Elections
Curriculum on effective electoral assistance
IDEA and its partners have developed two courses, drawing on the BRIDGE Project (Building Resources in Democracy, Governance and Elections), to help democracy practitioners with election planning and management. Read more.
Participants at the BRIDGE showcase in Tbilisi, in August.
Tackling voter apathy
Why do today’s citizens vote less, although there have never been as many democracies in the world’s history? IDEA addressed this question in its presentation, “Global Trends in Voter Turnout”, at a 28-30 July workshop on voter participation and voter apathy in Kasane, Botswana. The Southern Africa Development Community (SADC) Electoral Commissions’ Forum organized the event. Read more.
Electoral systems in the Caribbean
IDEA used its comparative knowledge from around the world in designing and modifying an electoral system into practice: the findings of IDEA's handbook on electoral system design came handy in a workshop on “Government and opposition – roles, rights and responsibilities” held end of July in Port of Spain, Trinidad and Tobago. Read more.
Political parties
Bridging the gender gap in Peruvian parties
Peruvian political parties are taking action to boost womens´participation in politics: twenty-one of them signed a pact this summer to promote women’s participation and gender equality in politics, to include a gender perspective in party platforms for 2006 elections, and to work for electoral reform and a gender law in the 2006-2011 Congress. Read more.
Representatives of the "Partido Democrata Descentralista" signing the gender pact, with members from the Partido Popular Cristiano.
West African political parties spark dialogue
The African Diaspora has a role to play in politics, not only by sending funds, but also through the right to vote for citizens living abroad. The Ghanean New Patriotic Party (NPP) has launched an initiative to involve young people in politics and party work, in a country where 42.7 per cent of the population is under 14.
These are just two examples of the findings that researchers from Burkina Faso, Ghana, Mali, Nigeria and Senegal presented at an IDEA summer workshop for West African political parties. Read more.
Political parties get ready for reform in Ecuador
Before year-end, Ecuadorans are due to vote on major questions that will shape reforms to their political system. In order to transform the voters’ wishes into legislation, the country’s parties will have to hammer out a political accord.
In a first step to bring Ecuador’s main political parties together to talk about the reforms, IDEA’s Ágora Democrática program, the Facultad Latinoamerica de Ciencias Sociales, and the United Nations Development Program’s Ecuador office jointly sponsored a one-day seminar on 4 August in Quito. Read more.
César Montúfar (Participación Ciudadana) receives the microphone to begin his presentation. Beside him is Catalina Carpio from the Tribunal Supremo Electoral.
Democracy building and conflict management
What makes or breaks a constitution?
How to make a constitution? To be successful the process must ensure local ownership, have clear boundaries of how inclusive it can be, and articulate constitution-building, conflict management and peace-building: these are some of the facts unveiled by IDEA’s programme “The Role of Constitution-building Processes in Democratization”. IDEA presented its findings at a workshop organized by the International Peace Academy in New York on 27-29 May. Read more.
Seminar examines reconciliation issues in West Africa
In Dakar, Senegal, IDEA and the Gorée Institute held a seminar on reconciliation after violent conflict for Senegalese government and non-government officials and representatives from Francophone West African countries. Participants at the May event discussed current reconciliation needs and challenges in Senegal (Casmance region), Mali, Burkina Faso, Togo, Côte d’Ivoire and Guinée Bissau. Read more.
IDEA and the Gorée Institute held a seminar on Reconciliation after Violent Conflict on the Senegalese island, in June.
Colombian mayors discuss democracy challenges in conflict areas
Local democracy is the bread and butter of mayors. They practice it on a daily basis. So when a delegation of them visited IDEA’s Stockholm headquarters on 22 June to take part in “Peace-building and Democracy at the Local Level”, they expressed a strong commitment to democracy and a determination to carry out the responsibility assigned to them by their voters, regardless of the different political tendencies they represented.
“It was remarkable to hear their testimonies stressing that most citizens in Colombia continued to believe in democracy despite the decades-long violent conflict and widespread poverty there”, said Goran Fejic, head of IDEA’s Democracy Building and Conflict Management team.
Participants included Gilberto Toro Giraldo, executive director of the Colombian Federation of Municipalities, and Colombia’s ambassador to Sweden, Carlos Holmes Trujillo Garcia.
During the seminar, IDEA staffers presented a paper of the same name, which analyzes the link between conflict management and democracy-building at the local level.
For more information, contact Goran Fejic, head of IDEA’s Democracy Building and Conflict Management team.
Goodwill mission meets with Bolivian President
Five parliamentarians from the Andean region visited Bolivia in mid-July on a goodwill mission promoted by Ágora Democrática, a joint IDEA and Asociacion Civil Transparencia programme, in coordination with the secretary general of the Andean Community of Nations.
The group met with President Eduardo Rodríguez, parliamentarians and representatives of the country’s main political parties to talk about successful experiences of national dialogue in their own countries. Read more.
Democracy analysis
Democracy Assessment in Mongolia Uses IDEA's tool
Mongolia has adopted IDEA´s tool for carrying its national democracy assessment: the IDEA´s “State of Democracy” handbook, that provides a methodology for citizens of any democracy in the world to assess the functioning of their own democratic systems.
The government of Mongolia invited representatives from all over the country, officials, civil society and private sector on June 30 – July 1 to discuss a Draft National Plan of Action to Consolidate Democracy in Mongolia. The backbone of this plan is a national research conducted according to the State of Democracy methodology.
The Mongolian democracy assessment follows up on the “International Conference on New and Restored Democracies” (ICNRD) hosted by Mongolia in September 2003. IDEA, in partnership with the Human Rights Centre of Essex University, is supporting the process.
The Mongolian experience of assessing their own democratic situation will be used as an illustration to the 2006 ICNRD discussions.
The discussion in Mongolia will be extended to others world regions during second half of 2005.
At the Mongolia seminar: (From left to right) Ochir Enkhtseteseg, Ministry of Foreign Affiars of Mongolia, Dr. Todd Landman, Human Rights Centre of the University of Essex and Prof. Peter Ronald deSouza, Institute for Comparative Democracy.
For more information, contact Ingrid Wetterqvist, Head of IDEA´s planning and external relations. You can also download the review conducted by the Human Rights Centre of Essex University on the State of Democracy in Mongolia.
Did You Know?
Voices of Georgia in Constitutional and Political Reform
IDEA and the Caucasus Institute for Peace, Democracy and Development just published the outcome of their project, Voices of Georgia in Constitutional and Political Reform, in a report: Constitutional-Political Reform Process in Georgia: Political Elite and Voices of the People. The Georgian version summarizes the views of Georgian experts and practitioners and presents results of debates on two main themes: the balance between different branches of power on the central level, and devolution of power from national to regional and local levels. It also includes a sociological research on the public discourses on constitutional processes in Georgia, conducted by the Centre for Social Studies.
In addition, the Russian edition includes the analyses of Armenian and Azerbaijani experts and practitioners on political reform and European integration perspectives in their respective countries.
The paper was launched in Tbilisi on 10 August and widely distributed in Georgia, Armenia and Azerbaijan. The findings on Georgia have been subject to public debate in Georgia, and were presented at an international conference in Tbilisi in March 2005.
Programme on political and constitutional reform in Georgia
The programme, run jointly by IDEA and the Caucasus Institute for Peace, Democracy and Development, ended in August. The dialogue process resulted in two policy papers: “State power at the national level: balance between its branches” and “Distribution of state power between the national and sub-national level”.
IDEA mentioned at the UN Security Council
IDEA’s recently published paper, Peace-building and Democracy at Local Level, was mentioned by the Peruvian Permanent Representative to the United Nations, Oswaldo De Rivero, during his presentation during the open meeting of the United Nations’ Security Council on Peace-building held in New York on 26 May.
Developing local democracy in Kosovo
In its newly released report, Developing Local Democracy in Kosovo, IDEA makes practical recommendations on how to increase local democracy in the country, including suggestions for electoral reform, economic reform, increased transparency. The Institute also offers ideas that would have gender impact or improve parity for minorities.
The report results from a seminar on “Developing Local Democracy in Kosovo” that was held jointly by IDEA and the UNDP Oslo Governance Centre in November 2003.
New publication: Verdad, Justicia y Reparación: desafíos para la Democracia y la Convivencia Social'
In cooperation with the Inter-American Institute of Human Rights, IDEA released its new publication Verdad, Justicia y Reparación: desafíos para la Democracia y la Convivencia Social (“Truth, Justice and Reparations: challenges for democracy and social coexistence”), on 27 July in Costa Rica.
The book, with a foreword by Chilean President Ricardo Lagos Escobar, is based on five national case studies - Argentina, Chile, El Salvador, Guatemala and Peru. Based on the analysis of IDEA’s handbook, Reconcilation After Violent Conflict, Verdad aims to re-launch the debate on reconciliation and democratization in Latin America.
Available in Spanish in print or CD-ROM, Verdad, Justicia y Reparación: desafíos para la Democracia y la Convivencia Social’ can be ordered from the IDEA Web site (www.idea.int) or by e-mail from: publications@idea.int
The case study authors at the San Jose presentation (from left to right): Carolina Varsky - Argentina, Andrés Dominguez - Chile, Gilda Pacheco - IIDH, Benjamin Cuéllar - El Salvador, Helen Mack - Guatemala, Rolando Ames - Peru, with Lorena Acevedo Narea - IDEA (in the middle).
New release: Argentina: an anomic society
In Argentina, another new IDEA publication on Latin America, La Argentina, sociedad anómica, launched in July in Buenos Aires and Córdoba. The book was published jointly with the Argentine Association of Constitutional Law and the National Autonomous University of Mexico.
The book is the result of a research project on constitutional culture in Argentina, conducted by IDEA and the Argentinean Association of Constitutional Law.
It analyses the attitudes, perceptions, and values of Argentine society on law and lawfulness. The book explores issues such as citizens’ rights and their enforcement, the actors who convey these rights, and the spheres in which they are reproduced. Attitudes toward democracy and democratic values and the perceptions on power are analysed, as well as the forms of representation and institutional performance.
The book is available in Spanish. Print copies can be ordered from the IDEA Web site or by e-mail from: publications@idea.int
Parliamentarians and reconciliation
IDEA and the Inter-Parliamentary Union recently released Making Reconciliation Work: the Role of Parliaments. It outlines practical measures that national legislatures can take in support of reconciliation processes and highlights the pitfalls to be avoided on the road to reconciliation. The book sets out the moral, legal and political dilemmas most commonly associated with democratic and post-conflict transitions by exploring the meaning of reconciliation and by highlighting the use of transitional justice mechanisms. Not only does it examine ways in which parliaments can foster reconciliation in their own countries in times of transition, but it also highlights what other parliaments can do to contribute to reconciliation.
Making Reconciliation Work: the Role of Parliaments is available in English, French and Spanish. An Arabic version will be available by the end of 2005. Print copies of the book can be ordered from the IDEA Web site or by e-mail from: publications@idea.int.
Peace one day
Celebrate the UN International Day of Peace – a day committed to the hope of global ceasefire and non-violence – on 21 September. An estimated 600 million people are now aware of the Day, via broadcasts of a documentary and media coverage.
For more information or to purchase the documentary, which inspired the creation of the UN International Day of Peace, visit: www.peaceoneday.org
