{"id":7048,"date":"2012-03-13T09:05:11","date_gmt":"2012-03-13T16:05:11","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.crookedbough.com\/?p=7048"},"modified":"2012-03-13T09:05:11","modified_gmt":"2012-03-13T16:05:11","slug":"clinton-pushes-to-protect-ngo-western-democracy-front","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.crookedbough.com\/?p=7048","title":{"rendered":"Clinton Pushes to Protect NGO “Western Democracy” Front"},"content":{"rendered":"

Clinton vows civil society push on rights<\/strong>
\n13 March, 2012 – Agence France Presse<\/p>\n

WASHINGTON: U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton on Tuesday vowed to press ahead with support for democracy promotion groups, saying that they play a critical role despite a crackdown in Egypt.<\/p>\n

Clinton, addressing U.S. ambassadors from around the world who are back in Washington for a group conference, said that civil society groups are vital to encouraging U.S. goals such as advancing democracy and women’s participation.<\/p>\n

“When people feel safe and empowered to pursue their legitimate aspirations, they are more likely to reject extremism and to invest in their own societies,” Clinton said.<\/p>\n

Clinton noted that a number of governments, particularly in the Middle East and North Africa, are curbing such groups and “challenging the propriety of American support for civil society organizations.”<\/p>\n

“I need each of you — and especially those of you operating in restrictive environments — to communicate our commitment to working with and supporting individuals and groups that represent not only what we believe are our values, but universal values: freedoms and human rights,” she told the diplomats.<\/p>\n

Egypt’s relations with Washington recently fell into crisis as the longtime U.S. ally’s military-backed authorities charged staff of the National Democratic Institute, International Republican Institute and Freedom House.<\/p>\n

The groups, which are funded largely by the U.S. government, promote the development of democratic institutions around the world and say that they do not back any particular candidates.<\/p>\n

After pressure from Washington, Egypt allowed 13 foreigners from the groups including six Americans to leave the country on March 1 as they prepared for trial.
\n…more<\/a><\/p>\n

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Clinton vows civil society push on rights 13 March, 2012 – Agence France Presse WASHINGTON: U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton on Tuesday vowed to press ahead with support for democracy promotion groups, saying that they play a critical role despite a crackdown in Egypt. Clinton, addressing U.S. ambassadors from around the world who are more \u00bb<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":27,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[247],"tags":[2674],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.crookedbough.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7048"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.crookedbough.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.crookedbough.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.crookedbough.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/27"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.crookedbough.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=7048"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.crookedbough.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7048\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7049,"href":"https:\/\/www.crookedbough.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7048\/revisions\/7049"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.crookedbough.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=7048"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.crookedbough.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=7048"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.crookedbough.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=7048"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}