Democracy Day

Democracy Day - Empowering Action started as an attempt to bring together the Sam community to discuss the issues confronting democracy and democratic life at home and abroad. It was, and remains, our belief that democracy, the rule of law, as well as civil and legal equality are under threat from rising authoritarianism and a lack of faith in democratic institutions. Our event was designed to inform the Sam community of these issues, but to also give them the tools to do something about them. Scheduled for March 19th, 2020, our initial event was canceled due to the COVID pandemic.

But we are not deterred by this setback. If anything, the pandemic has made clear that these threats are very real as governments seek to curtail access to information about the disease. Limiting information in this way threatens our ability as people to constitute the government. As the third President of Kosovo Atifete Jahjaga said:

“Democracy must be built through open societies that share information. When there is information, there is enlightenment. When there is debate, there are solutions. When there is no sharing of power, no rule of law, no accountability, there is abuse, corruption, subjugation and indignation.”

We at Democracy Day - Empowering Action are committed to facilitating that openness over the coming months and years. We have developed exciting projects to develop new content to inform Sam students and the broader community of how they can keep our democracy strong. Please see our Calls for Content at the provided links and continue to check in for that content to be posted!