The General Forum of Solidarity for Asian People’s Advocacy (SAPA)was held last Feburary 5-6 at the Windsor Suite Hotel in Bangkok, Thailand. It was hosted by Forum-Asia. It was attended by the AFA Secretary General, the AFA Vice Chairperson, and the Sor Kor Por Secretary General. They were also joined by the AsiaDHRRA Secretary General and the ThaiDHRRA Coordinator.
During the meeting, AFA and AsiaDHRRA proposed that a working group for farmers and agriculture be created, mainly to highlight issues of small men and women farmers, fishers and indigenous peoples in the various thematic areas. This was supported by some members. However, the RSC requested the proponents to send a written proposal which includes aims, action plans, and potential members for consideration by the RSC.
As a result of the meeting, AFA was able to get updates on the regional situation, especially on globalization, trade, finance, labor, and ASEAN. It was also able to get information about SAPA as an regional platform and assess whether AFA should be more involved and if so, how.
SAPA, or the Solidarity for Asian People’s Advocacy, is an open platform for consultation, cooperation and coordination among Asian social movements and civil society organizations including NGOs, people’s organizations and trade unions who are engaged in action, advocacy, lobby at the inter-governmental processes and organizations.
It aims to enhance cooperation among its members and partners to increase the impact and effectiveness of their engagement with inter-governmental bodies.
Its main areas of engagement are: 1) democracy and human rights; (2) peace and human security; (3) sustainable development and environment and (4) globalization, trade, finance and labor.
Its venues of inter-governmental engagement are at different levels: sub-regional (ASEAN, SAARC, etc); regional (UNESCAP, ADB, etc), and; international /inter-regional (WTO, UN, etc).
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