UNIPATH STAFF
The National Dialogue Conference (NDC) sessions began March 18, 2013, in Sanaa, Yemen.
The six-month-long process brought together 565 delegates representing 16 different political factions to discuss a range of complex and important issues. These include drafting a new constitution and the restructuring of state and political systems. Elections are planned for February 2014.
To ensure security for the participants during the first plenary session, the government stationed 60,000 troops in the capital, with checkpoints on nearly every street. Local television stations ran live coverage of conference sessions.
Opening the conference at Sanaa’s presidential palace, President Abd Rabuh Mansur Hadi said that the talks would form the basis for a “new, unified, safe and free Yemen,” according to a BBC report.
The first plenary session, which ran for three weeks, ended on April 3, when delegates broke into nine working groups. These met for two months of discussion and negotiation on the most pressing issues facing the country: good governance, rights and freedoms, the army and security, national reconciliation, development and others.
After two months of intense focus, working groups presented their findings to the larger session for review and commentary. They’ll return to process this feedback for another two months before the conference convenes again to draft and ratify a constitution.
During the working group sessions, delegates heard presentations from both experts and stakeholders. In the Army and Security Working Group, for example, British military expert Andrew Coredri delivered a lecture on the requirements needed to build up a nation’s military and security forces, using South Africa’s reconciliation process as an example.
Working group member and former Interior Minister Rashad al-Alimi also made a presentation to the group. “The bases on which an army is built should include the turning of a new leaf and forgetting of past negativity,” he said.
High Stakes
The Yemeni people know that unless the national dialogue is able to forge a compromise between the different factions, the country risks falling into open conflict and instability.
“[A]ll hopes are pinned on the ability of the NDC and its attendees to find a compromise which all parties will find acceptable,” read a report in the Yemen Post.
Sheik Sadiq al-Ahmar, head of Yemen’s powerful Hashid tribe and a member of the NDC, told the London-based Asharq al-Awsat newspaper: “There can be no doubt that there are differences between the viewpoints inside the National Dialogue Conference which are causing difficulties, however this is only natural. … [W]e hope that all those involved will emerge with results that preserve Yemen’s unity, security, and stability, as well as allow the country to overcome its economic difficulties in order to enter a new era of harmony, reconciliation, development and the rule of law.”
The NDC has set an ambitious timetable, given the thorny and difficult issues it intends to confront. But simply having moved the process forward to this point — especially with so many railing against it — is commendable. Despite the high stakes, the fear of failure and the sense that there is no alternative may yet tip the scales in favor of compromise, peace and democracy. Strong international support, especially from the U.N. and the Gulf Cooperation Council, have helped as well.
In an interview with Asharq al-Awsat in the weeks before the dialogue began, U.N. Envoy Jamal Benomar spoke optimistically of a positive outcome: “The Yemenis have succeeded in moving with relentless steps toward achieving their aim of peaceful change … I hope that all sides will cooperate in a constructive way to make the National Dialogue Conference succeed, to draft a new constitution, and prepare for the general elections next year.”
Sources: Al-Shorfa, Asharq al-Awsat, BBC, Foreign Policy, Institute for Defence Studies and Analyses, International Foundation for Electoral Systems, National Dialog Conference (ndc.ye), Project on Middle East Political Science, Reuters, Saba–Yemen News Agency, U.S. Institute for Peace, Yemen Post, Yemen-iaty.com