Brussels/Rome, 25 May 2007 - The radical association No Peace without Justice, in cooperation with the Ibn Khaldun Center of Cairo and the Qatari National Human Rights Committee, and with the financial support of the Italian Government, through the International Institute for Democracy and Electoral Assistance (IDEA), the British Foreign and Commonwealth Office and the United Nations Democracy Fund (UNDEF), is organizing a workshop on the “Role of external actors in promoting Democracy in the Middle East and North Africa region” that will take place in the framework of the 2nd Conference on Democracy and Reform in the Arab World, to be held in Doha (Qatar) on 27-29 May 2007.

The workshop – which is organised within the framework of the DAD (Democracy Assistance Dialogue) Program, established in the framework of the “Forum for the Future” promoted by the G8 and sponsored by the Governments of Italy, Turkey and Yemen – will be an occasion to discuss the instruments and mechanisms that external actors could use in order to reinforce the role and stature of local actors who support the values of human rights, rule of law and democracy in the MENA Region, facilitating the establishment of a lasting practice or habit of consultation between state structures and non-state actors and enlarging the space of freedoms and rights for Arab citizens.

Emma Bonino, the Italian Minister of International Trade and of European Affairs, together with the First Lady of Qatar, H.H Sheikha Mozah Bint Nasser Al-Misnad, will close the Conference to which are expected to attend more than 450 civil society activists, professors, journalists, and political party members from across the region.


For further information please contact: Gianluca Eramo, email: geramo@npwj.org, phone: +32 494 533 925.