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CIVIL NEWS
Whenever you find yourself on the side of the majority It is time to sit back and reflect.
Fifth Assembly of the World Movement for Democracy held in Kyiv, Ukraine
On April 6-9, 2008, over 500 democracy activists, practitioners, and scholars from 104 countries gathered in Kyiv, Ukraine, for the Fifth Assembly of the World Movement for Democracy (WMD) under the theme "Making Democracy Work: From Principles to Performance".
The World Movement for Democracy is a global network of democrats, including activists, practitioners, academics, policy makers, and funders, who have come together to cooperate in the promotion of democracy all over the world.
The Assembly participants were addressed by the Ukraine's First Lady, Katerina Yushchenko and the President Viktor Yushchenko himself. The keynote speakers included such prominent figures as Alejandro Toledo, former President of Peru; Maina Kiai, chairman of the Kenya National Commission on Human Rights; and Myroslava Gongadze, founder of the Gongadze Foundation, named for her husband, a journalist who was murdered in 2000 in Ukraine.
During the four days of the Assembly, which included two plenary sessions and some 45 workshops and panel discussions, participants from around the world examined global and regional challenges to the development of democracy and the need to deliver on promises of democratic transitions.
During one of the plenary sessions the report "Defending Civil Society" was presented, co-authored by the International Center for Not-for-Profit Law (ICNL) and the World Movement for Democracy Secretariat. The Defending Civil Society project was initiated in response to recent proliferating efforts by various governments to restrict the space in which civil society organizations in general, and democracy assistance groups in particular, carry out their work.
The YHRM representatives took part in the Assembly and organized the regional workshop of Central and Eastern Europe and Eurasia. More than 80 representatives of the civil organizations and think tanks from the region took part in the workshop, which was moderated by the Honorary President of the International Youth Human Rights Movement Andrey Yurov. The participants discussed the possibilities for cooperation in the sphere of Human Rights defense and strengthening democracy in the countries of the region, first of all, in the area of the former USSR (the so-called Newly Independent States). Great attention was paid to the issues of the freedom of assembly and the freedom of association, defending human rights defenders, as well as building networks for cooperation activities in this direction.
International Service of the YHRM
int@yhrm.org