Brussels, 14/01/2008 (Agence Europe) - In order to make reality the objectives of the World Water Assembly for Elected Representatives and Citizens (AMECE) of March 2007 (see EUROPE 9391), the president of the European University of the Environment, Riccardo Petrella, who is also an adviser to the European Commission, and Pietro Pizzuti, a Belgian actor and director, announced the creation of a “World Charter of Artists for Water”. In this charter, the artists and cultural decision-makers which have signed up to it launch an appeal for everyone to take action and commit to defend water as an inalienable good, accessible to all, and to fight against wastage of water and its sale as a commodity.
The objectives laid down by the awareness-raising campaign organised around the charter are: - to maintain vigilance so that water will continue to be managed with solidarity by the public services in Belgium and to continue the political fight for it to be included as a right in the Belgian Constitution; - to fight internationally for water to be included as a right in the constitutions of all democratic states; - to act at the level of the European authorities against the commoditisation and privatisation of water; - to organise actions in support of the recognition of the right to water and its inclusion in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (which will celebrate its 60th anniversary in 2008); - to act and to bring pressure to bear so that the World Water Forum is brought under the aegis of the United Nations, and not to allow world water policy to be decided by multinational companies.
Those behind this charter decided that it was appropriate and essential to involve artists in this fight, alongside representatives of the economic and social society, environmental organisations, union organisations and the public authorities, taking the view that culture will, in the future, play an essential role in implementing the process of sustainable development until it becomes the fourth pillar, alongside the economic, social and environmental pillars. The signatories of the charter are committed to promoting free access to water for all, by means of various projects developed as part of their profession. In order to celebrate this event, a theatre event based on the subject of water will be held at theThéâtre des Martyrs in Brussels on 26 January. On the next day, 27 January, the charter and the campaign, named “water carriers”, will be officially launched at an event organised with the Théâtre des Martyrs, which will be called “All for Water, with the Artists”. Further events are planned, such as the launch of a citizens' petition, actions carried out in schools, awareness campaigns launched in, and with, the communes and projects to be organised by cultural centres. (I.L.)