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Established in 1992 to support the newly emerging democracies of Central
and Eastern Europe, the Westminster Foundation for Democracy is the UK¶s
primary organisation supporting the development of political parties and
democratic institutions around the world. The foundation is a non-
departmental public body and in 2010/11 received an annual grant in aid of
£3.4 million from the FCO. The foundation works with and through all the
Westminster-based political parties, both on a sister-party and cross-party
basis, and is now active in Africa, the Middle East and Asia, as well as in
Eastern Europe and the Balkans.

The foundation¶s projects and programmes promote the values of multi -party
democracy, good governance, tra nsparency and accountability. It has
advanced human rights by ensuring that political parties, parliaments and
elected representatives are able to uphold, protect and realise these rights
through better legislation, oversight and representation .

In 
 , building strong democratic institutions that will promote and
protect human rights is a vital step in Euro -Atlantic integration. But
Macedonia¶s key political institutions lack an awareness and understanding of
universal human rights standards. The foundation has designed and
delivered a tailored programme of support to strengthen the capacity of the
Macedonian parliament to uphold and advance human rights, in partnership
with the Macedonian Young Lawyers Association and the UK¶s International
Bar Association. The foundation also provided training for members and staff
of the Macedonian Assembly¶s Oversight Committee on Human Rights. This
was conducted by local human rights experts, supported by an expert from
the UK Parliament¶s Joint Committee on Human Rights, and focused on the
Macedonian parliament¶s role in upholding the rule of law and implementing
constitutional and human rights obligations.

In ,the foundation has worked with the Uganda Women Parliamentary
Association over a number of years to support gender legislation advocacy.
In 2009 the Uganda Women Parliamentary Association launched a common
women¶s legislative agenda in the Ugandan parliament. As a result, four new
progressive gender bills were enacted in 2010, improving women¶s rights and
access to justice.

In  , the foundation and its local and regional partners developed a think
tank to provide specialist advice in parliamentary affairs and public policies.
The think tank has since published policy papers on key issues rel ating to
health, education, tra nsparency and women¶s rights. Women¶s political rights
continue to be the focus of the foundation¶s work in the Middle East .

In 
, the foundation supported the Lebanese parliament¶s finance

committee in strengthening its budgetary oversight function, including through
reviewing a new government pensions bill. As a result of its findings, the
Lebanese parliament established a sub -committee where the pensions bill
could be discussed and analysed by representatives of al l political parties and
trade unions, with the participation of the minister of labour. The bill was
subsequently revised and will improve social and economic rights for
Lebanese citizens by providing a pensions law for the first time, fully budgeted
by the Lebanese government and consistent with international standards.

In 2010, the foundation also partnered with the International Bar Association¶s
Human Rights Institute under the Westminster Consortium programme, in
Ukraine, Georgia, Uganda, Mozambique and Lebanon and provided training
on the rule of law and human rights for parliamentarians and parliamentary
staff. The programme¶s curriculum was developed with local partners in order
to ensure that it reflects the local political and human rights conte xt.
Workshops organised under the programme provided an opportunity for
participants to develop legislative best practice. In   , participants
focused on the proposed anti-homosexuality bill. This was the first time
parliamentary staff had been challe nged to debate the issue from a legal and
human rights perspective. As a result, the staff agreed that all future
legislation should only be presented to parliament if accompanied with a
certificate stating that it complied with Ugandan and other intern ational human
rights law. The clerk of the Ugandan Human Rights Committee is following up
this proposal with the Committee.

Based on the consortium¶s curriculum, a handbook on the rule of law and

human rights will now be produced for parliamentarians and committees that
the foundation will share with other countries, including those of the East
African Community. The foundation will work with the East African Legislative
Assembly, the central legislative body of the East African Community, to
provide a tailored programme of support to assembly staff on how to use the
handbook.