[25/April/2004] To talk about Democracy and Human rights in the present time is a kind of challenge and we are pleased to discuss at this Conference being bow held in Sana\'a to discuss together what can Democracy and Human Rights add to prosperity, stability, advancement and development of our peoples. Democracy and Human Rights are patterns of life all have to respect and activate locally and regionally. We can consider the topic of Democracy and Human Rights through two major perspectives:

First, we can look at it through a vertical perspective embodied by the relationship of the citizen with the state, in other words, it is the consolidation and activation of the rights that have the character of protest and demand for the citizens rights from the state via empowering the ordinary citizen with mental and information capacities of judge events and things in a rational way and enabling him to organize movement towards the achievement of interests within the general framework and policies.

Second, it can be represented by what others right demand from us, and this require the duty of solidarity, cooperation, integration and partnership with the international community.

It is no secret that the problem of the relationship between the citizen and the state or between the individual and the society is still deep-rooted in the developing countries. The backwardness these countries are experiencing and their state of poverty impede the practice of these rights.

Development becomes a condition guaranteeing actual practice of Democracy and Human Rights but it is a condition not quite enough. For Democracy and Human Rights are not restricted to the states and societies that have already traversed a long distance in the field of development. Thus is will be very strange to tell the poor people, \" You are poor and have no right to benefit fro Democracy and Human rights\". It will also be a kind of frivolity to advance development as an excuse to curtail Human rights as is done in some countries, whether before development or after beginning it. This makes it clear that if development was essential or the practice of Democracy and Human Rights, it would not be enough alone for attaining respect of these rights. In fact, Democracy and Human Rights as individual rights, and the right to development are not at variance. We have to differentiate between the right to development as a right for the people, and the right to development as a right for the individual, we should rather emphasise on both of these rights.

The idea of demanding an actual practice of these rights means to take the two dimensions into account despite the individual differences, because the option to differ itself is a type of Human Rights.

What is so important the people at present is their coexistence despite dissimilarity. This requires joint cooperation and integration, as the concern of all the countries is the same, namely, the advancement of the values of Democracy and Human Rights.

The demands of modernization, Democracy, respect for Human Rights and development of education in the Arab World and the African continent are established national demands, rather than created. It is out of probity to say that many African and Arab governments have, without external pressures, established various programs for economic reform and democratic development. Most of them have also approved international charters regarding the respect and guarantee principles of Human Rights in their world formula. So in this context there is nothing to justify the caution of our Councils, ( the Senates in Africa and the Arab World) now convening this conference, in taking the initiative to activate and deeply implant the values of Democracy and Human rights through the engagement of Civil Society Organizations in bearing the responsibility of disseminating the values and principles, as these Councils are in essence a major part in the structure of the civil Society Organizations in a broader sense. The general call for Democracy, expansion of the base of political participation, and enabling various groups and segments of the society to actively contribute to the political and developmental process, is a correct call, without neglecting the cultural and social environments of our countries.

The point that is highly important in this regard is that the democratic development of any society cannot be and is difficult to measure into mere measures of even legislatures and establishments to be transferred from one society to another. We nevertheless concede that the experiment has proved its success in countries that preceded us in adopting it and also because it has become one of the preconditions to activate the principles and values of Democracy and Human rights. That means the responsibility of implanting these values and principles to a great extent are to be shouldered by our Legislative Councils provided they are mindful of it being closely connected to the culture, habits, traditions and modes of behavious in our societies.

In reality, the willingness of our societies to push forward the democratic development does not depend solely on their acceptance of the principle of expanding the political participation via the periodicity of holding the elections but also on the degree of political consciousness and cultural enlightenment among the majority of the citizens as they are the major players giving the process its genuineness content with all the values and meanings it contains regarding the respect of individual freedom and the right to choose, whether politically, economically, socially or in the field of Civil Rights. These are the meanings that embody the realize that cultural dimension of Democracy. What can help us to realize that is the conscious will of the national elites in our societies and the clarity of their options in planting the positive values of freedom and Democracy.

1- Democracy

In its general sense Democracy is defined as the government of the people but the definition of Democracy as we find at present means that governance which falls in harmony with respect to the five categories of Human Rights: economic, social, political, civil and cultural.

Democracy is characterized by four essential traits, namely:

- Holding free and honest elections. This contributes to achieving the right to political participation and helps peaceful transition of power.
- Permission of having free and independent media, a measure that contributes to the freedom of expression, thought and conscience.

- Separation of the three powers – legislative, administrative, and judiciary – that contributes to the protection of citizens against the violation of their civil and political rights.

- Encouragement for the existence of open Civil Society and this leads to recognizing the right to peaceful gathering and formation and joining of associations and parties.

These political rights in These political rights include the masses freedom in expressing their will and freedom of organization through the right to meet. It should be understood that their freedom of expression is their freedom of securing the flow of their opinions without hindrance as well as the independence of media instruments and their concentration at one side should be prohibited as a general rule.

Democracy acknowledges that the constitution and the Legislator guarantee the citizens\' right to have an equal say in all the situations affecting their affairs and form of their life. The masses in the democratic countries tend to have their various apparatuses and organizations in accordance with their authorization given by them through the votes they grant in the election campaign to those who win their trust among the candidates and competitors qualifying them to as the public work.
Thus the masses authorize persons to assume tasks they have assigned them in the light of their selection. This will of election defines for the government its programs and broad lines of its policies as well as its priorities of action. Therefore wee are ambitious in our conference that our countries in Africa and the Arab World should work for enhancing the democratic orientations they have begun, although by different degrees. We hope they would continue in the dissemination of values of Democracy and Human rights because the ascertained result of that is more advanced and sustainable development of our societies.

2- Human rights

The importance of tackling issues of Human rights in the Arab homeland and Africa are increasing day by day. The contemporary circulated concept of Human rights is that they are the genuine rights closely adhered to man he would not lose them for any reason.

They are the rights he has acquired due to being born as a human and ultimately they are intended for preserving and safeguarding his dignity. They are the rights god has conferred on him the moment he bequeathed him the Earth.

The Human Rights are an indivisible entirety. They are general ethical rights for the people as they are humans. Man perceives them everywhere on this planet, they are worldly and the human entertains them in any country whether in the east or the west. This concept comes in reply to some wrong declarations that still see the Human Rights as divisible; some can be accepted while others cannot such as the cancellation of political rights or economic ones. The fact is that they are entire indivisible rights and are not restricted to certain geographic area; they are for the human wherever are.

3- Civil Society

The concept of Civil Society is considered a pivotal one in the context of talking about the building of a modern state characterized by political pluralism. The use of this concept became common since the beginning of the last decade of the last century, and has become more common when there has been talk about Democracy and Human rights, all of which are characteristics of this period that followed the end of the cold war and the increasing tendency towards the democratic change. There is also a general concept of the Civil Society indicating to the institutional state of contractual frame that grants the individuals an independent entity and depicts a society based on sovereignty of the people and adoption of Democracy, political pluralism, protection of the human and peaceful transfer of power.

Accordingly, our ambition is that our senates, the Shura and parliaments taking part in the Conference would work hard for the establishment of Civil Society Organizations in their countries possessing the following characteristics that would enable them to be effective and active in their action inside those societies:

1. Civil Society comprising of institutions capable of playing effective role in the process of social, political and cultural change and the more their role developed in the process of change, the more flexibility they were characterized by in responding to the social structure.

2. The developed Civil Society is founded on the act of volunteering, initiative and tendency to volunteer work within the frame of organized participation- which is an e4ssential pillar in the building of establishments.

3. Institutions of Civil Society we aspire for in future should be entertaining awareness and vision, or what can be termed as \" critical stance\". For they possess clear vision of the society\'s map and the sources of political, economic and social power in addition to points of weakness. They are institutions possessing a clear perception of the social change and adopt stances of defense and advocacy to support groups or sectors, at the level of civil, cultural, economic and social rights.

4. The developed Civil Society Institutions that we took forward to do not only adopt this role,\" i.e. treating issues and problems after their occurrence but exceeding it to the \"balanced role\" aimed at the realization of balance of the community and participation in the process of social change.

5. They are then civil institutions not confined to offering services and forms of social but rather e4stablishments adopting issues of empowerment.

6. The developed Civil Society we aspire after in this time of globalization, is the one that adopts the intact comprehensive visualization, in the sense that problems of the society are interconnected with the regional and international dimensions, and in dealing with issues and problems.

7. The developed Civil Society is that whose institutions would adopt an agreed upon \" moral charter of ethics\" and become the final reference for the evaluation of its practices. It is an ethical charter built on a pledge of the idea of democratic legitimacy, accountability and transparency.

We are quite convinced that for facilitating the process of economic change and integration it would be necessary to work for the participation of our peoples in governance and development.
The presence of a political climate guaranteeing Human Rights and sovereignty of the law will lead to more accountability, especially concerning those in public posts.

In addition, the political process that is founded on popular participation will lead to the participation of all, especially the woman and the youth, in development. Therefore we recommend more Democracy in our societies and more support for democratic institutions in our countries and the necessity of guaranteeing development and basic needs of our peoples. We therefore also confirm that Democracy and development must progress side by side and each give force to the other.

From the above review many matters could be concluded:

1. Democracy in Africa and the Arab homeland is still in its early phases and the majority of our states has not exceeded forty years of independence. This is a short period in the ages of states compared to the long decades that passed before the democratic experiment in Europe could get matured.

2. The democratic system, or more accurately the democratic practice is necessary for achieving a real progress for the African and Arab human particularly in the sense of his feeling of freedom and participation in affairs of his country or securing Human rights and also for economic advancement. It could not be taken as a pretext that the democratic practice could be delayed till the achievement of that goal.

3. The democratic practice in African and the Arab countries should not be restricted to the so-called \"elite\", i.e. the inhabitants of capitals and the large cities and politicians who have deprived the majority of the people who live in the countryside for more than a generation.

4. Despite of some shortcomings and weakness in the democratic experiment in some African or Arab countries, they herald a good future, especially in view of the brevity of the democratic experiment and peoples\' openness to democratic experiment in various parts of the world.
5. The democratic experiment in the Arab homeland and Africa must progress side by side with economic reform, elimination of poverty and increasing the proportion of the educated in the society.

We propose that the meeting comes out with an initiative on Democracy and Human Rights including the following elements:

- a set of obligations adopted by the participant countries to institute or intensify practices and operations of political reform.
- The participant countries commit themselves to playing pioneering role in reinforcing initiatives that encourage establishment of the orthodox governance.
- Bestowing the institutional character upon the commitments via leading the new partnership for the development of Africa and the Arab homeland. This is intended for securing commitment to essential values of the initiative. The new partnership countries for the development of Africa and the Arab homeland shall promise solemnly to a group of obligations for meeting the basic criteria of wise rule and democratic conduct and for the purpose of consolidation of the political administration and building of capacities to meet these pledges as well as focusing on:


- Administrative and civil services.
- Strengthening the parliamentary supervision.
- Enhancement of the process of decision-making based on partnership.
- Approval of effective arrangements for fighting phenomena violating the general performance.
- Introduction of judicial reforms.

In this regard it is useful to present an overall view of the Republic of Yemen\'s experiment in Democracy and Civil Society Organizations. The growth and development of the Civil Society Organizations in Yemen have been connected to economic, political and social developments witnessed in Yemen, particularly following the realization of unity in 1990 which came as a reflection of the changes that the entire world had seen in all political, economic, social and cultural aspects.

That had left a great impact on the growth and development of Civil Society Organizations in Yemen. Pursuing Democracy and acknowledgement of political pluralism and Human Rights, provided space for the emergence of many Civil Society Organizations such as political parties and non-governmental associations and organizations working in the field of rendering care and services or in developmental areas as well as in professional and trade unionist societies or the organizations meant for public utility. That has also helped the emergence of organizations working in areas of freedom, Human rights and Democracy. As a reflection of various circumstances and situations we may notice that the majority of the Civil Organizations Yemen are active in the fields of rendering care and services or in the field of local development.

According to statistics of the year 2003 the total number of registered non-governmental organizations is 4306, of which 1890 are civil societies and organizations working in the field of local development and 661 cooperative societies. These organizations are either general, whose activity covers the entire areas of the republic – rather little in number-or of geographically-limited activity not extending beyond governorates, districts of centers. In reality, the social, economic and political value of Civil Organizations is governed by the degree of their capability of adopting and fulfillment of certain goals and carrying out activities contributing to meeting material and non-material needs of various groups of the society, needs such as those the state\'s potentials are not able to offer or those which the private sector offers but for a high cost exceeding the financial power of those social groups. The importance and value of those organizations are also measured by their capability to encourage the citizens to democratic participation in making public policies and implementing them.

The State\'s adoption of Democracy and political pluralism, as mechanism of governance, since 1990 after the achievement of unity, was accompanied by growth and increase in volume and effectiveness of Civil Society Organizations working in the field of Human Rights. By the end of 2003 the number of such organizations reached 129. Since the beginning of their foundation, those organizations embarked on practicing a number of activities related to Human Rights, including monitoring the performance of government bodies and the extent of their adherence to the essential principles of Human Rights.

Activities of these Civil Society Organizations have expanded in this field from dissemination of Human Rights to the defense of those rights, and observing some violations whether by government institutions or semi-governmental organizations or even individuals. Political parties are considered part of Civil Society Organizations. The spread of Democratic concept and approval of political pluralism has resulted in declaration of the establishment of political parties that were previously working underground, in addition to establishment of new political parties benefiting from this climate. The Number of permitted political parties in 2003 went up to 22. In addition, there are numbers of civil Society Organizations that can be categorized as organizations acting in the field of rights, including organizations working in the area of women rights and 11 working in the field of child rights, as well as other organizations working in this field.

As a result of the activities of these organizations and under the democratic climate Yemen is living, a host of benefits have been achieved, of which to mention:

1. Enhancement of individuals capacity in mobilization of their resources and activities according to collective participation.
2. Raising awareness of individuals regarding the significance of developing and improving their life through their own efforts according to institutional frames supporting and organizing collective integration and cooperation.
3. Playing a complementary role to the state development policy because of the shortage in its resources. Private organizations do not only offer caring services but are rather popular institutional mechanisms able to exert pressure on the government for urging it to offer services to individuals or to change its policy and decisions in their favour.
4. Represented a conscious social response as a positive reaction to negative economic variables, meaning it is a popular reaction to challenges facing both state and the society and a compensation for the shortage of weakness or absence of government services.
5. Motivated development, as their being \" saving boxes\" mustering and collecting financing for the implementation of income-producing small or medium enterprises and satisfying the people needs of services. They are also institutional frames receiving external financing and grants and direct them to individuals\' interest.
6. The degree of success of the civil Society Organizations in their development and change activities in favour of individuals in particular and the society in general, is related to a great extent to the nature of the government, the existing policies and degree of public freedoms expansion and also when the two parties ( the state and Civil Society) perceive and be together or share a common perspective concerning the comprehensive development and its goals, according to certain measures.
7. These organizations have also worked for bridging large gaps concerning social services, especially to the poor segments and they have great importance in the success of development in the rural area in the fields of human development as a counteraction to development bias to urban areas. In other words they worked to narrow the development gap between the countryside and urban areas.

This democratic space in Yemen has provided opportunity for openness and interaction with the external world. This resulted in expanding fields of cooperation with the international community at all levels, including Democracy and Human Rights. Yemen has consequently contributed positively to intellectual and cultural interaction in the area and the world aimed at consolidating the values of freedom and Human rights through a series of efforts and activities. The most outstanding of those activities are the hosting of emerging democracies Conference in 1999 and the Regional Conference for Democracy and Human Rights and Role of the International Criminal Court held in Sana\'a at the beginning of January 2004.

The latter conference has issued the Sana\'a Declaration on Democracy adopted by government delegations and representatives from 52 countries, both Arab and African. The declaration emphasized a number of principles, among them that Democracy and Human Rights are of firm source and deep-rooted in ideologies and cultures and that the values of Democracy and Human Rights are considered in indivisible entirely.