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191. Kosovo/a Standing Technical Working Group: Ninth Meeting Health and Social Welfare

Author:
Robert Curis
Publication Date:
07-2002
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
European Centre for Minority Issues
Abstract:
The Standing Technical Working Group was established in March 2001 to address important issues of public policy in Kosovo/a at a technical level. It is composed of experts from Kosovo/a NGOs, the political parties and other civil society representatives. Its membership is fully interethnic and it prides itself on being able to conduct debate in Kosovo/a in an interethnic way. The Group reviews technical aspects of current policy and formulates proposals and critical questions in relation to them. It then seeks to engage the relevant appointed local and international representatives on these issues. In response to the changed political environment in Kosovo/a following the Assembly elections in November 2001, the Group sought to enhance its role in public policy analysis and development through the establishment of four expert working groups. These Expert Committees (ECs) would devote their activities in 2002 to monitoring policy developments in four areas considered most relevant to the needs of all communities in Kosovo/a. One of these is the Expert Committee on Health and Social Welfare.
Topic:
Civil Society and Human Welfare
Political Geography:
Europe

192. Legal Aspects of National Integration in Estonia and Latvia, Workshop of the ECMI Project Accession to the EU and National Integration in Estonia and Latvia

Author:
Vadim Poleshchuk
Publication Date:
06-2002
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
European Centre for Minority Issues
Abstract:
In 2000, the European Centre for Minority Issues (ECMI) initiated the Baltic Project “Accession to the EU and National Integration in Estonia and Latvia”. In the framework of the project, one international seminar and several regional workshops were organized in 2000 and – 2001. These events addressed different minority rightsrelated issues such as society integration and multiculturalism, state policies in the field of minority education and the use of minority languages, legislative reforms and the role of the third sector.
Topic:
Civil Society and Regional Cooperation
Political Geography:
Europe

193. National-Cultural Autonomies and Interethnic Relations in the Kaliningrad Oblast

Author:
Priit Järve
Publication Date:
03-2002
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
European Centre for Minority Issues
Abstract:
This workshop was organized and fully sponsored by ECMI in collaboration with the Kaliningrad Oblast Duma as a follow-up of the ECMI Roundtable meeting “Migration and Forced Migration in the Kaliningrad Oblast of Russia”, which took place in Flensburg from 22 to 23 June 2001.
Topic:
Civil Society, Politics, and Regional Cooperation
Political Geography:
Europe

194. ECMI Civil Society Project in Bosnia and Herzegovina: Annex 8 of the General Framework Agreement for Peace and the Role of the Preservation of National Monuments in Successful Peace Implementation

Author:
Valery Perry
Publication Date:
04-2002
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
European Centre for Minority Issues
Abstract:
During the recent armed conflict in Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH) the destruction of the cultural heritage of several communities was an undeclared aim of some of the parties to the conflict. Over 1,000 mosques were destroyed or damaged, and hundreds of Catholic and Orthodox churches were also damaged or destroyed. Non-sacred structures suffered as well, most famously the Ottoman era bridge in Mostar, and hundreds of other bridges, Roman ruins, and medieval sites have suffered from a combination of the damage of war and a decade of neglect.
Topic:
Civil Society, Non-Governmental Organization, and Peace Studies
Political Geography:
Europe

195. Negotiation and Capacity Building in Montenegro, Workshop 3: Economic Development and Cooperation

Author:
Florian Bieber
Publication Date:
03-2002
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
European Centre for Minority Issues
Abstract:
The ECMI project “Negotiation and Capacity Building in Montenegro” was launched with the aim to establish a Track II informal negotiation process providing a forum for interethnic dialogue between the Serbian and Montenegrin communities which include minority communities from the Sandžak border region. Through a series of workshops, the project aims to help promote dialogue, identify issues of common concern and assist in delivering concrete benefits as well as building confidence between the communities involved. By focusing the debate on the concrete needs of these communities, the project seeks to facilitate discussions about future interethnic relations in a less charged atmosphere, irrespective of the deeper political questions on the future constitutional arrangements of the two republics.
Topic:
Civil Society, Education, and Migration
Political Geography:
Europe

196. Kosovo/a Standing Technical Working Group: The Establishment of Expert Committees, Expert Committee Constitutive Session

Author:
Robert Curis, Marc Weller, and Camille Monteux
Publication Date:
03-2002
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
European Centre for Minority Issues
Abstract:
This project was established in the second half of 2000 to strengthen the development of civil society in Kosovo/a. It seeks to generate dialogue among the different ethnic and political communities in Kosovo/a and to enhance the sense of local ownership and democratic accountability of the emerging political structures in the territory. In particular, it seeks to create space for the participation of civil society and civil society organizations (NGOs) in those structures on a fully inter-ethnic basis.
Topic:
Civil Society, Non-Governmental Organization, and Politics
Political Geography:
Europe

197. Negotiation and Capacity Building in Montenegro, Workshop 2: Freedom of Movement

Author:
Florian Bieber
Publication Date:
01-2002
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
European Centre for Minority Issues
Abstract:
The ECMI project “Montenegro Negotiation and Capacity Building” was launched with the aim to establish a Track II informal negotiation process providing a forum for interethnic dialogue between the Serbian and Montenegrin communities, which includes minority communities from the Sandzak border region. Through a series of workshops, the project aims to help promote dialogue, identify issues of common concern and assist in delivering concrete benefits as well as building confidence between the communities involved. By focusing the debate on the concrete needs of these communities, the project seeks to facilitate thinking about future interethnic relations in a less charged atmosphere, irrespective of the deeper political questions on the future constitutional arrangements of the two republics.
Topic:
Civil Society, Education, Migration, and Regional Cooperation
Political Geography:
Europe

198. The Meanings of Palestinian Reform

Publication Date:
11-2002
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
International Crisis Group
Abstract:
Since U.S. President George W. Bush's 24 June 2002 statement on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, Palestinian reform has emerged as a key ingredient in Middle East diplomacy. In his statement, the president publicly identified “a new and different Palestinian leadership” and “entirely new political and economic institutions” as preconditions for the establishment of a Palestinian state. In early July, the Quartet of Middle East mediators (the European Union, Russian Federation, United Nations, and United States) established an International Task Force for Palestinian Reform “to develop and implement a comprehensive reform action plan” for the Palestinian Authority (PA). The September 2002 statement by the Quartet underscored reform of Palestinian political, civil, and security institutions as an integral component of peacemaking. The three phase-implementation roadmap, a U.S. draft of which was presented to Israel and the Palestinians by U.S. Assistant Secretary of State William Burns in October, provided details on this reform component.
Topic:
Civil Society, Government, and Politics
Political Geography:
Russia, United States, Europe, Middle East, Israel, Palestine, Arabia, and United Nations

199. Globalized and Localized Digital Divides Along the Information Highway: A Fragile Synthesis Across Bridges, Ramps, Cloverleaves, and Ladders.

Author:
Carl Cuneo
Publication Date:
01-2002
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Institute on Globalization and the Human Condition, McMaster University
Abstract:
There has been a tendency, especially in North America and Europe, and among technology enthusiasts and some educators, to assume that the whole world is connected to the Internet, and surfs the World Wide Web. Why would we use the term, 'World Wide Web', if we were not talking about a global phenomenon? However, Internet statistics show that only about six to eight percent of the world's six billion population is connected to the Internet. Approximately ninety-two percent of the world is NOT connected to, nor uses, the Internet. 1 The erroneous assumption of universal connectivity is not simply a statistical mistake. Governments, corporations, community organizations, and individuals make many incorrect decisions, with sometimes dramatic and far-reaching consequences, on the basis of the assumption that most of the world is connected to the Internet. Not only is the vast majority of the world not connected to the Internet, most people do not even have the computers, skills, experience, interest, or awareness to become connected. The disconnected are not randomly distributed, but have specific demographic, social, economic, racial, ethnic, gender, gerontological, and political characteristics that amount to a systematic bias of exclusion, often referred to as the “digital have-nots”. Similarly, the connected are not randomly distributed, but possess particular demographic, social, economic and political characteristics making up what has become known as the ““Digital Haves””. The separation, chasm, abyss, canyon, gulf, or distance between the ““Digital Haves”” and “digital have-nots” has become known as the “Digital Divide.”
Topic:
Civil Society, Development, Globalization, Poverty, and Science and Technology
Political Geography:
Europe and North America

200. The European Social Model: Coping with the Challenges of Diversity

Author:
Fritz W. Scharpf
Publication Date:
07-2002
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Max Planck Institute for the Study of Societies
Abstract:
European integration has created a constitutional asymmetry between policies promoting market efficiencies and policies promoting social protection and equality. National welfare states are legally and economically constrained by European rules of economic integration, liberalization, and competition law, whereas efforts to adopt European social policies are politically impeded by the diversity of national welfare states, differing not only in levels of economic development and hence in their ability to pay for social transfers and services but, even more significantly, in their normative aspirations and institutional structures. In response, the "Open Method of Coordination" is now applied being in the social-policy field. It leaves effective policy choices at the national level, but tries to improve these through promoting common objectives and common indicators and through comparative evaluations of national policy performance. These efforts are useful but cannot overcome the constitutional asymmetry. Hence there is reason to search for solutions which must have the character of European law in order to establish constitutional parity with the rules of European economic integration, but which also must be sufficiently differentiated to accommodate the existing diversity of national welfare regimes. The article discusses two such options, "Closer Cooperation" and a combination of differentiated "framework directives" with the Open Method of Coordination.
Topic:
Civil Society, Economics, and Political Economy
Political Geography:
Europe