidarity, and from a human rights perspective”.

The Social Forum will bring together multiple stakeholders across the world to engage in a
constructive dialogue on the above theme, to contribute to a resilient recovery to build better
together.