Recommendations of the Pocantico Conference on Democracy Education in the Middle East and Muslim Africa

1. Encourage the spread of democratic ideas including human rights by targeting young people whose attitudes are in a state of formation.
2. Conduct research on how best to effectively educate all citizens about democratic values and institutions appropriate to the culture and traditions of each country in the region, cognizant that while democracy has core universal values it takes many forms shaped by each individual society.
3. Focus especially on research on the compatibility of Islam and democracy.
4. Encourage teachers, school systems, media representatives, and civil society organizations to support and conduct long-term democracy education programs.
5. Engage Muslim religious leaders and Imams in democracy education programs in their countries, in the same way as Christian religious leaders are involved in Eastern and Central Europe and Latin America.
6. Focus on exposing adults, particularly parents, to democratic ideas and values in order to reach young people.
7. Assure that lessons learned in introducing innovative democracy education programs in the transitional societies of Asia, Europe, Africa, and the Americas are offered to the Middle East and North Africa.
8. Seek support from the Community of Democracies to make democracy education for the region a priority for the proposed International Centre for Democratic Transition, in collaboration with other centers in this region.
9. Study and draw on the experiences and expertise of democratic Muslim countries in other parts of the world in the field of democracy education for possible adaptation in the region.
10. Work with civil society to develop curricula to promote citizenship and respect for the rights of women, minorities, and freedom of religion.
11. Develop materials, as part of those curricula, for introduction into the educational system that would help to advance the rights of women in accordance with international human rights treaties and conventions.
12. Prepare materials in cooperation with the proposed International Centre for Democratic Transition for use in the educational system that would highlight democratic transitions in other regions of the world.
13. Develop and publish textbooks, working with indigenous publishers and organizations of civil society in partnership with educational institutions in each country, to promote democratic values and citizen participation for use in schools. Assist local scholars with the publication of materials on democracy consistent with their own traditions.
14. Examine and seek to replace textbooks that convey intolerance, discrimination, and anti-democratic ideas.
15. Translate and adapt to local circumstances relevant materials on democracy and human rights from other languages, as well as republishing and disseminating materials already developed, in order to enhance the flow of ideas to overcome the "knowledge deficit" of the Arab World identified by UNDP. As part of this effort encourage development of indigenous publishers.
16. Develop exchange programs that would permit educators in the region to work with those in democratic societies who have developed materials on civic education for their school systems.
17. Promote the exploration and use of participatory pedagogies that would transform and democratize the classroom.
18. Establish formal programs with the help of UN agencies and the World Bank as well as regional organizations to ensure that democracy education is integrated into the educational system of each country.
19. Promote the establishment and expansion of networks of educators and activists, including existing networks, devoted to democracy education in the Arab and Muslim worlds.