Historic Launch of U.N. Democracy Caucus

This past week, after many years of effort by CCD and our NGO colleagues, a historic launch of the "U.N. Democracy Caucus" took place in Geneva at the beginning of a six-week meeting of the U.N. Commission on Human Rights. The event is described in the attached article and op/ed commentary appearing in today's "New York Times."

U.S. Ambassador to the Human Rights Commission, Richard S. Williamson, comments, "It's our hope, going to Geneva, to have two or three working sessions of the Community of Democracies -- the democracy caucus, if you will. We are hopeful there will be meetings to discuss particular agenda items at the commission meeting and (we) seek to find a common approach to them."

The attached article, "Voting Bloc," published in the "National Journal," summarizes this important "test-case" of the capability of the caucus to give democracy "a voice" not only in Geneva, but as officials cited in the article state, "the U.S. would like to see the caucus shape policy not only in the Human Rights Commission but throughout the U.N. system." It should be noted that our own position as an organization, in contrast to that postulated by the author, is reflected by Ambassador Max Kampelman's comment on the role and purpose of the caucus, "It's a way, in my opinion, of preserving the United Nations as a valuable institution..."

Board members and Associates will recall that CCD joined with UNA/USA, nearly two years ago in organizing a luncheon conference of UN representatives from 19 countries in New York, with the support of Board members John Richardson and Mark Palmer. Our Chairman, Robert Hunter and our late President Walt Raymond participated. The tepid reception the caucus received that day was a far-cry from the leadership Chile, as chair of the CD Convening Group, Poland, South Korea and the United States, in support of this "launch" in Geneva of U.N. Democracy Caucus, demonstrated this past week. We all can take well-deserved pride in what our collective effort with our colleagues, has achieved since then.


Warm regards,

Dick
Richard C. Rowson, President