The Polish Ministry of Foreign Affairs along with partner institutions - the IPN, the European Endowment for Democracy, Natolin European  Center, Community of Democracies, Lech Walesa Institute and the College of Europe organized the third edition of the international conference „Warsaw Dialogue for Democracy."

The theme of this year's conference was devoted to civil society and the shrinking space for NGOs around the world. The various thematic debates were focused on the issues of civil society activation, possible forms of international support for human rights defenders, their role in ensuring transitional justice, as well as the role of women in various NGOs.

The two-day discussions were preceded by  thematic workshops, addressed to human rights defenders and representatives of civil society organizations from different regions of the world.

The IPN lead a panel on Commissions of Truth and Institutes of Memory: Models of coming to terms with dictatorial past. Experience and expectations.

Within the last twenty-five years, two main institutional models of settling accounts with the past emerged – truth and reconciliation commissions and institutes of memory. The first solution is more popular in African and American countries, the second in Europe. The aim of the discussion was to display the advantages and disadvantages of both models and to summarize the previous experiences in the process of settling accounts with the difficult period of dictatorship.

The keynote speaker was be Dr. David Tolbert, President of the International Center for Transitional Justice. Our panelists included Neela Winkelmann, the Managing Director of the European Platform of Memory and Conscience, who focused in her speech on the Eastern European model of coming to terms with the past i.e. establishing institutes of memory. Other panelists included Sihem Bensedrine, President of the Tunisian Truth and Dignity Commission and a journalist and human rights activist from Tunisia, Mary Burton, member of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission and human rights activist from South Africa, as well as Camilo Gonzalez Posso, Director of the Memory, Peace and Reconciliation Center from La Paz, Colombia.

More information is available at http://warsawdialogue.pl/en/p/wdd_en/