"[The Community of Democracies] represents my own most profound aspiration for the United Nations as a whole. When the United Nations can truly call itself a community of democracies, the Charter's noble ideals of protecting human rights and promoting 'social progress in larger freedoms' will have been brought much closer."

UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan, at the 2000 inaugural meeting of the Community of Democracies

Democratic countries around the world share fundamental commitments to the protection of human rights and the accountability of governments to their people. Recognizing this, over 100 countries came together in 2000 to create the Community of Democracies, an association of democratic states dedicated to strengthening democratic values and institutions at home and abroad. The countries forming the Community of Democracies also agreed to promote democratization through international institutions. 

One of the challenges facing international institutions today is fact that some of the governments that are supposed to represent their people on the world stage are in reality dictatorships or human-rights abusers. An essential step in increasing the accountability of international institutions to the people is to increase the level of democracy and rights in the countries that make them up, and the cooperation between democratic countries within international institutions.

Citizens for Global Solutions supports the creation of a UN Democracy Group [programs/intl_instit/UNDG_factsheet.html">fact sheet] to promote the values of democracy and human rights within the UN system, convening to coordinate international support of member states' efforts to deepen democratic governance, reinforce human rights and promote democratic practices throughout the UN system. We support HR 1590 [bill text PDF | fact sheet], The United States International Leadership Act, which calls for a UN Democracy Group and seeks to improve the U.S. capacity to engage multilaterally.

In July 2003, NGO leaders including Citizens for Global Solutions' Executive Vice President Don Kraus, sent a letter to the members of the Community of Democracies' convening group urging them to take the lead in establishing a UN Democracy Group.

Resources:

• Citizens for Global Solutions Fact Sheet on the Community of Democracies  HTML Format |  PDF Format

• Citizens for Global Solutions Fact Sheet on HR 1590   programs/intl_instit/HR1590_factsheet.html">HTML Format |  PDF Format

• Citizens for Global Solutions Fact Sheet on a UN Democracy Group  programs/intl_instit/UNDG_factsheet.html">HTML Format |  PDF Format

• Text of NGO letter to Community of Democracies' convening group urging the creation of a UN Democracy Group (PDF Format)

• Kofi Annan's speech to the Community of Democracies (PDF Format)

• Community of Democracies Warsaw Declaration (PDF format)