Networks, Alliances and Citizen Responsibility in Brazil in 2007

Citizen Responsibility Campaign in the city of São Paulo

With its 12 million inhabitants and enormous social problems, São Paulo is South America’s biggest city. The “R” [1] actions in São Paulo organized by the Movimento Nossa São Paulo Outra Cidade [2] (the Our São Paulo: A Different City movement), aim to set an example for other Brazilian cities. The actions were inspired by the citizen participation model in Bogotá, Colombia; the Movimento Bogotá Como Vamos [3] (Bogotá, How Are We Doing? movement) has developed a model for civil society participation and monitoring that has succeeded in reducing urban violence by 80%. It has also significantly improved social indicators over the last thirteen years, thanks to the actions of the Movimento Bogotá Como Vamos at the Colombian Peace Forum. The movement is a kind of Social Forum with concrete proposals.

Isis de Palma, along with a number of members of the CHR Brazilian Committee, the Ágora Institute, Pólis Institute, Ecoar Institute and other CHR partners in Brazil are taking an active and ongoing part in Nossa São Paulo: Outra Cidade - movement for citizen responsibility, headed by Oded Grajew (co-creator of the WSF – World Social Forum).

We also helped to coordinate the Organization Committee for World Carfree Day (22 September 2007) proposed by the Movement.
We have established partnerships and organized activities for the Conversations de Rue and Urban Psychodrama projects and Public Debates for World Carfree Day. The Charter of Human Responsibilities has been presented to movement participants with a reference document on the concept of responsibility. We are currently creating an internal sub-group on Values and Responsibility within the Culture group which will produce documents and initiate actions with the Charter as their ethical basis. There is a proposal to present the CHR to partners so that it becomes the ethical foundation and reference document for the meeting. The challenge at the meeting will be to draw up the Charter of Responsibilities for the parliament members gathered together at Parlatino.

Collaboration with networks and alliances

1- Collaboration with the Alliance of Journalists (Alliance-J)

In terms of citizen alliances, Isis de Palma is also a Brazilian facilitator of the International Alliance of Journalists .

The CHR is presented at all Alliance-J meetings and actions in Brazil and the concept of journalistic responsibilities is addressed. The network’s mission in Brazil is to influence university journalism courses, taking the concept of "R" [4] as the ethical foundation of journalism. The second challenge is to draw up a Charter of "R" for journalists. We are currently organizing ourselves into four Alliance-J workgroups: in São Paulo, Santos, Sorocaba and São Luiz no Maranhão.

2- Collaboration with the International Children’s Conference – Let’s Take Care of the Planet

Production, direction and translation of the Let’s Take Care of the Planet video – DVD. We are continuing talks with Brazilian government ministries to put in place preparatory actions for the International Conference.

3- Collaboration with the Ministry of Education and the Ministry of the Environment for distributing the CHR and Charter of "R" for Children, Let’s Take Care of Brazil

An Environmental Education publication for Brazilian schools — 60,000 books — is being put together, featuring part of the new version of the CHR [5]: the 10 principles and explanation of the "R" concept [6], the difference between rights and "R". This publication will be used as a reference tool for the 3rd Conference of Children and Adolescents on the Environment (2008) which will be working on a new Charter of Children’s Responsibilities. This is the start of a process for drawing up “Responsibilities” and actions that will be included in the Regional Conferences for the Environment, taking place outside the Conference, and including adults across the entire country.

4- Collaboration with the Youth for the Environment Network

The Youth for the Environment Collective is made up of informal groups of young people concerned by socio-environmental issues, some of whom are members of movements and organizations addressing these questions. Youth Collectives exist in each state and are linked nationally; they are partners of the Agency for Managing Environmental Education National Policy (Ministry of Education and Ministry of the Environment).

The Collective wishes to create platforms for participation for the young people of São Paulo in order to build sustainable societies via integrated local actions and commitment to drawing up and implementing public policies.

The Youth Collectives use reference documents such as the [Treaty of Environmental Education for Sustainable Societies and Global Responsibility http://www.paulofreire.org/Movimentos_e_Projetos/Cidadania_Planetaria/Ecopedagogia/tratado_ambiental.htm] [7], the Earth Charter, Agenda 21 and the Charter of Human Responsibilities used as a reference document for drawing up the Charter of Responsibilities for Young People Taking Care of Brazil.

Since the South American meeting of the CHR in Brazil in July 2006, which led to, among other outcomes, cross-border meetings between South American countries, young people active in Brazilian environmental networks (Youth Collectives and Youth for the Environment Network) have been working on the project Creating a Cross-Border Meeting (Brazil, Paraguay and Argentina) with young people, linked to the socio-environmental theme.
In October 2006 in the state of São Paulo we organized the 1st São Paulo Youth and the Environment Meeting; as a follow-up we will organize the 2nd Meeting in the state’s western region near the borders between the states of São Paulo, Paraná and Mato Grosso do Sul, and between Brazil, Paraguay and Argentina.
The meeting’s central idea is to use these documents as background and reference tool and to link together young people and their concerns with socio-environmental questions in these three countries.

5- Collaboration with the World Network of Artists in Alliance

The World Network of Artists in Alliance headed by poets Hamilton Faria and Pedro Garcia with the support of the Pòlis Institute and Inter-Municipalities Forum of Culture has given the Charter widespread distribution in Brazil (debates, round table discussions on the Culture of Peace and "Re-enchantment of the World”).

Exhibitions on responsibility in GreeceIn collaboration with the European Committee of the CHR via Yolanda Ziaka and Isis de Palma for the CHR Brazilian Committee as well as the World Network of Artists in Alliance, we contacted Brazilian painters in São Paulo and Minas Gerais. We organized texts, photos, documents and letters. Eleven works from eight artists were packed up and sent to Athens to be forwarded to the island of Syros, venue for the first Greek exhibition. You can read a report on the exhibition here. The exhibition will travel to Brazil in 2008.

Collaboration with the Network of Human Responsibilities in South America

Participation in the meeting that took place in Antofagasta, Chile, in collaboration with the Network of Human Responsibilities — South Cone (headed by Carlos Liberona from Chile).
Objective: using the concept of responsibility to reinforce the Citizen Assembly process planned for South America until 2010.

Meetings with local partners in São Paulo and Rio de Janeiro, coordinated by the Ágora Institute in São Paulo and Escola de Gente in Rio de Janeiro, partners of the Avina Foundation. We have established links in order to organize a South American meeting of responsibilities for parliament members and public ministries in South America. This meeting is part of the process of citizen assemblies planned up until 2010.

Actions of the CHR Brazilian Committee

Translation of the new version of the CHR into Portuguese, revision, creation of a new publication including the Charter of "R" for children — Let’s Take Care of Brazil, and the Charter of "R" for artists (3,000 copies printed). Creation and new print-run of a leaflet with the Charter’s ten principles. New workshops on the CHR in various Brazilian towns: Salvador, de Brasília, Santos, Itapetininga and São Paulo.