Irish activists will be joining protests near the French/Swiss border town of Evian, where leaders of the Group of Eight (G8) will meet this weekend.
Globalise Resistance Ireland, a coalition of activists from a range of groups in the State, is organising a group to go from Dublin on Friday morning. The summit begins on Saturday.
A spokesman for the group said that they were going to the event "to oppose the occupation of Iraq, the privatisation agenda and the crippling of countries in the developing world through debt". He reiterated the group's opposition to the G8 itself which he described as an "unelected world government".
Meanwhile, dozens of lawyers, magistrates and non-governmental organisations such as Amnesty International and the French lawyers' union (SAF) are preparing to act as observers during demonstrations at the meeting. Protests at previous G8 summits have descended into violence.
Legal experts are providing advice to the first demonstrators filtering into camps set up by anti-globalisation organisations in the region. In addition to providing information on rights in case of arrest and on how to behave during identity checks, the experts reminded the would-be demonstrators of their duty to respect "people and goods."
The organisations said in a statement that they had decided on the steps after "police excesses during the anti-G8 demonstrations in Genoa in 2001 which led to the death of (protestor) Carlo Giuliani."
Leaders from each of the G8 countries including Britain, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Russia and the United States will attend the meeting in Evian. Similar conventions of world leaders in Gothenburg and Genoa were the focus of large numbers of protesters and some serious outbreaks of violence.
Additional reporting AFP