On the background of radical changes on the Arab arena, Cairo hosted for the second year the annual conference for the Study of Arab Civil Society, which was held by the Foundations of Maat for Peace, Development and Human Rights (Egypt) , the Study Centre for Civil Society (Palestine) and the Foundation of Broderskap/ Sweden. The conference was held this year under the title "The Civil Society in Arab Countries and its perspective role in post-Arab spring " –comparative studies between Egypt and Palestine-
The conference which was held during the period December 19-20,2011, started its activities by an editorial speech of Mr. Ayman Okeil, Chairman of the Board of Trustees, of Maat Foundation, who asked in the beginning to stand a minute of silence for the souls of the martyrs of Arab Revolutions and Mr. Maher Issa, Director-General of the Centre for Civil Society Studies "Civitas" and Mr. Lars Lander, International Secretary General of the Swedish Broderskap.
In the conference, a large number of representatives of NGOs and activists, researchers and journalists from several countries, especially Egypt and Palestine, Jordan, Morocco, Lybia, Sudan and Tunis participated. The conference this year addressed four main themes: the first axis was on woman, where two working papers discussed the Palestinian case by the researcher and activist Iman Shannan, and the Egyptian case by the active Hala Morgan. The second axis on the political youth movement, where two working papers presented by researchers Walaa Gad Al-Kareem (Egypt) and Ramy Morad (Palestine).
The third axis was discussed in the working papers on the role perspective of civil society organizations in post-Arab spring where the Egyptian paper presented by Mr. Ayman Okeil, the human rights activist and Chairman of the Board of Trustees of Maat and the Palestinian paper by a researcher and activist Mr. Tayseer Meheisen. The fourth axis covered the expected role of the Arab media in promoting the national dimension of the Arab revolutions and the fight against political corruption. Mrs. Reem Obeidat, the first president of the UNESCO Chair for Women and the media in the Gulf States and the Jordanian media expert and Mr. Mohamed Al-Baba, the Palestinian journalist.
Maat Foundation is working as part of hosting this conference in the framework of the struggle to continue the pivotal role of civil society organizations in national construction phase, which began in the wake of the Arab revolutions and through the opening of approved sharing networking, and exchange of experiences and expertise with the brothers and friends inside and outside of the Arab Area through documented scientific and systematic work in order to formulate visions and ideas that benefit the start-up phase to the future expectancy, which comes in the context of a range of programs and educational activities that Maat is preparing to launch in the coming days.
The conference included a small working groups to discuss the recommendations that can get out to put them in front of decision makers, parties and political forces and civil society organizations and the media to serve the goals of democratization and peaceful transition of power and the benefit of the Arab citizen.
Recommendations focused on the need to reform the regulatory environment and changing the laws that stifling freedoms in the Arab region to serve the goals of the advancement of women and youth empowerment and promotion of social role of civil organizations and the need to focus civic organizations during the transition to the issues that could affect the integrity of the process of democratization, such as communal tensions and low awareness of the political and economic damage. The participants recommended the need to broaden the base of collaborative work between the institutional and civil society organizations in the Arab region in the next phase.

To view the conference working papers, please visit the links