Our Executive Director, Ah Maftuchan, will be one of the speakers for Asia Europe People’s Forum (AEPF): Social Justice Cluster Conference, together with Lidy Nacpil (Philippines), Ghulam Mustafa Talpur (Pakistan), and Vedran Horvat (Croatia). The dialogue will be held on June 9, in Barcelona, talking about The Environment, Inequality, and Taxes. The conference itself is the second in a series of three, covering the whole range of social protection aiming for social justice. In February 2018, AEPF discussed public services in Manila, The Philippines. In 2019, AEPF will discuss labour rights in Asia. In between, the Asia Europe People’s Forum will take place in Ghent, Belgium, from 19 to 21 October 2018.
The aim of this conference is to explore the conceptual and practical implications of claiming social resources as commons and clarify the connection with natural and cultural commons. Specifically, the objective is to put into place social protection as commons, in the first place because it is ours, in the second place because we want to democratize it and reflect on the linkages between social and economic rights – health care, education, pensions, housing, child care … – on the one hand, with democracy, ecology, trade, culture and gender relations on the other hand.
As a part of global civil society network, Perkumpulan Prakarsa is strongly committed with Asia Europe People’s Forum’s concern to contribute to the realization of a world based on the principles of peace, participatory democracy, social and environmental justice, human rights, and people’s rights to self-determination. As the NGO-based think tank, PRAKARSA works with global, national and local actors to nurture and enhance welfare ideas and initiatives through research and actors to create fiscal justice, social justice and prosperous society. Our Executive Director, Ah Maftuchan is also the co-founder and coordinator of the Indonesian Tax Justice Forum and co-founder of the Indonesian Responsible-Bank Coalition and the commissioner of the Independent Commission of State Budget. With Ms. Hoang Phuong Thao (Country Director of ActionAid Vietnam), Ah Maftuchan also co-chair of TAFJA (Tax and Fiscal Justice Asia) South-east Asia Sub-region. (*)