The Convening Group of the Community of Democracies has issued its list of Invitations to the Ministerial Meeting of the Community of Democracies. The Meeting is to be held April 28-30th, 2005, in Santiago, Chile.

For the purpose of determining which governments to invite to the biennial ministerial meetings, the Convening Group relies on the Criteria for Participation paper which delineates the democratic standards countries must adhere to in order to be invited as a Participant. According to the Criteria Paper, governments that do not meet the criteria may be invited as Observers if they are in a transition to democracy and are making concrete steps toward meeting the standards for participation.

In Seoul, all the member states of the Community of Democracies decided that “In accordance with the principles articulated in the Warsaw Declaration, the Community of Democracies, through as wide consultations as possible with its participants, will not include those countries where there is currently a disruption of constitutional rule or severe persistent erosion of or lack of essential elements of democracy.” The essential elements of democracy are defined as being:

• Respect for human rights – civil, political, economic, social, and cultural – including freedom of expression, freedom of the press, and freedom of religion and conscience;
• Access to and free exercise of power in accordance with the rule of law;
• Holding of periodic free and fair elections based on secret balloting and universal suffrage monitored by independent election authorities;
• Freedom of association including the right to form independent political parties;
• Separation of powers, especially an independent judiciary; and
• Constitutional subordination of all state institutions, including the military, to the legally-constituted civilian authority.

The list of countries that have been invited includes:

Participating Countries

Afghanistan, Albania, Andorra, Antigua and Barbuda, Argentina, Australia, Austria, Bahamas, Bahrain, Bangladesh, Barbados, Belgium, Belize, Benin, Bolivia, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Botswana, Brazil, Bulgaria, Canada, Cape Verde, Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, Croatia, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Denmark, Dominica, Dominican Republic, East Timor, Ecuador, El Salvador, Estonia, Fiji, Finland, France, Georgia, Germany, Ghana, Greece, Grenada, Guatemala, Guyana, Honduras, Hungary, Iceland, India, Indonesia, Ireland, Israel, Italy, Jamaica, Japan, Jordan, Kenya, Kiribati, Latvia, Lesotho, Liechtenstein, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Macedonia, Madagascar, Malawi, Malaysia, Mali, Malta, Marshall Islands, Mauritius, Mexico, Micronesia, Moldova, Monaco, Mongolia, Morocco, Mozambique, Namibia, Nauru, Netherlands, New Zealand, Nicaragua, Niger, Nigeria, Norway, Palau, Panama, Papua New Guinea, Paraguay, Peru, Philippines, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Russia, St. Kitts and Nevis, St. Lucia, St. Vincent and the Grenadines, Samoa, San Marino, Sao Tome and Principe, Senegal, Serbia and Montenegro, Seychelles, Slovakia, Slovenia, South Africa, South Korea, Spain, Sri Lanka, Suriname, Sweden, Switzerland, Tanzania, Thailand, Trinidad and Tobago, Turkey, Tuvalu, Ukraine, United Kingdom, United States, Vanuatu, Venezuela, Zambia

Observing Countries

Algeria, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Burkina Faso, Djibouti, Egypt, Gambia, Haiti, Iraq, Kuwait, Lebanon, Oman, Qatar, Sierra Leone, Singapore, Tunisia, Yemen

This list was distributed to participants during the Final Meeting of the Non-Governmental Process for the Community of Democracies, in which CCD was an active participant, which was held on March 3rd and 4th, 2005. In response, participants agreed upon the following statement:

"On the Invitation of States to Participate in the Ministerial Meeting in Santiago:

We, the participants of the Final Meeting of the Non-Governmental Process of Community of Democracies in Santiago, March 3-4, 2005, express our disappointment with the fact that the Convening Group of the Community of Democracies did not fully accept our recommendations on the selection of states to participate in the Ministerial Meeting in Santiago in April 2005. The value of the Community of Democracies and its ability to live up to its principles are very much defined by its composition: only truly democratic states and those demonstrating clear progress on the path to democracy should take part in it. Stringent application by the Convening Group of the selection criteria based on governments implementation of commitments enshrined in the Warsaw Declaration and the Seoul Plan of Action is a key prerequisite to this.

There are four countries on which our opinion differ from that of the Convening Group’s: Bahrain, Fiji, Russia and Venezuela. The invitation of Russia is of special concern to us because unlike with the three other countries on this list, we recommended that Russia should not be invited at all because of a dramatic backslide in democratic development in Russia and the clear non-implementation of its commitments as a CoD member in recent years, especially since the CoD conference in Seoul. While we acknowledge the importance of continued dialogue with an important partner such as Russia and the possible detriments of isolating it, we also believe that this dialogue should be based on recognition of fundamental problems stemming from the erosion of democracy in this country that has an impact at the regional and global level. Obviously, Russia cannot be put in the observer category because that status is meant for states that are not established democracies yet but are demonstrating progress in democratization. This is not the case with Russia. Therefore, we urge the Convening Group and the host country of the Ministerial Meeting to issue a special statement expressing their concern about democratic backslide in Russia."