Press Release issued by the Council for a Community of Democracies and American University’s Center for Democracy and Election Management
Washington, D.C. March 6, 2007
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The complex issue of how democracy might take root in the countries of the Middle East and North Africa is the theme of an all-day conference to be hosted by American University on March 9. The conference entitled Transitions to Democracy in the Middle East and North Africa: Lessons from Other Regions will bring together some 50 scholars and specialists on democracy promotion from the Middle East, Central Europe and Africa.
The conference has as its purpose to propose an agenda for a three day follow-up conference to be held in September in Budapest, Hungary. It is jointly sponsored by the Council for a Community of Democracies, American Universities Center for Democracy and Election Management, the International Centre for Democratic Transition (Budapest) and the Washington based Center for the Study of Islam and Democracy.
Among the participants in the conference will be Robert Hunter, Chairman of CCD and former U.S. Ambassador to NATO, Amb. Istvan Gyarmati, Director of the International Centre for Democratic Transition in Budapest, Hungary, Robert Pastor, Vice President for International Affairs at American University, Ambassador Abdoulaye Diop, Ambassador of Mali to the U.S., Radwan Masmoudi, Director of the Center for the Study of Islam and Democracy, Abdurrahim Foukara, Director of Al Jazeera’s Washington bureau, Patrick Ryan S.J., Vice President of Fordham University, and Harvard Professor Emad Shahin of Egypt.
The conference will consist of five panels. The first will consist of assessments of Arab public opinion on issues related to democracy and a review of a series of reports issued by the United Nations concerning fundamental problems that must be addressed if the region is to develop economically, politically and socially. A second panel will then explore the hurdles faced by Central European countries in their transition from Communism to democracy with special emphasis on Hungary and Poland. That panel will also review the democratic transformation of several African countries notably South Africa and Mali.
Issues of religion culture and democracy will be the theme of a third panel which will compare secularism in both Christianity and Islam and examine issues of gender and culture that have posed barriers to change. A fourth panel will look at external factors that might encourage democratic change including an array of democracy promotion organizations, government assistance programs, international organizations and global media. A concluding panel will seek to identify lessons that could be learned from other regions especially Central Europe and Africa and adapted to the Arab World in ways compatible with that region’s culture, history and religion
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