.png)
#DecolonisingHumanRights ✊Read on for our recap of the PXP Regional Decolonising and Decentralising Convening!
📣Last week, around 50 Human Rights Defenders, CSO workers, Indigenous community leaders, academics, journalists, and other regional stakeholders gathered for the Asia Regional Decolonising and Decentralising Convening. As a fundamental part of the Powered by the People (PXP) project, the gathering provided a much-needed space for participants of a diverse range of causes to unite over their common goal - to decolonise the human rights field, reclaim power that should rightfully be held by the people.
❤️ What does it mean to have People Power, and what does it mean to decolonise the field of human rights? It means decentralising existing power structures, such as by decolonising grantmaking systems, redistributing funds rightfully into the hands of the Human Rights Defenders who are actually doing the on-the-ground work to build a better world for all. It means dreaming of a more loving, inclusive, equitable world for all. It means listening to historically under-recognised peoples, such as Indigenous peoples. It means respecting our Earth. It means that diverse and local voices should have a seat at decision-making tables. It means steadfast solidarity between people with these radical dreams. And it means taking care of each other along the way, and recognising the humanity and imperfection of the movement.
Read more about how Manushya Foundation is #ShiftingThePower, #DecolonisingGrantmaking and #DecolonisingFunding in the posts below:
#DecolonizingFunding - 💰 Funding Justice: Unravelling the Threads of Colonialism
#DecolonizingFunding - 💰Funding Justice: Break the Chains of Colonial Funding
#DecolonizingFunding - 💰Shift the Power Treehouse Spotlight!
#DecolonizingFunding - 💰 Funding Justice: Manushya’s Decolonial Grantmaking Strategy in Asia
🍃Under the key theme of decolonisation, causes brought to the table by our inspiring participants included Indigenous rights, climate justice, youth power, LGBTQIAN+ rights, disability justice, mental wellbeing, and digital security. Many important, often difficult and uncomfortable, conversations were had.
🌏 In these conversations, it is important to welcome people of varied backgrounds. Though this can sometimes be daunting, encouraging coexistence in this way allows for people to grow cultural understanding of others, abolish fear, and therefore, develop deeper solidarity. It was thus moving to see the diversity of the people who represented various South, Southeast, and East Asian nations including Thailand, Pakistan, the Philippines, Indonesia, Nepal, Myanmar, and many others. There was also a lot of generational, gender, and heritage diversity, which enriched the conversations with intersectional perspectives.
🤗 One of the key takeaways from this gathering was the unanimous desire for increased solidarity, and a gradual realisation of what this meant for this particular group of people. The most beautiful part of the Collective that was built was that alongside discussing serious issues, everyone was consistently willing to acknowledge the humanity of one another, actively hearing to each other and recognising the individual differences, generational struggles, and resilience behind everyone’s words. Regardless of what happens next, we know that with humans like these, we can - and will - build a better world.
#WeAreManushyan ♾️ Equal Human Beings