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Confronting the Challenges to Democracy in the 21st Century

Second World Assembly
November 12-15, 2000
São Paulo, Brazil
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Message from the Steering Committee (html, pdf)

Democracy as a Starting Point (html, pdf)
Excerpts from the Keynote Address by
Fernando Henrique Cardoso
President of Brazil

Greetings from Around the World (html, pdf)

Democracy Courage Tributes (html, pdf)


Workshop Reports
Participants (html, pdf)

Press (html, pdf)

Assembly Support (html)

Download Acrobat Reader

Workshops

To help ensure that it would be as focused as possible on the practical ways that democrats around the world can advance their work and mutually support each other, the Second Assembly was composed almost entirely of smaller topical, regional, and functional workshops to maximize opportunities for participation. Naturally, the success of the Second Assembly will be measured by the effectiveness of the various initiatives and activities resulting from those workshop discussions. The following reports, which appear in the order in which the workshops took place, thus form the action agenda that emerged from the Assembly.

The workshop reports were initially presented in plenary sessions during the Assembly and generally contain the participants' observations on the challenges to democracy as well as their recommendations on how best to address them. In some cases, the workshops resulted in wide-ranging policy recommendations to the international community; in other cases, they resulted in practical recommendations to nongovernmental organizations; and in still other cases, they resulted in recommendations to the World Movement for Democracy itself.

Go to: Topical - Regional - Functional


Topical

The Topical Workshops explored the challenges faced by democrats across countries and regions. They included such practical needs as how to fight corruption, promote the rule of law, assist democrats in closed societies, promote democracy in semi-authoritarian countries, and use innovative ideas to strengthen democratic institutions.
  • What can be done to assist democrats in closed societies? ( Read )

  • Barriers to participation: The informal sector in emerging democracies ( Read )

  • Improving governance through federalism: Decentralization, devolution, and other approaches ( Read )

  • Conflict resolution, pluralism, and democracy: The promise and the challenge ( Read )

  • Corruption in party financing and election campaigns: What can civil society do against it? ( Read )

  • Using the Internet and other media to promote democracy ( Read )

  • Strengthening democratic institutions: Generating and sharing innovative solutions to problems of transition ( Read )

  • Transitional justice: Overcoming the obstacles to information collection and the documentation of human rights abuses ( Read )

  • Critical break-through elections as opportunities for democracy promotion: What are the best strategies? ( Read )

  • Workers, democracy, and markets in a globalizing economy: The role of non-market institutions ( Read )

  • Countering the corrosive effects of narcotics trafficking and organized crime on democratic development: How broader civil society forces can help ( Read )

  • Ethnic conflict management: Federalism and alternative models for the regulation of conflict ( Read )

  • From laws to reality: Diminishing the gap between human rights laws and their implementation ( Read )

  • Strategies for civil society, NGOs, parties, and other actors to promote democracy in semi-authoritarian countries ( Read )

  • How can NGOs help overcome obstacles and reduce human costs in difficult transitions? ( Read )

  • Democracy education in challenging political and cultural environments ( Read )

  • Political reform and economic development: The role of political and civil society organizations ( Read )

  • Strengthening democracy at the grass-roots: Local government and civil society ( Read )

  • Building conditions to eliminate discrimination and/or racism ( Read )

  • Elections and the international community: Do's and Don'ts ( Read )

  • Cross-border democracy assistance: What is the role of new democracies and NGOs in their regions? ( Read )

  • How can parliaments strengthen accountability in the fight against corruption? ( Read )

  • The role of ombudsmen in securing transitional justice ( Read )

Regional

The Regional Workshops offered an opportunity for those from different functional groups in each region, including parties and NGOs, to develop regional democracy-related agendas.

  • Africa ( Read )

  • Asia ( Read )

  • Central & Eastern Europe ( Read )

  • Latin America and the Caribbean ( Read )

  • Middle East and North Africa ( Read )

  • New Independent States ( Read )

Functional

The Functional Workshops enabled participants in a variety of categories, e.g., parliamentarians, public policy institutes, local government practitioners, democracy assistance foundations, advocates of the enhanced democratic participation of women, civic educators, and others to come together to develop strategies for networking and outreach.

  • Building the Network of Democracy Research Institutes ( Read )

  • Strengthening networks to increase women's participation in politics ( Read )

  • Building a global network on local government ( Read )

  • Democracy assistance foundations: Programmatic challenges ( Read )

  • Establishing a global network of parliamentarians against corruption ( Read )

  • Networking young democracy activists ( Read )

  • Education for democracy - Democracy for education ( Read )

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