Within the USAID “RADA: Next Generation” Program, International IDEA co-organized a closed online briefing for the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine on the upcoming elections to the European Parliament and its impact on the EU political landscape.
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Ensuring the orderly conduct of the next, post-war elections in Ukraine, in a manner that ensures the confidence of all electoral stakeholders in the process and the results of the election, will be vital for sustaining the country’s democratic development and successful reconstruction. These post-war elections will present challenges of unprecedented nature and magnitude, in the physical and online space, to the election management body and other state authorities mandated to protect the integrity of elections.
On March 29, 2024, Kyiv hosted a momentous conference titled "The Role of the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine on the Path to Full Membership of Ukraine in the European Union," organized by International IDEA in collaboration with NGO "Internews-Ukraine" and the Ukrainian Parliament’s Committee on Ukraine’s Integration into the European Union. This conference became a pivotal platform for defining the strategic directions for the development of parliamentarism within the context of Ukraine's European integration. The discussion was moderated by experts of the USAID RADA: Next Generation Program.
As Africa navigates this super year of elections, election and information integrity and voting rights will come under pressure due to the zero-sum nature of Africa's politics.
Female politicians and young women aspiring to join politics from 47 counties have received a five-day training from the 5th Women in Political Participation (WPP) Academy on how to enhance their political leadership skills, promote inclusivity in political participation and inspire young women to join politics.
The informal and formal barriers to women’s political decision-making still exist, six years before the expiration of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Amongst the informal factors we still witness, culture, tradition and religion are being used to water down women’s agency in meaningful participation in political decision-making. This Women’s Day should be a time to reflect on how women influenced some milestone political decisions.
The recently concluded fifth Women Political Participation (WPP) Academy by the Forum for Africa Women Educationalists (FAWE) was a residential five-day training. It targeted women who hold political positions in Kenya’s government, women who vied in the 2022 Kenyan general election, young women aspiring to join politics whose age bracket is between 18 to 35 years, and student leaders. The participants were drawn from the 47 counties within Kenya.
For the forthcoming 'election' on 15-17 March, the Russian authorities plan to open polling places in some regions of Ukraine, currently occupied and annexed by Russia.
As has been underscored by the United Nations, the European Union and democratic nations across the globe, Russia’s actions gravely violate international law, the UN Charter and laws of Ukraine. Russia is once again assaulting Ukraine's sovereignty and the integrity of its democratic institutions.
The Gambia Press Union (GPU) leadership is in Nairobi this week on a learning visit to the Kenya Union of Journalists (KUJ) and affiliates and allied media organisations.
The Forum for African Women Educationalists (FAWE), one of the seven partners within the Women In Political Participation (WPP) Project, recently convened a strategic 2-day gender-responsive training for select Kenyan journalists, editors and social media influencers drawn from various Kenya television, print media and radio stations.
Since May 2023, in light of the intensification of Ukraine’s EU candidacy, International IDEA has supported Ukraine's Verkhovna Rada in enhancing its understanding of the European Parliament’s law-making and internal functioning. As the Rada works towards more intensive EU law transposition, both expertise and direct engagement with European legislators have become vital.
Organising the first post-war elections will pose unprecedented challenges for Ukraine, as a significant part of the electoral infrastructure has been damaged, and millions of voters are now displaced within or outside the country.
International IDEA facilitated the discussion on the role of the open government for Ukraine's democratic resilience and reconstruction in the framework of the 8th Open Government Partnership Global Summit, which took place on September 6-7, 2023 in Tallinn, Estonia.
The European Union, Member States and election bodies need to explore the possibilities to provide support for Ukraine to ensure that the millions of displaced voters due to the Russian aggression can vote in the first post-war elections, according to a dialogue of European lawmakers, election management bodies and experts.
The European Union’s Eastern Partnership (EaP) covers six countries: Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Georgia, Republic of Moldova and Ukraine. The Covid-19 pandemic put a strain on fledgling democracies in the EaP region, aggravating pre-existing concerns, such as the weak rule of law, insufficient accountability of executive branches vis-à-vis legislatures and fragile media freedoms (see International IDEA 2022).
International IDEA, with the support from the European Commission, has been contributing to increasing effective evidence-based and coordinated support for democracy across the world through the Supporting Team Europe Democracy (STED) project. Within this project, the Summit for Democracy (S4D) emerged as a unique opportunity to place democracy at the center of the global agenda.
Here are five events and trends from the last year that capture the most important developments in democracy and human rights across the continent.
Excellencies,
International IDEA deplores the illegal and illegitimate holding of referendums in Ukraine's occupied territories on joining the Russian Federation. Staged to imitate the pursuit of self-determination of people, they are an egregious abuse of this direct democracy tool by a hostile occupying power.
Kenya is set to bring to an end 60 years of male dominance in politics following the nomination of a female candidate to become the country's first ever deputy president in this year's election.
Martha Karua was named as the preferred running mate of Kenya's opposition leader and former Prime Minister Raila Odinga, who is running for the presidency. If she wins, she is set to become the first woman to occupy the office of deputy president in this year's presidential elections.