Middle Eastern Democrats and Their Vision of the Future

السبت ١٩ - أبريل - ٢٠٢٥ ٠٣:١٣ مساءً

English | عربي

اضيف الخبر في يوم الثلاثاء ١٠ - نوفمبر - ٢٠٠٩ ١٢:٠٠ صباحاً.

Middle Eastern Democrats and Their Vision of the Future
Wednesday, November 18
8:30a.m. - 2:00p.m.

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Since the collapse of the Soviet Union and the liberation of Kuwait, democrats in the Middle East have been fighting uphill battles to reform and open up their political space. Some governments have conceded to local demands for partial reform and relaxed political control and the advent of the internet and satellite television have provided additional safe space for emerging civic networks. Most recently, there have been hopeful signs -- women gained the vote and won parliamentary seats in Kuwait, Lebanon held a fundamentally peaceful and well-administered election, moderate parties made significant gains in Iraq and 3,400 women won municipal council seats in Morocco. In addition, civil society gains in Arab countries have been significant and are unlikely to be reversed.
Still, democrats from the region often occupy a beleaguered political space between entrenched authoritarian systems and radical Islamist movements, their vulnerability highlighted by the imprisonment of the Egyptian liberal leader Ayman Nour soon after his unsuccessful presidential campaign. (He was released earlier this year.) Given the considerable interest that the United States has in democratic progress in the Middle East, it is important that positive trends continue and that the prospect for democracy be fully appreciated. NED is holding this conference to give leading Middle Eastern democrats an opportunity to share their concerns with an American audience, and to highlight the challenges they believe lie ahead as well as their vision of the possibilities for democratic progress in the region.

Agenda

8:30 - 9:00am: Registration and continental breakfast
9:00 - 9:30am: Keynote Address
Congressman Howard Berman, Chair, House Committee on Foreign Affairs
9:30 - 10:45am: Panel - “Toward Free and Fair Elections: Prospects and Challenges”

Panelists:
Ayman Nour , Head of the Egyptian El Ghad Party, former MP and Presidential Candidate
Dr. Aseel al-Awadhi, Member of Parliament, Kuwait (one of four women elected in May 2009)
Commentators:
Saad Eddin Ibrahim, Wallerstein Distinguished Visiting Scholar, Drew University
Tamara Cofman Wittes, Senior Fellow, Brookings Institution (invited)
Moderator:
Lorne Craner, President, International Republican Institute
10:45 - 11:00am Coffee Break
11:00am - 12:15pm: Panel - “Implementing Democratic Reform: The Role of Civil Society”

Panelists:
Ziad Baroud, Interior Minister, Lebanon; Founding Member, Democratic Renewal Movement
Musa Maaytah, Minister of Political Development, Jordan
Nouzha Skelli, Minister of Social Development, Morocco

Commentator:
Michele Dunne, Senior Associate, Carnegie Endowment for International Peace
Moderator:
Ken Wollack, President, National Democratic Institute
12:15 - 1:00pm:   Lunch
1:00 - 2:00pm: Luncheon Address
Jeffrey Feltman, Assistant Secretary of State, Bureau of Near East Affairs (invited)
2:00pm:   Adjournment

Biographies

Ayman Nour – Egypt
Ayman Nour is one of Egypt’s most prominent dissidents and activists for democracy, human rights and the rule of law in Egypt. A former member of the Egyptian Parliament and chairman of the El Ghad party, he became well-known following his January 2005 imprisonment by the government on fictitious charges. Nour remained active during his imprisonment, using the opportunity to write critical articles and make his case and cause better known. He was released from prison in March 2005, following an international campaign on his behalf. After his release, Nour began a campaign for the Egyptian presidency and came in second to Hosni Mubarak in Egypt’s 2005 presidential election. On December 24, 2005, Nour was again imprisoned, this time for alleged election fraud in the Presidential election and was released in February 2009 because of his declining health.
Ziad Baroud – Lebanon
Ziad Baroud is a Lebanese lawyer and prominent civil society activist. He is currently Lebanon’s Minister of Interior and Municipalities, a post he was named to in 2008 when a unity government was formed after the Doha Agreement. Most recently, Baroud oversaw the administration of the 2009 parliamentary election. Baroud previously served as Secretary General of the Lebanese Association for Democratic Elections (LADE), which has observed Lebanese parliamentary and municipal elections since 1996, and as a member of the National Council for a New Electoral Law, or the Boutros Commission, which wrote a draft law recommending electoral reform in 2006. As a lawyer, Baroud specialized in public and administrative, civil, educational, and syndicate law. He has also worked as a consultant on local governance and decentralization with the United Nations Development Program, and was the legal counselor for the World Bank's office in Beirut.
Dr. Aseel al Awadhi - Kuwait
Dr. Aseel al Awadhi was elected to the National Assembly of Kuwait in 2009. She joins three other women in becoming the first to win seats in the parliament since universal suffrage was granted in 2005. Dr. al Awadhi, a divorced woman who does not wear the veil, overcame strong opposition from religious conservatives, many of whom issued religious edicts against voting for women. Running as an independent on a liberal platform, she beat out several incumbent parliamentarians to win in Kuwait’s 3rd district. Her electoral strength was rooted in a deep base of committed volunteers and her ability to use new organizing and media techniques, including pioneering the use of YouTube in Kuwait to announce her candidacy. Prior to her election, Dr. Awadhi was an Assistant Professor of philosophy at the University of Kuwait, where she had been a lecturer since 2006. .
Nouzha Skalli - Morocco
Nouzha Skalli is Morocco’s Minister of Social Development, Family and Solidarity and a member of the political bureau of the Party of Progress and Socialism (PPS). She has been an elected member of the Parliament since the 2002 legislative elections. As a member of the Socialist Alliance caucus, she held the chairmanship for two legislative sessions. She is a trained pharmacist and former chairwoman of the National Federation of Unions of Pharmacists of Morocco. Ms. Skalli is known as a civil society activist and strong advocate for women’s human and political rights. She has played in a central role in the creation of a number of women’s associations: the Democratic Association of Moroccan Women (ADFM), Judicial and Counseling Center for Women Victims of Violence and Center for Women’s Leadership (CLEF). She is currently vice-president of ADFM and she was co-author of a number of the association’s publications, including “Women’s Rights in the Maghreb: The Universal and Specific” (1992) and “Women and Power in Morocco: The Mutilated Democracy” (2001).
Musa Maaytah – Jordan
Musa Maaytah is the Minister of Political Development of Jordan.

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