Convening Group of 10 States Urged to Exclude Rights Abusers from Membership in Community of Democracies
GENEVA, January 7, 2005 -- UN Watch is urging the 10 Convening Group nations of the Community of Democracies to stand by their principles when representatives gather next Wednesday in Santiago, Chile, to decide whom to exclude from the alliance’s upcoming Ministerial Meeting in May 2005, to be held in the same city.
In a letter sent yesterday by UN Watch to 10 ambassadors posted to the UN in Geneva, the Convening Group—comprised of Chile (current Chair), Czech Republic, India, Mali, Mexico, Poland, Portugal, South Africa, South Korea and the United States—was urged to exclude regimes such as Angola, Belarus, Cuba, Iran, Lebanon, Syria, Zimbabwe and others that violate minimal democratic standards. Non-invitation to the Ministerial Meetings, which have been held every two or three years since the alliance’s 2000 establishment in Warsaw, effectively excludes a state from membership in the Community of Democracies.
In the letter signed by Ambassador Alfred H. Moses, Chairman of UN Watch, and Executive Director Hillel C. Neuer, the Geneva-based NGO called on the democracy alliance to follow its 2002 commitment to exclude nations “where there is currently a disruption of constitutional rule or severe persistent erosion of or lack of essential elements of democracy.” UN Watch’s recommendations were similar to those set forth by the Democracy Coalition Project and Freedom House, two other NGOs in the civil society coalition advocating greater cooperation among the world’s democracies, particularly at the United Nations.
“The Community of Democracies offers hope to an international system too often dominated by repressive regimes who literally work together as ‘thick as thieves’,” said Neuer. “Only by applying the minimal threshold of democratic standards to membership can we enhance and protect this encouraging alliance.”
UN Watch was founded in 1993 to monitor UN compliance with the principles of its own Charter, and to promote the principles of human rights, democracy and the rule of law. It is accredited as an NGO in Special Consultative Status with the UN.