15-16 September 2008 in Helsinki:
SOUTH-NORTH DIALOGUES FOR DEEPENING OF DEMOCRACY

Time: Mon 15.9. at 17.00-18.30
At: Järjestöhuone Aurinko, KEPA, Töölöntorinkatu 2, Helsinki

Speakers:
Nikhil Dey, MKSS, India (read introduction)
Outi Hakkarainen, KEPA, Finland

Organisers: Democracy Forum Vasudhaiva Kutumbakam and Network Institute for Global Democratisation

Time: Tue 16.9. at 10 - 12.30 am
At: Tiedekuntasali, Vanha Ylioppilastalo / Old Student House, Mannerheimintie 3, Helsinki

Speakers:
Marko Ulvila, CED & VK
Eija Koski, Recycling movement, Finland
Olli Tammilehto, Friends of the Earth Finland
Aruna Roy, MKKS, India (read introduction)
Vijay Pratap, Vasudhaiva Kutumbakam, India

Organisers: Democracy Forum Vasudhaiva Kutumbakam, Friends of the Earth of the Helsinki University & Coalition for Environment and Development

3) CULTURAL DEMOCRACY: RIGHTS OF INDIGENOUS PEOPLE IN ORISSA, INDIA

Time: Tue 16.9. at 14 - 16.00
At: Tiedekuntasali, Vanha Ylioppilastalo / Old Student House, Mannerheimintie 3, Helsinki

The Niyamgiri Hills and the indigenous people (adivasi) living in the area are struggling for their rights under increasing pressures by mining such as Vedanta-Sterlite and other industrial interests.

Speakers:
Sabitri Patra, Devote Trust, Kandhamali area, India
Ville-Veikko Hirvelä, Etnia and Friends of the Earth Finland

Background information

Organisers: Democracy Forum Vasudhaiva Kutumbakam, Friends of the Earth of the Helsinki University, Coalition for Environment & Development and Etnia.

Time: Tue 16.9. 18.30-20.00
At: Tiedekuntasali, Vanha Ylioppilastalo / Old Student House, Mannerheimintie 3, Helsinki

Speakers:
Indra Adhikari, Vasudhaiva Kutumbakam, Nepal (read introduction)
Vijay Pratap, Vasudhaiva Kutumbakam, India

Organisers: Democracy Forum Vasudhaiva Kutumbakam & Friends of the Earth of the Helsinki University

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EVERYONE IS MOST WELCOME!

For more information jarna.pasanen@kaapeli.fi / 050-3310202

Nikhil Dey was born in Bangalore in 1963. He was educated in India and the USA, and got his degree in law from the University of Delhi. After working briefly with the Kheduth Mazdoor Chetna Sangathana in Madhya Pradesh, he joined Aruna Roy and Shankar Singh in 1987 to go to Devdungri, in Rajsamand District in Rajasthan where along with many others they helped found the Mazdoor Kisan Shakti Sangathan (MKSS).

Since 1990, he has been a full time worker of the MKSS, and a part of the organisations decision making collective. In this capacity he has been involved in struggles of the poor for justice, including grass root struggles for land and the payment of minimum wages. He has also been a part of the organisations involvement in larger campaigns- most notably for the Peoples Right to Information, and the Right to Work.

Nikhil Dey has been part of a collective process used by the MKSS and the National and State Campaigns, of peoples organisations taking responsibility for putting together "peoples drafts" of the Right to Information and Employment Guarantee Bills. Both the Right to Information and the National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (NREGA) passed in 2005, have strong elements of peoples entitlements which owe their origin to peoples formulations during these campaigns. The attempt to democratise legislating, and governance has carried over into the phase of implementation.

Nikhil Dey is also part of the effort by peoples movements to build institutions of participatory democracy, where for instance, peoples platforms for public audits are now being institutionalised by introducing statutory requirements of social audits and public hearings.

The Mazdoor Kisan Shakti Sangathan (MKSS) is a grass roots peoples organisation formed in 1990 with its headquarters in a small village in Central Rajasthan. Its name roughly translates into "Organisation for the Empowerment of Workers and Peasants" , and it is one of the growing number of organisations in India which see themselves as part of the non party political process. The MKSS works on the concerns of its primary constituents- peasants and workers, but also engages with wider issues of participatory democracy, and democratic struggle. The MKSS believes that all organisations in the public sphere, and especially those demanding information, must meet the same standards of transparency that they ask of others.

The peoples struggle for access to official documents which was initiated by the MKSS in rural Rajasthan in the mid 90s has grown from a grassroots movement that triggered broad debate, to a successful nationwide demand for the public"s right to scrutinize official records - a crucial check against arbitrary governance. The platform of village based public hearings or "Jan Sunwais" pioneered by the MKSS in the mid 1990s has now become a means of public audit and democratic participation used widely and creatively by movements and campaigns across the country. The MKSS has also been a strong supporter and an integral part of the movement demanding the Right to Work, which played an important role in ensuring the passage of the National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (NREGA) in 2005 in India.

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Ms. Indra Adhikari, a Nepali national, has completed M.A from Tribhuwan University, Kathmandu and M.Phil from School of International Studies, Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi. Now she is working towards Ph.D. degree on "Democratizing Nepali Polity: The Response of the Military after 1990" as SAARC fellow. Previously she was associated with Nepal Center for Contemporary Studies (NCCS), Kathmandu as research associate. She has contributed dozens of articles to journals and local newspapers on gender, democracy, civil-military relation, conflict and other socio-political issues. She has contributed chapters in the books "Nepal: Facets of Maoist Insurgency" edited by Lok Raj Baral and "Towards Freedom in South Asia: Democratizations, Peace and Regional Cooperation" edited by V.A. Pai Panandikar and Rahul Tripathi.

She is associated with the Vasudhaiva Kutumbakam Network and the World Social Forum Process in South Asia.

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Aruna Roy is a social and political activist. She was born in Chennai in 1946, and worked in the Indian Administrative Service from 1968 to 1975. She resigned in order to devote her time to social work and social reform. She joined the Social Work and Research Center in Tilonia, Rajasthan, which had been set up by her husband Sanjit "Bunker" Roy where she worked until 1983. She then moved to Devdungri, Rajsamand District, Rajasthan in 1987, and along with Shanker Singh, Nikhil Dey and many others helped to form the Mazdoor Kisan Shakti Sangathan (MKSS).* Aruna Roy is a prominenet member of many campaigns. She is one of the founders of the movement for Right to Information in India. The movement has been credited for getting Right to Information laws passed in several States, including the Rajasthan Right to Information Act passed in the year 2000. The RTI movement and campaign also played a crucial role in the passage of strong national legislation for the Right to information in the year 2005. Her contribution to the cause has been widely appreciated.

In 2000, she was awarded the Ramon Magsaysay Award for Community Leadership. Aruna Roy requested that the award be given to the Mazdoor Kisan Shakti Sangathan, but was informed that it was only given to individuals. She put the award money into a trust to support the process of democratic struggles. She has also been a member of different public hearings, tribunals and peoples commissions including the "Concerned Citizens Tribunal", which investigated the organized violence and killings of innocent people in Gujarat in 2002.

She was a member of the Central governments National Advisory Council from 2004-2006, where she played a key role in incorporating strong citizens entitlements in the recently enacted Right to Information and National Rural Employment Guarantee Acts. She is currently a member of the National Employment Guarantee Council. Aruna Roy, is a member of the MKSS, the National Campaign for Peoples Right to Information, NAPM, PUCL and similar campaigns.

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