Dr Chee Soon Juan has been invited to attend the World Movement for Democracy’s third General Assembly in Durban. Hundreds of democracy activists will convene in the South African city from February 1-4, 2004.
Building Democracy for Peace, Development and Human Rights, is the theme of the Assembly, which will take place at the International Convention Centre in Durban. More than 600 democracy activists, practitioners, and scholars from more than 100 countries in every region of the world will discuss practical solutions to a wide range of challenges.
In more than 40 workshops, participants will explore how to expand and strengthen democracy in their countries and in their regions of the world; how to strengthen civic groups, political parties and the media; how to increase accountability of political institutions; and how to use civic education and culture as a means of promoting democratic values.
Dr Chee has been invited to speak at one of the workshops on access to information. He will relate the present situation in Singapore where the PAP operates one of the most non-transparent and non-accountability systems in the world.
Initiated in 1999 to strengthen democracy where it is weak, to reform and invigorate democracy even where it is longstanding, and to bolster pro-democracy groups in countries that have not yet entered into a process of democratic transition,” the World Movement is a global network that meets periodically to exchange ideas and experiences and uses new information and communication technologies to foster collaboration among democratic forces around the world.
The World Movement is governed by an international Steering Committee, and the Washington, DC-based National Endowment for Democracy (NED) currently serves as its Secretariat.