European partnership for democracy, EPD

New incentive for multiparty democracy in Kenya

Last Friday, on a cold and cloudy morning, an estimated half million Kenyans witnessed and celebrated the promulgation of a brand new Constitution in an impressive show of unity at Uhuru (freedom) park in central Nairobi. A procession of political leaders, judges, military leaders and civil servants all took new oaths and pledged their allegiance - no longer to the President, but to the new constitution. Under this new constitution, all sovereign power belongs to the people of Kenya and shall be exercised only in accordance with this constitution. As Prime Minister Raila Odinga at the ceremony stated: "government shall be accountable to the people of Kenya". Read the article

International Day of Democracy 2010

The International Day of Democracy is being celebrated for the 3rd time this year in The Hague. The event will involve Dutch and international students hiking on a Democracy Trail through The Hague,   discussions and debates led by professors, Dutch politicians, EPD partners from Zimbabwe and experts in the field of democracy and democratization. The event will end with a reception for the opportunity to confer on the days’ topics.

Find here your invitation.

Press Freedom 2.0: pluralism and participation

The Press Freedom Consortium, a new collaboration of five Dutch development organisations (including the European Partnership for Democarcy) that support press freedom worldwide, has finalised and submitted its final programme application this Thursday to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in The Hague, in the context of the 'Co-Financing System II' (MFSII). Read more.

EPD at European Foundation Week

The European Partnership for Democracy (EPD) participated on the 1st of June in the panel discussion "Providing Experience on Democracy and Good Governance" during last week's (31 May-4 June) European Foundation Week. Although foundations are key players in supporting economic, cultural and social projects, their public profile is rather limited. For this reason, the European Foundation Centre (EFC) offered with the first-ever Foundation Week a platform where EU policymakers, NGOs, multilateral organizations, foundations and the general public could discuss the work of foundations in a series of seminars and debates, covering topics such as arts and culture, environment, health, international relations and development, philanthropic capacity building, research and education as well as socio-economic development. Read more.

EPD civic education activities for participation in Zimbabwean constitutional reform

Zimbabwe celebrated its 30th anniversary of independence on April 18th, EPD congratulates all Zimbabweans with this milestone celebration of freedom from white-minority domination and apartheid. Only 30 years ago the current Zimbabwean constitution was written, in the UK, currently Zimbabweans are preparing a revision of this document, to come up with a Constitution which is driven by the Zimbabwean people. EPD has supported a number of Zimbabwean-driven civic education and information activities, providing neutral information from Zimbabweans to Zimbabweans in order for them to participate meaningfully in the constitutional reform process. Read more.

Burma: the preparations of the election 2010

EPD has been supporting a project of Foreign Affairs Training done by organization Education Initiative on Thai-Burma border. During a nine months course the Burmese students learn about human rights and democracy but also they are taught presentation skills in these fields including writing articles on certain issues. One of the students has prepared an article about the upcoming elections in Burma which we would like to share with you. Read the article.