The Sixth Assembly
Regional Networking

Middle East & North Africa

This regional workshop divided up into several sub-groups focused on a variety of leading issues in the Middle East/North Africa (MENA) region, and formulated recommendations to meet various challenges. 

• Dialogue and coalition-building between pro-democracy Islamist and secularist groups in the MENA region is a necessary and critical issue, not only to realize peaceful transitions to democracy, but also to determine a democratic future for the region in general.
• It is necessary to push both Islamists and secularists to be self-critical and to re-evaluate many of their political and ideological positions.
• It is important to build upon the common denominators of Islamists and secularists, that is, defending basic freedoms and human rights while also generating a dialogue on long-term issues and strengthening the concept of citizenship.
• Produce a variety of programs on self-criticism, dialogue, and coexistence between Islamists and secularists by organizing various workshops whenever possible.
• Organize fora on the practical experiences in developing productive relationships between religion and politics in non-Arab Islamic countries, such as Turkey, Malaysia, and Indonesia.
• Develop and implement seminars and conferences on the issue of religious reforms, and disseminate texts and articles that support renewal, realism, and pragmatism in Islamic culture.
• Encourage media projects undertaken by Islamists and secularists together.
• Support dialogue among civil society groups, political organizations, and leaders, both Islamist and secularist, and highlight and document success stories in building coalitions between Islamists and secularists to support democracy.

• In the short term, focus electoral reform campaigns on improving local elections and on enhancing technical applications.
• Sustain grassroots campaigns on institutionalizing good electoral practices and ensuring wide-scale “buy in” before, during, and after elections.
• Advocate for the active participation of local and international election monitors.
• Advocate for the adherence to international electoral standards and the establishment of independent electoral commissionscomprised of retired senior judges and former presidents of bar associations and media syndicates.
• Build a regional network of groups and activists working on enhancing elections in Arab countries.

• Replicate regional and international best practices on ways to reconcile the differences between civil rights that are stipulated in constitutions, laws, and regulations, on the one hand, and actual practices that violate those rights, on the other.
• Replicate regional and international best practices on effective ways to monitor and pressure institutions to defend civil rights.
• Adopt international conventions and declarations as frameworks for human and civil rights.
• Revise national curricula in the schools and introduce civic education in democracy.
• Establish and empower national commissions on civil rights to monitor violations and ensure follow up to prevent them in the future.