Time: 19:00-20:30 Bali time – 1PM CET – 7AM ET

Register here:
https://us02web.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_wxbLprlHQkaGlvn96dWb-g

This session will highlight links between water privatization, corporate-led policymaking and assaults on human rights defenders in light of the siege of 40 Indonesian water justice activists being silenced and held captive at a Denpasar hotel where the People’s Water Forum was to be held. The People’s Water Forum is a counter-forum to the World Water Forum – a triennial corporate-driven trade show taking place in Bali from May 18-25. 

Context

Over the past week, local organizers of the People’s Water Forum in Bali had their event spaces canceled due to intimidation by paramilitary groups and local law enforcement working in collaboration. A press conference held on May 20 was disrupted by dozens of masked men who assaulted speakers and confiscated materials. The hotel where the PWF was, until last night, surrounded by these repressive forces, trapping 40 Indonesian activists inside with limited access to food, water and other essentials. They have been prevented from meeting with international water justice activists who were to attend the PWF. 

While no one has officially taken responsibility, the PWF’s international coordinating body sees this as part of a pattern of exclusion and suppression of dissent in efforts to protect the World Water Forum. For example, Brazilian public authorities had threatened to deny PWF organizers access to venues, during the WWF held there in 2018, but eventually issued necessary permits due to strong public pressure, among other examples from previous forums.

As supporters and organizers of the PWF, we believe this assault on water defenders and shut-down of spaces of dissent is emblematic of the undemocratic, authoritarian nature of the World Water Forum and what it stands for: water privatization, the corporate capture of policy and market-based solutions to water and other interconnected global crises.

Panelists

• Faeza Meyer, African Water Commons Collective, Cape Town, South Africa 
• Marcela Olivera, Proyecto Planeta Azul, Cochabamba Bolivia 
• Alexandra Gutierrez, PAPC, Colombia
• Jamal Juma, StopTheWall/End Water Apartheid Campaign, Palestine
• Fatou Diouf, PSI-Africa, Senegal
• Pedro Arrojo, UN Special Rapporteur on the Human Rights to Safe Drinking Water and Sanitation, Spain
• Other speakers TBD

• Meera Karunananthan, Blue Planet Project, Canada (Chair)

Simultaneous Interpretation Bahasa-English-Spanish will be provided