Community of Democracies
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Community of Democracies
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Member states of the CoD
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| Type | Intergovernmental coalition of states |
| Members of the Governing Council |
List
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| Leaders | |
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• President of the Community
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United States |
| Establishment | 2000 |
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Website
community-democracies.org |
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The Community of Democracies (CD) is an intergovernmental coalition of states established in 2000 to bring together governments, civil society and the private sector in the pursuit of the common goal of supporting democratic rules and strengthening democratic norms and institutions around the world. In 2004, CD governments also organized themselves into a Democracy Caucus in the United Nations (UN).
The current Presidency of the Community of Democracies is held by the .
The Community of Democracies works to support democratic transition and consolidation worldwide and helps bridge the gap between principles of democracy and universal human rights and practice by:
The Community of Democracies seeks to achieve these goals by: creating a global network of government representatives, legislators, civil society and other stakeholders committed to these goals, and using their combined resources and expertise to channel assistance to countries in transition and civil society. The CD also assists in coordinating democracy support activities and seeks to encourage a common democratic voice in international organizations.
Every two years, participating states of the Community of Democracies hold a Ministerial Conference, the biggest meeting of democratic countries in the world. Criteria for participation in the Community's Ministerial Conference were constituted according to the values of the Warsaw Declaration, and participation in the Conference is reserved for countries that have shown commitment to those values and practices. Some countries, which do not fully fulfill the criteria, may participate as observers.
The CD was reformed in 2011 at the Ministerial Conference in Vilnius. The reform package included the establishment of a Governing Council, made up of the members of the previous governing body, the Convening Group. Being the core decision-making body of the Community of Democracies, the Governing Council is responsible for the activities undertaken on behalf of the Community. It also decides who will be the countries taking part in the Ministerial Conferences. The Governing Council currently consists of 27 members:
Leading the work of the Governing Council is the Presidency of the Community, a role that rotates between the different Member States of the Council, passing from continent to continent every two years. After the post was held twice by Asian countries (the Republic of Korea and Mongolia), twice by European countries (Portugal and Lithuania), once by a country in the Americas (Chile) and once by and African country (Mali), the Presidency is now back to Latin America, being held by El Salvador, and will afterwards move to Africa, when Nigeria will hold the post from 2015. To assist the Presidency in its work, was established an Executive Committee, an advisory board whose responsibilities are to support the Presidency and make recommendations regarding the activities of the Community. The Executive Committee is composed of the current Presidency, together with the former and the following Presidencies (at the moment- Mongolia and Nigeria), and with Poland, the United States and Sweden.
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Wikipedia