Motto | Democracy That Delivers |
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Formation | 2001 |
Headquarters | Madrid, Spain |
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Website | www |
The Club de Madrid is an independent non-profit organization created to promote democracy and change in the international community. Composed of 95 regular members, 64 of which are former presidents and 39 of which are former prime ministers (some are both) from 65 countries, the Club de Madrid is the world’s largest forum of former Heads of State and Government.
Among its main goals are the strengthening of democratic institutions and counselling on the resolution of political conflicts in two key areas: democratic leadership and governance and response to crisis and post-crisis situations.
The Club de Madrid works together with governments, inter-governmental organizations, civil society, scholars and representatives from the business world, to encourage dialogue in order to foster social and political change. The Club de Madrid also works on the search for effective methods to provide technical advice and recommendations to transitional nations taking steps to establish democracy.
As of March 2014[update], there are 95 full Members, all of whom are previous government officials with full voting rights. The Club also has institutional members and foundations – those who belong to private and public organizations that share similar democratic objectives, including FRIDE, the Gorbachev Foundation of North America (GFNA), both original sponsors of the founding conference in 2001, the Madrid City Council, the regional government of Madrid, and the Government of Spain. Additionally, there are six honorary members (e.g. Kofi Annan, Aung San Suu Kyi) and a number of fellows, who are experts on democratic changeover.
The Club is based in Madrid (Spain), although meetings are held worldwide. Currently, Vaira Vike-Freiberga, the former President of Latvia (1999–2007), is the organization's president, and it has two vice presidents: Jennifer Shipley (New Zealand) and Jorge Fernando Quiroga (Bolivia). The former president of the Club of Madrid is Wim Kok (2009–2013).
The Club was created from an event that was held in October 2001 in Madrid, a four-day Conference on Democratic Transition and Consolidation (CDTC). This event brought together 35 world leaders, over 100 esteemed academics and policy specialists from Europe, the Americas, Asia, and Africa to discuss ideas and means of implementation from both objective and subjective perspectives. The conference discussed eight main topics: