NO PEACE WITHOUT JUSTICE PARTICIPATES IN FORUM FOR THE FUTURE PREPARATORIAL MEETING IN ISTANBUL

No Peace Without Justice (NPWJ) participated, on 2-3 August 2008 in Istanbul, in a civil society coordination meeting in preparation for the Fifth Forum for the Future, to be hosted this year by the United Arab Emirates, on 18-19 October 2008, in Abu Dhabi. The Forum for the Future is the annual meeting of Governments and Civil Society of G8 and broader Middle East and North Africa (BMENA) countries, whose aim is to examine the state of play of democratic reform and human rights promotion in the Region.
 
The purpose of the meeting in Istanbul, which is organized in the framework of the Democracy Assistance Dialogue (DAD) program, was to outline the Civil Society’s strategic priorities with regard to the themes that will be discussed in the 2008 Forum for the Future, among which political reforms (freedom of expression, enhancement of women’s role and legal system) as well as the role of civil society in the modernisation and democratisation process of the BMENA Region.
 
The meeting also gave the opportunity to discuss a number of concrete proposals that were presented by the civil society of the Region to the government representatives in Abu Dhabi, and, in particular, a document aimed at identifying the guiding principles for a stronger collaboration between governments and civil society of the Region on the promotion of the rule of law, the respect of human rights, and the development of democratic reform processes.
 
Participants included prominent non-state actors from the Region, among which Saad Eddin Ibrahim, director of the Ibn Kalhun Center in Cairo, Bakthiar Amin, former Iraqi Minister for Human rights and President of the International Alliance for Justice, and Amal Basha, President of the the Sisters’ Arab Forum for Human Rights; as well as Government representatives of the United Arab Emirates, Japan, Italy, United Kingdom and United States (USA).
 
Since 2004 No Peace Without Justice has played an instrumental role, as civil society counterpart of the Italian Government, to coordinate the Democracy Assistance Dialogue (DAD) program - led by the governments of Italy, Turkey and Yemen and their respective civil society partners (NPWJ-Italy, TESEV-Turkey, HRITC-Yemen). The DAD program is designed to foster productive dialogue / to develop effective and durable consultation and dialogue mechanisms between civil society and governments of the MENA region on issues of democratic reform and human rights promotion.