HAVOC logo






































HAVOC


Stoke-on-Trent Voluntary and
Community Sector Compact

In a leaflet, It's Our Shout, put out by an organisation called Local Compact Voice, there are several  suggestions that HAVOC is happy to endorse.

Under the heading Opening Doors:

Town and County Halls

This idea is for councils to organise a well-publicised chance to meet up with groups that rarely if ever discuss their issues with members and officers.
  • No agenda. No speeches. Just book a room with small tables and put on the coffee [Fairtrade, of course!].
  • Officers from the various departments and members sit with people from small groups to discuss what they want to talk about.
  • The Council also benefits from this by boosting the number of groups they engage with and making contacts that can come in useful when planning a scrutiny or best value exercise or seeking partners at grassroots level.
  • The Council will learn more about Community issues. Even if a group is championing a cause that isn't on the Council's agenda today, it could well be tomorrow.


Simple and cost-effective!

Under the heading Why is it our shout?:

Voice is the key role of groups - we need to be better heard.

The campaign wins of local groups is something to shout about - let's showcase the local sector's achievements.


This is what HAVOC is all about!

Under the heading Why bother?:

Independence is crucial to our performance and reputation. It is -
  • our birthright: all groups were created to be free and also help maintain a free society.
  • valuable ot our own organisation, the whole sector, public body partners and the community we all serve.
  • under threat and draining away.


Independence is indeed crucial to HAVOC - we have in the past been wrongly attacked for holding a political agenda. We do not, nor will we ever have, any political, religious or racial affiliation. We are a disparate group, and any bias would damage us irrevocably. We campaign for causes that we see as right - nothing more, nothing less.

We believe in the United Nations Universal Declaration of Human Rights, relevant parts of which are reproduced below:

Article 1.
All human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights.They are endowed with reason and conscience and should act towards one another in a spirit of brotherhood.

Article 2.
Everyone is entitled to all the rights and freedoms set forth in this Declaration, without distinction of any kind, such as race, colour, sex, language, religion, political or other opinion, national or social origin, property, birth or other status. Furthermore, no distinction shall be made on the basis of the political, jurisdictional or international status of the country or territory to which a person belongs, whether it be independent, trust, non-self-governing or under any other limitation of sovereignty.

Article 3.
Everyone has the right to life, liberty and security of person.

Article 12.
No one shall be subjected to arbitrary interference with his privacy, family, home or correspondence, nor to attacks upon his honour and reputation. Everyone has the right to the protection of the law against such interference or attacks.

Article 13.
(1) Everyone has the right to freedom of movement and residence within the borders of each state.
(2) Everyone has the right to leave any country, including his own, and to return to his country.

Article 14.
(1) Everyone has the right to seek and to enjoy in other countries asylum from persecution.
(2) This right may not be invoked in the case of prosecutions genuinely arising from non-political crimes or from acts contrary to the purposes and principles of the United Nations.

Article 18.
Everyone has the right to freedom of thought, conscience and religion; this right includes freedom to change his religion or belief, and freedom, either alone or in community with others and in public or private, to manifest his religion or belief in teaching, practice, worship and observance.

Article 19.
Everyone has the right to freedom of opinion and expression; this right includes freedom to hold opinions without interference and to seek, receive and impart information and ideas through any media and regardless of frontiers.

Article 20.
(1) Everyone has the right to freedom of peaceful assembly and association.
(2) No one may be compelled to belong to an association.

Article 21.
(1) Everyone has the right to take part in the government of his country, directly or through freely chosen representatives.
(2) Everyone has the right of equal access to public service in his country.
(3) The will of the people shall be the basis of the authority of government; this will shall be expressed in periodic and genuine elections which shall be by universal and equal suffrage and shall be held by secret vote or by equivalent free voting procedures.

Article 23.
(1) Everyone has the right to work, to free choice of employment, to just and favourable conditions of work and to protection against unemployment.
(2) Everyone, without any discrimination, has the right to equal pay for equal work.
(3) Everyone who works has the right to just and favourable remuneration ensuring for himself and his family an existence worthy of human dignity, and supplemented, if necessary, by other means of social protection.
(4) Everyone has the right to form and to join trade unions for the protection of his interests.

Article 24.
Everyone has the right to rest and leisure, including reasonable limitation of working hours and periodic holidays with pay.

Article 25.
(1) Everyone has the right to a standard of living adequate for the health and well-being of himself and of his family, including food, clothing, housing and medical care and necessary social services, and the right to security in the event of unemployment, sickness, disability, widowhood, old age or other lack of livelihood in circumstances beyond his control.
(2) Motherhood and childhood are entitled to special care and assistance. All children, whether born in or out of wedlock, shall enjoy the same social protection.

Article 26.
(1) Everyone has the right to education. Education shall be free, at least in the elementary and fundamental stages. Elementary education shall be compulsory. Technical and professional education shall be made generally available and higher education shall be equally accessible to all on the basis of merit.
(2) Education shall be directed to the full development of the human personality and to the strengthening of respect for human rights and fundamental freedoms. It shall promote understanding, tolerance and friendship among all nations, racial or religious groups, and shall further the activities of the United Nations for the maintenance of peace.
(3) Parents have a prior right to choose the kind of education that shall be given to their children.

Article 27.
(1) Everyone has the right freely to participate in the cultural life of the community, to enjoy the arts and to share in scientific advancement and its benefits.
(2) Everyone has the right to the protection of the moral and material interests resulting from any scientific, literary or artistic production of which he is the author.

Article 29.
(1) Everyone has duties to the community in which alone the free and full development of his personality is possible.
(2) In the exercise of his rights and freedoms, everyone shall be subject only to such limitations as are determined by law solely for the purpose of securing due recognition and respect for the rights and freedoms of others and of meeting the just requirements of morality, public order and the general welfare in a democratic society.
(3) These rights and freedoms may in no case be exercised contrary to the purposes and principles of the United Nations.

Article 30.
Nothing in this Declaration may be interpreted as implying for any State, group or person any right to engage in any activity or to perform any act aimed at the destruction of any of the rights and freedoms set forth herein.


It is not only independence that is under threat and draining away - many of our fundamental freedoms detailed above are also under attack, particularly (in Stoke-on-Trent) Articles 19, 21, 26 (3) and 30. HAVOC is committed to campaign to maintain and increase the level of Community participation in decisions that directly affect our future.

In
It's Our Shout, under the heading Taking the pledge:

"We will
  • Give voice to the needs of communities and those we represent
  • Campaign fearlessly and responsibly for our causes
  • Uphold our independence by using our Compact, resisting external interference, and being mission focused."


HAVOC will.

But will the City Council?
HAVOC logo

Open meetings of HAVOC
are usually held on Wednesdays at 5.00 p.m. at Live & Learn Land, 187-189 Hamil Road, Burslem.


Anyone and everyone is welcome.

Please phone
01782 767529
to confirm meetings.

Compact