{"id":100202,"date":"2021-12-06T07:06:01","date_gmt":"2021-12-06T12:06:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/PERSIAN-HERITAGE.COM\/?p=100202"},"modified":"2021-12-06T07:06:01","modified_gmt":"2021-12-06T12:06:01","slug":"activist-groups-take-cautious-approach-to-white-house-democracy-summit","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/PERSIAN-HERITAGE.COM\/en\/2021\/12\/06\/activist-groups-take-cautious-approach-to-white-house-democracy-summit\/","title":{"rendered":"Activist Groups Take Cautious Approach to White House Democracy Summit"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"WASHINGTON \u2014 <\/span>When the leaders of more than 100 countries gather virtually in a Summit for Democracy sponsored by the Biden administration next week, groups focused on human rights and civil society say they want to see concrete commitments to push back against rising authoritarianism, as well as an admission by the United States that it has work to do in order to shore up its own democratic institutions.According to the State Department, the summit on December 9-10 is meant to focus on three things: defending against authoritarianism, addressing and fighting corruption, and promoting respect for human rights.<\/p>\n

The gathering is part of an effort to reassert the United States\u2019 role on the global stage as a leader of Democratic nations \u2014 echoing President Joe Biden\u2019s assertion that \u201cAmerica is back\u201d after four years of the Donald Trump administration, in which the country largely stepped away from an international leadership role.<\/p>\n

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FILE – A pro-democracy protester dressed as the Statue of Liberty rides an electric scooter during an anti-government demonstration marking the anniversary of the 1932 Siamese Revolution, in Bangkok, Thailand, June 24, 2021.<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n

The Biden administration has been working to position the United States as a buffer between the democratic nations and the increasingly aggressive authoritarian governments in the world, particularly China and Russia.<\/p>\n

However, the summit comes at a time when democratic institutions in the United States are under assault and is complicated by a guest list that includes countries that human rights groups have identified as trending toward authoritarianism, including India, the Philippines and Poland.<\/p>\n

‘Democratic backsliding is a fact\u2019<\/strong><\/p>\n

“The damage that has been done to democracy over the last 10 years, but particularly the last five years, has been felt in every region of the world. Democratic backsliding is a fact,\u201d Helena Hofbauer Balmori, international program director for civic engagement and government at the Ford Foundation, a philanthropic organization that seeks to promote social justice, told VOA.<\/p>\n

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\"FILE<\/div>\n<\/div>
FILE – Security forces gather on election day in Kampala, Uganda, Jan. 14, 2021. Authorities in Uganda had recently suspended 54 aid groups, including Citizens’ Coalition for Electoral Democracy and Chapter Four Uganda.<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n

Among other things, she said that the summit must address what she called the \u201cclosing of civic space.\u201d The summit, she said, must produce \u201ca strong statement regarding democratic values and practices, and the basic rights that come with it, such as the rights to the freedom of speech, freedom of association and freedom of assembly that are essential for civil society to play a strong role within any government.\u201d<\/p>\n

“Electoral democracy is, unfortunately, not enough,\u201d Hofbauer Balmori said. \u201cWe need to create the spaces where citizens can play a role and engage and help contribute to the solution of complex problems.\u201d<\/p>\n

Rights defenders under strain<\/strong><\/p>\n

In advance of the summit, the nonprofit democracy advocacy organization Freedom House issued freedom \u201cscorecards\u201d for the various countries participating in the event, highlighting the fact that many of them fall significantly short in terms of respecting the rights and freedoms of their own citizens.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe’d like to see a very clear articulation that governments are willing to face the challenges that they have at home and own that as part of their process as democracies,\u201d Nicole Bibbins Sedaca, executive vice president of Freedom House, told VOA.<\/p>\n

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FILE – People take part in a protest to support Cuban dissidents and to demand human rights in Cuba, at Puerta del Sol square in Madrid, Spain, November 15, 2021.<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n

She said that her organization would like to see the participants in the summit come together in a statement of support for \u201chuman rights defenders\u201d around the world who, she said, are \u201cunder tremendous strain.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThese are journalists, activists, people who run human rights [nongovernmental organizations], women’s groups, religious leaders, trying to push for universal human rights in their countries,\u201d she said. \u201cThey are being imprisoned, they are being arrested, harassed and in some cases killed by authoritarian regimes.\u201d<\/p>\n

Additionally, she said that the world\u2019s democracies should come together to condemn the increasingly common practice of \u201ctransnational repression,\u201d by which authoritarian governments reach across their own borders to silence activists in other countries. She cited the alleged involvement of Saudi Arabia in the assassination of journalist Jamal Khashoggi in Turkey as an example.<\/p>\n

Complicated example<\/strong><\/p>\n

That the United States should be convening a summit on democracy strikes some observers as ironic, given that outside organizations, including the Economist Intelligence Unit and the Stockholm-based International Institute for Democracy and Electoral Assistance (IDEA), have recently noted the country\u2019s declining commitment to democratic values.<\/p>\n

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\"FILE<\/div>\n<\/div>
FILE – In this Nov. 4, 2020, photo, election challengers in Detroit yell as they look through the windows of the central counting board as police were helping to keep additional challengers from entering due to overcrowding.<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n

Citing restrictive voting rules, gerrymandered voting districts that favor one party over another, and the persistent claim by some members of the Republican Party, with no evidence, that the most recent presidential election was illegitimate, IDEA this month added the U.S. to its list of \u201cbacksliding democracies.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThe idea of the United States convening the world’s democracies to talk about democracy raises the question of whether the United States should lead on something like that,\u201d Eric Bjorklund, president of Democracy International, a group that promotes government accountability and free, legitimate elections, told VOA. \u201cBecause we now have a situation where a substantial part of one of our political parties doesn’t appear to believe in democracy and is willing to try to overturn elections.\u201d<\/p>\n

More than words<\/strong><\/p>\n

A common refrain among human rights organizations and civil society groups was the hope that the summit will do more than simply offer leaders the opportunity to speak in favor of democratic values without holding them accountable for actually implementing them.<\/p>\n

“We think that the summit needs to be a place of honesty, humility and true commitment to working through the issues, the human rights issues that are faced by countries around the world, including the United States of America,\u201d Joanne Lin, national director for advocacy and government relations at Amnesty International USA, told VOA.<\/p>\n

“It\u2019s a question of whether or not the summit is actually going to be the launching point for meaningful multilateral engagement and challenge or whether it’s going to be more of a one-off event that convenes governments virtually but doesn’t actually have meaningful accountability afterwards,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

Hofbauer Balmori of the Ford Foundation agreed: \u201cThe big challenge is to actually come out with some mechanisms that make it possible to hold governments to account for their commitments, and to make sure that in these mechanisms, you have countries, governments and civil society who can help to push for the best aspiration.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

WASHINGTON \u2014 When the leaders of more than 100 countries gather virtually in a Summit for Democracy sponsored by the Biden administration next week, groups focused on human rights and civil society say they want to see concrete commitments to push back against rising authoritarianism, as well as an admission by the United States that […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":100203,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[16],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-100202","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-recposts"],"translation":{"provider":"WPGlobus","version":"3.0.2","language":"en","enabled_languages":["fa","en"],"languages":{"fa":{"title":true,"content":true,"excerpt":false},"en":{"title":false,"content":false,"excerpt":false}}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/PERSIAN-HERITAGE.COM\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/100202","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/PERSIAN-HERITAGE.COM\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/PERSIAN-HERITAGE.COM\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/PERSIAN-HERITAGE.COM\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/PERSIAN-HERITAGE.COM\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=100202"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/PERSIAN-HERITAGE.COM\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/100202\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":100224,"href":"https:\/\/PERSIAN-HERITAGE.COM\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/100202\/revisions\/100224"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/PERSIAN-HERITAGE.COM\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/100203"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/PERSIAN-HERITAGE.COM\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=100202"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/PERSIAN-HERITAGE.COM\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=100202"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/PERSIAN-HERITAGE.COM\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=100202"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}