Tokyo Democracy Forum (TDF) 2022

10 RECOMMENDATIONSFOR ACTION
Japan NGO Center for International Cooperation (JANIC)
Asia Democracy Network (ADN)
Asia Development Alliance (ADA)We, the participants of the Tokyo Democracy Forum (TDF) 2022 held on 14-15
February 2022 under the theme “Defending Civic Space in a Time of COVID-19
Pandemic with a Focus on SDG16+”, adopt the followings recommendations
based on the survey, research and discussions on challenges, threats andoppression to CSOs and civic space as well as opportunities and strategies forinternational engagement on democracy, human rights and SDGs in Asia.
SDG16+ implies that the ‘peaceful, just and inclusive societies’ (SDG16) canbe effectively achieved through the simultaneous efforts in other interlinked
SDGs and targets, concretely, combining original 12 targets of the SDG16
with the additional 24 targets from seven other SDGs (1,4,5,8,10, 11 and17), taking the total number of 36 targets.
The TDF is a joint initiative by the Japan NGO Center for International
Cooperation (JANIC), Asia Democracy Network (ADN), and Asia Development
Alliance (ADA) to defend civic space through mutual dialogues and cooperationin Asia.

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Fundamental freedoms and human rights such as freedom ofexpression, assembly and association must be ensured and promotedin the process of recovery and rebuilding from COVID-19 pandemic.
Civic space needs to be ensured to promote inclusive partnershipwhere civil society actors can play a key role as an equal partner, andgovernments need to make more efforts to ensure and provide
enabling environment for effective functioning of CSOs in governanceprocess including appropriate and effective funding mechanisms for
local advocacy CSOs in Asia.
Social security and safety net such as a universal social protection as
well as social solidarity enterprises need to be promoted as a way toensure the basic economic and social rights of the vulnerable people
in a society and to tackle widening inequality.
Domestic laws and policies that restrict and hinder the international
solidarity and cooperation among CSOs in Asia need to be revised inaccordance with the principles of international human rights laws andat the same time, internet freedom and internet security need to beensured.
Free and equal access to vaccine should be recognized as a basic rightto health and in this regard, intellectual property right of the vaccines
should be waived as a way to tackle vaccine inequality anddiscrimination.

678910More effective communication and coordination among CSOs need to
be promoted both domestically and internationally through SDG16+
approach on civic space in the collective response to the impact andrecovery from the COVID-19 Pandemic.
Democratization and inclusive democratic governance is aprerequisite for the effective implementation of the SDGs andparticipation of the overseas migrants in election process need to beensured.
Citizen-generated data for participatory monitoring, research andadvocacy linked to SDGs framework in particular through SDG 16+
approach, needs to be promoted in responding to the COVID-19
pandemic, and there should be more space at the UN APFSD and HLPF
to address civic space issues related to the SDGs.
Regional organizations such as the Association of Southeast Asia
Nations (ASEAN) and South Asia Association for Regional Cooperation(SAARC), as well as G7 and G20 Summits, need to protect and promote
civic space and enabling environment for civil society organizations incooperation with respective governments.
Transparency and accountability on multilateral and bilateraldevelopment cooperation agencies such as the Asia Development
Bank (ADB), Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA), Korea
International Cooperation Agency (KOICA) and other relevant
agencies need to be strengthened for effective development
cooperation.

We will continue to learn about good practices from other countries andcommit ourselves to implement these recommendations through ourrespective organizations and networks.

Tokyo Democracy Forum (TDF) 2022

Tokyo Democracy Forum (TDF) 2022 is a joint initiative by the Japan NGO Center forInternational Cooperation (JANIC), Asia Democracy Network (ADN), and Asia Development
Alliance (ADA), to defend civic space through mutual dialogues and cross-border cooperationin Asia, and took place virtually for 2 days, as a part of the online conference “HAPIC”,
organized by JANIC.
The main objective of the TDF is to increase awareness of shrinking civic space, human rights,
and the importance of SDG16+ among CSO leaders, policymakers, governments, academia,and corporations across Asia. The TDF provides a platform for a wider range of stakeholders
to share experience on advocacy initiatives, implementation, challenges, and progress withregards to SDGs.
The following topics were addressed as the theme of the sessions.
State of the SDGs Implementation in Asia through the Voluntary National Review (VNR)
with a focus on SDG16+
Comparison of how Asian CSOs views on civic space, human rights, and democracy havechanged after the COVID-19 pandemic.
Challenges, threats and oppressions to civil society organizations and civic space in Asia
Recommendations to the UN, Regional Organizations and Regional Development Banks,and governments in Asia for defending civic space
Presenters include:
Abdul Awal, Chairperson, Campaign for Good Governance (SUPRO)
Arjun Bhattarai, Secretary General, NGO Federation of Nepal (NFN)
James Gomez, Regional Director, Asia Centre
Harshvrat Jaitli, Chief Executive Officer, Voluntary Action Network India (VANI)
Eunji Kim, Project Researcher, The Korea Center for Sustainable Development (KCSD)
Asel Kurmantayeva, Development Manager, Innovation for Change initiative, Civil
Society Development Association (ARGO)
Anselmo Lee, Regional Coordinator, Asia Civil Society Partnership for Sustainable
Development (APSD)
Rebecca Malay, GCAP Philippines Convener, Global Call to Action against Poverty (GCAP)
U. Mandkhaitsetsen, Executive Director, Centre for Human Rights and Development
Nguyen Phuong Linh, Executive Director, Management and Sustainable Development
Institute (MSD)
Zia ur Rehman, Chief Executive, AwazCDS-Pakistan
Ry Sovanna, Policy, Legal and Advocacy Manager, Cooperation Committee for Cambodia(CCC)
Gopal Krishna Siwakoti, President, INHURED International
Shamshod Yunusov, Program manager, Nationwide Movement "Yuksalish"
More information available at https://www.janic.org/en