Opening and Keynote remarks
Aleksander Smolar, President of Stefan Batory Foundation, noted that concrete outcomes are expected as a result of the conference; the fact that it takes place at the same time as the conference of Foreign Ministers is a recognition that NGOs have a crucial role to play in furthering democracy, alongside governments. He added, "We are not here for self congratulation; we are here to discuss what can be done". Betty Bao Lord, Chairman of Freedom House added that the parallel conferences offer an opportunity for "us to be greater than the sum of our parts".
Globalisation, international co-operation and democracy
Michel Rocard, former Prime Minister of France
Michel Rocard stressed that democratic governments must be guided by a set of methodological principles, and proposed the countries within the United Nations adopt four principles to abide by: democratic legitimacy; procedural capacity, which includes implementing democratic legitimacy, preventing conflict, and exercising responsibility and accountability; subsidiarity, the convergence of state and local actions; and cohesion and co-ordination with other democracies. He stressed that unity must be reconciled to diversity: any global democracy must not lead to uniformity. He called for governments to take a meaningful step forward, and begin to discuss how to organise and have oversight over democratic rule on the planet; and how to recognise the warning signs early enough to prevent conflict. "The WFD allows us to pose these questions".
An Alliance for Open Societies
George Soros, Chairman of the Open Society Institute and Soros Fund Management
George Soros presented a concrete proposal for the developed democracies to form an Alliance with two purposes - to foster the development of open societies within individual countries through developmental assistance, and to promote the evolution of a global open society through a transformation of international institutions - e.g. transforming the IMF into an international central bank, and the World Bank into a World Development Agency - to make them less susceptible to the interests of the states that comprise them or dominate them. An alliance could also come together to address specific problem areas such as Peru, Indonesia and the Ferghana Valley. He proposed a structure of working groups to undertake this. He called for the Forum to endorse the general idea, and to seize the opportunity of the presence of the foreign ministers and heads of state in Warsaw to develop concrete ways of going forward
The Peruvian Crisis: A Challenge to Democracy
Alejandro Toledo, President, Partido Peru Posible
Alejandro Toledo declared that he is a staunch guerrilla fighting a political monopoly, where the government has appropriated all power and occupied all democratic institutions and the media. He warned that this a new form of dictatorship, which poses the most serious of hazards since it disguises itself as a democracy and exploits democracy's trappings. It is a contagious disease, and he warned of its imminent spread in Latin America. He vowed to dedicate his life to the establishment of true democracy in his country, and stated that, if democracy prevails, he will be proud to serve as the democratically elected leader of Peru; though noted that even by saying so, he has put himself at risk when he returns home.
Copyright © Fundacja Batorego
|
