 Thank you All right, so I don't know if my microphone is on can I please ask everyone in the room to have a seat, right? so good afternoon and Welcome to the global launch of international ideas flagship publication the global state of democracy 2023 My name is Nadina trunk I am the chief of staff to the secretary general and I have the distinct pleasure of being the master of ceremony for today's event and This is indeed a ceremony and a very special occasion for our institute our global state of democracy Has since its first edition in 2017 Become one of the most well one of the most preeminent reports on the state of democracy around the world What we offer is an annual health check on democracy Taking the pulse and checking the vitals For us, it's a source of pride, but as with every check Every health check the diagnosis is not always pleasant to hear No one wants to know that they have high blood pressure or high cholesterol for that matter But it is important to have that information So that we can take measures to improve our health And it isn't that spirit that the report is written as a helpful guide For those of us interested in improving democracy at home and abroad and With these introductory words. I now have the distinct pleasure of Welcoming the secretary general of international idea dr. Kevin Casa Samora to introduce the report and Give you a few highlights of its main findings secretary general you have the floor and welcome good afternoon and and welcome Ambassadors representatives of our council of member states and board of advisors distinguished guests colleagues and friends and pleased to see That you've made it here to a headquarters in Stockholm Despite the Stockholm like weather I have to say But we're equally glad that so many of you are joining this event online I also wish to extend my sincere Thanks and respect to his excellency doctor Mogwitzi Massisi president of Botswana and his excellency dr. Jose Ramos Orta president of Timor Leste Who will be greeting us today? Via video messages as well as the prominent speakers on our discussion panel Who you'll be hearing from later this evening? I'm Kevin Casa Samora the secretary general of international idea which as most of you probably know It's an intergovernmental organization with 34 member states dedicated to advancing Promoting and protecting sustainable democracy worldwide our membership is truly global Representing democracies from all regions of the world. We combine policy relevant knowledge production with capacity Development projects and convening of dialogues on issues related to democracy one of the ways in Which we support this mandate is through our work to assess the quality and performance of democracies around the world Every year this efforts culminate in the publication of What has become our flagship report the global state of democracy? Which is the reason that brings us here today in the next few minutes? I would like to do three things first I would like to give you a sense of why and how we assess Democratic performance second. I would like to tell you what we're doing differently this time around What makes this year's report so special and finally I would like to give you a glimpse of This year's main findings as a preview to the presentation that will follow International ideas global state of democracy Initiative is a unique combination of comparative data timely analysis and policy relevant publications we aim to reflect global regional and country-level trends While also capturing emerging phenomena with the potential to impact the state of democracy We do this work because we believe that evaluating the state of democracy is necessary to protect and improve it in this way our democracy assessment efforts Which by the way always include concrete policy recommendations also? inform and reinforce our capacity developing development programming as With much of our research work this analysis would not be possible without the generous support of our core donors Their support allows us to continue and to continuously improve and Indeed in line with our commitment to being a learning organization this year's report introduces some important changes to our methodology Most importantly we now look at country's democratic performance according to four restructured categories of attributes representation rights rule of law and participation rather than classifying regimes on an overall average basis This change prioritizes New ones by acknowledging that countries perform at different levels in different categories And they are not well served by overarching regime classification as a diagnostic of their democratic performance Moreover the assessment of democracy in this for standalone categories improves our ability to make our findings more policy relevant More precise and our policy recommendations more accurate Against this background. Let me now share with you a few highlights from this year report Worryingly our findings tell us that 2022 was the sixth consecutive year in which more countries got worse Than better in terms of their democratic performance This is their long the longest democratic downturn. We have ever recorded half of the 173 countries assessed in our report suffered democratic declines during the past five years Ranging from flawed elections to curtail rights Most disturbingly our report shows The systemic global erosions of the checks and balances that are formally tasked With upholding the law and holding politicians to account Such as elections Parliaments and courts as a result political representation rule of law and rights are all threatened It is essential to note that no region of the world is immune from this trend Even established democracies are falling back Yet amidst this forbidding landscape. There are green shoots Sometimes in the most unexpected places our report shows persistently high rates of political participation Even in countries where other indicators cause concern in fact Democracies most vibrant supporters are to be found far from the consolidated democracies of the Western world particularly in Africa Well at the same time Consolidated democracies are showing cases of fatigue and decline in other words challenges and opportunities exist in all countries on Different issues and to different extents but amidst the darkness there is also progress if you look into specific attributes of democracy and perhaps most remarkably Organizations and movements such as election management bodies Anti-corruption agencies and civil society groups are acting as the new checks and balances against abuses of power We see this in places as diverse as Kenya where the Supreme Court acted to protect the rights of the LGBTQ plus community and it's Lovina where referendum voters defended the independence of the country's public broadcast This phenomenon of countervailing institutions is one of the central messages from our report this year on the one hand It underscores just how serious the risk to democracy is and how urgent the need for collective action is On the other hand it proves The resilience of democracy in the face of adversity and how people around the world continue to believe in democracy as a fundamental value You see in my travels this year to Africa Asia Latin America North America and around Europe. I have seen democracy being embraced Advocated and implemented in different ways yet Across all this diversity. There is a common foundation This foundation is the belief that we are members of a democratic community Not because we gang together with those that look exactly like us or pray to the same God as we do But because we share certain fundamental rights that protect and advance the human dignity that we all share They include the right to elect who governs our society in free and fair elections The right to associate with others and seek to shape collective decisions The right to criticize our government authorities and then go home in one piece The right to pray to God as we see fit or pray to know God at all Among many other civil and political rights But they also include and it is crucial not to forget this the right to the material conditions and personal safety without which exercising civil and political rights becomes all but impossible I Come from a developing country that is part of the so-called global South. I Guess I can thus say with some knowledge That this set of beliefs is not a Western construct that has been foisted upon the rest of the world By rapacious neo-colonial Western powers. I don't believe that Democracy and the values it embodies are global aspirations shared across borders cultures and backgrounds and It's really important that we say this precisely now At a time when the gap between Western powers and the rest of the world appears to be growing by the minute on Account of many things including conflicting perceptions about the terrible wars in Ukraine and the Middle East It is vital that we protect the values that still bind us all in this common quest for human dignity It is urgent that we protect this common aspirations Lest they are swept away by the gale force winds of geopolitical conflict The democratic creed is an achievement of humankind It belongs to all of us and we are entitled to it as laid out by the Universal Declaration of Human Rights It is one of the pinnacles of our species journey through the ages It is the product of the enlightenment that only comes after much pain and suffering at the hands of oppressive rulers throughout history The power of this collective achievement is manifested Whenever someone casts a ballot in India sews for justice in the United States Fights in the trenches of Ukraine or marches in the streets of Iran Each one an act of bravery of duty of determination and of faith Ultimately, it is this faith and the civic engagement it inspires That keeps the heart of democracy beating It is this what ensures as this year's Nobel Peace Prize Laureate Nargis Mohammedi has said that thoughts and dreams don't die The reducible core of democracy is embodied by people around the world who continue to demand their rights Using all peaceful means and institutions at their disposal This year's global state of democracy report is our small tribute to them Thank you again for being here. Thank you so much secretary general for these very insightful and inspiring remarks And I think that everyone is eager to hear more about the findings of the report which the secretary general alluded to But before we go into the presentation We are very honored as the secretary general mentioned that we have two sitting presidents that have agreed to provide remarks via video First we're gonna hear from the president of Botswana his Excellency dr. Mokvetsi Masisi who we had the pleasure of meeting a few months ago in beautiful Botswana Which as you all know is a member state and then we're also gonna have Recorded remarks from his Excellency dr. Jose Ramos Horta the president of Timoleste Which is not yet a member state, but hopefully can consider to be one in the future So we will let the technical experts Roll the videos. Thank you Dr. Kevin Casa Zamora secretary general of the International Institute of democracy and electoral assistance Distinguished representatives of the Council of member states of international idea Distinguished ladies and gentlemen. Good morning Allow me to preface my address by thanking the secretary general of the International Institute for democracy and electoral assistance International idea for inviting me to give the keynote address at this event to launch the International ideas global state of democracy report for the year 2023 I Am particularly delighted and greatly honored to be part of this launch given that Botswana has been a champion and a reliable supporter of democracy Distinguished ladies and gentlemen the international idea annual report presents a unique opportunity for us to analyze the health of Democracy and suggest options to ensure its adaptation flexibility and innovation While acknowledging that there is no single and universally accepted model of democracy The existence of democracy is the bond that makes the world safe a safe domain for us our children and future generations Irrespective of our cultural political social and economic differences This we have experienced in Botswana over many decades the period of our coexistence to democratic governance in Botswana has assured political stability and economic development We hold the strong conviction that we are better served by strong institutions rather than strong men or strong women Through institutions like international idea We ought to ensure that democracy is preserved and where we fall short as nations and Experience a decline in our ratings. We should map away to work back towards the right trajectory Ladies and gentlemen Botswana is proud to have been one of the founding members of the international idea We follow its work with a keen interest Because we are both proud of the astute work that the organization does as well as believing wholeheartedly in its vision and mandate It is therefore saddening that According to the international idea reports spanning over the last six years The state of global democracy has generally been on the decline across International ideas for main measured categories of performance being rule of law rights representation and participation The findings of this report are at first glance Alarming and a genuine cause for concern This scenario depicts that there is generally an erosion of democracy and good-gum-ness ideals in as many as half of the world's democracies The receding tide of legitimate governments in the face of coups around the world Particularly on the African continent illustrates the onslaught on democracy Distinguished ladies and gentlemen However, it is important that we commend and support countries that are moving towards Democratic ideals and encourage those that are relatively new democracies to prevent backsliding The work of international idea over the years continues as a guiding light of supporting sustainable democracy Worldwide it is therefore imperative that we strengthen partnerships with democracy organizations such as International idea United Nations bodies other independent organs and institutions to continue to monitor and enhance democracy To this end Governments should embrace key democracy institutions that strengthen capacity building public institutions public participation public education and other pertinent national economic development initiatives that renew social contracts Ladies and gentlemen as I conclude I wish to reaffirm my government's commitment to continue working with international idea and member states to support and enhance the state of Democracy not only in my own country, but also around the globe. I wish you all fruitful discussions from the international ideas global state of democracy 2023 report and thank you for your kind attention. I would have liked to be present joining all of you in Stockholm in Sweden To converse with you in regards to the state of democracy in our region in the world a very fascinating challenging topic in the sense that It is never easy there are no simple answers about to success of democracy or Setbacks in democracy one would require Considerable amount of time and many many pages to analyze every aspect of this button. Let me start by saying Timor Lester we are fortunate in that we have eight people that because of our history and because of leadership we are fully fully committed to Multiparty democracy, but a democracy that delivers Democracy fails there are setbacks when Democracy becomes only a tool for achieving power and Upon achieving power only to generate personal privileges and wealth This has been in the case of democracies across the world and of course people get tired of it to get disillusioned and First they begin not to take elections seriously Because they know it is only an alternance of privileges of Elites that are represented in different political parties that compete To have their chance to gain privileges and yet the Living conditions of the vast majority of the people who put their trust in democracy they Do not see the benefits of the elections They do not see the benefits of democracy. Well, democracy is every day day to day So if we want to consolidate democracy, we have to have our people Engage they do understand democracy. They don't need lessons in democracy. They don't need lessons in multi-party Political system in my country know all about our people are very well informed However, having said all of that I would say I'm not too Alarm at the retrogression rate setbacks of democracy. This is normal as dictatorships also are overthrown Conservative Neo-fascist regimes may prevail at some point, but also if they don't deliver on their promises They also make easy promises the demagogues They also will be brought back brought down by the electorate We have seen Setbacks in our region in Southeast Asia like in the Philippines in the past Now there are new promises and better better conditions in the Philippines and newly elected president That happened to be elected almost same time as I did in 2022 and with The hopes that the Philippines will recover from the setbacks of recent past Indonesia in spite of criticism and negatives. I hear from some quarters I believe it is democracy is almost consolidated in Indonesia. No chance for any military to Get back to power the Indonesian military. I think they have a Pretty well adjusted to democracy and democracy in Indonesia. We can say it's consolidated Nothing is perfect. No path of democracy in Indonesia like no path democracy in Timorless or no path of democracy in the United States Donald Trump for four years. He told us very well about how no Perfections anywhere when we deal with the dynamics of politics So have you said it? I can only add to tell me to end my remarks to think idea for the years of you your commitment to support electoral process support Information and education on democracy and continue this battle and I thank you all and wish to Congratulate each and every one of you for the work you have been doing in Timorless. We are doing very well full-fledged democracy Zero we have a zero political violence. We have a tremendous Fraternity harmony between the majority Catholic with a minority Muslims and Protestants and We believe I believe we have These the ideals of democracy pretty much consolidated However, there has been greater effort on the part of the government of those in power to deliver to the poor To deliver to the youth to the women in this country. I thank you and God bless you Very strong messages resonating from those two speeches We've heard the need for strong institutions rather than strong men or strong women in power we've heard about the need for Cross-country and cross-regional collaboration we've heard about the need for democracy to deliver and Ultimately, we heard that no democracy is perfect and that we all need to do our part to to keep consolidating and improving it With this we want to thanks once again to the president of Botswana and of Timor Lester for taking the time to providing those wonderful video remarks and now it is high time to Allow the floor to the main speaker for today's event Dr. Seema Shah who leads the team who has developed The global state of democracy and also heads the global state of democracy initiative Who will present the key findings of the report? Seema, please you have the floor Good evening everyone. Thank you so much for taking the time to come here today and to those of you online for taking the time to Allow us the chance to present our latest findings This year's report entitled the new checks and balances provides an overview of global and regional trends and Dives deep into the role of countervailing institutions in protecting and strengthening democracy even in the most challenging contexts Before we begin it's useful to understand our conceptual framework upon which all of our analysis is based This is our definition of democracy on the screen. We divide the concept into four main categories representation rights Rule of law and participation as you can see there on the screen each of these categories has a number of Associated factors and under those factors are several source indicators Altogether we measure 157 individual indicators of democratic performance across 173 countries starting from 1975 through the end of 2022 This is a quantitative data set updated once a year This year We are proud to tell you that our analysis is also based on our brand new one-year-old tool called the democracy tracker The tracker is a qualitative data set that provides monthly assessments of events that impact democratic performance Also in those 173 countries The rest of the presentation will proceed as follows I will begin with a broad overview of what our data reveal about trends at the global level This will be followed by a brief explanation of what countervailing institutions are and why we think they're important I will then move into an in-depth look at patterns within each main category of democratic performance And I will close with an overview of policy recommendations Our report comes out at a time of multiple crises in addition to the ongoing Russian war of aggression in Ukraine and renewed hostilities between Israel and Hamas We are in the midst of a cost of living crisis a climate disaster a wave of coups a continued surge in migration and The reversal of key democratic gains in countries that had only recently reopened But all is not lost and to illustrate why I will begin with a brief story Most of you in the room and online will be familiar or have heard of Wangari Mathai The Nobel Prize-winning environmental activist from Kenya The prize helped Mathai catapult international fame, but her legacy goes much deeper than that Early in her life Mathai made the connection between environmental degradation and poverty And she devoted her career to linking conservation to women's rights economic self-sufficiency human rights and democracy her long and esteemed career Included work in and collaboration with the key countervailing institutions that we focus on in our report These include civil society. She founded the Green Belt movement NGO Academia she was the first female professor in Kenya The legislature she was a member of parliament and the judiciary through her she used public interest litigation in strategic ways By the time she passed away her movement has had succeeded in the planting of over 30 million trees and Had empowered more than 900,000 Kenyan women Kenyan democracy is richer because of her efforts and the ways in which she called on the relative expertise of these Countervailing institutions is a testament to exactly how democratic change happens and now for the findings First in every region of the world democracy has contracted sorry With declines in at least one indicator in half of the countries in our data set Examples of these indicators include elected government in Mali Freedom of religion in Nicaragua freedom of association in Italy and civil society in Sri Lanka, but this is of course only a handful of examples Second net declines at the country level outnumber net advances for the sixth consecutive year as our secretary general already pointed out This is the longest period in which we have seen this kind of pattern since we began collecting our data in 1975 in Some extreme cases like Myanmar and Afghanistan the number of declines was as high as 11 out of 17 factors But other countries also declined in strikingly high ways including in Africa Asia and Europe Third three areas where we see some of the most widespread declines include the bedrock institutions of democracy credible elections Access to justice and effective parliament what you see here are boxes that represent some of the factors that we measure Each box represents all the countries in our data set with the gray Indicating the number of countries that have not experienced any significant changes in the last five years the red showing the number of countries that have declined and Blue showing the number of countries that have advanced as you can see of the countries that have experienced change Most of these were drops in addition to these concerns. You can see that states are struggling to respect civil liberties And to guarantee independent judges that can deliver objective verdicts This is a serious problem revealing that almost three decades after we ushered in the third wave of democracy We have yet to master the basics of democracy 101 One thing I would like to flag here is The absence of corruption where we have seen some limited advances especially in Africa Asia and Europe and In fact on the bright side. We have seen some limited advances in the fight against corruption We have also seen Dynamic movement with regard to participation even in challenging contexts Here you can see that there are several countries that score relatively well in Participation even though their performance with regard to rights is fairly middling If you look for example at Indonesia, which is the circle on the screen You can see that Indonesia performs what in what we would consider the high range for participation Even though it is on the lower end of what we consider to be mid-range in rights In order to understand what is happening in a more in-depth way We devoted this year's analysis to countervailing institutions the set of governmental and non-governmental bodies That balance the distribution of power between the branches of government and ensure that popular priorities are regularly featured in decision-making They encompass what we traditionally understand as checks and balances within the formal structures of government But they also include a number of bodies Popular movements and organizations that act to protect equal access to and public control of decision-making These include civil society organizations FX bodies ombuds offices electoral management bodies, etc The graphic here illustrates the roles and relative strengths of these institutions Emphasizing their independence and the importance of cross-institutional collaboration Now when we dig into the data we see that in the area of Representation credible elections and effective parliament were two of the most widely impacted areas of democratic performance Some of the declines are due to quite severe events like the wave of coups in West Africa But even in context that are not so serious We have seen drops because of things like unequal playing fields the exclusion of marginalized groups weakened electoral management bodies and voting and results counting irregularities These problems have been compounded by weak parliaments that struggle to effectively check executive overreach and are therefore Unable to effectively halt actions that dismantle democratic systems At the same time it is important to remember that there have been inspiring elections around the world in Malaysia the dominant party did poorly signaling the electorates frustration with years of corruption and Demonstrating the power of the polls in checking in unresponsive government in Latvia the 2022 parliamentary elections followed improvements to the electoral law including the introduction of online voter registration Public control over decision-making is meaningless unless you have equality in the exercise of that control as The world prepares to mark the 75th anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights next month The overall pattern of decline in our data Regarding respect for human rights is a stark reminder of how vulnerable democracies can be in 2022 no country experienced a significant improvement in the protection and exercise of rights Compared to that country's own performance five years prior You can see this here where we have only a red line signifying declines in 2022 Performance regarding respect for civil rights is particularly worrying with notable declines in core democratic liberties like freedom of expression freedom of association and freedom of the press which have impacted every region of the world Examples include media restrictions in varying countries like Bangladesh where authorities arrested relatives of expat journalists Who are critical of the government but also in South Korea, which is generally high performing But which has been criticized for inhibiting access to outlets seen to be critical of the president There have also been broader continuing problems with internet restrictions harassment of journalists and Surveillance scandals at the same time we have seen encouraging developments in Slovenia the public voted in reforms to strengthen the country's independent broadcaster and There were several instances in which rights related to gender and sexuality were expanded in countries as diverse as Mexico, India, Finland and Spain Countervailing institutions like parliaments and courts have played critical roles in these cases Passing and enforcing laws that expand rights for everyone and they are helped by the efforts of civil society Who have used public model? mobilization to drive support in 2022 the rule of law at the global level Remains in the mid-range, but all regions of the world have experienced five-year declines Our data show notable drops in the independence of judiciers in every region of the world People's experiences of democracy are also impacted by basic security and the ability to go about their daily lives in peace This is a concern everywhere with the most five-year declines observed in the Americas When you think about these declines and the deterioration of fundamental rights together, you get a worrying combination Which portends a bleak outlook of restrictive environments in which people do not have the freedom to gather Discuss and debate with each other Over time we worry that these circumstances could wear down the ties that bind us together Potentially impacting civic engagement in the future as people are less willing to risk their security to be active members of society Ultimately such an environment could harm the innovation that is born of deliberation exchange and diversity It is worth noting here that while there is no significant change in the aggregate scores for the absence of corruption There have been cases of limited improvement at the country level in all regions Most of the changes have been driven by improvements in assessment of executive bribery public sector theft and corrupt exchanges within the public sector Moldova stands out for a new court focused on corruption and Malaysia is notable for the work of its vigilant anti-corruption commission The hope for the future of democracy remains firmly in the realm of public participation Where we have seen striking dynamism and diversity While global trends again do not show large shifts some notable country-level developments could indicate upward movement in the future The data even show that it's not uncommon for participation to persist in settings that are challenged in serious ways This can be seen clearly on the map where lighter colors are higher performing countries with regard to participation in Zambia civil society helped establish a public register of mining interests Strengthening accountability by disclosing who stands to benefit from owning these assets Countries like the Dominican Republic Ethiopia the Maldives and Fiji have also shown improvements in measures of supportive environments for civil society Of course gains do not mean that all is well in Ethiopia for example the progress We saw took place in the midst of a violent conflict and there were impacts on civic space and In fact, it is useful to recall here that participation improves Even though we know that some of the key rights that are necessary to support participation are actually in decline and That is maybe one of the best testaments to people's enduring commitment to engagement So to recap democracy continues to be in decline These declines have been most broadly seen in representation and in rights though some initial Limited gains are apparent with regard to the fight against corruption deteriorating respect for people's civil liberties Unfortunately continues but countervailing institutions have been found to act as critical checks People's continued enthusiasm for participation continues to light the way ahead even in the most challenging context So what should we do? It is clear That we need to refocus on the basics of innovation around strong legitimate elections and effective Legislatures first to promote and protect credible elections Electoral management bodies must work with other countervailing institutions to facilitate easy public access to the entire electoral cycle not just election day Elections must be collaborative processes South Africa offers valuable lessons in this regard It's signed a formal framework of cooperation with Google Meta and Tiktok ahead of the 2024 elections there to protect electoral integrity Canada also provides a model its EMB has recently recommitted to partnerships with other EMBs around the world and Committed to leveraging subject matter experts to improve the credibility of its electoral process Second legislatures must improve transparency and include the public as well as recommit to partnerships that promote peer-to-peer learning Donors and democracy support organizations should prioritize support for these kinds of exchanges a Strong example can be found in Cote d'Ivoire where our own inter-paris team help the houses of parliament co-create a guide to conduct evaluations of public policy Including with the help of EU member state parliaments The most effective elections and legislature won't make a difference without robust and committed respect for civil civil liberties civil society organizations are critical and should continue to lead in conducting assessments of states protection of rights Their efforts should include rigorous data collection and the publication of disaggregated statistics that allow the world to clearly see progress and decline in Indonesia corruption watch, which is an NGO partnered with the state corruption eradication Commission to improve online access to information on public contracts as Well as to build the capacity of journalists other NGOs and researchers to identify irregularities and report them Governments must also ensure a strong independent and impartial mechanism that can receive and act on reports of violations of The rights of journalists and media These kinds of mechanisms must be part of a network of norms within government that integrate protection of civil society and the media into laws Governments must also reprioritize judicial independence They should consult with judiciaries and judicial service bodies to co-create mechanisms that allow for the reporting investigation and punishment of actions that harm judicial integrity with a special focus on cases that impact power groups Transparency internationals regular assessments of anti-corruption agencies and the Westminster Foundation for democracy's assessment framework for independent oversight institutions are strong examples Governments and legislatures also should prioritize strategies that address crime and citizen security through a democratic lens Including by privileging the professionalization of civilian security We need more collaboration with national human rights institutions and the ICRC's work with Brazilian police in human rights training is a good example The executive branch the legislature and the courts should maintain regular mechanisms for communication with the public and meaningfully integrate civil society Donors and assistance organizations should support in-country individuals and organizations Who possess the skill sets required by emergent civil society groups? Support should also go toward diaspora communities and regional networks who can mobilize international support and Finally cross institutional collaboration is critical Actors like the media the courts the legislature and independent agencies must make civil society partners Priority partners. It was the joint work of these groups for example that resulted in gender equality wins in places like India and in Spain There's one exemplary story to leave you with and that takes place in Ecuador in some ways Ecuador is in bad shape in recent months it is experienced severe instability high rates of violence Insecurity and increased militarization Yet almost 60% of voters recently opted to halt the development of all new oil wells in Yasuni National Park in the Amazon In a second referendum citizens in the capital voted to block gold mining in a sensitive Highland Biosphere These votes have been hailed as milestone victories for indigenous rights global climate action and rainforest protection Making Ecuador the first country in the world to determine the limits of resource extraction via referendum The victory was a shared one The results of cross institutional collaboration Civil society groups who gathered the hundreds of thousands of signatures required to petition the referendum To the experts who made the case for the protection of the land and the communities to the voters who Participated in the referendum to the judiciary who spent years debating these issues in court The story is a perfect illustration of how complicated democratic processes can be There can be bright spots of hope even as darkness falls and there can be worrying developments even as progress is apparent And this is precisely why it is so important for all of us who care about the future of democracy To pay attention to the nuance to the individual events that can signal important change It remains to be seen if and how the government of Ecuador acts on these results But it is a picture of the potential of countervailing institutions to triumph in the protection of the democratic will Thank you for your time. I hope you will read the report and engage with us into the future Thank you so much Seema this was most inspiring informative and and really gave us hope which I think that It's it's solely needed I think we all read very negative highlight highlights and headlines about the state of democracy around the world But hope is very much needed and thank you for for providing this hope tonight I'm sure that there are many questions in the audience But I would ask for you to hold off on those until after the panel debate, which we will move on to now And the panel will be moderated by our own Director for Global Program Dr. Massimo Tomasoli who will be joined by three Very eminent speakers. We have miss an Isobel Aninat Who is the dean of the law school at Chilis University at Adolfo Ibanez and She's also a stellar academic and political analyst. We're very grateful also that miss Aninat is part of a board of advisers We also have miss Kuntinda Rungrenkiat I'm sorry for the Probable mispronunciation of your name. I'm sorry about that But in any case you are an academic and a politician and currently the director of the progressive movement movement in Thailand and you have previously also been a member of the Thai parliament and served as a deputy leader for the future forward party and Last but definitely not least we have mr. Leopoldo Lopez who is a freedom activist from Venezuela and a co-founder of the world Liberty Congress an Organization that is dedicated to connecting pro-democracy activists from around the world for your work We also understand that you have received the 2017 Sahara of price for freedom of thought and the national endowment for democracy 2013 democracy award. You're all very welcome and we look forward to the discussion Thank you very much. Adina and Welcome to this panel. Thank you for having traveled a long way to be with us. That is particularly appreciated I will start from where Sima concluded She presented findings and some recommendations and they cover a number of Areas all related to these notion of countervailing institutions Some of these countervailing institutions are the traditional checks and balances that we used to know more innovative institutions are now complementing the role of these traditional checks and balances and Actually, you represent some of these institutions as well so I would like to start by focusing on first on the notion of credible elections and Effective legislatures This is one area where the world is struggling as Sima indicated from the report And they still are two of the most fundamental institutions of representative government So based on your experience and expertise, why do you think it is that even some of the oldest Democracies haven't mastered these building blocks of democracy Maybe we can start with the Kondita I Come from the democracy was not that advanced yet because we face 13 coup data All along our democratic journey but I think That there is one Key element where I have observed that in The elections and it relates to the parliamentary process as well when people start to have to lose their faith in the Electro process and the parliamentary process then You would see the decline and that is from a country like Thailand when you face the coup all over again and again and again and The 13 is the number that I only mentioned a successful ones. I did not include the unsuccessful ones So it When when you have that going on in the society then perhaps This faith of the public You know on the elections and as well as the parliamentary process the client That is one and when the decline happens. I think it is quite Convenient for the public to lean towards rather undemocratic process And that is because the disappointment and that is because the public have seen the you know declined in I'm not saying just the electoral process, but in my case it everything is interconnected the Judicial independence as well along with the the electoral process and in the past two elections have been quite clear that There is the interference there are irregularities in the in the process and people have seen that and people Actually realized that they have to be you know the one who tried to fight against those irregularities. I will share more details and concrete examples later on but to me The deteriorate deteriorating Of the electoral process as well as parliamentary process Kept people losing the faith on on the on the system. Thank you. Cuntida. So trust matters trust in this process In these institutions matters a lot. I would turn to Isabel Maybe to have your opinion on this first question and then Leopoldo. I was thinking about trust But taking it to establish democracies I come from Chile Chile ranks very high in many of of of if you read the report at the end There's a table. I'm promoting the report And Chile ranks very well, but we what we have seen over the past Acceleratedly over the past Few years is it's a lot of loss of trust in traditional institutions Not only in state institutions, but also on media The church Chile was a very Catholic country, etc. Etc. Etc. And What what are we seeing sort of first is a distance with I would say Traditional political parties which lack renovation process and I think that's that's a sort of a key thing for for one of the more worrisome results, which is the the lack of efficiency in Parliament Of course, you need political deliberation In democratic countries this is crucial and if you don't have cohesive political parties that sort of can Agree on public policies, then you see very highly fragmented and polarized environments And that I think has sort of created a circle of distrust That I would say especially accompanied over the last few years in social media and that goes to your question Why have even? Very long Democracy sort of been facing great challenges. I think we cannot leave out of this response the roles of social media That had sort of all also included fake news affecting especially Electoral bodies right we have seen Both good and bad examples what happened in Mexico, but also I'm from Latin America So I would use examples from our region But what happened in Brazil on the other on the other hand and what electoral bodies are doing to sort of provide rigorous information about Not only the end results, but the whole process and I would say that What are the hopes since we should talk about hope as well I Would say that a digitalization is maybe something that we talk less about but we We talked in in the in the initial remarks a lot about effective democracy the deliverance, right? The president of Botswana mentioned this And and with the with the COVID I think we all live in very different lives And but we also realized that technology we could use it in our favor and I think state services sort of There can be a light in how we provide we reach populations. There are many times far away from Cities and we can sort of go in different ways And and that can be sort of a light in how we have conceived the provision of basic services And I think that sort of can change the discussion for the best in the future. I hope so Thank you Zavella also for looking at the opportunities not only on the gloomy picture and Leopoldo What is your take on this? Well, I first of all, thank you. Thank you for the invitation to there and to all of you I come from Venezuela. We're very low on the run However, we are an interesting case of a country that is certainly autocratic Venezuela is by no means a democracy but the people in Venezuela are hopeful of democracy and are hopeful of expressing their views democratically that is why we've been struggling with a growing autocratic system using democratic means we In 2015 we had the opportunity to go to an election for the National Assembly I was in prison at the time and we went to Hunger strike we were to a hunger strike for 28 days to call for the date of the elections 100 political prisoners and like 300 people were in that hunger strike at December of that year We won two-thirds of the National Assembly Landslide but within months the regime took away all of the attributions and all of the Capacity of that institution to do something according to the Constitution However, we don't lose faith in expressing ourselves democratically. We know that it's not a democracy But just last weekend we had a primary 2.5 million people voted in that primary with absolutely no Control or no link to anything from the regime people were threatened People that were organizing from the civil society that electoral process weren't the regime Send people to their homes. They threatened the organizers of the National Primary Commission And people went out and people voted because people want democracy So we are an extreme case of how and why people are voting It's not because they have trust on their on the system Be they are voting and they want to participate because they want change in the system So we we are certainly a different case But we are one in which democratic practice in this case electoral democratic practice is The way in which we want to forge or transition to a democracy. Thank you very much So it is about trust, but it is also about the desire to change and the faith in the possibility of changing through through that boat, let's go back to to you Contita and You mentioned the judicial aspect this interplay between the use of the law and the reduction of the space for the opposition and you have lived through these You say something about that I already mentioned that since 1932 Thailand have seen so many coups and it have been like that until 2014 the last coup, right? There must be a question of why For almost 10 years, there's been no coup in Thailand Is it because you know the military decided that it is too much of a cost or Is it the external forces that the military started to feel that The cost is too much. So this question is extremely important because the mark of the 2014 coup as the as the last coup led the establishment to a new modus operandi the use of the judiciary system against You know those who disagree and what does that mean in Thai context? Basically, there is a word coined by Thai academia That says it is the law fair You can call it a law fair It is using the law against those who disagree who dissent Or you can call it weaponizing of the law you can call it judicial, you know Activism that that that silence people you can We call it the constitutional hardball, whatever you want to call and it has been very clear that the Establishment have been using that However, I realized that It is very interesting in one of the institution the constitutional court of Thailand By number it has dissolved political parties Around 100 political parties Well, good news. I Broke the I break the good news first 90 around 90 political parties that were dissolved in the first decade This is this is over two decades in the first decade It is because of the administrative reason. Okay. All right. I was like, okay I can breathe but then almost 10 political party were dissolved in the second decade and that is because of the causes like being hostile to the regime or You know overthrowing the regime in the case of my political party future forward party it was Financial technical arbitrary costs of Organizing the party and as a result of that The executive members of future forward party me included faced at the ten years Band from contesting in any elections. So the band is still ongoing and not and I'm not talking just about the constitutional court and at you know at the top level the lawfare has been ongoing also for the people for Case a political chart is in Thailand. I'm not going into detail, but I can give you some number Right now in Let's say September 2023 the accumulated number of political charges in Thailand. It's almost 2000 so In the next round perhaps I can shed more lights on on on the use of the laws against the dissidents who are the tight Citizens, but this is a very clear Example, well, I should keep hope, right? The hope The hope is that the fight against You know these lawfare is still ongoing and people are still very active Towards the elections as well as to express their will to change the country It's a very interesting linkage here between the Thai experience and your experience Leopoldo about the Weaponization of the judiciary you were making before we started an example that is about your political life Maybe you can talk about that well, I when we when we just met we Realized that we were both banned to run for office. We can't run for office. So we just tell you briefly I was mayor of Caracas, Venezuela capital of the city at the center. I Won in 2000 re-elected in 2004 and in 2008 I was just banned to run for office and that was the last time 20 years ago that I was able to Participate formally in an electoral process at the beginning people thought that it was going to be an exception But now everybody's banned now we have a candidate that won the primary process and She's banned to run for office. She's disqualified the political parties have been illegalized Taken away from the registration and taken away from all legal possibilities of having any Functioning as an organization no possibility to have a bank account for example So it's the weaponization of the legal system of the electoral system There is absolutely no rule of law It's absolutely arbitrary the way in which the law is Is applied in the case of Venezuela and I think That this is not necessarily in this report But I would think that this is an important analysis to do which is the trend in which there are similar ways of Distabling dismantling attacking democracies Because these are not isolated cases Thailand and Venezuela are very far away as I can say Iran and Venezuela are very far away But when we see the way in which the regimes are Attacking the people who go out to protest or the ways in which they are trying to inhibit the possibility To effectively express themselves through a electoral process. You see that there is a coordination You see that there is a coordination or at least that there is a learning from one regime to another What I saw the way in which in Venezuela the protests were treated in 2017 was exactly the same thing that happened in Nicaragua in 2018 the exact same approach that took place in Belarus in 2020 or in Hong Kong in 2020 or in Zimbabwe in 2020-21 or in Iran last year. I have a very good friend from Iran Masih Alineyad We were talking about the protest last year and I said Masih my friend You need to be ready from when the protests ferried away and she said no, this is not gonna happen This is a moment that we are going to make change come about Five months afterwards the exact same pattern selective repression Massive encarcelations Shorting down of the communications fake news to spread the word of what was the ideas of the regime Exact same approach in very different countries So I think it would be very interesting to have and analyze How these are global patterns and this is not global parents that are isolated They are patterns because that there is a will to undermine and to strangle democracy and there is a will To coordinate and articulate all the ways in which democracy can be stopped from happening where it exists Thanks a lot. Leopoldo. Isabel. I'm turning to you to look at the same topic But but from the the opposite view Courts being called upon more and more as countervailing institutions and What is that we can say about filling that gap left by parliaments and other power and other I think it's it's interesting to sort of look at the role of courts in Coordination with the with the lack of delivery from parliaments, which is something that reports sort of puts an eye on What happens when? Parliaments do not come across a solution for pensions or for health. I'm putting topics that are very present in the Latin American discussion How do we solve it? Let me put the example of Chile. We have been discussing a reform to the pension system for the last 15 years 12 years at least health 10 years at least what happens people go to courts and Courts make decisions for one person to person 100 person 100,000 people But those decisions turn out to sort of affect The idea that politicians are not reaching a solution That the problem is my problem It's not a sort of a social problem And then the system starts to fail and cracks start to show and then What happens is that courts become interesting? Maybe we have to sort of politicians turn to tend to look at courts of differences at a different eye, right? They're making decisions about public policy. So they are allocating resources because Parliament has been ineffective But then politicians start to look at them and saying oh, maybe I should sort of Care more about who am I putting in the Supreme Court? And then and then we start politicizing courts not because This is sort of from a different perspective as Leopoldo But because of course if if where do we go to solve our rights? And then you have a different conversation about the judicial system, right? And I think that's that's a vicious circle it comes not Not because of the court itself, but from a fragmentation and the general polarized society And then we look at the judicial system for different reasons And I think that's a trend that it's happening in highly democratic countries that that worries me But let me say one thing about the role of courts in in authoritarian cases coach Chile has a very land-made court When we were under the dictatorship the dictatorship The opposition took a case to court on the electoral Registry and It was the court Which opened the the avenue for them democracy and for their referendum without the court Well, we don't know what would have happened, but but but there was the opening there was the crack It took a few years afterwards to celebrate the first referendum But it was there. It was the judge. It was one judge actually who opened an avenue and led For the transition and I think we must not forget that even under very harsh circumstances We had had almost 17 years so far of dictatorship It was the court which opened the avenue back to democracy Thank you very much There would be many other questions that I would like to pose but we have now to open up the floor For questions and answers. I want this to be as interactive as possible. We have already some questions from the From the internet from YouTube, but I want first to open up the floor to people in the room So is there anybody who wants to address the question and if so, please Identify whom would you like to address the question to is there anybody who wants to break the ice Or should I do it for you? Okay, Helena Bureman? I Introduce yourself, but you can say more about thank you very much. I'm Helena Bureman I'm the deputy head of CEDA's democracy unit. This is Swedish International Development Corporation agency I have a question about the elephant in the room I think Leopoldo you touched upon it, but so please if you can respond or or Sema Dr. Seema Shah to if you're if you feel like that We haven't really talked about autocratization So the drivers behind The declines we see so if you could share anything about what are the structural root causes be it maybe Glaring inequalities or power struggles or what not? Thank you Okay, so structural causes maybe Seema you can also jump into these but first let me Look at the panel and see whether there is any of you who wants to To answer this just just we can talk about this Great levels of detail, but I think that the most obvious thing is that autocracies are Growing and democracy is declined and that's a pattern you can say six years other Indexes can say that it's close to 20 years, but that's that's kind of the state of the world today Democracy is declining. Why is it declining? Well, I think that there are some internal things that were mentioned because democracy is not delivering So that takes you to the conversation of how to make democracy more effective and to deliver To the hopes of the people, but I believe that there is a trend behind this that that is the as I mentioned before that there is a Network of very mighty interests very mighty Countries that are behind this expansion of autocratic practices, and I have seen it in my own country Venezuela is very far away from Russia But all of our military is completely kneeled to the interests of Russia since 2007 when we started the shift from European us Equipment to now completely Let by Russia and it's very very far away from Iran, but today all of the energy dealings are Organized and articulated through Iran China, and I can go on and on so it's very clear that there is an international pattern of Expanding the autocratic practices That inhibits the expansion of democracy and I'll give you one one example If you go into the Twitter and you find tendencies in Venezuela any given day you might even find to your surprise a tendency that is in Russian or In Arab or in Persian why well because there are Troll and bots factories that work in Venezuela that when they have a global interest They all Bind their efforts together, and then they they articulate those global bots towards whatever cost They are doing this happens regularly in Venezuela the Wagner group as you know Had two streams of work one the mercenaries all of their military work, and the second It's a troll farm What do they two have together and led by the same person obviously is not a Mercenary Violent person who is killing to do one line of work and become a benevolent Democratic free thinker for the other line of work. No they are using their weaponizing social media They're weaponizing the ways in which communication is taking place for the same purpose to dismantle democracy to attack what they consider their enemies and I believe that the enemies of This global trend is democracy as a concept are the people who practice democracy the countries that live on their democracies and those who are hopeful to live in democracies like our case because we Used to be a democracy, but we are no longer, but but for sure that we can discuss more more on this Contida perhaps I I could add on One thing when move forward party the second generation of the future forward party campaign for this election in Thailand They have been very clear on the 3d policies de militarization de monopolization and decentralization and you could see that is a direct attack to the Anthocrisy that is ongoing and With 14.4 votes for people it is clear that people supported this, you know direct Talk about the elephant in the room at least in the Thai context and that is one Another one is that when we try to talk about how do we deliver? effective democracy We normally think about the National arena, but with the restricted space in Thailand that Me and my colleagues are working we resort to the local administration local Governments and leave arena that we can try to work with the local government leaders to deliver and To prove and to keep proving and to keep giving concrete examples to the people that democracy is working and then I think With these two synergies ongoing you you see the result of the Thai elections and that I'm talking about move forward party and that that is 14.4, but if you really combine Move forward party and put a tie the former Opposition in the previous Administration that is 70% of the votes so people are Calling for change people want not just a short-term kind of change structural change Demo demilitarization kind of change military reform monarchy reform even the whole economic structure reform and I think you can take a look at these two as a as as a I think as a hope and as a arena that that Pro-democracy forces can work with Maybe just one Twitter from you is well I'm worried about one trend that has to with democratic backsliding Which is the idea that is growing in many regions that it doesn't matter It doesn't matter if it's democratic or not. I just don't care And it's not that it's in favor of the authoritarian models It doesn't matter and I think at least in Latin America and the report shows it as well the issue its security It has to do with violence. So it doesn't matter who solved my problem I just want somebody who should come seen and solve this and I think that that's a key I would sort of put a double eye on that because it's it's a growing trend and it worries me especially among younger people We have time maybe just for one question from from YouTube and I really want Perhaps your tagline just one sentence in reply to this There is a question that asks please give us three main thoughts To help reverse the decline that is mentioned in the report. So one one One each and the first who starts as the the privilege of having more options. So who wants to start? Do we get time to come up with that? Yes, we have two minutes all together No, I would say that to recognize that democracy is not free that it needs to be fought for that there are very strong forces Attacking and undermining democracy and those of us who believe in democracy We need to unite from the civil society from governments from free governments from Civil society Students everybody who believes that this is an idea worth fighting for well now is the time because it's being under attack and and If it's not fought for we're gonna lose because it's out there that that conflict is out there and we need to Struggle and defend it with all of our will and all of our capacities Good, it's hope and making sure that you keep proving that hope is concrete Towards democracy Concreteness yes, Isabel I would go back to the boring institutions Which is not such a popular thing to say, but I would say going back to them to political parties Going back to electoral bodies going back to how we appoint judges Those ideas which were very much present in the debate a few decades ago And which tended to become very technical and very sort of out of touch I think we are back at them again as a way to sort of move forward in a in a solid way Okay, so I'm supposed now to wrap up the Discussion which is obviously an impossible task. I will I would have to say that I was impressed by the president's statements There was a very Consistent message that they gave both of them in terms of the need for democracy to deliver Deliver to the poor deliver to the young deliver to women and There was also an element of hope in the sense that populists Make a lot of promises that they can't deliver on so there is also this element of delivery that is actually Defining a weakness a weak spot for for populists rising in in in the political space I Heard a very interesting Conversation on trust the need to rebuild trust but also trust coupled with faith in change and the possibility of providing a platform for uniting all these can't availing forces that May act in order to redress All those powers that are actually Abusing their force and I would also say that we need to continue to hope because there are some good news Contevelling institutions prevail. There are also indications from our report about Participation to some extent also the fight on corruption They are actually starting to deliver and this is good news that we as believers in the work in times of building democracy and we need to build on many things for all your attention for your presence and for your Testimony even on your personal experience and I would hand over now to the master of ceremony. Adina Massimo and thank you so much to the panelist Conte d'Aleopoldo and Isabel It's been most enlightening and interesting exchange and I think that with this we will conclude today's launch But I think that I will hope that all of you live here with a sense of hope All is not lost for democracy and I think that in addition to what has been said I think that it's very important that we here and everyone who believes in democracy also continues to make the case for it Because if we constantly point to the flaws if we constantly point to the shortcomings We're not doing democracy a favor. We need to of course Acknowledge the shortcomings and and do something about them But we also need to make the case for why democracy is the best current system that there is and do it eloquently and do it based on facts and doing by acknowledging the diversity and and the Multiplicity of what democracy can mean in different parts of the world. So with this, I would like to thank you once again for being here and also For having traveled from very far away thank you also to everyone who is participating online and For those who are in Stockholm, please continue the conversation with the panelists and with the brilliant members of International idea you have Sima Shah who has been masterfully Leading the development of the report as well as the secretary general and many members of our staff who are here to answer any other questions You may have there's some refreshments in the back and please don't forget to read the report and thank you again for coming