22/01/2003
The 2004 World Social Forum will take place in India
The International Committee (IC) of the World Social Forum, that met to define the next steps towards the construction
and world spreading of the WFS between January 21st and 22nd, has just defined that India will be the host country to
the next world meeting in 2004.
According to Roberto Sávio, director of the Inter Press Service – a member-entity of the IC – the decision took into
account, among other factors, the need to facilitate the participation of Asian and African entities and organizations,
whose access to the meetings in Porto Alegre has been made difficult for financial reasons and because of the
geographical distance . In 2005, however , the WFS will come back to Brazil, depending on a definition of the Committee
in its next meeting in July.
Another decision taken by the IC is that the WSF will not be tied to the dates of the World Economic Forum in Davos. In
the case the two events happen in different dates, on the occasion of the Davos Forum the WSF organizations will hold
worldwide manifestations against the war.
According to the strategy of the WSF to become world spread and of the democratization of the discussions that currently
guide the works and struggles of world civil society , the regional forums ( held in continents and macro-regions, as
well as the European, Asian, African and Panamazonian Forums) , thematic forums ( to deepen specific themes, like the
Argentinian Forum , which discussed the neoliberal economic model crisis, and the Palestinian Forum which discussed the
Middle East crisis) and the national forums should be multiplied and strengthened according to the rules defined by the
WSF Charter of Principles. In this sense, the IC assisted by the Brazilian Organizing Committee ( the WSF creator) must
work together and make the intercommunication of several events possible , so that they can take place in an articulated
way all over the world.