Seminar on Democracy and Democratization Process

For the last 54 years, political parties of Nepal have been in the forefront of the countries political and socio-economic transformation. They have led major political changes in Nepal in 1950, 1980 and 1990. Due to the lack of strong civil society, the political parties have also led various social movements aimed at strengthening and institutionalizing democracy, human rights, and economic development.

However, the political parties seem to have paid little attention towards institutionalizing democracy within the party. In other words, they have spent little effort in making and implementing the procedures for promoting democracy within the party. Some political analysts believe that the political parties had to spend most of their time in fighting for democracy which gave them little time to do the necessary homework to promote internal democracy. This argument may be true. However, the political parties can spare some time for formulating and implanting procedure to strengthen the intra-party democracy in spite of their involvement in the struggle for democracy.

With this view in mind, National peace campaign organized a seminar on Democracy and Democratization Process with the country's senior politicians. The program was held in Lumbini from 12 - 16 January 2005. During the seminar, the participants exchanged their past experiences and shared their views on the country's current political situation. Similarly, the participants identified the major obstacles and problems to intra-party democracy. Thereafter, the participants discussed on the ways which can promote democratic process within a political party. The seminar also formulated a mechanism for more organized and systematic effort to initiate intra-party democracy.