Join the Global Week of Action and People’s Assemblies Friday September 18th, 2020

GCAP Newsletter

September 2020

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Dear Colleagues,

This year, the Global Week of Action for the SDGs will be held from 18 to 26 September, alongside the UN General Assembly, with the 5th anniversary of the Agenda 2030 and the SDGs, which were adopted on 25 September 2015.

2020 has been an incredibly challenging year. Millions have been severely affected by the COVID-19 crisis – from getting sick or succumbing to the virus, to losing jobs and income, to facing hunger, deprivation and violence, to the repression of civil society. We do not know yet the full extent as the crisis still looms large or what the fallout will be, but we do know that inequalities have worsened, and worsening the situations of those who are marginalised, especially of older people and women. As a result, it is even more crucial to hold governments accountable to their commitments to implement and achieve the SDGs and to leave no one behind during this crisis.

The 5th anniversary of the SDGs is not a moment to celebrate. People are suffering and we have the responsibility to support them out of their struggles. The suffering in the Moria refugee camp in Greece was caused by a lack of respect for human rights and the principle to Leave No One Behind by the Greek government and the EU. Already before and especially now after the fires last week, GCAP together with several CSOs has demanded the relocation of displaced people from Greece to other EU Member States.

Global Week of Action – 18 to 26 September 2020

For the Global Week of Action, we are again working together with a great number of civil society organisations. With Action for Sustainable Development (A4SD) we have created a toolkit for the Global Week of Action, as well as a website on the work of civil society on addressing the COVID-19 crisis. The youth climate movement organizes actions during the week including the global climate strike on 25 September.  We work with the UN SDG Action Campaign to #Act4SDGs, a campaign and movement we co-created in 2017.

 

 

Here are some key resources for the Global Week of Action:

People’s Assemblies

During the Global Week of Action GCAP is organising virtual People’s Assemblies of diverse voices which together develop demands and plans to solve the COVID-19 crisis. This a strong tool to demand action and seek accountability from governments for the implementation of the SDGs and to ensure that no one is left behind. By organising a National Virtual People’s Assembly in your country, representatives from different communities and constituencies especially from marginalized groups will have the space to discuss and develop concrete demands and policies and critical needs are addressed at all levels. This often starts with community and constituency level assemblies to collate demands, which would feed into the national assembly in a bottom up process.

We have created a toolkit on how to organise a virtual People’s Assembly that will help you to do so. Please contact peoplesassembly@gcap.global if you need any support.

A year ago, GCAP organised the first global People’s Assembly in parallel to the UN SDG Summit on 24-25 September 2019 in New York, with 300 delegates, representing more than 200 civil society organisations from 80 countries.

You can watch the great video of last year’s People’s Assembly here: https://youtu.be/EmuxbMZaj4.

 

 

The national People’s Assemblies are part of the bottom-up process towards the United Nations, and the results will be represented in a Global Virtual People’s Assembly with participants from around the world together with partners.

We are looking forward for a great Global Week of Action as part of this struggle for human rights and sustainable development – with strong voices of the people in People’s Assemblies and different actions!

In solidarity,

Ingo Ritz
Director