What is the CD? -//- Invitation Process -//- Non-Governmental Process -//- WFDA Involvement in CD -//- 4th ISC Meeting and Taipei Asia Regional Roundtable -//- Delhi Workshop on Poverty, Development, and Democracy -//- 4th Ministerial of the Community of Democracies,
Bamako, Mali -//- Jakarta Rountable of the Community of Democracies (NEW!)
What is the CD?
The Community of Democracies (CD) is an intergovernmental organization of democracies and democratizing countries with a stated commitment to strengthening and deepening democratic norms and practices worldwide. The CD is composed of both a governmental component made up government representatives, and a non-governmental component comprised of civil society organizations who meet as a group at biennial ministerial conferences.
Invitation Process
The distinguishing feature of the CD is that the Governmental Process is exclusive. It is open in principle only to governments that are essentially democratic. There is no fixed membership, but the self-appointed "Convening Group" of 16 governments (Cape Verde, Chile, the Czech Republic, El Salvador, India, Italy, Mali, Mexico, Mongolia, Morocco, the Philippines, Poland, Portugal, South Africa, South Korea, and the United States of America) decides before each meeting which governments to invite by consensus. The Convening Group adopted "Criteria for Participation" to determine which governments are qualified to participate, while governments considered to be in the process of a transition to democracy can be invited as "observers". In practice, political, diplomatic, and other concerns often enter the process, raising questions at each meeting as to why a particular country was invited or not.
To help make the process more objective, an "International Advisory Committee" was created in 2006 to make recommendations to the Convening Group. In addition, it is appropriate for civil society organizations to express their opinions about specific cases to the Convening Group governments collectively or individually. In January 2007, a group of WFDA participants has issued a preliminary statement on the issue, and WFDA has launched on online discussion forum on the topic.
Non-Governmental Process
The CD-NGP is governed by an International Steering Committee (ISC) and an Executive Secretariat. Since Mali is the host country for the next Ministerial Meeting (in late 2007), the CD-NGP Executive Secretariat is currently made up of a coalition of Malian NGOs headed by the Malian research institute CERDES. The ISC was formed in early 2006, comprising 21 civil society organizations, four for each of the five regions into which CD is categorized. The ISC held its first meeting on 9-10 March 2006, in Bamako, Mali, and it is currently chaired by Mr. Paul Graham, Executive Director of the Institute for Democracy in South Africa (IDASA). For further information about the CD-NGP, please see the website of the Executive Secretariat.
WFDA Involvement in CD
WFDA actively participates in the Community of Democracies Non-governmental Process (CD-NGP), which runs parallel to the governmental Community of Democracies. The first Asian Regional Workshop for the Santiago Ministerial was held in Taipei in October 2004, which was one of the events that led to the formation of WFDA. WFDA partners participated actively in Santiago, and since then have undertaken to coordinate CD-NGO strategies for the Asian Region.
Several of WFDA’s Steering Committee Members have representatives on the CD-NGO ISC: Dr Michael Y.M. Kau, former President of the Taiwan Foundation for Democracy (TFD); Dr Chee Soon Juan, Chairman of the Alliance for Reform and Democracy in Asia (ARDA); Dr Vo Van Ai, President of the Forum Asia Democracy (FAD); and Mr Augusto N. Miclat, Executive Director of the Initiatives for International Dialogue (IID).
In addition to an omnibus statement of the ISC to the Convening Group of CD governments, noteworthy developments for WFDA at the Bamako meeting included:
• Dr Michael Y.M. Kau was delegated the responsibility to coordinate the Asian Regional Activities for the ISC
• The ISC passed a resolution on Dr Chee Soon Juan, who unfortunately was unable to attend the meeting because the Singapore government confiscated his passport, which prevented him from traveling overseas
The second meeting of the CD-NGO ISC was held in conjunction with the World Movement for Democracy (WMD) 4th Assembly on 12-13 April 2006, in Istanbul, Turkey.
The CD-NGO ISC had its third meeting on 19-20 September 2006, in New York.
At the third meeting of the CD NGO ISC, WFDA SC was represented by Vo Van Ai and Penelope Faulkner from Forum Asia Democracy and Maysing Yang from Taiwan Foundation for Democracy.
Noteworthy developments for the CD NGO ISC at the New York meeting included:
• Coalition Statement to UN Democracy Caucus agreed to by ISC members present for inclusion in ISC material distributed at CD Ministerial/UN Democracy Caucus meeting on 20 September;
• Roundtable Luncheon on UN Democracy Caucus on 18 September, at Church Center for the UN;
• ISC presented "Assault on Democracy" resolution to the CD Convening Group for action at Ministerial meeting of UN Democracy Caucus at UN, 20 September. To read the full ISC statement please click here;
• ISC members resolved to contact CD members in their regions to encourage them to present their candidates and to campaign for the election to the Council of 1-2 members of democratic UN member states from each ISC region;
4th ISC Meeting and Taipei Asia Regional Roundtable
From 22-24 January 2007, the fourth meeting of ISC and the Taipei Roundtable on Democracy in Asia were hosted by the TFD, with financial support from the Council for a Community of Democracies and the WMD.
The Taipei Roundtable was the first event in the region to discuss the regional expectations of and strategy towards the Bamako Ministerial Meeting and to set out recommendations on how the CD-NGP can assist democratization in the Asian region. H.E. Lu Hsiu-lien A., Vice President of Taiwan, was a special guest speaker at the opening of the Roundtable. To download the transcript of Vice President Lu’s speech, please click here.
Following the meeting, the Asian members of the ISC launched a statement expressing the views of Asian members of the Non-Governmental Process on the invitations of Asian governments to Bamako.
Delhi Workshop on Poverty, Development, and Democracy
The main theme of the Bamako Ministerial was "Poverty, Development, and Democracy." In order to enable the Asian regional civil society network to make a constructive contribution to Bamako, on 18-19 May 2007, a second regional preparatory event was held in New Delhi to discuss this topic in depth. Co-organized by WFDA, the Institute of Social Sciences, and the Council for a Community of Democracies, the event brought together 21 international participants from 16 countries as well as many distinguished experts and civil society leaders from India. The Hon. Anand Sharma, Minister of State for External Affairs, was invited to address the event on behalf of the Government of India.
For the full program of the event, please click here.
4th Ministerial of the Community of Democracies,
Bamako, Mali (14 – 17 November 2007)
From November 15-17, 2007 the 4th Ministerial of the Community of Democracies took place in
Bamako, Mali , attended by governmental and nongovernmental delegates from more then 100 countries. WFDA assisted several Asian nongovernmental delegates to attend; however, in order to please
China , the government of
Mali decided at the last minute to exclude the two delegates from the TFD, representing
Taiwan .
During the Asian and Oceanan Regional Roundtable discussions, Vo Van Ai; a member of the ISC presented the state of democracy and human rights throughout
Asia . Vo Van Ai stated that democracy in
Asia faces great challenges: on a continent where two-thirds of the world’s population live you can find vibrant examples of democracies as well as some of the most brutal regimes in the world.
On 14 November, the nongovernmental ISC also met to finalize preparations for participation in the Ministerial. The ISC also adopted a number of statements, including:
• Statement on
Burma
• Statement on Exclusion of
Taiwan Delegates
• Statement on
Pakistan
In keeping with the previous Ministerials, the main end product of the governmental conference was a joint declaration, called the Bamako Ministerial Consensus on Democracy, Development and Poverty Reduction. The Consensus further reaffirms the importance of democracy in order to reduce poverty and to support sustainable development.
The next Ministerial meeting is due to take place in 2009 in
Portugal .
Event Photo Gallery
Community of Democracies Non-Governmental Process, Asia Roundtable, Jakarta
Over 50 civil society leaders from 17 countries gathered in Jakarta on 30th April and 1st May 2009 to participate in a Regional Roundtable, “The Implications of the Financial and Economic Crisis on Democratic Governance in Asia.”The event was organized by the World Forum for Democratization in Asia (WFDA) and its Indonesian partner, the Civil Society Alliance for Democracy (Yappika), with the sponsorship of the Taiwan Foundation for Democracy (TFD). This round-table was part of a global effort by the Non-Governmental Process of the Community of Democracies to engage governments in the run-up to the Community of Democracies Ministerial Meeting in Lisbon, Portugal on 10-11 July. The Roundtable's recommendations will be presented to the Community of Democracies for inclusion in the official documents which will be adopted in Lisbon.
Click here for the press release from the event
Discussion Outline:
Thematic Panel I: Lessons from the 1997 Asian financial crisis
- How did the Asian financial crisis help or hinder democratization efforts in Asia?
- In Indonesia, how did the political landscape change? How did government and civil society actors respond to the financial crisis? What strategies did they use to promote democratic reform?
- Additional case studies: Thailand, Malaysia, South Korea
- What is the relationship between economic development and democracy? (Quick review recommendations from the Bamako Ministerial, where the theme was “Poverty, Development and Democracy”)
Thematic Panel II: The impact of the present economic crisis on democratization in Asia
- What have been the responses of Asian governments thus far, in terms of either accelerating or decelerating democratic reforms?
- What threats are emerging as a result of the crisis?
- What opportunities exist for civil society to promote deeper democratization?
Thematic Panel III: The response of CD governments to the economic crisis
- How can CD governments articulate the “democratic advantage”in today's climate?
- What can democratic governments do to strengthen solidarity in the face of the crisis, for example to assist fellow democracies to cope with the impacts of the crisis?
- How can democracy promotion activities be sustained, if not enhanced, under current conditions?
Workshop A: Making the CD more effective
- How should Working Groups or other mechanisms function between Ministerials?
- What improvements, if any, are needed in the invitation process?
- How can the CD react to threats to democracy in a timely manner?
- How can the CD act more cohesively in the UN and other international forums?
Workshop B: Building a Regional Constituency for CD in Asia
- How can governments of Asian democracies play a more active role in CD?
- How can regional civil society networks enhance their advocacy vis-à-vis the CD?
The conference also adopted a joint statement regarding the fate of the Singapore Democratic Party in the wake of several charges and lawsuits being brought against their leaders.
