How do we respond to democracy's 'rollback' crisis? | Devex

How do we respond to democracy's 'rollback' crisis? | Devex: "Fighting the rollback is about more than just language, though. Values tend to be broad concepts, but protecting them needs attention to detail — another important lesson from Seoul. What exactly are the democratic norms that are threatened by regulatory restrictions on NGOs? How exactly can traditional values, faiths or beliefs be reconciled with universal human rights?  And what impact will an obscure U.N. General Assembly resolution have on the international standards that have been adopted by the U.N. since 1948?

Unless we get this right, it is too easy to paint our reaction as unfounded or culturally insensitive. And sometimes we are wrong. Lawyers are our friends in this work, working with all those that bear witness. This is well-trodden ground for the human rights community, but I think the democracy-strengthening community is struggling with it a bit, for example in looking at “non-Western democracies.”"



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