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As the Indigenous Peoples Champions project concludes, and International Women's Day approaches, women participants have shared their reflections on the project, which was the first of its kind in the Asia and the Pacific region.

The third Summit for Democracy will take place from 18 to 20 March 2024 in Seoul, the Republic of Korea. International IDEA is contributing to the third Summit through its role as a Platform for Engagement with Civil Society, as an organizer of Summit activities, and as co-coordinator of the Global Democracy Coalition and the Partners for Democracy Day.

India faces extremely high exposure to ecological threats and, therefore, it is important to consider the effects of natural hazards on electoral processes in the country. This case study explores adaptive measures adopted by the Electoral Commission of India (ECI) to safeguard the electoral process from natural hazards on the subnational and national levels.

Nepal became a federal democratic republic following the Interim Constitution drafted in 2007, after a decade-long power struggle between the monarchy, political parties and the Maoist insurgents. Nepal's Election Commission has decentralized carrying out its election activities, with each district and province election office having the power to manage resources for the election in its respective area.

This Discussion Paper reviews the performance of 16 lobbying registers according to 3 interlinked dimensions: (a) transparency; (b) regulatory capacity; and (c) interoperability. Under ‘transparency’, the paper examines the scope of lobbying information collected by the register in question, as well as how that information is administered and subsequently disclosed.

The 9 January election in Bhutan saw the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) led by a seasoned political leader, Dasho Tshering Tobgay, returned to the government after being ousted in the 2018 elections. As part of its electoral process, Bhutan has two rounds of elections.

With nearly 2 billion voters expected to head to the polls, 2024 has been dubbed a ‘super election year’. In fact, over the next 12 months, more than 70 countries will head to a presidential, legislative, or subnational election. Among them are seven out of ten of the world’s most populous countries, including India, the United States, Indonesia, Pakistan, Russia, and Mexico. Similarly, in South Asia, five out of its eight countries have held/are also planning to hold elections in 2024.  

 Join a Q&A meeting on Day 2 of the Summit on Wednesday, 28 February 2024, at 2 pm CET/8 am EST.

Thailand’s constitution was made in 2017 by the military junta government. Although it was approved by referendum, the 2017 Constitution remains highly unpopular due to its origin. Constitutional reform was a central issue during the tightly contested 2023 elections, in which an unprecedented voter turnout demonstrated strong support for democratic and progressive parties. The same demand, of amending the 2017 Constitution, was repeated throughout the 2020-2021 mass protest movement.

According to data from International IDEA’s Global State of Democracy (GSoD) Initiative, democracy in Asia and the Pacific is under significant pressure. Only a tiny minority of people in the region live in a high-performing democracy.

Democracies worldwide are facing a decline in trust in public institutions and the political system affecting election management bodies and electoral processes in ways that risk contested elections and societal instability.

The Philippines’ Indigenous Peoples’ Rights Act seeks to uphold the rights of Indigenous Peoples to their ancestral domains. The implementation of the act is complex and demands a thorough evaluation. Mediation and conflict transformation are pivotal, serving as channels for dialogue and negotiations amidst the complex challenges.

The promotion, respect and protection of the Indigenous Cultural Communities’ rights is important to address historical and persistent injustices against these communities. The National Commission on Indigenous Peoples developed a policy known as ‘Eleven (11) Building Blocks of Resilient, Responsive, and Relevant ICCs/IPs’.

This Brief complement the use of International IDEA’s publication Indigenous Peoples’ Rights in Constitutions Assessment Tool to enable its use by those working to promote and protect Indigenous rights.

Indigenous Peoples constitute between 14 and 17 per cent of the population of the Philippines. In the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao, a unique identity is taking shape, known as the Non-Moro Indigenous Peoples. 

The recently concluded workshops on Media Literacy Training and Effective Communication Skills held in Paro for members of the National Council of Bhutan (NCB) and secretariat staff have ushered in promising outcomes for the nation's democratic processes.

The global state of democracy in 2023 is complex, fluid and unequal. Across every region of the world, democracy has continued to contract, with declines in at least one indicator of democratic performance in half of the countries covered in the Report.

This Case Study is part of The Global State of Democracy 2023 Report. 

This Case Study is part of The Global State of Democracy 2023 Report. 

This Case Study is part of The Global State of Democracy 2023 Report.