The Campaign for a United Nations Democracy Caucus is dedicated to the promotion and fulfillment of the principles of democracy and human rights embodied in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and the Warsaw Declaration of the Community of Democracies. Towards that end, the Campaign seeks the permanent establishment of a UN Democracy Caucus as a group of democratic nations committed to strengthening the UN’s ability to promote democracy and human rights. The Campaign is particularly focused on the composition and activities of the UN Commission on Human Rights and the Economic and Social Council, as well as decisions made by the UN General Assembly and Security Council.

In June 2000, over 100 governments gathered at the first Community of Democracies meeting in Warsaw and pledged to form caucuses at international and regional institutions to support resolutions and other international activities aimed at the promotion of democratic governance.

In October 2000, the first effort was made at the UN to convene a gathering of states participating in the Community of Democracies (CD) process. Some sixty states sent representatives to the meeting. Later that year, with the active support of those states, the UN General Assembly approved a landmark Resolution on Promoting and Consolidating Democracy (Res A/55/96).

Building on this momentum, a coalition of NGOs convened by the Democracy Coalition Project, Freedom House and Transnational Radical Party began to urge the formal creation of a Democracy Caucus at the United Nations. Through direct appeals to the Community of Democracies Convening Group and other official bodies, as well as outreach to other interested civil society groups, parliamentarians and the media, the Campaign for a UN Democracy Caucus has made significant progress toward its goals. Notably, in September 2004, the first formal meeting of the Democracy Caucus’s foreign ministers, chaired by Chile, was held at the UN General Assembly, followed by first-ever meetings at the permanent representative and expert staff levels.

We invite you to join us in this endeavor, in your individual or organizational capacity, as we encourage the UN’s democracies to take the lead in revitalizing the world body to fufill the vision of becoming a universal community of democracies.

Principles and Activities

We believe:

1. The broad purpose of the UN Democracy Caucus is to promote the values of democracy and human rights through the UN system.
2. A related purpose of the UN Democracy Caucus is to strengthen the governance and accountability of the UN on issues of democracy and human rights promoting a democratic consciousness in decision-making on candidacies for key UN bodies.
3. The UN Democracy Caucus should seek status akin to the Organization of the Islamic Conference, la Francophonie, and other like bodies.
4. The UNDC should convene to coordinate actions to strengthen international support for member states in deepening democratic governance and reinforcing the protection of human rights and democratic values through the UN system and the UN's related agencies.
5. The UNDC should focus on building international consensus on issues related to democracy and human rights at the UN and on building consensus among the UN’s democracies in effectively utilizing the machinery of the UN system to assist in promoting democratic governance in states where the UN finds that egregious, systemic violations of human rights have frustrated democratization.
6. The UNDC should promote increased resources for human rights and democracy building initiatives within the UN and within the UN system.

Organization of the UN Democracy Caucus

The Campaign for a UN Democracy Caucus believes that participation in the Democracy Caucus should be open only to countries that are invited to be full participants in the Community of Democracies process. The Community of Democracies membership includes states which are elected on the basis of competitive multiparty democratic elections and respectful of fundamental human rights. It excludes, according to its own criteria adopted in the Seoul Plan of Action, those states “where there is currently a disruption of constitutional rule or severe persistent erosion of or lack of essential elements of democracy.”

The UN Democracy Caucus is convened by the current Chair of the Community of Democracies Convening Group - Chile - in cooperation with other members of the current Convening Group - Czech Republic, Republic of Korea, Mexico, Mali, South Africa, United States, Portugal, India, and Poland. The Campaign is in favor of official recognized UN status for the Democracy Caucus, on the same basis as the G-77, the Organization of the Islamic Conference, la Francophonie or the International Union for the Conservation of Nature.

The Democracy Caucus should convene to discuss common approaches on issues directly related to democracy and human rights. It should meet at the UN General Assembly as necessary, but no less than once a year during the annual meeting of the UNGA, including at the Foreign Ministers level. The members of the UNDC should also convene at:

A. ECOSOC and its relevant subcommittees and subsidiary bodies;
B. Relevant meetings/seminars organized by the UN High Commissioner for Refugees;
C. Meetings/seminars of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights;
D. The UN Development Program;
E. UNESCO

Members of the UNDC have begun and should continue coordination at the annual meeting of the UN Commission on Human Rights in Geneva. The Permanent Representatives of Convening Group governments (or their designated representatives) should meet as necessary to prepare materials and discuss agenda items related to the above functions.