2 0 0 7 OSI MISSION SOROS FOUNDATIONS NETWORK REPORT C O V E R P H O T O G R A P H Y Burmese monks, normally the picture of calm The Open Society Institute works to build vibrant and reflection, became symbols of resistance in and tolerant democracies whose governments SOROS FOUNDATIONS NETWORK REPORT 2007 2007 when they joined demonstrations against are accountable to their citizens. To achieve its the military government’s huge price hikes mission, OSI seeks to shape public policies that on fuel and subsequently the regime’s violent assure greater fairness in political, legal, and crackdown on the protestors. Thousands of economic systems and safeguard fundamental monks were arrested and jailed. The Democratic rights. On a local level, OSI implements a range Voice of Burma, an Open Society Institute of initiatives to advance justice, education, grantee, helped journalists smuggle stories out public health, and independent media. At the of Burma. OSI continues to raise international same time, OSI builds alliances across borders awareness of conditions in Burma and to support and continents on issues such as corruption organizations seeking to transform Burma from and freedom of information. OSI places a high a closed to an open society. more on page 91 priority on protecting and improving the lives of marginalized people and communities. more on page 143 www.soros.org SOROS FOUNDATIONS NETWORK REPORT 2007 Promoting vibrant and tolerant democracies whose governments are accountable to their citizens ABOUT THIS REPORT The Open Society Institute and the Soros foundations network spent approximately $440,000,000 in 2007 on improving policy and helping people to live in open, democratic societies. OSI worked on issues ranging from human rights, to access to education, to freedom of information, to public health in a variety of ways. These pages highlight many of the activities and achievements of OSI and the Soros foundations, and describe some of OSI’s methods, including advocacy campaigns, court cases, public education, and support for direct services. Five of OSI’s priority issues—the TB and HIV epidemics, international justice, Roma, natural resource revenues, and economic development—are profiled in photographs and in stories by OSI Senior Writer Chuck Sudetic. Writer Elizabeth Rubin reports on OSI’s support for the immigrants’ rights movement in the United States. To learn more about the issues and programs in this report, go to www.soros.org. SOROS FOUNDATIONS NETWORK REPORT 2007 Copyright © 2008 by the Open Society Institute 400 West 59th Street, New York, NY 10019 USA www.soros.org All rights reserved, including the right to reproduce this book or portions thereof in any form. Cover photograph: Burmese monks Photographer: Mary Kate McKenna 2 :: SOROS FOUNDATIONS NETWORK REPORT 2007 :: SOROS FOUNDATIONS NETWORK REPORT 2007 4 President’s Message The Global Struggle for Open Society 10 PHOTO ESSAY Struggling with Tuberculosis Rising to the Challenge of the TB and HIV Epidemics 24 PHOTO ESSAY Judgment Day for Leaders Accused of Atrocities Bringing War Criminals to Justice 38 PHOTO ESSAY Many Faces of the Roma Supporting the Roma in Securing Their Rights 50 PHOTO ESSAY Living on the Pipeline Opening the Books on Natural Resource Revenues 62 PHOTO ESSAY The Farmer, the Florist, and the Blacksmith Helping Small Businesses Build Strong Communities 72 Regions Europe 72 | Asia 86 | Middle East and North Africa 93 | Africa 94 | Latin America and the Caribbean 100 | 104 Initiatives Justice and Governance 104 | Public Health 112 | Education, Information, and Media 118 | Other Programs 126 | 130 United States Protecting Immigrants’ Rights Against Government-led Attacks U.S. Programs 138 | 142 Open Society Institute 154 Expenditures 160 Directory 168 Credits 3 Fleeing violence after disputed presidential election results, over 10,000 Kikuyu seek refuge in a camp for internally displaced persons in Kenya, February 2008. 4 :: SOROS FOUNDATIONS NETWORK REPORT 2007 :: PRESIDENT’S MESSAGE The Global Struggle for Open Society OSI has been deeply concerned with efforts to “strengthen African institutions focusing on human rights, African regional courts, and the role of the African Union in addressing electoral disputes such as those that arose in the early part of 2008 in Kenya and Zimbabwe.” :: PRESIDENT’S MEssAGE :: 5 N THE EARLY years of the Open Society As we approach the end of the first decade Institute and the Soros foundations network, in of the 21st century, the main focus of the Open the 1980s and the 1990s, our main effort was to Society Institute and the Soros foundations take advantage of moments of transition to help network has shifted. We operate worldwide and set formerly repressive countries on the path we see ourselves engaged in a global struggle to becoming more open societies. In addition, for open society. That struggle involves global starting in the mid-1990s with the launch of our campaigns and global institutions; also, many programs in the United States, we made an times, issues arise in particular countries or Ieffort to address some of the flaws of an open regions that become the focus of intense activity society. We achieved some successes and suffered by OSI both because of their intrinsic significance some failures. in their own locality and because of their global The largest and most obvious failure was significance. Some aspects of the global struggle the hardening repression in Russia that took for open society are addressed by OSI through our place under Vladimir Putin. Today’s Russia, of own operating programs. In other cases, we rely course, cannot be compared to the old Soviet primarily on grantmaking to other organizations. Union. There are no counterparts today to the pervasive use of imprisonment to punish peaceful dissenters; even in Russia’s restricted Global Campaigns media environment, there is far greater diversity and freedom of expression than in Soviet times; Some of the global campaigns that we have Russians may now travel freely to other countries; conducted in recent years and that continue today today, victims of human rights abuses frequently seek to do the following: are vindicated by the European Court of Human Rights. Still, Russia’s failure to become a more > advocate for increased government open society must be counted as the most severe transparency, including implementation of disappointment for the network. national freedom of information laws In contrast, however, there have been significant successes.T en countries where we > develop and strengthen international established foundations have become members criminal tribunals holding accountable of the European Union. In several other government officials and leaders of countries, the Soros foundations have contributed antigovernment forces principally to developments that make it legitimate and responsible for war crimes, crimes against reasonable for these countries also to aspire to EU humanity, and genocide membership in the foreseeable future. Though the European Union is flawed, it is the best institutional > promote transparency and accountability guarantor in its own territory of peace, stability, for the revenues that governments derive economic progress, and adherence to open from the exploitation of natural resources society principles and values that has developed internationally since the end of World War II. 6 :: SOROS FOUNDATIONS NETWORK REPORT 2007 :: The European Union is the best institutional guarantor in its own territory of peace, stability, economic progress, and adherence to open society principles and values that has developed internationally since the end of World War II. > ensure adequate international funding for issues: the misuse of public funds, public health, the global effort to fightA IDS, tuberculosis, and accountability for atrocious crimes. In the and malaria years ahead, it is possible that other such global institutions will emerge, such as an institution > promote a harm reduction approach to that fosters efforts to mitigate climate change and the problem of injecting drug use and that assists those countries most severely affected. minimize its impact in spreading HIV In addition to our support for global institutions that address important parts of > make the findings of government-funded our agenda, the Open Society Institute and the scientific and medical research available to Soros foundations network are attempting to all without burdensome financial costs enhance the ability of regional bodies to address issues of concern to us. One recent example is > increase the availability of free legal our leadership role in establishing the European representation to criminal defendants who Council on Foreign Relations. Its main purpose is cannot afford a lawyer and a related effort to help ensure that the European Union develops to reduce pretrial detention and implements policies promoting the values of the EU in relations with other parts of the world, > protect freedom of the press by such as Russia and the Middle East. strengthening associations of journalists OSI has been deeply concerned with efforts and media defense groups and by to strengthen African institutions focusing on establishing a new organization to provide human rights, African regional courts, and the legal representation to journalists facing role of the African Union in addressing electoral libel suits and other legal challenges disputes such as those that arose in the early part of 2008 in Kenya and Zimbabwe. Also, we have supported efforts to make the Association of Global Institutions Southeast Asian Nations play a role in its region in protecting human rights; and we have supported Some of the global institutions that are a organizations that litigate in the European Court focus of our work are the Extractive Industries of Human Rights and the Inter-American Court Transparency Initiative, the Global Fund to of Human Rights because of the important role Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria, and the played by those regional bodies. International Criminal Court (ICC). A notable feature of these three institutions, all created during this decade, is that they are free-standing.