Why does organized crime relate to the work of democracy support in fragile affected contexts? How can organized crime affect post-conflict recovery and reconstruction? In particular, how can it be a challenge to state building?
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The year 2015 marks the 20th anniversary of the 4thWorld Conference on Women where the progressive blueprint on advancing women’s rights – the Beijing Declaration and Platform of Action – was articulated and agreed upon. Twenty years after the landmark adoption of this ambitious expression of aspirations that no country in the world has fully achieved, “it is still a long way to go” on this journey for advancing women’s rights in all spheres of life.
In a democratic society words are the weapons we use to achieve change and words have therefore significant potential power. Words are not just symbols to communicate with, they also structure our way of thinking and make sense of our worlds. The philosopher Ludwig Wittgenstein aptly summarizes this line of thought when he said “The limits of my language mean the limits of my world”.
What is a constitution? Why do constitutions matter? How are constitutions made? International IDEA’s Constitution Building Programme is pleased to announce the release of new and upgraded, easy-to-understand, jargon-free initiatives which respond to these questions, for specialist and non-specialists audiences alike.
Elections are considered to be of paramount importance in most countries for establishing a legitimate government. Yet, this is only true when elections are fully trusted and perceived to be fair. At the same time, competition and struggle are an inherent part of elections.
Washington DC – The Fourth High Level Meeting of the Inter-Regional Dialogue on Democracy will be held at the headquarters of the Organization of American States(OAS) in Washington, DC October 16-17.
International IDEA is a strong advocate for the inclusion of democracy both as a goal in its own right and as an enabler in the post-2015 Development Agenda, and is hosting an Inter-Regional Dialogue on Democracy (IRDD) workshop on 17–18 June to encourage inter-regional discussion and knowledge sharing on this issue.
A political party that embraces a clear set of policies or programme to reach out to citizens is more likely to listen, reflect and address citizens’ views. How does such a programmatic party come about?
“Media, civil society and electoral observers” was one of the topics addressed in a 5-day conference, organized by the Electoral Commission (EC) and United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) Joint Task Force on Electoral Assistance, held at the Dead Sea in Jordan, on 7–11 April 2014.
Stockholm, 3 April 2014 -- The International Institute for Democracy and Electoral Assistance (International IDEA) is pleased to announce Yves Leterme as the Institute’s new Secretary-General. Leterme will take up his duties at the Institute in Stockholm in June 2014.
Since December 2011, Yves Leterme has served as Deputy Secretary General of the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD).
Sponsors: International IDEA; Electoral Integrity Project (EIP; Harvard University & University of Sydney)
Award Committee: Annette Fath-Lihic (International IDEA), Jørgen Elklit (Aarhus University and University of Cape Town), and Richard Frank (University of Sydney)
Lack of access to political funding presents a huge challenge to women seeking to enter political life today. Only 21% of seats in parliaments globally are held by women, and International IDEA’s work has shown that political finance is one of the key stumbling blocks towards a more equal representation of women in political decision-making.
On the occasion of the 2014 International Women’s Day, International IDEA joins the rest of the world in awareness raising and celebrating women with the theme Empowering change and action. For International IDEA this presents an opportunity to salute all women across the world for defending the rights of women in all spheres of life and the implementation of empowering change and actions.
With women still only constituting 21% of parliamentarians globally, pressure to adopt measures to promote women’s access to political leadership continues to gain momentum.
Throughout 2013, a number of countries across the world took important steps towards redefining their electoral systems to help create a more gender sensitive environment for women seeking political office.
The role of women in the electoral process has traditionally been seen as something limited to their involvement as candidates, and the likelihood of them being elected.
There are many examples across the world of women succeeding in empowering themselves and how they acquired greater influence in political institutions. These range from customary governance in Bougainville, Namibia, Northern Kenya and South Africa, to local governance in Cameroon and Cambodia and across national level institutions in Somaliland and India.
Regional organizations are key players in efforts to promote gender equality. Most have set up legal and institutional frameworks to address gender equality, including women’s political empowerment. They usually have a dedicated committee, commission or directorate that is responsible for gender. And they have a mandate to coordinate, monitor and often implement the regional strategies endorsed by their respective member states.
Citizens across all continents have used the citizen-led democracy assessments pioneered by International IDEA for the past 10 years. The Institute is now releasing two new resources.
Citizen-led democracy assessments around the world – International IDEA’s State of Democracy assessment frameworks
The film tells the story of citizens assessing the democracy in their country using International IDEA’s State of Democracy assessment frameworks.
Elections involve much more than organizing a single polling day. Instead they are a continuous process - a huge logistical exercise leading up to the vote, and also dealing with what happens afterwards.