FY 2005-2006 Human Rights and Democracy Fund Projects

FY 2005-2006 Human Rights and Democracy Fund Projects
($48,112,000 total funds available)

DRL's Human Rights and Democracy Fund (HRDF), which is DRL's allocation of the Economic Support Fund (ESF), is used to fulfill the Bureau's mandate to monitor and promote human rights and democracy worldwide. HRDF supports innovative programming designed to uphold democratic principles, support democratic institutions, promote human rights, and build civil society in countries and regions of the world that are geo-strategically critical to the U.S. The following are programs that have been or are currently being supported through the Fund.

China

• National Endowment for Democracy for China ($3,968,000): Promoting the development and values of democracy, human rights and the rule of law in China through a grant-making program to NGOs.

• Citizen’s Rights Advocacy in the People’s Republic of China ($900,000): This project will work to promote citizens’ rights, enhance citizens’ knowledge of and access to the legal system, promote the development of legal norms that will allow citizens to assert their rights, promote public interest advocacy.

• Citizen Participation in Governance ($550,000): This project will encourage the development of mechanisms for more meaningful public participation, and foster greater transparency in governance.

• Local Governance Reform in China ($1,100,000): This project is designed to promote local governance reform by encouraging political reform toward representative government, preparing elected local leaders for their jobs, and promote an effective institutional structure at the local level.

• Development and Promotion of Public Interest Law ($337,000): This project is to enhance citizens’ ability to obtain redress of grievances and restrain the arbitrary exercise of state power by developing and promoting public interest law.

• Supporting Media Reform ($380,000): This project will promote media reform in China through exchange and education programs for journalists.

• Strengthening Political Parties and Supporting Democratization in Hong Kong ($450,000): This project will strengthen political parties and civil society organizations in Hong Kong.

• The China Law Project ($250,000): This project will encourage Chinese policymakers to shirt religious policy to a system grounded by the rule of law.

• Legal Education Program in China ($2,100,000): This program will support legal education for members of China’s legal community, including judges and prosecutors..

• Promoting Labor Rights ($900,000): This project will promote respect for internationally recognized worker rights in China.

• China Defender Program ($900,000): This program will encourage criminal justice reform in China.

• National Endowment for Democracy Sub-Saharan Africa ($4,464,000): Continued support for indigenous pro-democracy initiatives and targeted strategic opportunities through approximately 80 sub-grants to pro-democracy groups chosen according to endowment criteria. Grants will support work on the rule of law, democratic initiatives and the expansion of political space, empowerment of women and youth, press freedom, conflict resolution, accountability, constitutional reform, and civic education. Countries targeted in these democracy programs will include the Congo, Sudan, Nigeria, Burundi, Sierra Leone, Chad, Cameroon, Kenya, Uganda, Somalia, Liberia, Cote d'Ivoire, Togo, Zimbabwe and Angola.
• Monitoring Human Rights in the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea ($496,000): The National Endowment for Democracy will promote democracy in the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea by expanding grant-making programs to promote democracy and supporting three to five organizations based in South Korea working for human rights and democracy in North Korea. These grants will improve awareness in the South Korean general public about the human rights conditions in North Korea that these NGOs are addressing, improve the quality and professionalism of the research and publications of several human rights oriented grantees, expand outreach and launch new programs, produce more cutting–edge, in-depth research into actual conditions inside North Korea, publish professional, credible reports that will reach the international media and other actors, produce these materials in Korean and English, and upgrade these organizations’ websites.
  
• Promoting Democracy in the Muslim World ($3,968,000): Through a grant-making program, the National Endowment for Democracy (NED) will foster democracy in the Muslim world by supporting activities that promote pluralism, human rights, rule of law, freedom of association and freedom of expression in Iran, North Africa, the Middle East, Asia and Turkey.
  
• National Endowment for Democracy World Movement for Democracy ($250,000): The World Movement for Democracy is a global democracy network established by the NED in 1999 to offer practical help to those struggling to liberalize authoritarian regimes and consolidate emerging democracies. The World Movement for Democracy convenes every two years to exchange ideas and experiences and foster collaboration among democratic forces around the world. The assemblies help launch significant networking efforts for the promotion of democracy and further support of the project would allow members to communicate with others in their regions, organize meetings to chart future activities, and facilitate exchange of knowledge and experiences among the networks. The World Movement’s Fourth Assembly is scheduled for April 2006 in Istanbul, Turkey.
• Reagan-Fascell Democracy Fellows Program ($1,190,400): This program will deepen the knowledge, enrich the skills, broaden the perspectives, and revive the energy and morale of some of the world’s most creative and courageous democratic practitioners and scholars by hosting approximately 17 fellows and enriching their experiences through events, research support, seminar series, brownbag presentations, informal gatherings and dinners, fellows’ presentations at National Endowment for Democracy, in the media and on Capitol Hill.
  
• National Endowment for Democracy Tibet ($248,000): Small grants will be directed towards information and media, institution and civil society building, and democracy and human rights education and training. NED will continue to support projects within Tibet and in neighboring countries with significant Tibetan populations.

Worldwide Projects

• "Countries at the Crossroads" Analysis of Countries’ Commitment to Democracy and Human Rights ($415,000): Creation of the annual survey that evaluates a country’s commitment to and record on human rights and democracy by working with outside and in-house experts and analysts.

Europe

• Election Administration Assistance in the Kyrgyz Republic ($720,000): This project will take advantage of the changes in Central Election Commission (CEC) leadership to support measures that will make election procedures more fair and transparent, including advocating for key changes to the election code and implementing regulations.

• Media Support for the Elections in the Kyrgyz Republic ($150,000): This project will support a program to expand media coverage of the upcoming elections. The program will fund such activities as the production and nation-wide broadcast of presidential debates, TV and radio talk shows, and discussion programs on state-run and independent media outlets that contain coverage of election issues.

• Satellite Broadcast Viability Study ($100,000): This project will evaluate the feasibility of a regional satellite television channel to provide programming independent of government censure.

• Journalist Training in Pakistan ($1,362,886): This project will support a project to train local journalists to cover critical human rights, rule of law, and election issues confronting the country through practical training. The project will also expand the capacity of independent media in Pakistan through expert advice and advocacy in media law and regulation, and monitoring of freedom of expression issues.

• Election Roll Audit in Venezuela ($300,000): The project will support an audit of the electoral rolls to ensure their completeness and accuracy.