Briefing on meeting of the Ten Convening Countries of the Community of Democracies
Washington, D.C.
March, 2003

The U.S. Coordinating Committee, chaired by the Council for a Community of Democracies (CCD), was briefed at the U.S. Department of State, mid-April, and learned that the Ten Convening Countries of CD have decided to focus on implementing the Seoul Conference “Action Plan”, this year, and next year begin planning for the 2005 meeting in Santiago.

The “Global Education for Democracy” initiative, being spearheaded by CCD with the American Forum for Global Education, was cited as an excellent example of implementation of the Seoul “Action Plan” (see link to “Pocantico”). On 7 May, at the Department, a meeting was held with key government and intergovernmental institutions to review plans for their participation in this global “civic education” effort. Other important activities designed to implement decisions taken at Seoul, were reported: An implementing conference to be held in Romania for countries in the European Union area; two gatherings of Asian nations, one sponsored by the Taiwan Democracy Foundation on the Seoul “Plan of Action” and another to be held in East Timor focusing on the problems of establishing democracy in that multi-ethnic society; and an Africa-Latin American “Dialogue on Democracy” be held in Miami (U.S.A), 5-6 June.

It was decided that there must be a much closer connection between the Ministerial Conference and the Nongovernmental Forum meeting in parallel in Santiago, especially regarding collaborative action between governments and nongovernmental groups in the promotion and protection of democracy and in a joint effort to broaden European participation in the Community of Democracies. Finally, the Convening Countries reaffirmed their call for the formation of a “U.N. Democracy Caucus” designed to increase participation by democratically governed member nations in the decision-making process of the United Nations.