Schedule:
Venue: Online
Democracy is facing paramount internal and external challenges. What is the role of constructive collaboration in democracy? The International Day of Democracy Seminar discusses democracy development and the role of political party co-operation focusing on fragile contexts, declining democracies and underrepresented groups.
The seminar also celebrates Demo Finland’s 20th anniversary and looks into Demo Finland’s journey as an organisation for multi-party co-operation, dialogue and inclusion. The seminar hosts Finnish MPs and democracy specialists of Demo Finland’s international partner organisations as speakers in two panel discussions. The seminar will be moderated by Annu Marjanen, a journalist from Suomen Kuvalehti. The language of the event is English. Please note that the time zone is EEST.
The seminar is organised by Political Parties of Finland for Democracy – Demo Finland and the Finnish Parliament.
Follow the stream here.
Programme
10:00 Opening remarks
Johannes Koskinen (Social Democrats), Chair of the Foreign Affairs Committee, Chair of the Board of Demo Finland
10:10 Video greeting from the Minister for Foreign Trade and Development
Ville Tavio (Finns Party), Minister for Foreign Trade and Development
10:20 Discussion: The importance of multi-party co-operation in mitigating social polarisation
Oo Wai Htet, Country Director for Myanmar, Netherland’s Institute for Multiparty Democracy
Hermenegildo Mulhovo, Executive Director, Instituto Para Democracia Multipartidaria, Mozambique
Anders Norrback MP (Swedish People’s Party)
Hanna Sarkkinen MP (Left Alliance)
Sara Seppänen MP (Finns Party)
11:05 Discussion: Promoting inclusion across party lines
Maureen Oduori, Country Director, WFD Kenya
Wamundila Waliuya, Executive Director, Disability Rights Watch (Zambia)
Fatim Diarra MP (The Greens)
Ville Kaunisto MP (National Coalition Party)
Jouni Ovaska MP (Centre Party)
11:50 Closing remarks
Anu Juvonen, Executive Director, Demo Finland
The event will be hosted by Annu Marjanen, producer at Suomen Kuvalehti magazine.