(Jerusalem) - Israel's Knesset should reject proposed legislation that would weaken the country's vibrant civil society, Human Rights Watch said today. Recent proposed bills would penalize human rights groups for critical reporting and advocacy, including publicizing information on war crimes, expressing support for boycotts, or helping refugees and asylum seekers.
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A few weeks ago, the Romanian Federation of Non-Governmental Organizations for Development (FOND) and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MFA) hosted the third annual edition of the Romanian Development Camp, a summer school which has focused on Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) and Romania’s relatively new donor status. This year’s summer school is the first time that the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MFA) has co-organized the event, as part of a larger MFA strategy to consolidate institutional capacity and to raise public awareness as to the importance of development aid cooperation. One of its most notable results is the creation, following last year’s edition of the Camp, of the first post-graduate program in Development Studies (MA).
This year focused on emerging and...
(Johannesburg) - A group of 124 organizations from more than 25 African countries released a declaration today calling on African governments to advance accountability for grave international crimes at the review conference for the International Criminal Court (ICC).
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Over a month ago, on February 26th Colombia’s Constitutional Court concluded a two-year debate on whether President Álvaro Uribe could run for a third term. The Court’s ruling finally jumpstarted Colombia’s presidential campaign. Candidates that served with Uribe in his eight-year presidency introduce themselves as the next Uribe. Non-uribistas candidates are presenting fresh alternatives focusing on the shattered institutions Uribe is leaving behind while maintaining incremental approaches in some current successful security policies.
Colombia’s pervasive economic challenges have received limited attention. Fedesarrollo, Colombia’s leading think tank is organizing three presidential debates to discuss candidate’s positions on sensitive economic issues like infrastructure;...
Demonstrations continued Thursday in the Kyrgyz capital, Bishkek, as people massed in front of the main government building on the city's central square. (Photo: Photo: Alexander Zemlianichenko/Associated Press)
The unrest sweeping Kyrgyzstan in recent days is a potent reminder of popular frustration with endemic corruption, government mismanagement, and stalled economic development. Protests reportedly began in the provincial city of Talas in response to state mandated increases in heating and electricity prices. After President Kurmanbek Bakiyev ordered the arrest of key opposition leaders, protests spread to Bishkek. Anti-government mobs overwhelmed security forces throughout the country, while President Bakiyev and other key government officials have fled Bishkek for relative...
Fedesarrollo Executive Director Roberto Steiner delivering remarks at a seminar on think tanks in Latin America. (Photo: CIPE)
Informal sector and illicit sector. Organizations and institutions. Politics and policymaking. Outcomes and impact. These are just some of the treasured distinctions that CIPE holds dear in its work throughout the world. In places as disparate as Nepal and Colombia, these distinctions help CIPE partners better define their roles in society – who do they represent, how should they interact with other organizations, how should they measure their value to society, and other important questions. Perhaps no distinction is more difficult, because of linguistic issues, than that between lobbying and advocacy.
In many places, only one word is used to for either...
Young unemployed men known as hitists, meaning "those who keep the wall up," hung out on a corner in Algiers. (Photo: Shawn Baldwin/New York Times)
In countries with burgeoning youth populations and unaccountable governments, future generations have few expectations from the state. Algeria’s socialist heritage, however, provides a rationale for patience—a sense of entitlement grounded in a mentality that views the state as the principal locomotive of construction, development and access to opportunity. Over the past decade, the National Agency for the Creation of Youth Employment (ANSEJ) has lent a helping hand to young entrepreneurs by providing them with up to 80 percent funding to start a new business.
That’s not to say Algeria’s business class views the...
Iraqi women after voting.
It’s true that this election in Iraq is significantly different from the last one in 2005; however, we should be aware that this is a classic reminder that elections do not equal democracy. As ballots are counted and results tallied, a growing civil society is not-so-quietly preparing to voice Iraqi needs and concerns on a multitude of issues.
Individuals in this election campaigned more on issues than on religious and ethnic platforms, and the leading Shia cleric consistently remained neutral. But as ballots are painstakingly being counted, plenty of political parties who are not in the lead are filing hundreds of complaints alleging voter intimidation, and ballot tampering. Although widespread fraud has not been reported after Iraq’s elections, the...
Students graduating at Birzeit University. (Photo: Abbas Momani / AFP-Getty Images)
The ongoing violent conflict in Palestine, the constant friction between different political factions, the economic sanctions and stifling restrictions on movement of people and goods don’t seem to discourage Palestinian women from the workplace. In fact, it is these dire circumstances that have forced women to find work and set-up their involvement in work in the public spheres.
The collapse of the Palestinian economy, which moved from being a middle income economy to one that is now immensely aid-dependent in the span of one decade, is causing a systematic change in women’s traditional roles. According to the findings of a report by CARE International, The World Bank and the Women’s Studies...
Since 2008, President Bakiev has embarked on a privatization mission. Lessons from around the world and most recently other former Soviet countries, including Russia, Kazakhstan, and others, clearly illustrate that privatization is not an end to itself. Rather the process of privatization is the key to successful transition from a centralized to a market economy. With this goal in mind, Kyrgyz civil society, with the business community at its helm, continues to sound alarms over speedy privatization that ensues in Kyrgyzstan with little transparency and much public skepticism. Opaqueness in the privatization process, combined with drastic increases in utility costs, undermines the public’s trust in the government and leads to a potential further consolidation of economic power in...
“No expectations – no disappointments” is the mood of most Ukrainians, according to Oleksandr Sushko of the Center for Peace, Conversion and Foreign Policy of Ukraine. At an event on Ukrainian democracy hosted by PONARS Eurasia, Dr. Sushko went on to say that although elections can now occur in the country with democratic results, the quality of democratic governance in the country is very low, while quality and engagement of civil society is relatively strong.
Elections, as most Ukrainians have discovered, are mechanical exercises that serve as a referendum on the country’s leadership and, as is painfully obvious now, no number of clean elections will solve Ukraine’s governance problems. As my colleagues Aleksandr Shkolnikov and Marc Schleifer noted in a...
While a great deal of media attention in the West has focused on President-elect Yanukovich’s “Russian-leaning” tendencies and his political comeback, the truly remarkable story is that Ukraine just held an election in which no one was certain who would win and the OSCE and other international organizations have deemed fair. To put this in a regional context, imagine Russia or Belarus having an election and not being sure if Putin or Lukashenko might not win.
While Prime Minister Tymoshenko is challenging the results of the election, it is her legal right and procedures are in place to ensure that the recount is done in a transparent manner. Given the relatively narrow margin of victory it is likely that either candidate would have asked for a recount if their...
CIPE often hears from its partner organizations in the field how difficult it can be to get the local business community to support their work monetarily. This is a particular problem for groups that work to bring more people into the business community, focusing on encouraging youth and women to become entrepreneurs. One of CIPE’s partners in Nepal, Samriddhi, The Prosperity Foundation, found a simple and cheap way to start raising money within their local community for their work with youth, while at the same time building a brand for the organization.
Samriddhi’s logo is a pot. It was an image pulled from the local Buddhist practices, symbolizing prosperity. When Samriddhi had trouble getting the business community involved in its projects with youth entrepreneurs,...
The United Nations Development Fund for Women (UNIFEM) estimates that women perform 66 percent of the world’s work and produce fifty percent of its food, thus it is fitting that women in Haiti call themselves poto mitan, or “the pillars of society.” However, it can be said that the foundations supporting our societies are precarious, because despite their contributions women only earn ten percent of the world’s income, own just one percent of global assets, and make up seventy percent of those living in poverty. Still the women at the base of Haitian society, the factory workers who make the equivalent of $1.75 a day, have found a way to use their collective strength to support each other and to launch local campaigns for fair treatment.
Haiti, like too many other low-income...
The Community Forestry Program in Nepal is a global innovation in participatory environmental governance that encompasses well-defined policies, institutions, and practices. The program addresses the twin goals of forest conservation and poverty reduction. As more than 70 percent of Nepal’s population depends on agriculture for their livelihood, community management of forests has been a critically important intervention.
Highlights from Millions Fed: Proven Successes in Agricultural Development
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Anti-Corruption Conference in Astana Two weeks ago I attended an international conference on fighting corruption and promoting good governance in Eastern Europe and Central Asia that took place in Astana, Kazakhstan and was co-organized by the OECD and the Financial Police of Kazakhstan. This was a particularly significant event because it was the first conference of this kind in the post-Soviet space since the fall of the Berlin Wall.
Over 150 delegates from over 40 countries from as far away as Latin America to as nearby as Kyrgyzstan included high-level dignitaries and anti-corruption specialists who descended onto a seemingly empty, but posh capital city of Astana for several days. It is difficult not to think of fighting corruption and improving good governance as two of the most...
Although the IMF is accountable, above all, to the governments of its 182 member countries that determine its policies and operations and provide its funding, inter-changes between the IMF and civil society have grown considerably in the 1990s. This budding dialogue has much potential, for the development of relationships between the IMF and civil society can both enhance the effectiveness of IMF programs and encourage democratic governance.
In what will be a unique gathering in Istanbul, Turkey, the IMF and World Bank annual meetings will bring together finance ministers, central bankers, and other top officials and provide a forum for policymakers to meet with civil society organizations and the private sector. The effort to involve civil society organizations in IMF governance...
Over a century-and-a-half ago, Alexis de Tocqueville stepped back from his observations of American politics in his book Democracy in America to look at the broader threats to democracy. His conclusion rested in an apparent paradox, asserting that despotism lurked in the shadow of democracy. He called this “soft despotism,” or tyranny with the illusion of popular control. Tocqueville foresaw a significant threat to democracy possessing unclear hazard and form. Surprisingly, there is very little written about the dangers of soft despotism in today’s international political environment. Yet, a shift away from democracy can come about quite easily. Rights and freedoms can become diametrically opposed through rampant individual self-interest. Bureaucracy, flush with...
(Bujumbura) - The Burundian authorities should ensure a speedy, independent, and thorough investigation into the killing on April 9 of prominent anti-corruption activist Ernest Manirumva, Human Rights Watch said today. The investigation should lead to the prosecution of those suspected of responsibility for the murder.
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Civil society organizations (CSOs) range from think tanks and research institutes to professional associations, human rights groups, philanthropic bodies, trade unions, community- and faith-based organizations, and so on. They all play an important role in the society and contribute to the consolidation of democracy because they help establish a responsive state. In turn, a responsive state is held accountable not only for the normal procedures of competitive democracy but also for cooperation with diverse interest groups in formulating and executing public policies. Provided that they remain independent from the state, CSOs bring more legitimacy to the policymaking process by making it more representative, transparent, open, and inclusive.
Vanesa Weyrauch, Director of the Civil Society...
Informal institutions are pervasive in Egypt today. They can be found in politics, culture, civil society, and the media. They include labor groups, human rights groups, and other organizations. They also exist in the private sector. All these informal arrangements have formed their own institutional structures parallel to Egypt’s formal institutions. But why do such informal institutions exist in Egypt – and so many other countries – even though formal institutions with the same purpose are in place?
In this Feature Service article, Abdul Ghafar Shokr, deputy director for the Arab and African Research Center in Egypt, seeks the answer to this question by taking a broader look at Egypt’s political and economic system. “The existence of parallel institutions is a result of a...
Earlier this month I wrote about my friend Jestina Mukoko, Director of Zimbabwe Peace Project, who on 3 December 2008 was abducted from her home near Harare.
Since then, despite a very loud international outcry from goverments and civil society, no information about her wherabouts was provided by the authorities. The Commissioner of the Zimbabwean Police [...]...
(New York, November 26, 2008) - Sudanese authorities have arrested and detained three human rights defenders in Khartoum, two of whom remain in detention, Human Rights Watch said today.
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Several years back, I had the privilege (and challenge!) of teaching English for a couple years in a rural village in Central Asia. Almost before I got out my very first “Good morning, class!” my students were asking me why they should even bother learning a language they would never use. Ah ha! I had come to class prepared; I told them that [1] learning any new language is a good mental exercise and can help us understand things about other cultures as well as our own, [2] knowing English gives you a huge advantage in a developing economy – many of the new job opportunities opening up (in IT or tourism, for example) almost require English proficiency, and [3] you just never know when it might come in handy.
My answers were met with blank looks. I could hear the placid chewing of...
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On April 3rd and 4th the Afghan Association of Blog Writers held their first blogging workshop. (Read more about it on the Global Voices blog). There are roughly 130 bloggers currently active in Afghanistan, which is impressive for a country where electricity shortages and scarcity of technology remain some of the biggest obstacles to blogging.
Although blogging has been quite popular here in the US, is still underutilized in much of the world. Especially in societies where information does not travel freely, it provides people in the country with alternative points of view and those outside the country with access to information. Workshops like this are fundamentally important in helping civil society become more active in political dialogue, even in countries where a...
At the civil society meeting with UN Executive Secretary, Yvo de Boer, the extent to which the youth climate change movement can impact the UN process became truly apparent.
Representing the international youth delegation, Akhmad Viko of Indonesia asked Mr. de Boer what he thought of the future role of youth in the international climate change negotiations. De Boer’s answer revealed not only an explicit interest in the further inclusion of youth (he answered that there is much more the UN can do to ensure that youth are incorporated in the process) but also an implicit interest in our message and current work.
De Boer went on to discuss the speech delivered by Catherine Gauthier at the UN High-Level event on climate change in September as evidence of the kind of work that youth...
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A high-level international symposium on charity legislation, held in Beijing this summer, underlined the Chinese government’s determination to mobilise charitable giving even as the authorities were tightening their surveillance and control of the informal NGO......