The Tunis Declaration, published at the end of the 5th Global Forum on Modern Direct Democracy held from May 14 to 17 in Tunis, calls for the establishment in Tunisia of decentralisation of power through the promotion of participatory democracy.
The latter requires a supportive infrastructure - free people and secure spaces (especially online) and independent citizen media and strong social movements and economic resources and civil society organisations--, the Declaration indicates, while stressing the need to accelerate the organisation of municipal elections, the establishment of local power, fight against corruption and promotion of transparency.
President of the Forum, Bruno Kaufmann said participatory democracy means equality and leadership for all, especially for youth and women. “We must get rid of the “stereotype” that democracy is impossible in the Arab world,” he said, adding that in Tunisia we have noted that the values of Islamic do not contradict with democracy and vice versa.
Chaker Bouajila, spokesman for the Global Forum said, for his part, that the Tunisian Constitution in its 7th Chapter on local power (Articles 131 and 139) states that local communities are based on mechanisms of participatory democracy to ensure the involvement of citizens and the civil society in drawing up and monitoring development programmes, adding that these provisions require their application on the ground.
At the end of the works, it was announced that the next Forum will be held in San Sebastian (Spanish Basque city) from November 19 to 22, 2016.
Source: http://www.tap.info.tn/en/index.php/politics2/26987-5th-global-forum-on-...
