Kuwait: Dashti elected secretary of human rights forum

AMMAN: Kuwait's Rola Dashti was elected Monday evening as Secretary of the Board of Trustees of the Foundation for the Future, part of the Forum for the Future, in appreciation of her efforts in the human rights field.

Rahma Burgaya, the chairperson of the Board of Trustees, said Dashti's election was inevitable given her activity in the human rights field and in promoting democracy, as well as her work with civil societies.

In her own address, Dashti said that she hoped she would be able to support civil societies in Kuwait financially, noting that the Foundation for the Future financed private institutions working to promote human rights and democracy in more than 20 countries in the Middle East and North Africa, including Kuwait.

She said she would encourage Kuwaiti civil societies to benefit from the opportunities offered by the foundation. Meanwhile, the Board of Trustees approved 21 new funding requests worth a total of $3.5 million, bringing the total grants made by the foundation to private institutions since March to $9.5 million.

The financed projects were chosen from a total of 128 submitted to the board, and focus on press freedom, civil culture, protecting economic and social rights, good governance, accountability, judicial reforms, women's empowerment, resolving disputes and arbitration, and minority rights.

Moreover, the board agreed to assign four officers in different areas of the Middle East and North Africa region, to work as incentive providers to civil societies and to attract as many projects and initiatives from civil societies as possible.

Furthermore, Foundation Chairperson Nabila Hamza gave a presentation on the foundation's achievements this year, including training, building capabilities, and conducting research and studies aimed at evaluating the feasibility of civil societies and the challenges they face.

The Amman-based Foundation for the Future was established with the mission to increase and diffuse knowledge concerning the long-term future of humanity. It conducts a broad range of programs and activities to promote an understanding of the factors in the social, genetic, biological, medical, psychological, physiological, cultural, technological, and ecological fields that may have an impact on human life during coming millennia.

The foundation was launched by the Forum for the Future, which was created following the G8 Sea Island Summit in the US state of Georgia in June 2004, during which the major industrialized countries vowed to push forward democratic reforms in the region's countries.

- KUNA