Kick Off: New Arab-European Civil Society Dialogue

Arab Civil Society leaders visit the German Parliament The European participants, among them several NGO leaders from Eastern Europe, acknowledged that these favourable conditions for civil society exist in their part of the world. However, the situation was very different in the Arab world, the Arab delegates stated. There, the liberally minded civil society finds itself sandwiched in between authoritarian governments on the one side and radical Islamist groups on the other side, whose democratic credentials are far from established: “The Islamists need to clarify their positions regarding human rights, democracy and pluralism, before we would recognize them as joint civil society partners”, said Dr. Azmi Shuaibi, a former minister from Palestine and now a senior member of a non governmental organization.

Joint Experiences - and Differences

Markus Löning “There exist a number of joint experiences between Eastern Europe and the Arab world”, said Dr. Igor Ostrowski from Poland. As one important example, the Polish activist mentioned the dominant role of religion comparing the influence of the Catholic church in his country with that of Islam in the Arab world.

The relationship between politics and religion and the role of the church (or the mosque) in politics was just one of the many topics the delegates discussed in the plenary and in working groups during the conference.

The Arab-European sessions wrapped up with a public event on the relationship between civil society and the state in downtown Berlin attended by well over one hundred participants. Well known experts joined the panel which – once more – highlighted the big differences existing between Europe and the Arab world today. Markus Löning, the recently appointed Commissioner for Human Rights of the German Government stressed that the state has an obligation to support civil society for the sake of democracy. He also said that cooperating with civil society actors should be an important component of the external relations of a democratic government. Well known Egyptian human rights activist Hafez Abou Seada painted a very different picture of the situation back home: “In our countries, governments don’t see us as partners, they consider as a danger.”

Fondation at Middle East and Northern Africa

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