Rabat Meeting 2007

In consultation with local partners, No Peace Without Justice identified the transfer and sharing of knowledge related to democratic reforms as a fundamental theme to be developed in order to support and facilitate effective interaction between non-state actors and state structures as well as to promote the role of non-state actors as a legitimate counterpart of dialogue within the democracy building process.

On the 26 – 27 March 2007 NPWJ organised, in partnership with the “Kawakibi Democracy Transition Center” (KADEM), the “Moroccan Organization for Human Rights” (OMDH) and the “Arab Institute for Human Rights” (AIHR), a meeting that gathered democracy activists, selected among academicians and civil society representatives, from Morocco, Algeria, Jordan and Lebanon. The meeting provided an opportunity to institutionalise the transfer and learning processes of the knowledge of democracy transition in the MENA region, facilitating partnership and cooperation between civil society and universities and developing the professional skills necessary for civil society to enter into effective interaction with state structures, as well as mainstreaming and systematizing the contribution of civil society to the decision-making process. The meeting had a primarily civil society character, but the participation of high-level government representatives represented a further example and a model of consultation between civil society and government institutions.