The National Endowment for Democracy is a private, bipartisan foundation that works to strengthen democratic institutions worldwide. Since 1983, with support from the American people, NED has made thousands of grants to democratic nongovernmental groups in more than 100 countries, and has become a hub of activity, resources and intellectual exchange for activists, practitioners and scholars of democracy the world over.

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Democracy Digest

From the Field – NED Reports from Pakistan
"Enough of Mukhtar Mai," Musharraf reportedly complained. "She should just stop and go away." To the contrary, she seems set to stay, having used the $8,000 she received in compensation for the attack [on her in 2002] to set up the Mukhtar Mai Girls' School in Meerwala. She has also established, with support from NED, the Mukhtar Mai Women's Welfare Organization, which provides legal assistance to victims of rape and abuse, and helps educate citizens, including local government officials and police, about the rights of women. [read more]

Serious Flaws in Nigerian Elections Reported by NED Partners and Grantees
"Elections do not a democracy make," says Chris Fomunyoh, Africa director for the National Democratic Institute. That's probably good news for Nigeria, whose elections in April for the Presidency and National Assembly were widely condemned. NDI found serious flaws in the electoral process. "Democracy is not a destination – it is a journey," noted the International Republican Institute which nevertheless found that the conduct of the polls fell below international standards. [read more]

NED Center for International Media Assistance's Inaugural Forum
Exposing Corruption and Promoting Good Governance was the topic for the first public meeting of the Center for International Media Assistance (CIMA). The May 2 event, which was in honor of World Press Freedom Day, also featured the release of a new book, Media Matters: Perspectives on Advancing Governance and Development from the Global Forum for Media Development. [read more / view this event]

Latest Issue of the Journal of Democracy
The Journal of Democracy is pleased to announce the publication of its April 2007 issue. Several articles from the latest issue of the Journal of Democracy are now freely available online, including : India's Unlikely Democracy: The Rise of Judicial Sovereignty, by Pratap Bhanu Mehta; Battling KGB, Inc., by Garry Kasparov; After the Leviathan, by Leon Aron; and Putin's Invented Opposition, by Stephen Sestanovich. The table of contents and abstracts of all articles in the April 2007 issue can also be found at www.journalofdemocracy.org.

Albright, McCain, and Weber call for release of Le Quoc Quan
Former Secretary of State Madeleine Albright, Senator John McCain and NED Chairman Vin Weber are the authors of a letter sent April 12 to the President of Vietnam protesting the March 8 arrest of Le Quoc Quan, a Vietnamese lawyer who was most recently a Reagan-Fascell Democracy Fellow at NED. [read the press release / read the letter]

Democracy or Populism: Responding to the Crisis in Latin America
The New York Democracy Forum held a lecture on "Democracy or Populism: Responding to the Crisis in Latin America," featuring Alejandro Toledo, former president of Peru. [read more / view this event]

North of the DMZ: A Human Rights Perspective
On April 18, the International Forum for Democratic Studies and the U.S. Committee for Human Rights in North Korea co-sponsored a breakfast event on "North of the DMZ: A Human Rights Perspective," featuring Dr. Andrei Lankov, Kookmin University, and Tom Malinowski, Human Rights Watch. NED President Carl Gershman moderated the event. [read more / view this event]

NED's 2007 Strategy Document, outlining NED's main programmatic objectives for the next five years, is now available on the NED website.

The Documentation Center of Cambodia
recently published A History of Democratic
Kampuchea (1975-1979), the first Cambodian-authored history text of the Khmer Rouge.
[read more]

Recent threats to disbar Karinna Moskalenko, a leading Russian human rights lawyer, are only the most recent attempts of the government to frustrate the work of the International Protection Center. [read more]

World Uyghur Congress trains leaders to raise awareness of the Uyghur cause. [read more]

The Yemen Female Media Forum released a survey on violations of women's rights. [read more]

Burmese journalists are honored by the International Press Institute as the 2007 "Free Media Pioneer." [read more]

The Scientific Research Mises Center, a Belarusian think tank, received the top prize in the Student Outreach Category of the 2007 Templeton Freedom Awards, given annually by the Atlas Economic Research Foundation. The Minsk-based Center receives support from NED through the Center for International Private Enterprise (CIPE). [read more]

The Center for International Private Enterprise issues its 2006 Annual Report.

The U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) is holding a public meeting of the Advisory Committee on Voluntary Foreign Aid on May 23. [read more]