The fourth Edinburgh World Justice Festival (EWJF) will take place from 21st to 31st May 2009. The festival was inspired by the massive Make Poverty History demonstration held in Edinburgh in early July 2005.

The festival aims to continue the legacy of the Make Poverty History campaign by raising awareness amongst Edinburgh citizens of the causes of some of the world’s gravest problems - poverty, disease and war. It will also give us an opportunity to explore potential solutions to these problems and what we as individuals and as a community can do to help. The festival brings together many different campaigning groups and individuals and by doing so, hopes to promote effective joint working between like-minded people.

To find out more about previous festivals, please take a look at EWJF 2007 programme (pdf). The 2008 programme will be available here shortly.

As well as putting on a good show, the festival has a strong set of values, which we ask all participants to adhere to:

Our values
• Justice
• Peace
• Non-violence
• Human rights for all
• Democracy (within the organisation and in the wider world)
• Respect of differences
• Independence and self-responsibility
• Honesty & openness
• Equality
• Solidarity - with each other, the local and global community
• Accessibility to all
• Voluntary contribution
• Quality of experience (for both contributors and audiences)

Please note that EWJF will not accept proposals for events whose purpose is to promote a particular religious or political ideology or which advocate the use of violence.

You don’t have to have any prior knowledge of the issues to join in and all of the venues are accessible. We hope that anyone who cares about justice in the world will find one or more of the events of interest to them.

EWJF 2009 is run entirely by volunteers. There is plenty to do and we could always use more help, so if you would like to help with the organisation, please email us at info@ewjf.org.uk.

Finally, we would not be where we are today without the generous support of many individuals and organisations each year. Any money raised through sponsorship and donations is used for promoting the festival and running costs. If you would like to make a donation or if your organisation would like to advertise in our programme, please email us at info@ewjf.org.uk.