Over 100 governments participated in a landmark international political event in Warsaw, Poland in June 2000. In an effort to further consolidate their commitment to democratic principles, they agreed to endorse the Warsaw Declaration, which commits them to build a Community of Democracies as an association of democratic states dedicated to strengthening democratic values and institutions at home and abroad. Complementing the biennial ministerial gathering is a parallel Non-Governmental Forum involving hundreds of leading democracy activists and thinkers from around the world. A Convening Group made up of Chile, the Czech Republic, India, Mali, Mexico, Poland, Portugal, the Republic of Korea, South Africa and the United States organized a second ministerial meeting in Seoul, Korea in November 2002 to decide how to deepen and sustain the commitments made in Warsaw; a parallel forum of civil society leaders was also convened in Seoul. The third meeting of the Community of Democracies was held in Santiago on April 28-30, 2005.

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Santiago, Chile
Ministerial Meeting: 28–30 April 2005
Final Meeting of the Non-Governmental Process: 3–4 March 2005

The Non-Governmental Executive Secretariat is a group of civil society actors that wanted to consolidate the efforts of the non-governmental actors to organize a more formal process of civil society participation in the Community of Democracies.

In an effort to ensure effective civil society participation, the Executive Secretariat (currently hosted by Corporación PARTICIPA, a Chilean NGO) developed a strategy to prepare for the ministerial meeting. This was strategy worked on the global, regional, and national level and brought together representatives from non-governmental organizations, political parties, and political foundations to discuss the major democratic deficits in the region and then developed proposals for how governments should address those deficits. These recommendations were presented to the governments at the ministerial meeting.

The Executive Secretariat is a temporary coordinator, working with civil society organizations and non-state actors across the world. After the ministerial meeting in May, the Secretariat was passed to an organization in Mali, the next chair country of the Community of Democracies.

The final meeting of the CD Non-Governmental Process met in March 2005 in Santiago, Chile. The purpose of this meeting was to convene participants in the Non-Governmental Process from all the regions of the world to work with the compiled proposals from the regional workshops, to agree on the final recommendations for the governments, and to define the advocacy strategy leading up to the Ministerial Meeting.

For more information on the third meeting of the Community of Democracies, click here.

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Seoul, Korea, 10–12 November 2002

The Second Non-Governmental Forum of the Community of Democracies (CD) brought together leading democracy advocates and scholars from around the world. Under the theme “Global Solidarity for Expanding and Strengthening Democracy.” More than 250 participants convened parallel to the Ministerial Meeting in order to advance international collaboration on democracy promotion and to address pressing issues facing democracies in all stages of development.

Click here for more information regarding the Non-Governmental Forum.

The Second Ministerial Meeting of the Community of Democracies, “Democracy: Investing for Peace and Prosperity” demonstrated the growing support for global efforts to expand and defend democracy. Foreign Ministers and representatives from over 100 countries met in Seoul and culminated two days of meetings with unanimous approval of an Action Plan. The Convening Group was formally endorsed as the body to follow up implementation of the Seoul Plan of Action and to report to the third governmental conference, which the government of Chile announced it would host in 2005.

Click here for more information regarding the Ministerial Meeting.