Solon Foundation's key areas of work

Human rights

Human rights have been a central concern for the Solon Foundation since its inception. The practice of humanity is the full living out of our human rights in harmony with nature. The improvement of the quality of life of human beings is inconceivable without an improvement in the quality of life for all species that live on this planet.

Water

Water is one of the last frontiers that capital is trying to conquer in a world which insists on commodifying everything. This corporate-led vision which is being unfurled throughout the world prevents democratic access to water and works against the sustainable care of this increasingly scarce resource.

It also contradicts the vision of millenarian cultures and many communities which consider water a human right and right of nature which must be looked after in the present and the future. Solon Foundation aims to amplify a social vision of water articulated by small communities, agrarian peoples, women and all those who consider water a common good that can't be commodified, privatised or included in trade agreements.

Trade and Integration

The impacts of free trade and investment agreementson human and environmental rights are part of Foundation Solón's concerns.

Proposals such as the Free Trade Agreement of the Americas (FTAA), regional Free Trade Agreements (FTAs) and agreements by the World Trade Organisation (WTO) have changed international rules to give enormous advantages to multinational companeis at the cost of the weakest economies and the most vulnerable and impoverished social sectors.

Despite the huge lack of transparency which characterises these agreements and negotiations, the Foundation and a wide coalition of organisations and institutions provide critical analyses and promote actions that challenge decision-makers, rooted in the perspectives of social actors who see their human rights affected through the application of these agreements. For Solon Foundation, a true integration must completely change trade rules so that they are directed towards fully meeting the human rights of everyone.

Women

Based on the principle that "equity starts at home" the Solon Foundation includes the rights of women amongst its interests, in particular the rights of working and indigenous women.

The Foundation has worked to make visible the daily discrimination against domestic household workers, amplifying the voices of this sector through its focus on Women, Identity and Work.

It also works to defend the rights of women in the context of economic globalisation, demonstrating the impact of free trade agreements on women's rights, and amplifying the visions, perspectives and proposals that women develop related to natural resources in particular women's struggle to defend water.

Based on these experiencees, the Foundation promotes a strengthening of women in society and within its organisations in order to fight patriarchal and authoritarian practices.

Historical memory: Art and commitment

Social struggles have a historical transcendence if they are present in the memory of people. This memory provides the force which helps drive the search for a more just, equal and solidarity-based society.

The historical memory of the Bolivian people is present in the more than 2000 works of Solon (murals, Quijotes, weavings, engravings, paintings, wood work and drawings): as well as in the articulation of the struggles and proposals of social movements within the thematic work of Solon Foundation. The aim of this area of work is to combine both elements In order to contribute to the strengthening of social actors and to support the construction of a politics of values and respect for our cultural diversity.

Struggle against impunity

Bolivian history is plagued with abuses against human dignity and violations of liberty. Unfortunately, state violence and abuse has been repeated not just at times of dictatorship but also at various moments in democracy, protected by a cloak of institutionalised impunity.

A result of this were the bloody events on February and October 2003 amongst others. One of the aims of the Solon Foundation is to denounce impunity giving voice to popular criticisms of the abuse of power and supporting those working towards the search for justice.

Concretely, the Solon Foundation follows the case of the disappearance of José Carlos Trujillo Oroza, which is the first case in Bolivia which has received a sentence by the Interamerican Court for Human Rights in the Organisation of American States (OAS)