Inequalities, tensions between nations and within nations are increasing. Even in countries supposed to live in peace, aggressive and rhetorical forms of militarization are developed. In the name of “security”, militarization is spreading within societies which are living in supposed peace time : militarization of borders against migrants, private security companies controlling luxury compounds, emergency laws and regulations, etc.

Locally and at the global level, civil societies are reacting against war and militarization. All kind of movements oppose emergency regulations and repressive laws ; work on the causes of conflict and tensions, as well as for reconciliation. They contribute to human security and resist war. It does not take only the form of demonstration for peace or against a specific war or aggression. They are ongoing activities to ensure sustainable peace, justice and human security.

Human security is first and foremost the safety of everyone, respect of rights, freedom for fear, and guarantee against threats. Since 1994 the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) includes threats in seven areas : economic security, food security, health security, environmental security, personal security, community security, political security. This shall be secured and protected for all. It is one of the conditions for local, regional and global stability.

The idea of a first thematic WSF on the initiatives for peace and human security is to bring together activists working in those fields, researchers, witnesses, in order to share their experience and analysis, concerning the past and the present, their actions from both local and regional conflict zones, as well as from international peace and solidarity networks.

The first Forum for Peace and Human Security will be held in Sarajevo, because of its symbolic importance, given that Sarajevo is the city emblem of war and peace. Just one century ago Sarajevo was the starting point of the First World War. It is was a martyred city of the war in Bosnia and Herzegovina twenty years ago and it is the capital of a destroyed multicultural society that now has to be rebuilt. In the heart of one area where within each State, men and women try to exceed the stigma due to the breakup of the former federation of Yugoslavia, but also in all the Balkans region, fight against new social, political and ideological fragmentations getting worse by the global economic crisis that threaten human security and may generate new conflicts.

This first thematic world social forum on Peace and Human Security initiatives is registered as an initiative of the Forum process as defined in the Charter of Principles of Porto Alegre, global initiatives (World Social Forum) and regional (Balkans Social Forum).

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This forum will bring together peace activists from all around the world. The Balkans, the Middle East, former Soviet countries, Africa, Asia and North and South America.
It will create a space for debate, exchange of experiences and common practices, organization of actions, on a wide range of topics related to peace and human security :

• Acting against war, defend human security, ensure people protection
• Activism for peace, non-violent action
• Fight against, bellicose, racist and xenophobic ideologies, education for peace
• Post-conflict situations, reconciliation process, transitional justice
• Global security, end of occupations, end of foreign military bases, end of control and pillage of raw materials
• Mercenaries, privatisation of state monopoly of violence, militarization of social issues (migration for example)
• Nuclear disarmament, banishment of weapons of mass destruction
• Campaigns against arms trade and for the control of arms sales, prohibition of mines and cluster munitions
• The issue of impunity, of international law and global justice
• Etc.

This forum will aim at strengthening peace actors through the convergence of existing movements and networks, the construction of a common space for debates and initiatives at a global level, and the expansion of existing campaigns and coordination for future ones.

We imagine that this thematic forum will bring together several hundred activists from all countries to participate to 3-5 days of seminars, workshops and other activities. This would lead to the establishment of an ongoing worldwide process of dialogue and development for peace.