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National Endowment for Democracy     News and Information     Summer 2001 Newsletter

Citizens of Colombia have now suffered through years of protracted civil war. Many Colombians live in areas controlled by guerrilla or paramilitary forces. Others live in zones of conflict that are more chaotic, where all sides continue to vie for control. Despite these adverse circumstances, some citizens are still striving to use democratic tools to improve their communities. One NED grantee, Plural (Corporación Centro de Estudios Constitucionales), has been working to empower violence-stricken, rural and marginal communities to solve some of their own problems by promoting a mechanism for alternative dispute resolution known as the Justice of the Peace program.

For the majority of Colombian citizens, the justice system is slow, distant and unpredictable. Overburdened courts incapable of handling ever-increasing caseloads result in high rates of impunity for perpetrators of crimes; an estimated 97 percent of crimes go unpunished in Colombia. Because of the overburdened court system and the need to make access to justice more fair and efficient, the 1991 Colombian Constitution created the position of Justice of the Peace whose role is to resolve minor family, commercial, labor, land and personal disputes at the local level. Plural has used the Justice of the Peace program to instill in communities long accustomed to violence and the armed conflict the benefits of a system that favors negotiation and mediation over violence.

By working directly with communities, the program not only serves as a preventive measure against the violent escalation of conflicts that may begin simply as domestic disputes, but also strengthens communities through the teaching of civic responsibility. The program also fills a void where state judicial systems have not been effective or have not reached marginalized communities.

Plural’s current activities are focused on the region of Nunchía, Casanare, composed of 52 smaller communities near the border with Venezuela. This area has a large presence of armed groups and a high degree of violence among the various combatants. Soon Plural will expand its program to the neighboring municipalities of Santander and Boyacá.

Plural’s promotion of the Justice of the Peace program is very comprehensive, reaching out to average citizens to explain the program and its benefits, recruiting candidates for election as justices, working to get out the vote for the election of justices, training elected justices, and finally, encouraging the government to include the program as an element of peace negotiations between the state and the various armed groups.

Because its staff operate in such volatile surroundings, Plural must exercise extreme caution. Plural staff make every effort to explain their programs thoroughly to all local actors, so that their activities are not threatened.

In Casanare, Plural’s diplomatic efforts were successful, and the community elected justices in December 2000 who have handled a variety of cases and conducted 13 community workshops on a wide range of issues relevant to the community with the participation of 475 adults and 240 children.

Unfortunately, there have been instances where Plural has been the victim of its own success. Last year, Plural’s program in San Vicente del Caguán was terminated by the FARC guerrillas who control that region. Previous to this action, Plural had conducted two meetings about the Justice of the Peace program that were each attended by more than 200 people.

After Plural’s meetings, the energized citizens almost completely stopped using the FARC office of citizen complaints, and began showing other independent tendencies that the guerrillas deemed a threat to their control. Although the program was cut short, Plural considers it successful if only in the respect that they connected with residents of a municipality that has essentially been isolated from the mainstream since November 1998.

The National Endowment for Democracy will present its Annual Democracy Award to Mexican President Vicente Fox Quesada at a Capitol Hill Ceremony on September 5. NED’s Board of Directors voted to honor Fox in recognition of his historic election to Mexico’s highest office, ending more than seven decades of single-party rule. Fox’s trip to Washington September 5-7 will be the first official State visit by a foreign head of state for the Bush White House.

“NED is proud to recognize the democratic milestone achieved by President Fox, but by honoring Vicente Fox, we seek to honor the people of Mexico and the change they have embraced by choosing a new path, and working toward a more open, more democratic future for their country,” said NED President Carl Gershman. “President Fox’s election is the crowning achievement of a broad-based civic movement that has been changing Mexico for much of the past decade,” continued Gershman.

In 1995 NED presented the Democracy Award to Sergio Aguayo, the leader of Mexico’s Civic Alliance, a coalition of more than 400 civic groups that did remarkable work to open the Mexican electoral process in 1994. The Civic Alliance went on to become an enduring force for honesty and accountability in public life: a watchdog against corruption and a spur to the democratic transformation of the country that culminated in the election of President Fox.

Despite the current crisis between the Israelis and Palestinians, and the devastating impact it has had on both sides, there are still nongovernmental organizations in the region that persist in working toward peace, democracy and mutual respect between the two sides. One unique group is the NED-supported Israel Palestine Center for Research and Information (IPCRI). The largest and arguably most effective Israeli-Palestinian think tank in the Middle East, IPCRI’s mission is one of peace building through developing consensus on concrete issues related to the peace-process. On a recent trip to the U.S. the co-directors of IPCRI, Dr. Gershon Baskin (Israeli) and Dr. Zakaria Al-Qaq (Palestinian), explained the work of IPCRI and the challenges they face due to the breakdown of the peace process.

While many of its more ambitious initiatives have been limited due to the current crisis, IPCRI is one of the few joint Israeli-Palestinian organizations that have been able to sustain their work, through low-level dialogue focused on generating concrete thinking about short and medium-term solutions to the crisis, and through the dissemination of frank analysis to the local and international community. IPCRI continues to receive many requests from decision-makers, activists, and academics to organize joint discussions and meetings, and to cultivate discussions on pertinent sectoral issues (e.g. water, environment, trade), which are thought to have a greater chance of fostering meaningful discussions and tangible recommendations than more political discussions.

IPCRI is divided into specialized units that develop projects in the broad areas of peace education, water and the environment, law and development, and strategic affairs. IPCRI’s primary activities include polling, development of peace education curricula, and the sponsorship of a vast array of research projects and publications. Its reputation for neutrality and professionalism has bolstered IPCRI’s credibility, and has enabled the organization to develop sound working relationships with Israeli and Palestinian governing institutions and actors, local and international civil society organizations, academics, practitioners and journalists.

NED has worked with IPCRI since 1994, supporting programs premised on the idea that a more broad-based, participatory process of peace negotiations is essential to any long-term, viable peace. Most recently, NED supported IPCRI’s efforts to focus on increasing levels of political participation of Palestinian refugees in the peace process by providing the opportunity, through town hall meetings and direct interaction with Palestinian negotiators, and surveys and polls which will be distributed to both the Israeli and Palestinian negotiating teams when talks recommence, for a more democratic and participatory process of negotiations.

Recently, IPCRI opened a temporary office on a small strip of land called Tantur, an area under the control of the Vatican situated between Jerusalem and Bethlehem (where the IPCRI headquarters stand). The irony for IPCRI, which has been conducting peace-building activities between Israelis and Palestinians since 1989, is that the move was necessary because Tantur currently represents the only place in the territories where Israelis and Palestinians can legally meet and work together.

For IPCRI, the lack of human contact between Israelis and Palestinians resulting from the current crisis is a major source of concern in thinking about long-term scenarios for peace and democracy. Indeed, while the idea of joint work between Israelis and Palestinians has always faced an uphill battle, the context in which IPCRI works has been upset over the past ten months, as the trust and mutual respect that was emerging between Israelis and Palestinians, based on years of work by dedicated individuals and groups on both sides, has almost completely dissolved. IPCRI continues its work out of concern that without any interaction between the two sides, or work towards crisis management, there is little hope of countering the retrenchment of stereotypes and hardening of attitudes, which are reinforced by isolation and a virtual lack of unbiased information.

“NED helps brave people around the world who are engaged in difficult struggles for freedom. These are America’s natural friends. Resisting the enemies of freedom, they need our continued solidarity.”

These words are taken from a letter that I, along with my colleagues from Empower America, sent to Members of Congress several years ago in support of the Endowment’s appropriation. Little could I have imagined then that I would, only a few years later, be invited to serve as Chairman of NED’s Board of Directors.

My admiration for the work of the National Endowment for Democracy dates back to my years in the House of Representatives when NED was still having to make its case each year on the floors of both Houses of Congress during the annual budget cycle. In many ways, the world was a different place in the early 80’s when a bipartisan group of members led by the late Dante Fascell, with a substantial boost from Ronald Reagan, got behind this important new initiative. But the reasons for NED’s work—along with its support on Capitol Hill—have been, if anything, reinforced in recent years. The worldwide triumph of the democratic idea has been tempered by the rigors of transition, along with the realization that democracy requires constant nurturing, particularly in societies that have lacked the essential ingredients of strong political parties, a healthy trade union movement, dedication to the principles of open markets, an independent judiciary, a free press, and effective, transparent governance.

My immersion in the work of the Endowment since assuming the chairmanship in March has confirmed for me the essential wisdom of NED’s “founding fathers” in creating a total “package” of democracy programming that combines the work of NED’s four core Institutes that cover the business, labor, and political spheres with grants to grassroots groups (through NED’s “discretionary” program) whose goal is to help foster robust and enduring civil societies. I am indeed proud to be a part of this bipartisan effort to help brave people fighting for freedom everywhere. It truly represents the best of what America stands for in the world.

After years of suffering through a protracted civil war that has caused death, famine, disease and extreme poverty, there is a general yearning for peace throughout Sudan. Various grassroots organizations have emerged recently in an effort to strengthen the voices of those who wish to end the war, including the Badya Center for Integrated Development Service, a NED grantee, founded in 1994 and located in the Nuba Mountains region of Central Sudan. The center’s principal goal is to transform a culture of violence into a culture of peace. Through programs that aim to teach basic human rights concepts and conflict resolution skills, the Badya center is working to establish a community commitment to end all forms of violence.

The center’s program coordinator and public affairs director, Jamal Elamin, recently outlined his organization’s strategies to sow peace and human rights in a region with language and cultural barriers, insecurity and suspicion. The Nuba population has dropped 60 percent since 1989 due to death and displacement from the ongoing civil war. “The situation is very complicated,” said Elamin who was in the United States to attend a one-month conflict resolution training program at the Eastern Mennonite University in Harrisonburg, Virginia. He told Congressional staff at a Capitol Hill briefing that despite various obstacles and the dangers involved, his organization’s efforts to bring peace and dignity to the Nuba Mountains was gaining support from local leaders and the public.

“We are trying to use traditional leaders and tribal chiefs because they have access and are very effective and know how to approach the people and how to pass the message,” Elamin said. The center, which started by training 70 community leaders about basic human rights and peace-building techniques, is now focusing its peace education program on street and displaced children. The center will use three schools in the two largest Nuba towns of Kadugli and Dilling to rehabilitate children who would not otherwise have a chance to go to school.

The children will be taught negotiation skills, the most basic human rights concepts, national reconciliation and reconstruction. Since most of the children have suffered psychological trauma from the war, the Badya Center will provide them with counseling to help them develop self-esteem and a hopeful outlook.

“Because the children have grown up in a culture of violence, the games they play are full of violence,” said Elamin. “We have introduced a peace drawing competition, and soccer tournaments, stressing the importance of peaceful conduct during and after the game. This is a good chance to introduce something peaceful to them.”

Cultural limits on women’s rights is another sensitive issue confronting the Badya Center. “Girls in Hawasma tribe, for example, have no right to choose their husbands,” Elamin said. “Their uncles, whose sons must be considered first for the marriage, have the right to choose for them.”

The Badya Center, which considers women as best placed to bring peace in Sudan, is extending the women’s rights and peace education curriculum by publishing 3,000 more booklets to discourage female genital mutilation, a violation practiced on 80 percent of Sudanese women; emphasize the importance of education for girls and their contribution to peace-building; and to publish local folklore supporting peace and tolerance from different ethnic groups of the Nuba Mountains.

“Women are very powerful in some of our communities,” Elamin said. He explained that because they are not viewed as ambitious for political power and because they are not violent, women can be listened to by both the government and the Sudan People’s Liberation Army (SPLA).

The ongoing conflict started in 1983 when SPLA took up arms to demand increased autonomy and development for southern Sudan.

Democracy activists are establishing regional and functional networks to promote democracy and are creating interconnected Web sites following the Second Assembly of the World Movement for Democracy, held last November in São Paulo, Brazil.

New networks form in Africa, the Americas, and the Middle East Pro-democracy groups in Angola, Democratic Republic of Congo, Mozambique, Nigeria, Uganda, and Zimbabwe have organized the Africa Democracy Forum (ADF) to unite democracy activists throughout sub-Saharan Africa. The ADF maintains an e-mail discussion group and held a regional meeting of nongovernmental organizations on July 9-10 in conjunction with the African Union (formerly OAU) meeting in Lusaka, Zambia.

Argentina, Brazil, Canada, Chile, Colombia, Cuba (in exile), Mexico, the U.S. and Venezuela have formed the Citizens Network for Democracy in the Americas, and launched a Web site available in both Spanish and English (and soon in Portuguese). It features profiles of organizations that are engaged in some 20 different areas of democracy work, citations of recent research on the region, and potential sources of support.

The Middle East Network for Democracy (MEND) is composed of World Movement participants from Egypt, Lebanon, Palestine, and Turkey. MEND is intended to be a virtual network of groups and activists dedicated to promoting democracy in the Middle East and North Africa, and its Web site is under construction.

The World Movement is also working to establish direct links to existing democracy networks in other regions including Asia, Central and Eastern Europe and the NIS, via its web site. Of particular note, the Alliance for Reform and Democracy in Asia (ARDA), which took the lead in organizing the Asia regional workshop for the São Paulo Assembly, has re-designed its Web site (www.asiademocracy.org).

Functional Networks Take Hold In addition to regional networks, the World Movement is also organizing functional networks. They include:

• The Network of Democracy Research Institutes
• The Democracy Information and Communication Technology (ICT) Group
• The Network of Democracy Assistance Foundations

Other functional networks in development will focus on such areas as local government and democracy, youth, parliamentarians, and conflict resolution. Those interested in World Movement networking are encouraged to send a message by e-mail to world@ned.org or by fax to +202-223-6042.

DemocracyNews Becomes Electronic Newsletter of the World Movement

In July 2001, The World Movement for Democracy assumed the publication of DemocracyNews, formerly the electronic newsletter of the NED. One of the main objectives of the World Movement is to use information technologies to help democrats to share their knowledge, information, and experiences with each other and to build networks of mutual solidarity and support. DemocracyNews will serve as a primary means to achieve those goals by featuring postings of World Movement participants and others about prodemocracy activities in various regions and in different areas of democracy work. Those wishing to submit items should send them to world@ned.org or by fax to +202-223-6042. Subscription information is also available at(www.wmd.org).

More than 50 democracy scholars and practitioners met in Seoul, South Korea, June 28-30 to discuss how campaigns, elections and political party activities are financed in East Asia. The event was organized by the NED's International Forum for Democratic Studies, Korea's Sejong Institute and the Asian Center for Democratic Governance, as part of the Democracy Forum for East Asia, a series of meetings and conferences on key political challenges facing the region.

Although there is vast literature on political finance in the United States and Western Europe, much less has been written about other parts of the world, especially Asia. The Seoul conference sought to establish a baseline of knowledge about political finance laws, regulations and practices in the most important democracies of East Asia.

The first half of the three-day meeting featured presentations by academic experts on such topics as corruption, disclosure and transparency in Asia and elsewhere, and case studies of political finance in Korea, Japan, Thailand, Taiwan, India, Indonesia and the Philippines.

Political practitioners, including elected officials, party leaders and representatives of national election commissions, took the lead in the second half of the conference, debating the practical implications of laws regulating political contributions and expenditures, the effectiveness of disclosure and enforcement regimes. Most participants agreed that political finance is a major problem in Asia, where numerous scandals involving money and politics have led to measurable declines in public trust in governments and politicians. Critics argue that there is too much money in politics and that not enough is known about how political contributions influence governmental decision-making. Of course, such problems are by no means limited to Asia. In Latin America, as one non-Asian participant told the group, major financial scandals have led many countries to adopt such reforms as state funding of political parties and election campaigns, limits on contributions and expenditures, and mandatory disclosure of financial transactions. Such reforms might cure the worst abuses, but they might also lead to candidate-centered politics or a proliferation of small, weak political parties, the participant warned. Another participant described how disclosure in the United States helped to detect and deter some campaign-law violations while also providing a wealth of information, about political money, for scholars, journalists, and voters. But, as several Asian participants noted, disclosing campaign contributions might be inconvenient or even dangerous in some of the countries represented at the conference. And disclosure laws may simply drive political contributions underground.

Reports published in countries that have disclosure appear grossly to understate actual receipts and expenditures, several participants asserted.

The case studies showed that there is not a single "political finance" problem in Asia but a series of problems that are sometimes common and sometimes unique to particular countries. Several Asian participants asserted that vote buying was a severe problem in Indonesia, Thailand, and the Philippines. "In Filipino politics," one argued, "everything is for sale to the highest bidder….It is a cruel and brutal process." But others argued that the small gifts that candidates give voters must be understood in a cultural context as signs of respect and not as evidence of corruption. And until political parties develop clearer ideologies, one cannot expect voters to choose among them for policy reasons, a non-Asian observer of Thai politics noted.

The primary problem in Korea and Japan is not vote buying but vast contributions, often from business corporations, that skirt or violate the law. A Korean participant said, "official costs are only the tip of the iceberg." Another argued that because spending limits are so low, "a prospective lawmaker has to break the law to become an actual lawmaker." And a Japanese participant said that while laws limit direct contributions to candidates, donors may contribute huge sums to political parties that then pass the money along to candidates. Describing weak regulations and lax enforcement in Taiwan, one participant said that "the only purpose of the laws is to be broken…. Politicians have every incentive to violate them."

The final session of the conference considered possible reforms that would make political party and election campaign finance more democratic and transparent. These included several variants of state subsidies for parties and public funding for campaigns, along with more timely disclosure, stricter enforcement, and a greater likelihood of punishment for breaking the law. Most participants agreed that the reform process would have to proceed slowly and gradually. As one non-Asian participant concluded, "the worst thing a democracy can do is to pass laws that no one will respect."

British Conference Explores the Internet and Democracy-Building

Leading democracy experts met in London in April to explore how the Internet could be used for building democracy. Among the participants at the two-day event at Wilton Park in London, organized by the British Government's Foreign and Commonwealth Office, was NED President Carl Gershman, who gave detailed accounts of how various NED grantees have used the new media to promote democracy. He discussed NED-supported projects and outlined how the new communications technologies have increased interaction among citizens, and between citizens and their governments. The Internet, Gershman said, "is already exercising a powerful influence in the field of democracy promotion, often in ways that are ingenious and unexpected, and in places that are far from the beaten path... . With hard work and imagination, we can ensure that it will also be a force for human freedom and democracy."

For the full text of Gershman's remarks go to http://www.ned.org/.

NED, Gershman Honored for Advancing Democracy in China

NED President Carl Gershman received the 15th annual Distinguished Person for Advancing Democracy in China Award from the Chinese Democracy Education Foundation (CDEF) at a ceremony held on May 5 in San Francisco, where the foundation is based. The late Frank Huang, a victim of Chinese political persecution, and his friends founded CDEF in 1985 to draw attention to the need for democracy and human rights in China. The foundation is sustained by voluntary donations and services from a cross-section of Chinese democrats. In accepting the Award, Gershman spoke of the contradictions created by the Chinese leaders determination to modernize the economy without losing political control; and their desire to conceal official abuse by arousing and appealing to nationalistic sentiment.

“Their goal of building a competitive market economy, which is the only path to modernization in the global economy, is incompatible with maintaining a one-party communist system,” Gershman said. “The contradiction is inherent and inescapable.”

Read the full text of Gershman’s remarks at http://www.ned.org/

German President Hails Democracy Foundations

The international network of democracy assistance foundations met in Berlin June 24-26. Organized by the Friedrich Ebert Stiftung and the four other German party affiliated foundations, the conference, Making Democracy Sustainable, marked the fifth time the network has met since NED originally convened it in 1993 at the request of the U.S. Congress.

There were about 75 participants and observers from 20 countries, including nine — Australia, Austria, Canada, France, Germany, Great Britain, the Netherlands, Sweden, and the United States — that have democracy foundations. The opening panel featured representatives of political parties and non-governmental organizations in Hungary, Russia, Kenya, Mongolia, and the Philippines that have been the recipients of assistance. The group of participants, which included Carl Gershman and David Lowe of NED, met with German President Johannes Rau and Deputy Bundestag Speaker Anke Fuchs, both of whom paid tribute to the important work that the foundations are doing to promote democracy. The World Movement for Democracy has established on its Web site a democracy assistance network, http://www.wmd.org/asstfound/asst.html, to facilitate the sharing of information among the foundations.

CLO, a Nigerian human rights / civil liberties organization organized a meeting of African NGOs around the first summit of the African Union (successor to the Organization of African Unity), where participants will develop strategies for networking and partnerships among African democracy activists, and which will also serve as a forum where NGOs can engage the AU on issues such as its role in election monitoring and human rights promotion.

IDM will hold town hall meetings, policy roundtables, and a national conference to improve relations between citizens and law enforcement throughout Albania. IDM will also encourage public debate about policing as well as promote transparency, accountability and efficiency in Albania’s law enforcement agencies.

LES will promote freedom of the press, information and speech in Azerbaijan while preparing the next generation of young lawyers to work in the NGO sector. LES will help independent media defend themselves against harassment and unjustified legal attacks by providing free legal information and assistance; train young lawyers and law students in the laws of Azerbaijan pertaining to the nongovernmental sector in general and to the media specifically; and provide young lawyers with practical training in the media sector and encourage them to spend part of their career working in the nongovernmental and nonprofit sectors.

HREIB will train human rights educators on the Thai-Burma border to enhance their skills as part of a long-term effort to educate the Burmese people, particularly women and ethnic activists, about human rights. HREIB will promote its highly successful participatory teaching style and ensure that its education material in Burmese and ethnic languages is widely disseminated among pro-democracy groups along the Thai-Burma border, in refugee camps, and at select sites inside Burma.

CDFJ will conduct biweekly trainings for at least 60 Jordanian journalists on using Internet resources related to media freedom, human rights and democracy, develop its own Web site, and advocate for more media freedom through press releases and alerts.

CAJ will research corruption in Peru’s judiciary, and propose solutions for ending it through internal and citizen controls. CAJ is a private, international association that focuses on human rights throughout the Andean region. Unique in its regional coverage and strategy, CAJ concentrates on democratization and the rule of law, which it believes are fundamental to sustained protection of human rights.