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One Year Later: Prospects
for a Democratic Transition in Iran
a half-day conference
8:30 a.m. - 2:15 p.m.
at the National Endowment for Democracy
1025 F Street, NW, Suite 800
Washington, DC 20004
and
The Presentation of the 2010 Democracy Award
to the Green Movement for Democracy in Iran
5:00 p.m. - 7:00 p.m.
at the Rayburn House Office Building, Room B-339/340
South Capitol Street and Independence Avenue
Washington, DC 20515
RSVP by June 7 (acceptances only):
rsvp@ned.orgor (202) 378-9690 begin_of_the_skype_highlighting (202) 378-9690 end_of_the_skype_highlighting
please indicate conference and/or reception
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Conference Agenda
8:30 - 9:00 a.m.
Registration and Continental Breakfast
9:00 - 9:30 a.m.
Opening Statements
Senator Ted Kaufman(confirmed)
SenatorJohn McCain (invited)
9:30 - 10:45 a.m.
Panel I: Lessons from Other Transitions to Democracy
Presenters
Larry Diamond, Stanford University
Dan Brumberg, Georgetown University
Commentators
Abbas Milani, Stanford University
Azar Nafisi, Johns Hopkins University
Moderator
Marc Plattner, National Endowment for Democracy
10:45 - 11:00 a.m.
Coffee Break
11:00 a.m. - 12:15 p.m.
Panel II: The Road Ahead - Strategic Challenges for the Democratic Movement in Iran
Presenters
Ladan Boroumand,The Abdorrahman Boroumand Foundation
Nikahang Kowsar, Iranian satirist and blogger
Ali Akbar Mousavi, Stanford University
Fershteh Ghazi, Journalist and human rights campaigner
Moderator
Mahnaz Afkhami, Women's Learning Partnership
12:30 p.m.
Lunch
1:00 - 2:15 p.m.
Film screening: For Neda
The new HBO documentary tells the personal story of Neda Agha-Soltan's life and tragic death in the context of the protests following the presidential elections last year in Iran.
One year after the disputed June 12 election in Iran, which sparked the mass protests called the Green Movement, the conflict between the Islamic regime and the opposition remains unresolved. The regime retains control of the governing institutions and instruments of coercion, but its legitimacy has been gravely weakened. Thousands of opposition activists have been exiled, jailed, or murdered, and the besieged movement's access to the Internet has been severely restricted. But the movement has survived this first year and shows no signs of retreating. Its resilience in the face of harsh repression has been a triumph of courage and a source of hope to people in Iran and throughout the world. Still, the challenges that lie ahead are formidable. Are there lessons that Iranian democrats can learnfrom freedom struggles in other regions? Will the democratic movement in Iran be able to broaden its base by reaching out to the poorer classes in the cities and provinces? And will it be able to unite reformers and those seeking more fundamental change around a common vision of a new Iran based on the values of human dignity, freedom and opportunity? These are among the momentous questions that will be addressed at this conference on the eve of the first anniversary of the Green Movement's protests for democracy in Iran.
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