World Social Forum 2016 - Assessment of the World Social Forum 2016 held in Montreal

MONTREAL, Aug. 16, 2016 /CNW/ - The World Social Forum (WSF) is very proud of this 12th edition of the WSF, the first to be held in a Northern country. " The WSF represents the work of a committee that has carried out its activities together during 3 years, ever since May 2013, following the return from a first WSF in Tunisia ", explained Carminda Mac Lorin, a co-coordinator. The event counted 35,000 participants, including 15,000 who were present at the opening march, where 125 countries were represented. Let's remember that at the first World Social Forum held in Porto Alegre in Brazil in 2001, 20,00 people took part in the event. Therefore, considering such numbers, the organizers are more than satisfied as to the results of a first World Social Forum held in a Northern country.

The World Social Forum would not have been possible without the 1,000 volunteers who gave their time in order to be sure that everything goes as well as possible during the event. We can count more than 15,000 of volunteer work that was done throughout the week.

In total, 1,200 self-managed activities took place, as well as 200 cultural activities and 6 parallel forums ; the World Forum of Free Media, the World Parliamentary Forum, the Forum of First Nations, the Theology and Freedom World Forum, the World Social Forum for a World Free of Civil and Military Nuclear Fission and Hoodstock.

The World Social Forum wishes to also remind everyone of the importance of the involvement of the 26 self-managed committees of the WSF, for example, the Democracy Committee, the committee on social protection and human rights, and the Committee on Education. These different committees were linked to numerous themes and the activities that were held during these committees represented those themes.

There were also 22 assemblies of convergence which led to more than a hundred initiatives like, for example, Estates General on Education and the participation of many during the day of defense of public services. By next week, the WSF will publish on its website the calendar of the different actions of social change that were put forward during the Agora of Initiatives and that can be used as a guide by citizens worldwide by providing them with concrete ideas on how to change the system.

Nonetheless, the World Social Forum regrets that 60% (this is a provisional number, as we are still waiting for more information concerning the subject) of visa demands have been refused by the Canadian government. The WSF Collective is committed to portray all those who were refused to show the government, but also to show civil society, what these participants could have brought to the WSF. " We also want to use the case of Montreal in order to question the accessibility of countries of the North ", explained Raphaël Canet, the co-coordinator.

Today, the International Council of the World Social Forum met to plan the next edition of the Forum.

World Social Forum
The World Social Forum is the largest gathering of civil society aiming to find solutions to the problems of our time. Created in 2001 in Brazil, the WSF gathers many thousands of participants for more than 1,000 activities (workshops, conferences, artistic performances…) concerning different themes (social development, solidary economy, environment, human rights, democratization…).

SOURCE Forum social mondial 2016 (Québec)

For further information: Sources: Katia Stuart-Gagnon, Responsible of Communications, [e-mail], 514-266-6522; Mathilde Ouellet, Media Relations, [e-mail], 438-393-0834