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Topic Discussion III
Participation in
Democratic Decision-Making:
The Vital Voices of Women, Civil Society and
Pluralism
Room 1
(9 of 16 pages)
Mr. Zamreg (ph): I am going to speak of multi partisan. And we have to
say the definition of the multi partisan. Sometimes we have a country with forty or fifty parties. So we have to
make a difference between the polling partisans and the multi partisans. Poly mean it is the same thing repeated
but multi is different things. And so I have to make a definition. So, I made the difference between poly and multi.
So when we compare both of them, practically all the parties, they have no problems. And in this case, we have
multi partisans and we have to take into consideration all these parties. Multi parties makes one element of the
democracy, but the poli partisan is not. It gives only a new face but it's not a reality. And the second point
I have to say is on the NGOs. The NGOs, they have a great role to play of course. But what is the lack? Is it finding
the financing of the NGOs, or we can say I'm not doing politics. I am not a political of goals. They are involved
in the political life and of course they have to go with the evolution, the development of the country. And we
have to make the difference between one and the other. And they have an ideal and this ideal of the party is very
important. Concerning now the financing part. If we have not the financing between need, if the NGOs are large
or small, if we have not the financing to have a page in the media, so it's impossible. Thank you.
Frank Loy: Now Miss Rana Gabian (ph).
Rana Gabian: Civil society institutions may become in fact intelligence organizations working for the government.
And sometimes in society, organizations do not work for the best interests of society. This is one point. As regards
to women, we have to see how can we achieve the material independence for women in countries which are very poor.
And with [inaudible] rating, poverty. How can we eliminate illiteracy? Because in fact the backwardness of women
is also due to illiteracy. And how can we consider a man as a male partner for the movement for liberalizing women?
And in fact it's not a matter of man and women, but of the whole mankind. Thank you.
Frank Loy: Thank you. Can I just remind the participants that if possible, let us focus on the question
of the obstacles to making the civil society work in our countries. The obstacles and the ways in which we find
to overcome them so that we can be as practical as possible in discussing how civil society can play it's appropriate
role. Let me now call on Madam Gogoberidze.
Madam Gogoberidze: Thank you. Of course we have not to give more importance to the NGOs. But I want to say
that you have to take into consideration of course the countries who have now a new situation because it was before
that they had only one party. And they refuse the multi parties. But now in my own country, we have no more confidence
in the party. Even if they are acting to help the people. They, there is a lack of trust, so we have to work together
with the NGOs. We have to work with them to regain the trust and to regain the confidence of the people. Because
without that it's impossible.
Lathe Kupar (ph): My name is Lathe Kupar from the National Endowment for Democracy and I just want to make
a few remarks although I'm an observer, I'm not a participant. But I think there are some valid points that need
to be made and maybe raise some points that you can give some feedback on. And I want to point out that especially
amongst Arab countries, and I'm sure it is the case with other countries, if we were to define civil society as
a space where organizations and structures can move independent of government, then I would say that in Yemen,
there is a very strong civil society according to that definition. Represented by the tribal structures, which
are so much outside government control. In fact they represent a parallel government in many regions of the country.
But if you were to look at the modern definition of civil society, where organizations are to move within a modern
state, the concept of a modern state and citizenship, then obviously you would look at a much smaller margin and
a much smaller space where civic organizations exist in Yemen. And the case in Egypt where I came from just prior
to my visit here to Yemen, is that there is also a very vibrant civil organization, NGOs, but they come very much
from a traditional background, religious background amongst the purraerriers (ph) and they worked independently
and they're very different how we traditionally call NGOs and civic organizations which are very much related to
the elite. And the educated amongst the Arabs in that region. That distinction is necessary to just help us to
deal a little bit with the definition.
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