Open Government Partnership Global Summit 2018: Defending Civic Space: The Role of OGP a...

The Government of Georgia will host the 5th OGP Global Summit in Tbilisi, Georgia, on July 17-19, 2018. The Summit will provide an excellent opportunity for leaders from OGP’s 76 participating countries, local governments, and beyond to exchange ideas on how they are making their governments more transparent, accountable, and responsive to citizens.

Please register for the Global Summit at www.ogpsummit.org and send your questions and/or feedback to summit@opengovpartnership.org.

Defending Civic Space: The Role of OGP and Other Multistakeholder Initiatives

Across the globe, civil society organizations are taking innovative approaches to defending civic space. Some have leveraged MSIs, including OGP, to open new spaces for civic engagement and resist repression. Others have mobilized coalitions to halt the passage of repressive bills. This fishbowl will bring civil society activists from a number of countries together to share insights from their experiences, generate lessons, and discuss whether and how MSIs can provide a platform for defending civic space. Fishbowl participants will have the opportunity to reflect on and discuss each example. Outcomes of this will include shared strategies and tactics from various contexts to inform work within OGP NAPs, and new partnerships and connections among reformers looking to defend civic space, including through leveraging MSIs.

Moderators

Kersty McCourt

Senior Advocacy Advisor, Open Society Justice Initiative

Kersty McCourt is a senior advocacy advisor with the Open Society Justice Initiative based in Brussels where she leads on a range of advocacy work related to access to justice, civic space, and counter-terrorism, and is part of the managing-troika of the Brussels-based Human Rights... Read More →

Michael Moses

Director of Learning and Programs, Global Integrity

Michael Moses leads on strategy and learning at Global Integrity in Washington, DC.

Speakers

Zipporah Abaki

Program Officer, Constitution and Reform Education Consortium

Levon Barseghyan

Chair, Asparez

Sandra Coliver

Senior Managing Legal Officer, Open Society Justice Initiative

I am working to support litigation and law reform to strengthen and defend the rights to freedom of association and assembly in parts of Latin America, Europe and Africa; build support for, and use of, the Principles on Protest and Right to Information, including by working with networks... Read More →

Waltraud Heller

Programme Manager of Civil Society Cooperation, European Union Agency for Fundamental Rights

Renzo Lavin

Co-Director, Asociación Civil por la Igualdad y la Justicia

He leads ACIJ’s work on the field of Governance and Democracy. His professional career has been marked by a focus on transparency, accountability, judicial independence and the fight against corruption. He has led diverse projects ranging from the local level to the global, coordinated... Read More →

András Léderer

Information and Advocacy Officer, Hungarian Helsinki Committee

He earned his MSc (in violence, conflict and development) at SOAS, London and his BSc (terrorism, conflict and security) in Aberystwyth and joined the Hungarian Helsinki Committee in September 2015. He writes the Hungarian Helsinki Committee’s regular information updates on asylum... Read More →

Vazha Salamadze

Director, Civil Society Institute

Mr. Vazha Salamadzeis founding director of CSI. He has 26 year experience in public sector, from which18 yearshe dedicated to developmentof civil society and promoting enabling environment for CSOs.Mr. Salamadze has sound experience in policy analysis, crafting policy papers, drafting... Read More →