Asia Citizen Future Week 2024 "Taiwan and Southeast Asia Civic Space Forum"

#AsiaCitizenFutureWeek2024 #2024ACFW

▌Basic Information

• Date: October 31, 2024 (Thursday)
• Location: Taipei, Taiwan
• Form: in-person meeting, do not provide online meeting and live-streaming
• Forum Language: The panels will be conducted in both English and Mandarin with interpretation.
• Contact: Doris Yang, Project Coordinator and Researcher, ACFA (d.yang@acfa.tw); Leah Lin, CEO and Research team, ACFA (director@acfa.tw).
• Registration Link will be released in September.

▌Background : Asia Citizen Future Week (ACFW)

In recent years, Southeast Asia faces a crisis of shrinking civic space. Repressive governments utilize various tactics to silent and stifle civil society organizations and dissents. This governance has led to the increasing price civil society organizations and human rights defenders have to pay for their work. In response to such challenges, Asia Citizen Future Association (ACFA) published a report titled ‘Exploring Taiwan’s Role Amid the Crisis of Closing Civic Space in Southeast Asia’ in 2023 to explore Taiwan’s potential to provide a safe and welcoming environment for Southeast Asian CSOs and human rights defenders to enjoy. Besides, ACFA held the Taiwan and Southeast Asia Civil Society Week in 2023 bringing stakeholders from the region to gather and discuss potential strategies to defend civic space. 

To continue creating dialogues and connections between Taiwan and Southeast Asian civil society to push for the right to freedom of association among the region, ACFA establishes a research working group  in 2024 and has invited the other 9 CSOs from Taiwan, Philippines, Indonesia, Malaysia, Thailand, and a regional LGBT organization, to collaborate to conduct research to understand the current situation and challenges of right to association among the region. 

To enhance the understanding of Taiwan, Southeast Asian civil society and stakeholders on the issues of shrinking civic space, and more specifically, the right to association, Asia Citizen Future Association intends to hold the ‘Asia Citizen Future Week (ACFW) in 31 October 2024. ACFA intends to consolidate the connections between Taiwan and Southeast Asian civil society, and build the platform to increase dialogues and to develop collaborations and strategies.

▌Call for Side Event and NGO booth application

Side events will take place alongside the formal programme of 2024 Asia Citizen Future Week and will be an integral part of the forum.

Due to the limited space and time slots, we will carefully review your proposal and announce the result in September. ACFA reserves the right of final decision.Asia Citizen Future Association (ACFA) is going to hold an one-day international forum on October 31, 2024 (Thursday) in Taipei, Taiwan.

As a part of Asia Citizen Future Week (ACFW), ACFA invites NGOs from Taiwan and Southeast Asia as well as other interested stakeholders to submit side event proposals for side events, including NGO booths, roundtable, dialogue and workshops, using this link no later than 31 August: https://forms.gle/ui93YgwgjVcRHQop9