BMENA: DAD INTERGOVERNMENTAL MEETING IN ANKARA,

C O N F I D E N T I A L ANKARA 000946 SIPDIS SIPDIS E.O. 12958: DECL: 02/24/2016 TAGS: PREL KDEM KWMN XD XF XI TU SUBJECT: BMENA: DAD INTERGOVERNMENTAL MEETING IN ANKARA, MAY 22-23 REF: ISTANBUL 0211 Classified By: Political Counselor Janice G. Weiner for Reasons 1.4 (b, d). ¶1. (SBU) Summary. Turkish MFA BMENA Coordinator (and Personal Representative of the OSCE CIO on Combating Intolerance and Discrimination against Muslims) Ambassador Omur Orhun and MFA Policy Planning Staff BMENA Director Levent Gumrukcu told us recently the GOT is preparing invitations for a May 22-23 intergovernmental Democracy Assistance Dialogue (DAD) conference in Ankara. The GOT hopes minister or deputy minister level representatives from BMENA participants will come and adopt the Final Statement issued at the February Istanbul Symposium on Gender Equality and Political Participation (reftel). The GOT may be looking for additional funding to support civil society attendees. The next DAD theme will likely be media freedom. End Summary. ¶2. (SBU) Orhun and Gumrukcu briefed us separately February 21 and 24 on Turkey's preparations for an intergovernmental conference in Ankara on May 22-23. The May conference, to be hosted by Foreign Minister Abdullah Gul and State Minister for Women and Family Nimet Cubukcu, will follow up on work done at the June 2005 and February 2006 Istanbul NGO symposia on women's issues. At the conference, governments will be asked to endorse the Final Statement from the February Symposium entitled "Gender Equality and Political Participation." The GOT hopes to use the conference to encourage states to restrict the scope of their reservations to the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW) and to further a government-civil society dialogue on CEDAW implementation. While the GOT will address its invitations, to be distributed in early March, to ministers in relevant ministries, it expects that most countries will send deputy ministers to the conference. The GOT plans to invite civil society representatives as well. ¶3. (C) Orhun confided to us that the Turkish DAD partner NGO TESEV, responsible for inviting and supporting civil society attendees, does not have sufficient funding at this time for the May meeting. Orhun wondered if U.S. or UK funding would be available to assist TESEV in this regard. (Note. In this context, Orhun expressed some concern over how the three partner NGOs get access to U.S. funding -- NFI. End Note.) Orhun added that the GOT is hoping to hold a DAD coordination meeting on the margins of the May event. ¶4. (SBU) Addressing future events, Orhun and Gumrukcu said the GOT is looking forward to a late June conference in Sanaa to evaluate the results of the Italian and Turkish DAD efforts thus far. Yemen has also offered to organize a smaller conference in late August where DAD partners can discuss how to address the next likely DAD theme: freedom of expression and media freedom. WILSON