The latest Amnesty International report on Syria cites a surge in deaths of Syrians held in detention camps since the start of the Syrian revolution five months ago. According to the report, Syria has averaged five detention deaths per year, but has seen the deaths of at least 88 people over the past five months.  Of the 88 who died, ten were children, some as young as 13. There is ...

On Wednesday, Robin Wright, Distinguished Scholar for the United States Institute of Peace and the Wilson Center, discussed her new book Rock the Casbah, which focuses on a new phase of Islamic activism termed “counter-jihad” by Wright. The discussion was moderated by Hala Esfandiari, Director of the Middle East Program at the Wilson Center. Video footage of the event can be found online. For full notes, continue reading. Or click here ...

Twenty-seven Egyptian human rights organizations proposed the establishment of a Constitutional Council on Saturday, in an effort to protect Egypt's transition to a democratic country.  The NGOs organized a six-article document entitled the "Basic Constitutional Provisions" that said, "a Constitutional Council shall be established to oversee the protection of the constitution and the democratic system.” In addition, the council would include chairs of the high courts led by the president of ...

Secretary of State Hillary Clinton is planning to travel to Budapest, Hungary on June 29th to discuss democracy promotion in the region.  She will be supporting the Lantos Institute and it's dedication to democratic principles and the protection of individual and human rights.  In addition, she will travel to Vilnius, Lithuania on June 30th to participate in the Community of Democracies Sixth Ministerial, and will be joined by senior government ...

Ambassador-at-Large for Global Women's Issues Melanie Verveer will travel to Egypt, Israel and the West Bank from April 15th through April 22nd.  During her visit,  the ambassador will meet with government officials, political party representatives, civil society leaders and the media to discuss the need for inclusion of women in the political process and their role as peace builders.  She will also meet with business leaders, youth organizations and women's ...

The 2012 budget proposal presented by Rep. Paul Ryan (R-WI) will cut the budget for diplomacy and foreign assistance by 29 percent in 2012 and 44 percent by 2016, while increasing the defense budget by 14 percent in the same period. House Appropriations State and Foreign Ops Chairwoman Kay Granger (R-TX) supports cutting the international affairs budget, as does House Foreign Affairs Committee, chairwoman Ileana Ros-Lehtinen (R-FL). Sen. Patrick Leahy ...

On Wednesday, the House Appropriations Subcommittee on State and Foreign Operations held a budget hearing for the US Agency for International Development (USAID). Administrator of USAID, Dr. Rajiv Shah, testified before the subcommittee. The Congressional panel was moderated by subcommittee Chairwoman Rep. Kay Granger (R-TX). Ranking Member Congresswoman Nita Lowey (D-NY) and House Appropriations Chairman Rep. Jerry Lewis (R-CA) were also in attendance along with Reps. Jesse ...

On Monday, the Brookings Institution hosted a discussion on the democratic uprisings taking place across the Middle East and the broader implications for the U.S. and the wider region.  Kenneth Pollack, Senior Fellow and Director of the Saban Center made opening remarks and moderated the event which included insights from the following speakers: Salman Shaikh, Fellow and Director of the Brookings Doha Center; Shadi Hamid, Fellow and Director of Research ...

The Washington Post's Bureau Chief, Leila Fadel, and a photographer, Linda Davidson, have been arrested, as was Sonja Verma and Patick Martin of the Globe, and Bert Sunstrom of Swedish TV. Others are missing, including 3 from Al-Jazeera.Among those arrested at the Human Rights Center was the legendary human rights leader Ahmed Saif al Islam, a Human Rights Watch researcher, in addition to Mohsen Geshir and Mona Elmasri.Update: Nicholas Kristoff is tweeting from Egypt ...

At 7:15 am EST (2:15 pm in Cairo) the Hisham Mubarak Law Center had its offices entered by military police; it is believed that the human rights lawyers and activists inside were arrested and taken away, but POMED does not know exactly where to.  The military police, in uniform, were accompanied by a large group of thugs in plainclothes who did not enter the building, but remained in the street outside.Exactly the ...

POMED is regularly continuing to speak with activists on the ground at Tahrir Square in Cairo. Two of our contacts today gave us permission to share audio of their comments, which are available here: Soha Abdelaty - Egyptian Initiative for Personal Rights (EIPR) "Everyone is making fun of him , mocking him, and saying this is nowhere close to satisfying our demands." "They are completely disconnected from the people here. No one ...

After decades of oppression, Tunisia was ripe for revolution and the notion of “Arab exceptionalism” has been discredited, writes Nabila Hamza, a Tunisian gender-equality activist who is currently the President of the Amman-based Foundation for the Future.  Although Arab public perception of the possibility for change has shifted dramatically, Arab regimes will likely placate the frustrations of the masses through controlled political openings and reinstating or raising economic subsidies.  The U.S. and Arab ...

We should not let the dramatic and exhilarating events in Tunisia cloud a realistic analysis of the prospects for democratization, writes Kamran Bokhari, Middle East and South Asia director at STRATFOR. While experts conflate what is happening with what they want to happen, western NGOs are focusing on making it happen – translating an anti-autocratic insurgency into a democratic transition.See also the previous contributions to the Democracy Digest-POMED Tunisia symposium from Amr Hamzawy, Steven Heydemann, Larry Diamond, Arun Kapil and Shadi Hamid.The fall of the Ben Ali regime in Tunisia has ...

Michele Dunne, writing in the Arab Reform Bulletin, outlines how the Tunisian uprising has confirmed yet also debunked some conventional wisdom about the region.  She argues that the notion of the "youth bulge" as a ticking time bomb has been proven true.  However, the idea that there must be a cohesive political opposition in order to overthrow an authoritarian regime has been proven false.  Although other Arab countries are experiencing a similar ...

Sarah Trister writes at The Christian Science Monitor that U.S. support for undemocratic regimes sends the message that "repressing civil society won’t interfere with a strategic relationship." Trister cites Egypt as a prime example of a country which receives significant amounts of aid from the U.S. while effectively stifling the work of independent NGOs: "The Egyptian government has arbitrarily canceled NGO events and conferences, detained and deported NGO workers, and frozen ...

The National Democratic Institute (NDI) has released a new article titled "Party Building in the Middle East." Written by Les Campbell, NDI's senior associate and regional director for the Middle East and North Africa, the article seeks to "enumerate some of the key achievements of democracy assistance in the Arab world over the past decade; describe the strategies democracy assistance practitioners employ in their work; and explain, through four case ...

The release of the Quadrennial Diplomacy and Development Review (QDDR) has so far been received with cautious optimism. Josh Rogin writes that several development NGOs have "praised" the QDDR, while also expressing skepticism: "Paul O'Brien, vice president of policy and advocacy campaigns for Oxfam America, noted that while the QDDR clearly puts ambassadors and chiefs of missions at the head of country teams as the so-call 'CEOs' of American diplomacy, ...

On Friday the Center for International Private Enterprise (CIPE) and the National Democratic Institute (NDI) joined with the Embassy of Yemen to present “Corruption Challenges in Yemen,” a presentation by Dr. Bilkis Abouosbaa, Vice-Chairperson of the Supreme National Authority for Combating Corruption (SNACC). A portion of the documentary film “Destructive Beast: Corruption in Yemen” was also shown. (To read full notes, continue below the fold or click here for pdf.)   Les Campbell, ...