Another World is Possible in Diversity: Affirming the struggle for sexual and reproductive rights

We celebrate the seventh World Social Forum (WSF) in Nairobi and the lessons it has offered to the world. The visibilization, strengthening and articulation of struggles and resistances, the politicization by African organizations of crucial themes in the construction of the WSF, as well as the different forms of struggle in situations of profound exclusion that the African continent has shown us, are part of these lessons. However, we want to express our rejection of the fundamentalist tendencies that have been present in this edition of the Forum, and that have violated both the letter and the spirit of the WSF Charter of Principles.

During the whole Forum, different organizations have been present that deny the sexual and reproductive rights of men and women, of gays, lesbians, bisexuals, transsexuals, transgender and heterosexuals around the world. These positions are not new to the Forum, but have been particularly present in this year’s edition. They reached their clearest expressions during the last days of the Forum, with a march against abortion inside the WSF site, and the unacceptable treatment that fell upon a LGTB activist in the public closing ceremony.

Through this letter we embrace the struggles of our brothers and sisters for sexual and reproductive rights all around the world; they are part of our own struggles. Therefore, evoking diversity, we affirm that these struggles are a fundamental part of the construction of other worlds based on solidarity and justice.

We salute the organizations that struggle with so much dignity in name of sexual diversity in Kenya and other African countries. In spite of the difficult conditions and hostility they have faced in the organization process, these organizations have successfully gained visibility inside the Forum. The demands for sexual diversity and emancipation are not a “European” or “middle-class” issue, as has been suggested in some of the debates on the presence of LGTB activism in the WSF. They are part of the same struggle in which the right to land and the right to express one’s sexuality both contribute to the construction of radically democratic futures.

Simultaneously, we declare our solidarity with the African organizations that struggle for the rights and liberation of women in the continent. Even though fundamentalist sexual morality and structural gender violence continuously make their lives precarious, these women impulse struggles profoundly interconnected with the struggles against neoliberalism, militarism and the different fundamentalisms. These struggles are oriented towards justice in terms of economic redistribution, and in terms of recognition, among which, the recognition of sexual and reproductive rights of individuals. In this way, these organizations enrich the democratic basis of African society.

We want to recognize the valuable work done by organizations related to the churches and mosques in Africa. This social work, however, does not justify the exercise of control over the liberty and autonomy of individuals. We therefore reject all fundamentalist manifestations that deny sexual diversity, the right of abortion, the free choice of partner, the free exercise and expression of gender, sexuality, and the body, the use of condoms and other birth-control methods, and all other expressions against the sexual and reproductive rights of all.

As the struggles for the construction of another world can only be successful if they recognize the diversity of identities and political subjects, we affirm that the World Social Forum is a process open to all that recognize this diversity. Consequently, organizations and individuals that promote the marginalization, exclusion and discrimination of other human beings, are alien to this process.

Therefore, we call upon the International Council, and the different Organization Committees, to promote and facilitate the integration of the struggles for sexual and reproductive rights in every Social Forum around the world. Although we understand the diversity of cultural and political contexts that the WSF might encounter, the right of our brothers and sisters to struggle for autonomy and freedom is not negotiable.

Nairobi and Lima, 28 January 2008

Programa de Estudios sobre Democracia y Transformacion Global (Lima, Perú)
Centro de la Mujer Peruana Flora Tristan (Lima, Perú)
Network Institute for Global Democratization Perú (Lima, Perú)
Articulación Feminista Marcosur
ABONG
Instituto Paulo Freire
Committee for the Abolition of Third World Debt (CADTM)