26_September [Archives:2004/701/Press Review]

1 Jan. 2004
Main headlines:
– Sana'a grouping summit, FM al-Qirbi: Formation a ministerial committee for economic cooperation, businessmen meeting in Sana'a in March
– Arab interior ministers discuss issues of terror and drugs
– Human rights minister announces a national strategy for human rights, project for improving prisons conditions
– Minister of irrigation and environment: Projects worth $ 200 million
Mr Ibrahim al-Ashmawi says in his article Yemen is hosting on 10 January a great international and regional events where 250 personalities of thinkers, politicians and officials from various parts of the world are to take part. The international conference on the role of law in supporting democracy and human n rights is to be considered an important demonstration for the exchange of opinion between the countries of the north and those of the south, the rich and the poor, about the successful application of democracy and stabilization of principles of human rights. The significance of the conference lies first in the volume and rank of attendance and participation in it. The participation is to include parliament speakers, ministers, prominent thinkers and men of letter from Europe, Canada, America and Arab and African countries. Therefore is hoped that the conference would come out with political and ideological approaches enhancing and enriching horizons of democracy in its comprehensive meaning under the age of globalization and openness and also under the consequences and developments of post-0invqsion of Iraq.
No doubt the European Union choosing Yemen to host such a conference reflects the large-scale international appreciation of what Yemen's democratic experiment has achieved in this field and the areas of public freedoms and press freedom and the improvement of its record in human rights. Yemen has taken a daring initiative in political and party pluralism since the year 1990as it had opened the all horizons for all political spectrum to work in freedom and to issue partisan newspapers and publications, added to that tens of private sector newspapers as well ass thousands of civil society organisations. Yemen has also approved and recognised the peaceful transfer of power in a democratic way.
Countries and international organisations see in Yemen as the democratic example inn the region and the only country that is meting its democratic commitments however difficult they were. Several years ago Sana'a had hosted conference on emerging democracies and contributed to define its experiment in transparency and on the ground.
The coming conference would surely add momentum and interaction to the Yemeni experiment and offer a positive image of the successes that have been achieved. This would be positively reflected on the international support for the Yemeni experiment, politically and economically.
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