Co-Chairmen:

I am particularly grateful to the round table chairmen who prepared the document on the consolidation of democratic institutions as the basis of the discussion by this panel. My delegation agrees with the appreciations which it offers. I would only add some comments which I hope will enrich our reflections.

Political Globalization

Political globalization is not mentioned as often as other aspects of the context of globalization. However it has a number of dimensions. Among the positive ones is the effort to universalize democracy, not simply in an electoral and formal sense, but also in a full and comprehensive way. This process has led to the institutionalization of electoral observation procedures and missions by the United Nations, regional multilateral organizations and NGOs concerned with strengthening the exercise of democracy. Likewise, progress has been made in the creation of mechanisms to protect democracy. The most important of them in the Western hemisphere is the Democratic Charter adopted on 11 September 2000 in Lima.

The credibility and effectiveness of electoral systems have also been a subject of concern and there have been several occasions in which assistance and loans have been offered by regional or world organizations to improve and make them more credible and transparent.

Furthermore in regard to corruption, the Organization of American States adopted the Inter-American Convention against Corruption and created the mechanisms to follow up and implement the measures. Twenty-eight countries in the hemisphere are now parties to the Convention.

There is clearly a strong link between the quality of governance and the stability of democracy. It will not be possible to guarantee or protect human rights without State presence. The safekeeping of civilians and human rights protection are factors crucial to governance since they make social inclusion and economic development possible. Democratic governance and public security are sine qua non conditions for economic development and investment.

Among the generic problems facing democratic governance, the Co-Chairmen’s document rightly points to the weakness of the Rule of law, corruption, and poverty, which feed off each other. Much more than political will or the support of regional organizations is needed to solve these problems.

Colombia

To this analysis, we should add that while globalization has offered some positive dimensions to the exercise of democracy, it has also brought some negative problems in its wake, such as the world drug problem, closely linked to the uncontrolled trade in chemical precursors, illicit arms trade, terrorism and money-laundering, amongst others.

I would like to refer briefly to the situation of my own country.

Colombia has one of the oldest and most respected democracies among Latin American nations. It has held regular elections ever since the first days of independence at the dawn of the 19th century – a record comparable only with that of the world’s most solid democracies. Colombia had the same Constitution for 105 years from 1886 to 1991 and introduced the system of judicial review in the early 20th century, well before most countries in the region and even before several European countries.

Colombia is one of the five countries in the world with the greatest biological diversity, illiteracy is currently under 8%, the annual economic growth from 1980 to 1994 was 4.5%, the gender balance in government as well as private sector is one of the most remarkable in the world, half of the President’s cabinet are women, including the Ministers of Defense and Foreign Affairs.

The new Constitution

However, in 1991, the country came increasingly under siege from growing illegal insurgent groups and from terrorist and criminal actions of the drug cartels which took the lives of political leaders, presidential candidates, government officials, and judges of our Supreme Court.

In search of mechanism to combat this situation a new constitution was adopted by a Constituent Assembly, designed to strengthen democratic governance in its fullest form. The most important elements of the modern notion of democratic governance were incorporated into the new Constitution inspired by the principles of participatory democracy.

The Constituent Assembly crystallized a peace process which had been initiated by the previous government and which eventually led to the reinsertion of insurgent groups such as the M-19 and EPL into democratic life. Many former members of these groups are now Congressmen, provincial assemblymen or town councilors; and not a few have been members of the executive branch of government. Some sectors of the insurgent groups, however, decided to continue their armed struggle.

Insurgent groups and drug cartels

The end of the Cold War contributed to the erosion of the ideological base of such insurgent groups which have moved steadily into the vacuum left by the drug cartels, previously dismantled by State action, and have become involved in crimes related to illicit drug trading, kidnapping, extortion and terrorist actions in general.

This situation has become more acute in the last ten years, and other, parallel criminal organizations (paramilitary groups) have sprung up in the fight against guerrillas; and they, like the guerrillas, also increasingly live from drug-trafficking. It is no accident that the largest areas of illicit crops are to be found in areas with a strong presence of illegal armed groups.

One of the amazing aspects of Colombia is that in spite of the internal conflict, the country had been able to sustain remarkable economic and social performance. However, the situation at present is of critical concern and requires decided effective action.

Despite state efforts, the area planted with coca-leaf crops has grown from 60,000 to almost 350,000 acres in the last fifteen years.

Hundreds of millions of dollars from drug-trafficking are fueling the war in Colombia leaving a trail of forced displacement, death and destruction. There are now two million Colombians, of whom almost 800,000 are children, who have had to abandon their land due to the pressures of the violent groups.

Some of the most important successes of recent political reforms, such as decentralization and the popular election of mayors, have been marred by the actions of the illegal armed groups: 390 mayors, nine governors and seventeen Assemblymen, all democratically elected, have received death threats.

Ordinary people have also become a target for these groups. Extortion and kidnapping have become an important source of funds for the illegal groups. More than 15,000 people have been kidnapped in Colombia in the last five years.

The impact of violence on the economy is enormous. Suffice it to say that the Central Bank has calculated the effect of violence on our economic growth as equivalent to four percent of our Gross Domestic Product.

The Uribe Administration commitment

Colombia faces very serious threats to her democracy and governance, which as we have seen, have been fueled by problems of a global nature. The commitment of President Uribe’s administration is to strengthen the State, strengthen civilian society and encourage participation in all areas, hence, the idea of Democratic Security – to restore the country’s capacity to face one the greatest challenges in its history.

Restoring the rule of law and securing State presence in event region of the country will permit economic and social development. An increase in the coverage of health and education programs is fundamental, as well as an enlargement of the number of soldiers in the army and members of the police force. With regard to education, the government’s goal is to increase coverage by 1.500.000 places during the next 4 years to reach 95% coverage at the middle school level.

In Colombia we have taken a determined stand to fight the world drug problem, terrorism, poverty and social exclusion. We have made enormous sacrifices that can be counted in lives – every one of them of precious value – and in vast amounts of resources in order to combat these problems.

The weaknesses of global governance

We cannot fight alone against the scourge of drugs and the ravages of terrorism. Their global nature requires the commitment of the most solid democracies - their political and material support - to solve these problems successfully. This support is no more and no less than the necessary shared responsibility to face a problem which is international in nature and worldwide in scope.

Global governance has great shortcomings and its weaknesses affect us very directly.

Indeed, lack of implementation of international conventions, resolutions, declarations, plans of action, adopted at summits and ministerial conferences contribute to weaken the credibility of the commitment of the international community to face these phenomena.

The international community can and should contribute to the strengthening of democratic governance in Colombia and the world with specific measures such as –

• Action to eradicate illicit drugs consumption.
• Strict control of precursors’ markets.
• Action designed to eliminate the traffic in small arms and light weapons, ammunition and explosives, as implementation of the Action Plan agreed at last year’s conference on this subject held in New York.
• A legal ban on payments of ransom or extortion.
• Strict compliance with Resolution 1373 (2001) of the Security Council, which orders all States to prevent and suppress the financing of terrorist acts: to freeze the financial assets or economic resources of persons involved in such acts: to prohibit their nationals and entities within their territories from giving any funds, directly or otherwise to those who commit or attempt to commit such acts; and to deny safe haven or rights of permanence to those who finance, plan, support or commit terrorist acts.

Each and every member of the international community has a responsibility in the face of these worldwide phenomena which so seriously affect countries such as mine. The Colombian government is doing its part. It is urgent that the members of the international community, and especially the most solid democracies in the world should also do their part without delay.