Meeting from January 23rd to 27th, 2017 in Strasbourg, the Conference of INGOs of the Council of Europe brought together some 300 INGO delegates, experts, parliamentarians and permanent representatives of Council of Europe member states who discussed several major issues of concern today :

• freedom of expression and of association in Turkey following the attempted coup on 15 July 2016,
• the situation of NGOs in member States at a time when civil society space is shrinking,
• the regulation of the activities of multinationals for a better respect of human rights and local development,
• the surveillance of lawyers and the need for standards safeguarding client confidentiality,
• the information society, progress made and the threats facing public authorities and NGO.

Dear participants,

Two new videos presenting the World Forum for Democracy 2016 highlights and its conclusions have just been released. Aimed at our participants and the wide audience, the videos describe the challenges faced this year at the Forum and show the scope of its activities through the best highlights.

The videos are available both in a short and long version: http://www.coe.int/en/web/world-forum-democracy/wfd-2016-highlights

We are also happy to inform you that we are currently working final report.                 

We hope you will enjoy this unique way of recalling the Forum.

Thank you again for your participation and we look forward to seeing you all next year.

Best Regards,              

World Forum for Democracy

Council of Europe

F-67075 Strasbourg

E-mail : This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

Internet : www.world-forum-democracy.org  

Dear friends,

You will find the program of this session: Order of Business and Working groups and as attachment the wishes of the President of the Conference.

Very cordially, Philippe Grolleau.

     If I were to indicate what feeling prevails today in western societies, I'd say fear. Often unacknowledged or exorcised through displays of security and strength, fear hides in the thoughts of many people, in the decisions of entire populations, in turn back to ideologies that we thought were no longer occupy the scenario of our countries. Afraid, we try to give a name to identify an enemy to fight and to whom to attribute the faults of many social problems that we cannot solve. This enemy is identified as external to us: the Isis, monster that creates cruel children also in our well-ordered society; foreign, invading our lands and feeding new social tensions; European bureaucracy which oppresses our lives with rules made to limit our freedom.

Exorcising mercy almost a year ago, Pope Francis launched the Jubilee of Mercy, with the aim of helping us to experience mercy, both the mercy which all of us need to receive from God and the mercy we must show towards all those overwhelmed by suffering.

But there are some words which are traitorous: words that though they mean positive and good things, sound bad, at least to some people. One of these words is mercy. Is mercy a weakness? Nietzsche said, ‘I do not like the merciful who feel blessed in their pity”. And maybe modern man feels too self-sufficient.

Merry Christmas 2016 and Happy New Year 2017.

We hope that next year will be economically, socially and politically better. In Indonesia, the group of the Muslim extremists have shown an anti christian attitude. Recently there was a large demonstration opposing the major of Jakarta, who will run for the next period governor post. It was the biggest demonstration ever made in Jakarta. 

Fortunately the government of Indonesia under Jokowi presidency is firmly protecting the rights of minority, which is written in the constitution. It has been found several bombs intended to be used for the churches at the Christmas nights. It was fortunate that the polices have been continuously agile and speedily acting to capture the extremist groups.

But in reality, the majority of the population are not against the Christians, but the small extremists have their network and means to act. Some of them have been trained in the Middle East, the ISIS group.

I hope that French and all European Christian countries are protected by the God's mercy.

     Since June 2015, I have been a member of the National Independent Electoral Commission (CENI) of the DRC.  I had the privilege of having been appointed by the civil society organisations working in the civic and electoral education for a non-renewable six-year term  Our main challenge, as a member of CENI, is to organise fair and transparent elections at local, provincial and national levels.  In particular, I am in charge of following up the youth, persons living with disabilities and indigenous populations. 

From freedom to security

The leading value put forward by politicians today is not freedom but rather security. The world, value systems, society, health, culture – all of these are portrayed as vulnerable and open to attack, and are therefore perceived as such.

This reality is concocted by the media, which have their agendas of economic and political interests, fuelled by daily rations of shock, horror, fear and vulnerability.

Yet “freedom”, not “security”, is the message that the major religions of the world are putting forward, namely their vision of “what is still possible”. This is the message that religious representatives should be proclaiming, whether or not the timing is right.

Understanding fear: moral panic

Background

CAN –Community Action Network is a network of former Catholic Student Movement members, founded in 1993, who continue to meet as a community to live out their faith in action through engaging on human rights awareness in parishes. Since its inception, CAN has collaborated with churches and non-governmental organizations to organize activities to promote and advocate justice and peace in society.

Activities

­Pre-Election Forums

Preparations for Elections, GE 13 – What’s at Stake?