Former Secretary of State Madeleine K. Albright
Address to the Community of Democracies NGO Forum
Seoul, Korea
November 10, 2002

Thank you, Harold.  I think you can all understand how important it was to have someone like Harold Koh as the Assistant Secretary of State for Democracy, Human Rights and Labor.   Harold was in many ways, my conscience at the State Department.  Harold, it feels right to have you introduce me here.  Both of our families came to America in search of safety when democracy was crushed in our homelands.

You have become one of America’s greatest champions of liberty and individual rights.  And now we are working with our friends here on promoting democracy – and it is all the more fitting to be doing so here in Korea, where your father was so well known for defending the same values to which you are so committed.

I am proudest of America when it stands up for the principles that the founders believed were both self-evident and universal.

• Every individual counts.

• For all our differences of race, culture, background and birth, we are equal at the ballot box and before the law.

• Everyone has the right to live in a democracy.

These truths remain the most powerful and revolutionary forces for economic and social progress in the world.  Over time, they have attracted champions on every continent and lifted the lives of billions of people.  More than two years ago, they brought representatives from more than 100 countries to Warsaw.

And they have brought us here today.

Several years ago, I worked with my good friend, Bronislaw Geremek, Kim Dae Jung, Vaclav Havel, and others to establish the Community of Democracies and attended the meeting of governments in Warsaw, as well as the parallel nongovernmental forum.

Before I became a US government official, I had spent much of my time working in community organizations, in the Democratic Party, and with friends around the world seeking to bring democracy to one party states.  Now democracy has returned me to what Harry Truman said was a promotion—the rank of citizen.

And it is as a citizen that I am happy to speak with you this afternoon.

I am proud to say that I am again working on democracy, as Chairman of the National Democratic Institute. I know there are many friends of NDI in this room.

While we celebrate democracy at this important gathering, we are also cognizant of the hard reality of the democratic struggle in so many places.

I could give you a rousing speech on the benefits of democracy, but thought instead I would use this time to discuss some of the work that lies ahead.

In this regard, I want to recognize “missing democrats” who were unable to join us—denied the right to travel by their repressive governments.

They are: Ang Sang Suu Ki of Burma, who I am sad to say, looks more and more tired each year. I am tired of seeing her in videos, I want her here with us; Oswaldo Paya of Cuba, whose video you will see after lunch and Morgan Shangarye of Zimbabwe, whom we had the opportunity to greet at NDI.

They are true democratic heroes, who have sacrificed so much and whose vision of a better future for their people will, I am confident, ultimately be realized.

We, individually and collectively, must serve as their ambassadors.

We are fortunate that Gibson Sabanda the Vice President of Zimbabwe’s Movement for Democratic Change was able to be with us.

We heard a message from ASSK and will hear one from Paya, a film about his Varela Project.

We will also be able to view a very special documentary film on Paya’s Varella project, which will be shown after this session.

We in this room have reason to feel proud of what our fellow citizens around the globe have done.

During the past quarter century, democracy has advanced on every continent.  More than half the world’s people live under elected leaders.

That’s never happened before.

In the months before the Warsaw Declaration was issued, Nigeria and Indonesia overthrew long-entrenched dictatorships and became electoral democracies; East Timor was finding a way to become one of the world’s newest democracies, and Milosevic’s regime, the last dictatorship in Europe, was months away from collapsing under the persistent opposition of its own people.

The Community of Democracies responded to this groundswell by taking a picture of this moment, a snapshot in which more than 100 countries asserted a remarkable proposition – that democracy is a part of the global heritage, not a legacy of any particular region, religion, or trait.

As my friend, Oumar Konare, then the President of Mali, said in 2000, “[P]eoples of all backgrounds, regardless of racial, religious or cultural differences, have decided to pay tribute to the idea of democracy, which is thereby seen as a universal value commonly accepted by the governments and all the moral authorities represented here in Warsaw.”

The Community of Democracies was born from a simple idea.

Lofty ideals matter, but they need a place where they can take life – a place where they can be discussed, where plans to implement them can be considered, a place on the high ground where nations will aspire to be represented, and where each will have an incentive to earn its way.

For governments to come together once was a good achievement.  For them to come together a second time may be even more important… and great news about a third and fourth.  I applaud that.  We have to keep sustaining this effort.

Now that democracies have a place where they can come together, share experiences, identify common interests, and find ways to help one another, we should do what we can as citizens to urge that they use it properly.

How can we do that? First, we should help to see that the Community of Democracies remains relevant.

When we met in the year 2000, we agreed that democracies should join together to fight terrorism. And we had no idea how bad things could get.

Since the Warsaw meeting, terrorists have killed thousands of all races and religions, using whatever weapons they could find.  The terrorists behind that attack showed us what kind of society they favored when they supported the Taliban’s Afghanistan -- a society in which a few, chosen by religion, family, and money, dictate to the many; in which women have no vote, no voice, and no place in public life; and in which questions and tolerance are punished, not encouraged.

The terrorists have shown that they are enemies, not of western civilization or modern civilization, but of civilization itself.  Governments have properly responded in self-defense, and the fight against terrorism consumes governments’ attention.

There are those who fear democracy because they think it undermines security and stability. To them I say, you are wrong, democracy is one of our best guarantors of security.

I know there are some who point with concern to the so-called Arab street, equating Islam with terrorism.  To them I say: You are so wrong.  There is far more to fear from the silenced and the left out than from any group with a real stake in shaping its own future, and a real responsibility for articulating and defending its ideas.

It is wrong to suggest that democracy and Islam are somehow incompatible.  A recent poll cited in the Economist found that 83% of western Christians say they approve of democratic ideals.  The comparable figure for Muslims was 85%.  Well over half of the Arabs surveyed say they approve of freedom and democracy.

It is an illusion to believe we can defeat terror in the long run by allying ourselves with non-democratic regimes in Central and South Asia, or by failing to press for democracy in the Middle East.

The Community of Democracies needs to be a place where governments remind one another of that fact.  The ministers are considering a declaration that will call democracy crucial to security against terrorism.  We should all support and amplify this message.

Moreover, the ministers are using the CD meeting to form new approaches toward the war on terrorism.  This shows the strength and value of that forum.

I welcome the governments’ use of the Seoul Declaration to build on what we did in 2000 to call on all democracies to oppose terrorism and suspend assistance to any state that supports terrorism.  As citizens, we can also require that our governments conduct the fight against terrorism in ways that respect democratic values.

We cannot allow the fight against terrorism to become a pretext for government oppression.

Too many governments are looking for opportunities to settle scores and preserve their control under the cloak of the war on terrorism.

Dissent and scrutiny of our governments’ policies are not unpatriotic acts; they are the responsibilities of citizenship.   And I say this about my own country as well as others.  We can help the Community of Democracies work by reminding governments of a basic truth: they need civil society.

The forces that mediate between governments and their citizens are sitting right in this room: nongovernmental organizations are crucial for democracies to work and must have the right to work.

For civil society to succeed, governments need to accept that they have no monopoly on ideas, that they will have to share the attention of their citizens, that they cannot control how and with whom their citizens choose to meet. The rights of all to freedom of association and of expression are building blocks of democracy. We are learning that civil society and tolerance are not enough to guarantee a functioning democracy.

Political parties that are strong, accountable, and representative are an indispensable link between citizens and their elected representatives.

When parties fail to perform, the entire democratic system is threatened.  More attention must be directed to reform, renewal and modernization of political parties.

Now the Community of Democracies must organize itself to promote and protect democracy.  In those places, which have denied their people fundamental human and political rights, we must find practical ways to assist those forces struggling against tremendous odds to bring about peaceful democratic change.

We must not only point out when a country has gone wrong, but also we must unite in supporting it. While autocracies are inherently isolated and fearful of the outside world, democracies can count on natural allies and an active support structure. This always reminds me of the Pope’s visit to Poland in 1979. To prepare for his visit the polish people organized with each other and came into the center square to see - and I know this isn’t an English sentence – to see how many of each other there were. 

We can also urge our governments to protect democracy from threats.  We must admit that there are those who call themselves democrats, who are anything but.   Those who use the democratic idiom while suppressing their people, or robbing them of their wealth, should not be able to hide and claim legitimacy.

We must be honest enough to tell it like it is and not support these kinds of “pseudo democratic governments” with the phony excuse that they are contributing to stability.

In fact, we know that ultimately their actions are the source of instability.

I am at this meeting, in part, because of a task force I was privileged to co- chair with my friend of more than twenty years, former Polish Foreign Minister Bronislaw Geremek, a true fighter for democracy.

Experts from five continents came together to consider how the international community should respond to threats against democracy.

We began by acknowledging a basic fact.

After the euphoria of a democratic transition wears off, democracies are faced with the hard realities of governing.  When people feel that a democratic government is not helping them be safe, prosperous, and proud of their country’s values, many people question democracy itself, rather than just the policies of that particular government.  So around the world, democracies need support.  The first and best place they can look for that support should be from other democracies.

But, too often they are not getting it.

When the people of a country have chosen democracy, no one has the right to disrupt it. But when a country has made the choice, when its people have struggled as we here have all struggled, no self-appointed leader – no matter how popular or how important to an international cause – should be able to strip them of their choice.

In the conclusions of our Task Force, this is not just a principle.

It is a call for action.

The international community can organize itself to help those who want to become and remain democratic. It can bolster sagging governments by helping with the challenges of everyday governance on issues such as transparency, corruption, organized crime, and producing jobs. It can deter coups by promising that those who carry them out will not be regarded as legitimate. And it can use all the peaceful means at its disposal to return countries to democracy as soon as possible.

Our report outlines proposals and includes ideas on how this can start, with regional organizations and groupings taking the lead. Minister Geremek will present these ideas to the ministers, and I hope that they will consider them carefully here and once they return home.

I hope that, by Santiago in 2004, ministers can speak about suspending military and non-humanitarian aid to those who disrupt democracy; just as in Seoul they discuss ending aid to those who support terrorism.

That already is US law.

It should be the principle that the United States supports internationally.

Finally, we should work to remind our leaders of the basics.

Every government needs to help its people feel safe, prosperous, and that their country is based on a set of values rooted in their own heritage and of which they can be proud. Yet today many new democracies are struggling because of the burdens they inherited and the ongoing challenges they face--such as poverty and disease, too much crime and not enough skills. And many have been blindsided by the need to adjust to the new global economy, and to an information revolution that has elevated public expectations, without meeting them.

We cannot allow democracy to become a synonym for economic failure, political chaos, corruption and vast disparities between the rich and the poor.

I sometimes think the greatest gift a country could have is not oil or minerals or a deepwater port, it’s a combination of first class bankers and top-notch bureaucrats. This is part of the hard work we all contribute to every day.

Show me a country with sound financial management, a tradition of best corporate practices, government accountability, and an active and informed citizenry, and I will show you a democratic country that is succeeding, whether or not it is blessed in other ways.

Poverty, desperation and disease comprise an axis of evil that every nation has an obligation to oppose; and that we can defeat if every nation does its share.

In the wake of September 11, the knowledge of this has dawned in some fairly unlikely places. We have learned to emphasize the empowerment of women, the importance of microenterprise, and the value of giving even the very poorest a way to participate in building the economic health of their communities. We have learned to channel funding through nongovernmental institutions, including those dedicated to providing the tools for free enterprise, fair worker standards, civil society and political parties.

And we have learned, although we have not sufficiently backed it up with resources, that support for basic education for every girl and boy is perhaps the most important building block of human progress.

The challenge we face is to build a foundation for freedom and prosperity that is solid, true and broad enough to encompass the aspirations of people everywhere.

This is not a job for America alone, for governments alone, or for people from only one part of the globe. It is a responsibility broadly shared, and we here should carry the message home.

The blur of daily events makes it hard at times to track the dominant currents that are steadily shaping and re-shaping the landscape of world affairs. We do not have the advantage of historians who know the end of the story before they write the beginning. We proceed day-by-day, trying to avoid the whirlpools and stay alert for storms. We might well lose our way, except we are guided by a constant star.

The genius of democracy is based on one idea: every person counts. That idea remains the most powerful force for economic and social progress in the world, and the best answer to the ills that plague us from the evil of terrorism to the deadweight of corruption.

I hope that we will continue to work together.

I say this because I believe so deeply in the democratic promise.

And because when you fight for democracy, you are sure to meet some wonderful people along the way. That is one benefit of being here, in this room, with so many heroes of democracy and now we all know how many of each other there are.

Thank you.