U. N. Democracy Caucus

The 2003 National Convention of the United Nations association of the USA

Recalling that Secretary-General of the United Nations, Kofi Annan, stated at the inaugural conference of the Community of Democracies in Warsaw, 2000, "I am particularly gratified that this new coalition is meeting to support the founding values of our Organization, as set out in the Charter and in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights...(and that) the theme of this conference, "Towards a Community of Democracies" represents my own most profound aspiration for the United Nations as a whole...”, and

Observing that the present system of regional blocs, which has resulted in the election of a representative to the chair of the U.N. Human Rights Commission from Libya, a nation whose terrorist record betrays that body's purpose, and which has elected to membership on that same Commission, Cuba, despite its record of human rights abuse, demonstrates the need for a greater participation in such elections on the part democratically governed U.N. member states, and

Recognizing that the formation of a "U.N. democracy caucus", proposed by the Community of Democracies at both its June 2000 Warsaw, Poland and November 2002 Seoul, Korea, Ministerial Conferences, and parallel Nongovernmental Forum, would serve to broaden the participation by such U.N. member states in the Organization's decision-making process, and

Noting that UNA-USA adopted a resolution in favor of the formation of a UN democracy caucus in 1996 and did so a second time at its last Annual Conference in New York in 2001, and

Observing that it is the declared policy of the United States to support and foster democratic governance worldwide, including within the United Nations,

Therefore resolves that this Annual Meeting of UNA-USA recommends most strongly that the democratic member states in the U.N. support the formation of a U.N. democracy caucus and, further, that full support for this U.N. reform be proclaimed by the United States at the highest level and in a fashion, which conveys to the entire world that our national policy of fostering democracy, worldwide, is dependent on collaboration with other democratic nations and with those nations, which aspire to democratic governance.

Submitted by the United Nations Association of the National Capital Area