WORKSHOP REPORTS: Civil Society

• Civil Society Organizations (CSOs) should formulate generic qualities that persons aspiring to lead them must possess, including integrity, sincerity, commitment, honesty, trustworthiness, openness, transparency, and the ability to inspire and motivate others towards the attainment of collective goals or vision.
  
• Generic codes of ethics should be developed by which civil society leaders must abide and that address, among other things, questions of accountability and corruption, conflicts of interest between civil society work and government appointment, peer review and self-regulatory mechanisms, sanctions, and past records of leaders.
  
• CSOs should establish clear institutional frameworks and internal democratic structures that are expressed in their articles of association and that provide for democratic decision making, membership participation, and education and leadership training.
  
• CSOs should develop frameworks for leadership training encompassing informal processes (orientations, seminars, exposure, etc.) and formal training through the establishment of training institutions with definite modules, curricula, and courses.
  

• The use of cultural resources must be centered on universal democratic values and human rights principles.
  
• A basis for participatory discussion and analysis should be formed that enables participants to make informed decisions about their rights. For example, participants from Afrikans and Zulu communities were brought together to engage in dialogue about “negative” cultural icons, symbols particular to each group, and how to interpret them. The discussion resulted in improved understanding of both cultures.
  
• Inform and educate through entertainment. For example, in Jordan popular film stars have volunteered to dramatize soap operas on issues of rape and sexual harassment.
  
• Strategic selection from among the vast array of cultural resources is of great importance. For example, in Sudan, the use of street theatre has been an effective means to educate communities by disseminating information about early marriage and female genital mutilation. In developed communities, however, movies and new communication technologies can be more effective.
  
• People should reshape and reclaim popular cultural resources so that they have a more positive impact in society. For example, in Romania, cultural resources, such as news media, films, and songs, were historically used to promote politics, particularly communism. This tainted the manner in which these cultural resources could be used as a tool for democracy education. However, in South Africa, similar cultural resources, such as street theatre, poetry and chanting of the “Toyi-Toyi,” were used successfully during the apartheid regime to mobilize the masses, and they continue to be valuable resources for democracy education.

• mass media, pop-culture, and fashion (such as slogans on T-shirts);
  
• sports and film icons and role models;
  
• humor, cartoons, and games (such as Street Law’s “Democracy for All”);
  
• songs, street theatre, plays, puppet shows, poetry, folklore and myths;
  
• manuals using traditions and religious texts in support of human rights (for example, the Claiming Our Rights human rights education manual);
  
• performing arts, such as painting, sculpture, music, dance; and
  
• new communication technologies, such as Internet radio, text-messaging, and distance education.

• Democracy activists realize that after a democratic breakdown in many countries the challenges actually begin after elections. In many cases, the elections are not viewed as part of the constitutional development process, but as a remedy for all problems.
  
• International support and democracy assistance are often targeted only at elections, which results in short-term attention to democratization.
  
• In post-war countries, the root cause of conflict is often not addressed and post-war reconstruction is left in the hands of the ruling party.
  
• Very often after a breakdown, NGO activists enter politics and civil society consequently atrophies.
  
• In many cases the state is over-centralized and the old regime has more resources and experience with which to govern.
  
• While democracy is about public debate and conflict, most transitional countries have very low levels of conflict-management capacity.
  
• The qualitative deterioration of politics leads to the emergence of “political entrepreneurism.”
  
• In many countries the elevated role of political parties has led to partisan, not participatory, democracy.
  
• In most transitional countries, weakness in constitutional and institutional frameworks has been the experience.

• Democracy assistance (support of the democratization processes and post-election assistance) should shift from short-term to long-term strategic engagement.
  
• Civil society education should try to help moderate expectations and knowledge to limit backsliding from democracy.
  
• Civil society should also play a watchdog role and empower communities to hold governments accountable concerning their delivery on election promises. It should increase awareness of democracy and human rights, not only during elections, but continuously. Civil society is not limited to NGOs, but includes other groups, such as churches and political parties, and should not just be centered in cities but should be expanded to include rural areas as well.
  
• Donor organizations should help the expansion of civil society by building institutional capacity rather than simply funding programs.
  
• Regional organizations should establish norms based on democratic principles to which countries should adhere. They should also create benchmarks and criteria to hold such countries accountable. Regional leaders should help build democracy inter- and intra-regionally through skills sharing, technical assistance, and diplomacy.
  
• There should be institutional and constitutional reform that is not one-sided or organized solely by the executive.
  
• Trust in public institutions should be increased.
  
• Electoral systems should represent the people and the people’s opinions.
  
• Local and national referenda should be considered an option for giving a greater voice to the public.
  
• Assistance should be given to political parties to help them reform.
  
• Power sharing governments cannot exist if power is obtained from coup d’etats or because rebels create violence.
  
• Peace accords should not guarantee impunity, and impunity should not reach corruption and allow representatives convicted of corruption to return to government. There can also be a “cleansing process” through which former government officials are prevented from holding office for a set amount of time. However, such a process should not be allowed to motivate leaders of authoritarian regimes to stay in power for fear of reprisal.
  
• Elections should determine the personnel in all branches of government so that the executive does not choose the rest of government.
  
• After a transition has been effected, the structures and branches of government should be changed to address the root causes of conflict.
  
• Following elections political parties should continue to exist in order to hold governments accountable and raise awareness of critical issues.
  
• There can be a voluntary agreement between the ruling and opposition parties to limit instability and conflict following an election, but it is not clear how governments can be held to such an agreement.
  
• Norms should be strengthened to decrease corruption and to maintain credibility among the population.
  
• NGOs should monitor corruption, especially when government officials become rich while the general population stays poor.
  
• Opposition parties that come to power should neither shut out civil society nor drain it of skilled and knowledgeable individuals by bringing too many of them into government.

• Independence does not mean a coalition’s work is not political.
  
• There is a difference between political work and party politics.
  
• There should be a common program for an effective coalition.
  
• Depend on civil society-based organizations at the grass-roots level to keep the coalition going.
  
• Study different examples of coalitions from all over the world.
  
• Coalitions help create the future in a country.
  
• Issue-based coalitions should be dissolved when the issue is resolved.
  
• Organizations should come together on issues of common interest.

• Develop a network.
  
• Link community groups to the World Movement Network
  
• Use coalitions to give NGOs a voice with the strength to approach donors.
  
• Any coalition can be effective if it has a common interest, a common initiative, and common action.
  
• Different models should be used in different situations and countries.
  
• Share your international experience in building coalitions.
  
• Strategies should be devised that can be shared by all.
  
• Develop strategies to strengthen the members of different groups within the World Movement.

• Some Faith Based Organizations (FBOs) are involved in the struggle for democracy while other FBOs are supporting undemocratic forces.
  
• Some FBOs over-emphasize spiritual issues and don’t focus enough on issues related to social justice (e.g. HIV and AIDS, poverty, peace, reconciliation, and democracy).
  
• Some FBOs view the involvement of religious communities in political issues as dangerous.
  
• Some governments view organized religion as a threat to government.
  
• Most FBOs view state-sponsored FBOs as illegitimate and not able to express the views of religious communities.

• Religious values (e.g. tolerance, respect, equality, peace, and love) need to be revived within civic education.
  
• FBOs need to be recognized as an integral part of society.
  
• FBOs need to share their democratic models with other FBOs in order to develop new and better models.
  
• Religious leaders need to be exposed to issues related to human rights and democracy.
  
• FBOs are of vital importance within civil society; therefore, one of the plenary sessions of the next Assembly of the World Movement for Democracy should focus on FBOs.
  
• Criticism of the actions of people of a certain religion should not be seen as criticism of their religion.
  
• Women’s organizations of different FBOs should network with each other to promote equality between the genders, and FBOs should support the promotion of human rights for women.
  
• NGOs should be encouraged to develop partnerships with FBOs in the promotion of democracy.
  
• Most religious texts represent cultural practices within the timeframe in which the texts were written. Therefore, religious texts need to be reinterpreted to address issues within the current timeframe.

• Mr. Masmoudi spoke about the current crisis in the Muslim world, despite all its potential and enormous resources. He indicated that Muslims feel obligated to choose between Islam and modernity (or Islam and democracy) because they are faced with outdated and inappropriate interpretations of Islam that are hundreds of years old and not applicable to the modern situation. Masmoudi added that the international community and governments have been too willing to tolerate and acquiesce to undemocratic regimes in the Arab and Muslim world (in the name of stability), but this is beginning to change as people realize that real stability can only be achieved through the democratic process.
  
• Mr. Manna mentioned the historic development of the Muslim civilization, and earlier civilizations, up to colonialism. He spoke about the difficult situation that the political elite found in the Arab world after independence, and indicated that religious reforms (of both Christianity and Islam) did not succeed in changing the expansionist and empire-building tendencies in both religions. The only solution is to recognize the rights of the citizens, regardless of their religion, in order to build modern democratic states. Manna stressed the importance of engaging in dialogue (both internal and external) to build consensus and harmony.
  
• Ms. Imam spoke about the experience of Muslims in Nigeria, and indicated that conservative Muslims are first and foremost concerned about protecting the Muslim identity. This is being done at the expense of the rights of Muslim women who were deprived of their right to vote until 1976. Strict adherence to Shari`a and hudud (punishment) laws have resulted in discrimination against women and poor individuals. While someone who steals $50 can have his hand cut off, people who embezzle millions of dollars often go unpunished (because there is no hudud punishment against embezzlement). She concluded that the Nigerian experience stressed the importance of peaceful coexistence between Muslims and non-Muslims, and the need to search for a positive definition of Islam and Shari`a that protects and supports freedom and justice.
  
• Mr. Jourchi spoke about the difficulties of democratic transitions in the Arab world, and explained that there is no society that is against democracy in principle, but there are problems of implementation and practice. The failure is in the strategies adopted by the democrats, especially since Arab history does not provide many examples of democratic rule. Arab countries are not all the same, but each country has its own specificity. The challenges that remain have to do with how to weaken the hold of governments, and their control of the political process, without resorting to violence. Democracy promotion in the Arab world must take place with and without the cooperation of the regimes, and he called for ending the ideological wars between national and secularist forces, on the one hand, and Islamic and Islamist movements, on the other. There can be no democracy without the participation of the Islamists, but democracy will be in danger if Islamists dominate the state and public discourse.
  
• Ms. Anwar stated that Islam is being used as a political ideology by some groups who want to monopolize Islam. Muslim women, in Malaysia and other parts of the Muslim world, are now trying to defend their rights under Islam by putting forward their own interpretation of Islam. Conservative religious scholars do not have the right to speak in the name of Islam, which belongs to every Muslim man and woman. Even non-Muslims in Muslim-majority countries, such as Malaysia, have the right to express their concerns about Islam and their rights as full citizens and equal partners.

• It is necessity to continue this type of exchange and debate, and democracy foundations, like the National Endowment for Democracy, should support these and similar initiatives and networks.
  
• Religious dialogue is also very important, not only among Muslims of various groups and tendencies, but also with members of other faiths in order to promote religious harmony, understanding between civilizations, and peace.
  
• Muslims should develop a modern and tolerant interpretation of Islam, based on the Islamic principles of Shura (consultation), Adl (justice), and Hurriya (freedom), as necessary conditions for developing democracy and peaceful coexistence.
  
• Islamic movements and religious leaders must be engaged in dialogue about their visions and social projects in order to arrive at consensus on the type of society and government that Muslims seek and deserve. Exclusion and oppression will only lead these movements to more violence and radicalism.
  
• Secularism should not be forced as the main objective because it is currently misunderstood as anti-religion. True secularism is in fact a protection of religion from the State, and of religious freedom from government interference. Secularism is not a condition for democracy in the Muslim world, but can be developed through dialogue and recognition of common interests.