C20 meetings of 01/07/2024 – 8:00 ~ 18:00

After participating in numerous Zoom meetings in recent months in nine C20 Working Groups 2024 (see other items), and after sending numerous written contributions by email, the C20 organizing committee wrote to us to tell us that they found it important that we participate in the two-day in-person event C20 mid-term meeting .
Moreover, the fact that we are located only two metro stations from the event location (the Casa Firjan) also played a role.

Speaker: Henri Frota (Executive Director of the Instituto Pólis and President of the C20 2024) – © Maicon Douglas

The first day began with statements from representatives of Brazilian ministers (see the list in the PDF document below).

Taking too long?

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Gustavo Westmann
(Diplomatic Advisor
of the Presidency
from Brazil)
– © Maicon Douglas

Especially, there was M. Gustavo Westmann, who is the Diplomatic Advisor of the General Secretariat of the Presidency of Brazil.

Very friendly, he promised to contact us again, after we explain that other government entities don't really respond and don't seem to understand or realize the point, relevance, and the great usefulness of what we offer.

We were also able to get to know several “real life” working group co-facilitators more personally., and some spontaneously told us that they found it useful and interesting, and particularly appreciated the amount of information we provided them about autism (and even on other much broader themes of reflection).

We also met different activists from different countries and made some contacts.

Among the various friendly meetings, there was an actor whose comments we really liked, Bruno Garcia (which seems rather well-known and appreciated in Brazil), with whom we were able to chat in a relaxed manner.

Bruno Garcia (Brazilian actor), Gustavo Westmann (Diplomatic advisor to the Presidency of Brazil), Henri Frota (Executive Director of the Instituto Pólis, et President of the C20 2024) – © Maicon Douglas

We also met Flavio Lino, the Municipal Secretary for Rio de Janeiro of National Street Population Movement, a very convincing man who carries a strong voice and visibility for this “invisible” and “ignored” population. We've been chatting remotely for a while, because there is a significant intersection between autism and homelessness. We are thinking about joint projects. But as always, the main obstacle is the indifference of public authorities.

Bruno Garcia (Brazilian actor), Flavio Lino (Municipal Secretary for Rio de Janeiro National Street Population Movement), Gustavo Westmann (Diplomatic advisor to the Presidency of Brazil) – © Maicon Douglas

Concerning the G20 itself, we don't have very high hopes, However, it is important to participate, and it is certain that thanks to our organization and our efforts, the word “autism” will appear more than once in documents (“Policy Pack” and Statement) which will soon be published.
Simply mentioning the need to take autistic people into account is not enough to know *how* to consider them., but it's a good start.

To know how to take autism into account in public policies, starting with creating a special government agency for autism, then create a National Autism Plan, including in particular a comprehensive accessibility policy for autism, All they have to do is contact us, since we know most of the answers, details, and nuances.
(In this regard, the study we conducted on Australia's National Autism Strategy can give some idea that this statement is true.)

We can only hope that one day government authorities will finally begin a real, attentive dialogue, freed from the medical approach and 'defectological' prejudices’ or others on autism.

Flavio Lino (Municipal Secretary for Rio de Janeiro National Street Population Movement), Bruno Garcia (Brazilian actor), a representative of the’Diplomatic organization of Autistan*, Dominique Magalhães (who was with Bruno Garcia), Gustavo Westmann (Diplomatic advisor to the Presidency of Brazil) – © Maicon Douglas —– *: Objective of anonymization measures: among other reasons, try – as much as possible – to discourage any inclination or hope of “ shiny autism »As part of our organization.

Working Group No. 6 (Education and Culture) —– Objective of anonymization measures: among other reasons, try – as much as possible – to discourage any inclination or hope of “ shiny autism »As part of our organization.

Video broadcast in Portuguese

Video broadcast in English (real-time translation)

C20 meetings of 02/07/2024 – 9.00 ~ 17:00

About this second day, here are some highlights.

1. The presence of Felipe Hees, G20 Deputy Sherpa at the Brazilian Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
He explained various things about the current functioning and work of the G20, and he answered questions from the co-facilitators of the working groups.
(see also https://www.g20.org/en/news/civil-20-holds-midterm-meeting-in-rio-ahead-of-sherpas-gathering)
This all seems quite abstract and "distant"., » but it's always better to know these things (and experience them) rather than being totally excluded, as if it were happening on the Moon or Mars.

The Autistan flag, Henri Frota (Executive Director of the Instituto Pólis, et President of the C20 2024), Fabricio Prado (Advisor for Civil Society Participation and Diversity at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Brazil), Alessandra Nilo (Sherpa du C20 2024), Felipe Hees, Brazilian Under-Sherpa of the G20.

2. The presence of Fabricio Prado, who is the Advisor for Social Participation and Diversity at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Brazil.
Very friendly, he explained that there are now similar entities for each ministry, and that civil society (We) can contact him.
At the end, he gave his card to several people who gave him theirs, of which we, Of course.
We have been meaning to contact for a while. Itamaraty (this ministry) given that we are an international organization that works in the “Parallel diplomacy“, and given that the other government entities we contacted in Brazil do not seem sufficiently interested in our proposals for informative assistance.

3. It was also very helpful to get to know several co-facilitators and participants more personally.
Some co-hosts told us that they really enjoyed and learned a lot from everything we said and sent them over the past few months..

Between various meetings:

- Andressa Pellanda (co-facilitator of the Education and Culture working group) (on the left in the photo).
She particularly praised our participation.

– Luciana Viegas (on the right in the photo), a very friendly and open young autistic woman, we discussed a lot about various issues and projects.

–, an activist from Japan (janic.org). It's important to know someone in Japan, because currently we have no contact there (and we didn't really look, due to lack of time). He kindly offered to help us a little in Japan.

– Simon Vilakazi, an activist from South Africa, very nice: we will discuss with him to prepare for the C20 2025 in South Africa (from a distance).

– Julienne Caesar, a very nice lady from ABONG, who gave very useful advice.

– Pedro Peres (co-leader of the Digitalization and Technology working group), with whom we had interesting discussions.

– And many other kind people sincerely involved in various causes.

Working Group No. 5 (Integrated health for all) © Maicon Douglas —– Objective of anonymization measures: among other reasons, try – as much as possible – to discourage any inclination or hope of “ shiny autism »As part of our organization.

At the top of the mountain, the statue of Christ the Redeemer

C20 meetings – T20 you 03/07/2024

First meeting C20 – T20, led by Gustavo Westmann et Felipe Hees

Second meeting C20 – T20, led by Gustavo Westmann et Felipe Hees

Felipe Hees and a representative of the’Diplomatic organization of Autistan* —– *: Objective of anonymization measures: among other reasons, try – as much as possible – to discourage any inclination or hope of “ shiny autism »As part of our organization. —> See article on this meeting

Publication on the official website of C20 Brazil (04/07/2024)

From this page today on c20brasil.org:

« The C20 Brazil mid-term meeting took place on the 1st and 2 July at Casa Firjan in the city of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. This meeting represented the culmination of global civil society's policy coordination efforts as part of its strategy to influence the G20. The objective was to present and reflect on the policy recommendations created by the ten thematic working groups of C20 Brazil 2024. Click here to read the C20 Brazil recommendations for the 3rd G20 Sherpas meeting

Our comment: The term 'autism' appears once in this very brief document, marking its first occurrence in the history of C20 publications – an important milestone clearly due to our efforts.
This document is not the only one in preparation; a larger ‘Policy Pack’ is expected soon.
We are convinced that Autism will be mentioned much more frequently in this next pack, and above all, without the incorrect wording ‘with autism’.
Indeed, We have been very meticulous in overseeing these kinds of details in 9 Working Groups (https://g20.autistan.org) dedicated to the Policy Pack. Unfortunately, we did not have access to the writing of the summary published today, 04/07/2024.