The Central America Regional Forum on Arts, Culture and Human Rights takes place June 18-20 – Tegucigalpa, Honduras

freeDimensional (www.freedimensional.org), Colectivo Hormiga (http://colectivohormiga.com) HIVOS (www.hivos.nl) are pleased to announce the launch of the Central American Regional Forum on Arts, Culture and Human Rights, June 18-20 in Tegucigalpa, Honduras.

The Forum is the first-ever three-day participatory forum aiming to support, unite and inspire the arts & culture and human rights sectors in Central America to collaborate, uphold freedom of expression as a basic human right and acknowledge artists and culture workers as primary defenders of it. Approximately 50 Central American cultural and human rights organizations will participate.

Increasing numbers of artists and culture workers are using their artistic expression to support human rights and social justice objectives for their communities. In return they can face physical violence, imprisonment or even death. It is crucial that human rights, free speech and culture organizations work together to ensure their safety and the continuation of the important work they do for society.

The Regional Forum will trace the history of socially and politically engaged artistic practice in Central America, identify common issues and experiences, develop a collective vision of the future and lead to the establishment of a regional platform for exchange and collaboration between artists and culture workers working towards transformative societal change.

The Regional Forum is guided by freeDimensional, an internationally networked organization, that assists artists, culture workers and communicators at risk by brokering resources and services, linking them to art spaces that can provide temporary safe haven and by facilitating the development of safety and support networks in regions around the world.

Based in Tegucigalpa, Colectivo Hormiga is a group of five organizations committed to art, linked to the community and dedicated to the enhancement of the old Casa Central Penitentiary of Honduras as an open and culturally diverse space.

HIVOS is an international development organization based in the Netherlands guided by humanist values. Working in collaboration with local civil society organizations in developing countries, Hivos aims to contribute to a free, fair and sustainable world.

The Forum is supported by Actors for Change (http://central-america.hivos.org/actors-change), a program funded by SIDA (http://www.sida.se) and implemented by Hivos throughout Guatemala, Honduras and Nicaragua. Actors for Change include independent media, journalists, artists, cultural activists, and human rights defenders and aims to build a collective strategy that includes enhancing free expression, capacity building, and safety and protection.

On November 13 & 14, fD in partnership with El Centro Cultural de Espana in Mexico is hosting a two day consultation meeting on free expression and cultural rights in Mexico and Central America. 45 representatives from the arts, culture and human rights sectors will attend the consultation to exchange experiences, issues and problems, and mechanisms of support as they relate to different forms of creative activism.

What: 2-day consultation / workshop with artists, culture workers and activists from Mexico and Central America

Why: Objectives:

• to collectively explore local/regional issues and situations of danger to artists and culture workers whose work is linked to social justice and free expression
• to collectively identify strategies for a) protection from threats in advance of a controversial cultural manifestation; b) strategies to protect the artists or culture worker from danger following actual threat or harm; c)  strategies for identifying safe havens to remove the artist or cultural worker from danger; d) creating networked support to offer legal, financial, psycho-social and other assistance; e)  creating networked support for supporting the artist or cultural workers’ continued work in the community
• to collectively adapt, re-write and own a version of freeDimensional’s ‘Advo-kit’ (a DIY manual for protecting artists and culture workers in distress) tailored to the local and regional contexts in Mexico and Central America
• to seed the development of local and regional artists safety support networks that can be activated to serving the needs of individuals and communities under threat

How:  freeDimensional uses grassroots methods to bring local partners together who have a natural complementarity yet may not normally work together to form a cross-sector support network for endangered artists and cultural workers.  Starting with a series of in-depth local visits and meetings, key actors are identified including: arts collectives, individual artists, activist groups, human rights defenders, free speech NGOs or social movements. Taking into consideration the compounded effects of varying forms of repression on identity groups such as LGBT, women, indigenous peoples, youth or others, follow up consultation meetings highlight the issues, topics and themes relevant to the local situation and create a space for participants to brainstorm local/regional options, possibilities and safety mechanisms.  This inclusive process aims to connect and catalyze a regional network inclusive of artists, culture workers, journalists, human rights defenders, social justice movements, indigenous communicators, arts educators, etc. that can be mobilized to deliver holistic support to those who need it.  At the end of the process, a tangible deliverable will be a version of fD’s Creative Safe Haven Advo-kit adapted and re-worked to directly address culture worker safety and readiness in relation to local and regional contexts.

Check in for updates to follow.