The US Capitol building hosted several high ranking US Congressmen (including Senator John McCain and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi), EU Parliament officials (via a video link from Brussels), current and former Central and Eastern European Parliamentarians as well as leading human rights leaders, academics and activists.
According to several speakers, democracy is being challenged like never before. Negative effects of the global recession, growing social inequality and legitimization of several semi authoritarian regimes have all put serious strains on democracy’s development and progress.
What is worse, international bodies like the UN Human Rights Council prefer non-confrontation and simply refuse to engage with some of its nastiest offenders. Among the many issues discussed was the need to fight democratic regression in countries like Belarus, Ukraine, Georgia, Moldova and Russia.
At the very heart of strengthening democracy, civil society and human rights, the missing link seems to be a strong US-EU response and alliance. Although individual EU members like Poland and Sweden have made important contributions, critical partners like Germany and Italy choose to look the other way, preferring national energy security and economic interests over European authority and leadership.
One Polish official mentioned that the most effective way to strengthen democracy is to build and develop knowledge and awareness among local populations. As such, the media should be used as a critical tool, partner and proliferate voice.
The cornerstone of any successful democracy is an open and free press. But with growing harassment of Ukrainian journalists as well as an upcoming presidential election in Belarus to cover, the concluding chapter of Eastern Europe’s democratic Odyssey may be far from written.
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