Towards a Better Life: Improving the Judiciary, Media and Civil Society in the Middle East and North Africa

The Global Political Trends Center, Arab Democracy Foundation, and Ibn Khaldun Center for Development Studies have organized the second workshop of their joint project titled Towards a Better Life: How to Improve the State of Democracy in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA). The workshop took place in Istanbul on 14 July 2009.

This workshop was the second activity of a multi-tiered project designed to critically evaluate the state of democracy in the Middle East and North Africa, and to come up with policy proposals on how to improve it. It addressed three subfields of democratic development, namely the judiciary, media and civil society.

The participants from the region commented on the three conference papers which address the three subfields of democratic development chosen for this workshop. They also elaborated on their own professional and personal experiences in regards to media, judiciary and civil society in MENA. The workshop addressed the main areas in which the Turkish model could contribute in experience sharing.