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The Japanese Trade Union Confederation (JTUC-RENGO) will hold its 79th May Day Central Rally at Yoyogi Park in Tokyo, Japan on April 26, 2008. Over 60 NGOs/non-profits take part in the celebration, which is held under the slogans: "Solidarity Among All Workers — creating a welfare state and a free and peaceful world through striving together for peace, human rights, worker’s welfare and the environment," and "Stop the social disparities!" IMADR will be setting up a booth again this year (Booth No. 15), so please drop by!

Under the theme "realize our differences, from there we can connect with each other," Japanese and Zainichi Korean(*) students will hold together the "ONEKOREA FESTIVAL TOKYO 2008," at Yoyogi Park in Tokyo, Japan on March 30, 2008.

Together with Korean food stands and art performances, there will be booths of a number of NGOs at this festival, which is held in the hope that Koreans and Japanese can build together a better relationship and bright future, starting from realizing and understanding the differences between each other.

IMADR and FORUM-ASIA (Asian Forum for Human Rights and Development) will organise the 1st Regional Workshop on the Durban Review Conference (DRC) 2009. About 30 representatives of civil society organisations are expected to attend the event, which will be held February 25-26, 2008 in Bangkok, Thailand.

The workshop aims to promote public awareness of the DRC within civil society in Asia, identify issues and challenges related to the implementation of the Durban Declaration and Programme of Action (DDPA). It also is designed to develop civil society advocacy strategies in the DRC process.

For more information click here (external link)

Japanese Trade Union Confederation (JTU-C) will hold its 78th May Day Central Rally at Yoyogi Park in Tokyo, Japan on April 28, 2007. Various NGOs/non-profits take part in the celebration, which is held in the spirit of promoting peace, human rights, the environment and harmonious coexistence. IMADR will be setting up a booth again this year (Booth No. 33), so please drop by!

When: April 28, 2007 (Saturday)
Time: 10:00-14:30
Place: Yoyogi Park, Shibuya (Tokyo)

For more information, call the 78th May Day Central Rally Steering Committee: (03) 5295-0513 (Japanese only)

IMADR-JC proudly supports the Feminist Active Documentary Film Festival.

When: March 3, 2007 (Saturday)
From 2pm
Where: Yokohama YWCA (external link)
Tickets: 1,000 yen per program, 2,500 for full-day pass
* Please note that most films (other than those produced in the US) are shown in Japanese or with Japanese subtitles.

For more information visit the FAV website (external link)

Line-up:
Program A (14－15:30)
In Between
Four short films from Japan, Korea and the US on the theme of women's struggles when their identites are torn apart due to their race, sexuality, and 'ableness.'

Program B (16-18:00)
Camouflage
Three short films from the US and Japan on the theme of militarization.

Program C (18:30-20:00)
Harimano
A film from Chechnya on the after-effects of war expressed by childrens' paintings, and a film by a Belgium-based filmmaker depicting post-war Japan through a personal experience.

IMADR cordially invites you to its Round-table at the World Social Forum 2007, Nairobi, on:
Combating Caste and Descent-Based Discrimination in Africa and Asia

Venue: Access Gate 7 IN - Lower, World Social Forum 2007
Date & Time: 8:30-11:00am, January 22, 2007 (Mon)

Chair: Nimalka Fernando, President, IMADR (Sri Lanka)

Speakers:
Penda Mbow, Professor, Université Cheikh Anta Diop, Dakar (Senegal)
Burnad Fatima Natesan, IMADR, SRED (India)
Magimai Appakuttai, Tamil Nadu Dalit Women’s Movement (India)
Seiro Ikeda, Buraku Liberation League (Japan)
Peter Prove, The Lutheran World Federation (Switzerland)

Outline and Objectives:
The International Movement Against All Forms of Discrimination and Racism (IMADR), an international non-governmental human rights organization based in Japan, will hold a round-table discussion on the struggle against caste and descent-based discrimination in Africa and Asia.

The event will bring together prominent activists from the field from different countries and regions with different backgrounds and experiences. Rather than focusing on presenting the current situation and its history, the Round-table aims to share experiences, successes and challenges in a process of fighting this discrimination which IMADR believes will materialize future joint work.

Discrimination based on "work and descent" continues to be experienced by more than 260 million people worldwide. The key features or bases of this form of discrimination are descent (i.e. group membership by birth), work (i.e. occupational specialization or other connection with type of work or functional role in society), and concepts of purity and pollution.

Among the communities severely affected are the Dalits (known as the "untouchables") of South Asia, in Nepal, Bangladesh, India, Sri Lanka and Pakistan, an estimated three million Burakumin in Japan, "caste people" in West Africa and various communities in other African countries. Caste discrimination can also be found among the widespread Indian Diasporas.

A few governments - notably those of India and Japan - have taken important constitutional, legislative and administrative measures to address this form of discrimination. However, many of these measures are still waiting for implementation and practical impact, and discrimination and exclusion continues to be experienced in the daily lives of many members of these communities.

For further information please contact:
Nozomi Bando, Program Officer, IMADR
In Nairobi, Kenya: SIRONA HOTEL (Between January 20-24, 2007)
P.O. Box 30425, 00100 Nairobi GPO Phone: +254-20-675-2686 Fax: +254-20-374-2730
E-mail: imadrwsf[at]hotmail.co.jp / nbando[at]imadr.org (please send to both accounts)

IMADR International Secretariat
Phone: +81-(0)3-3586-7447 Fax: +81-(0)3-3586-7462 E-mail: imadris[at]imadr.org

IMADR cordially invites you to its workshops at the World Social Forum 2007, Nairobi, entitled:
Mainstreaming the Combat against Exploitative Migration Including Human Trafficking: Challenges in Africa and Asia

Date & Venue:
Strategy Meeting, January 21 2007 (Sun) Part One 2:30-5:00pm & Part Two 5:30-8:00pm (2 slots), Access Gate 24 IN C - Upper
Panel Discussion, January 23 2007 (Tues) 11:30-2:00pm, Access Gate 10 IN - Upper

Chair: Kinhide Mushakoji, Vice-President, IMADR/Former Vice-Rector, United Nations Univ. (Japan)

Main Participants:
Bisi Olateru-Olagbegi, Executive Director, Women's Consortium of Nigeria (WOCON) (Nigeria)
Samir Amin & Bernard Founou, Third World Forum (Senegal, to be confirmed)
Renu Rajbhandari, Chairperson, Women's Rehabilitation Center (WOREC) (Nepal, TBC)
Burnad Fatima Natesan, President, Tamil Nadu Women’s Forum (India)
Nimalka Fernando, President, IMADR/Lawyer (Sri Lanka)
Various activists/specialists/researchers from Africa and Asia [TBA]

*Working Languages: English and French

Outline and Objectives:
Nowadays, neoliberal globalization tends to be increasingly feminized and informalized due to the polarization of the global economy, where the rich get richer and the poor poorer. This is one of the root causes of exploitative migration, which is not addressed properly by UN initiatives on international migration and development and is, in fact, worsened by the fight against criminal organizations ignoring the human insecurity imposed on undocumented migrants treated as “illegal” by the receiving States.

The people of the global South must unite their forces in denouncing the insufficiency of these approaches of the international community, which avoid facing the true problems involved in the increasing human insecurity generated for all the victims of exploitative migration, especially the women and children victims of human trafficking.

This is why we believe that the social movements in Africa and Asia that are combating exploitative migration, especially human trafficking, must develop together a campaign with the support of their counterparts in the other regions throughout the world, in order to mainstream their activities which should not be left only to feminists and human rights activists, but should become the concern of all social movements, of all the citizens, and all of the State and corporate actors of the world.

To this end, IMADR at the WSF 2007 will hold a Strategy Meeting for activists, followed by a Panel Discussion, to mainstream the combat against exploitative migration, especially human trafficking in the Asian and African regions.

The Strategy Meeting is held as a starting point of a process of dialogue in sharing information, preparing a Counter Report, and in developing joint advocacy and joint awareness-building activities, i.e. launching an International Campaign against Exploitative Migration and Human Trafficking.

The meeting has three objectives. Firstly, it will discuss how movements in Africa and Asia, working at the grassroots, national and regional levels, can share their experiences and best practices, and cooperate in outreach into the receiving countries to fight for the human rights and human security of their exploited sisters and brothers.

Secondly, the meeting will address the need to call upon other social movements fighting in Africa and Asia against neoliberal globalization, and call upon them to include in their plans of action the problems of the insecurity of exploited migrants, especially those who are trafficked. For example, social movements and NGOs working in conflict regions in support of refugees must be called upon to develop activities to prevent the act of trafficking originating in refugee camps. Those working on HIV/AIDs should be called upon to include in their priorities the health problems of trafficked women and children. Those working on minority issues should address the cases where recruiters target people belonging to vulnerable groups. And those working on poverty alleviation should address the cases where “illegal” migration and trafficking is chosen as a means to survive in situations where the rich-poor gaps widen.

Thirdly, the meeting will discuss the need to join forces in producing an Afro-Asian Counter Report to the UN Secretary-General’s 2006 Report on “International Migration and Development,” addressing the rights, dignity and security of undocumented migrants, especially those smuggled or trafficked. The Counter Report should also address the responsibility of different actors of the receiving countries, including the State, the corporate sector, the media and citizens, to invest in programs for the promotion of the rights and dignity of the exploited migrants and returnees/survivors, as well as for the co-development and common security between the civil society and migrant communities, and between the community of origin and destination of the exploited migrants.

At the Panel Discussion, the outcomes of the discussions at the Strategy Meeting will be presented to a wider audience. Following a call to join our International Campaign against Exploitative Migration and Human Trafficking, panelists will be sharing their concrete experiences of working to reduce the insecurity of migrants or trafficked women and children, together with other issues such as HIV/AIDs and refugee protection. The floor will then be open to think together about effective ways to mainstream the combat and bring about just and sustainable migration.

For further information please contact:
Yuriko Hara, Under Secretary-General/Program Manager, IMADR
E-mail: imadrwsf[at]hotmail.co.jp / yhara[at]imadr.org (please send to both accounts)
SIRONA HOTEL, Nairobi, Kenya (Between 19 and 25 January 2007)
Phone: +254-20- 6752686 Fax: +254-20-3742730

IMADR International Secretariat 　Contact person: Setsuko Arai, Program Assistant
E-mail: imadris[at]imadr.org / sarai[at]imadr.org
Phone: +81-(0)3-3586-7447 Fax: +81-(0)3-3586-7462

IMADR and the South Asia Forum for Human Rights (SAFHR) cordially invite you to their PEOPLE’S FORUM at the World Social Forum 2007, Nairobi, on:
Asian Voices Against Racism - for the Protection of the Rights of Minorities in Asia

Venue: Access Gate 8 IN - Lower, World Social Forum 2007
Date & Time: 5:30-8:00pm, Monday, 22 January 2007

Chair:
Nimalka Fernando, President, IMADR (Sri Lanka)

Speakers:
Salima Sarwar, ACD (Bangladesh) , Rita Manchanda, SAFHR (India)
Vasudeva Nanayakkara (Sri Lanka), Mr. Bonnie Mendis (Pakistan)

Voices of the affected:
Hon. Mano Ganeshan, Civil Monitoring Committee (Sri Lanka)
Moulawi Karim, IDP Protection Movement (Sri Lanka), Ms. Gita Dass (Bangladesh), and several other representatives from Thailand, Burma and the Philippines and Africa will speak.

Outline and Objectives:
The International Movement Against All Forms of Discrimination and Racism (IMADR), an international non-governmental human rights organization based in Japan, will hold a PEOPLE’S FORUM to share the struggles and issues faced by the minorities in the Asia/Africa region.

The event will bring together prominent activists from the field of different countries and regions with different backgrounds and experiences. The PEOPLE’S FORUM aims to share experiences, successes and challenges in a process of fighting day to day racism and discrimination. We will focus on the following:
· Bringing out certain commonalities in the state of the minorities in the South Asian Region, and discussing the problematic of defining minorities.
· Addressing issues of human rights violations, discrimination of minorities by presentation of case studies- India, Sri Lanka, Pakistan, Bangladesh and Nepal.
· Drawing attention to threats posed to human security by large scale displacement.
· Addressing the violation of Women’s human rights in conflict situations.
· Addressing issues relating to the protection of minorities through self-government and autonomy arrangements.

For further information please contact:
Ms. Nimalka Fernando IMADR Asia Committee (Colombo, Sri Lanka)
Tel : +94 11 5365100 , Fax : +94 11 2682505 E-mail : imadr[at]slt.lk / imadrn[at]sltnet.lk
Nairobi, Kenya : (Between January 20-25, 2007)
HOTEL AFRICA MAISON, Garden Estate, Kasarani.
Phone : +254-20-513329, +254-725-300290

Ms. Yuriko Hara IMADR-IS (Japan)
SIRONA HOTEL (Between January 20-24, 2007)
P.O. Box 30425, 00100 Nairobi GPO Phone: +254-20-675-2686 Fax: +254-20-374-2730

In October 2006, IMADR’s Sayama International Solidarity Campaign Site was launched. The comprehensive website introduces the Sayama Case and aims to increase international awareness of Buraku discrimination, strengthen ties between organizations worldwide that are fighting racial discrimination in the administration of justice, and put international pressure on the Japanese government to change the way suspects are treated.

Join the struggle against racism in the administration of justice by visiting the Sayama International　Solidarity Campaign website, and signing the website’s online petition (external link).