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For printed copies contact:
World Movement for Democracy |
Message from the Steering Committee
The Fourth Assembly of the World Movement for Democracy brought together nearly 600 participants from some 120 countries on April 2-5, 2006, in Istanbul, Turkey. Under the theme of "Advancing Democracy: Justice, Pluralism, and Participation," the many activists, practitioners, and scholars who attended engaged each other in plenary sessions, panel discussions, and more than 50 roundtable workshops. The Assembly was held in the face of both long-standing challenges to the work of prodemocracy and human rights organizations, as well as new challenges, including recent "backsliding" by governments from democratic progress and the increasingly coordinated international "backlash" against democracy assistance to NGOs and the work they undertake. The Steering Committee was delighted to have the World Movement convene in Turkey, which, like many democracies, continues its efforts to meet the goals of a fully democratic society. We wish to express our deep appreciation to our two local partner organizations on the Assembly, the Turkish Economic and Social Studies Foundation (TESEV) and the Helsinki Citizens Assembly, Turkey (hCa), as well as to those funding institutions that made the Fourth Assembly possible (whose names are listed at the back of this report), especially the Istanbul Metropolitan Municipality.
Special words of thanks are due to our Steering Committee colleague, Can Paker of TESEV, who unfailingly supported our endeavor to meet in Turkey, and to Murat Belge, chairman of hCa, for his dedication to the goals of the Assembly and the World Movement itself.
We are also grateful for the inspiring opening address delivered by Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoǧan, and the insightful and stimulating presentations made by Kim Campbell, Secretary-General of the Club of Madrid, and Anwar Ibrahim, former Deputy Prime Minister of Malaysia. Above all, however, we wish to thank the participants who took time away from their work to attend the Assembly, many of whom traveled great distances, and some of whom participated at personal risk to themselves and their families.
At each World Movement assembly we seek to highlight the critical work conducted by the thousands of democracy activists around the world, only a small number of whom can attend these global gatherings. We are pleased, therefore, that the World Movement presented its Democracy Courage Tributes at the Fourth Assembly to the democracy activists in Vietnam, the human rights and democracy movement in Uzbekistan, the civil society of Nepal, and the Crimean Tatars and their Mejlis (Parliament) with the hope that our recognition will help sustain their challenging work.
The participants in the World Movement's Inaugural Assembly in New Delhi in February 1999 knew that they were bringing something unique into existence– not a new organization as such, but a pro-active network of democrats who would come together periodically to exchange ideas and experiences and to build solidarity across borders. In November 2000, democrats working in distinct but complementary areas of work gathered in São Paulo, Brazil, for the Second Assembly, which embodied the participants' commitment to further democratic progress in all global regions. By the close of the Third Assembly in Durban, South Africa, in February 2004, a wide variety of both regional networks (such as the African Democracy Forum and the World Forum on Democratization in Asia) and global networks (such as those focused on youth, women's political participation, local governance, democracy research, and solidarity among parliamentarians) had been established and had begun taking on the main work of the World Movement.
In addition to other achievements, the Fourth Assembly served to solidify those regional and functional networks, and to launch several new ones, but with a new sense of urgency. As many of the reports herein demonstrate, the international environment for democracy promotion has become more problematic since the founding of the World Movement in 1999. The space for democracy and human rights NGO work has been shrinking in many countries; persistent poverty and inequality in new democracies has often undermined confidence in democratic change; and various developments have tended to diminish solidarity in the democracy-promotion community. The World Movement has committed itself to addressing these and other new challenges during the two years until the Fifth Assembly in 2008. We hope you will join us.
Steering Committee
World Movement for Democracy
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