Freedom of association in the Middle East and North Africa
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Recognising the fundamental significance of the civil society for the dynamics of democratisation, the Club de Madrid, an independent non-governmental organisation of 70 former heads of state and government dedicated to democratic practice, embarked in February 2007 on a project aimed at strengthening dialogue on freedom of association across the Middle East and North Africa region.
In cooperation with FRIDE and local partners, and with the support of the European Commission’s European Initiative for Democracy and Human Rights (EIDHR) and the United Nations Democracy Fund (UNDEF), the objective of the project has been to improve the capacity of both civil society and the authorities to construct a shared vision on the promotion of freedom of association.
FRIDE contributes to this project with a series of six country reports that provide independent analysis of the state of freedom of association and civil society in Morocco, Jordan, Bahrain, Egypt, Tunisia and Saudi Arabia, respectively. These reports identify outstanding challenges and civil society’s ideas on how to resolve them.
Each report, its findings and recommendations are based on a substantial number of consultations and interviews among local civil society stakeholders, government representatives across all levels, parliamentarians, political party representatives, journalists, union activists, women’s and human rights activists, and lawyers and political analysts, conducted throughout 2007 and 2008.
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