A delegation of No Peace Without Justice (NPWJ) will participate in the Fifth Forum for the Future Ministerial Meeting in Abu Dhabi, to be hosted on 18-19 October 2008 by the United Arab Emirates, under the co-chairmanship of Japan. The meeting will see the participation of high-level government delegations and civil society representatives of G8 and Middle East and North Africa (MENA) countries, as well as regional and international organizations and institutions, to examine the state of play of progress accomplished in the realm of political reforms and human rights promotion in the Region.
The NPWJ delegation, which will also contribute to the Civil Society Parallel Forum to be held in Dubai on 15-17 October, will be composed of Gianfranco Dell’Alba, Secretary-General of NPWJ, Mr Bakhtiar Amin, President of the International Alliance for Justice, from Iraq, Professor Saad Eddin Ibrahim, Director of the Ibn Kalhun Center, from Egypt and Mr. Mohsen Marzouk, Secretary-General of the Arab Democracy Foundation, from Tunisia.
During the Ministerial meeting, NPWJ will present a partnership document aimed at identifying guiding principles for stronger dialogue and cooperation between governments and civil society of the MENA Region, with a view to consolidating the rule of law, the respect of human rights and the development of democratic reform processes. NPWJ has played a crucial role in the elaboration of this document, which is the result of a process of consultation involving both governments and civil society from the G8 and the MENA Region, promoted in the framework of the Democracy Assistance Dialogue (DAD) Program.
Since 2004, No Peace Without Justice has played an instrumental role, as the civil society counterpart of the Italian Government, in coordinating the DAD program – led by the governments of Italy, Turkey and Yemen and their respective civil society partners (NPWJ-Italy, TESEV-Turkey, HRITC-Yemen) – by reinforcing the peer-to-peer nature of the DAD partnership through a sustained coordination process. The DAD program is designed to foster 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.
For further information, please contact: Gianluca Eramo, email: geramo@npwj.org, phone: +32 2 548 39 29 or Nicola Giovannini on ngiovannini@npwj.org or +32 (0)2 548-3914.
Further information on the Forum can also be found on the dedicated website: www.forumforthefuture.ae
