The United Nations and democracy promotion.

The UN approaches the field of democracy promotion burdened with some difficult baggage. Nowhere in the UN Charter does the word "democracy" appear, at Soviet insistence at the time of drafting. The UN decision making structure in which the permanent five members of the Security Council have a privileged position cannot be said to be in keeping with basic democratic principles. And even the most generous analyst would concede that a significant number, and perhaps even a majority, of UN Member States do not practise democracy.

Nevertheless, the UN has over the past decade adopted a forthright role in democracy promotion highlighted by the Millennium Summit of 2000, where the world's leaders resolved to "spare no effort to promote democracy and strengthen the rule of law, as well as respect for all internationally recognized human rights and fundamental freedoms, including the right to development." Accordingly, the UNDP has made democratic governance one of its central themes; over 100 UN Member States have sought guidance from the UN Electoral Assistance Division; and the UN Democracy Fund was established based on the 2005 UN Summit's Outcome Document, which affirmed that "democracy is a universal value based on the freely expressed will of people to determine their own political, economic, social and cultural system and their full participation in all aspects of their lives."

Though the word does not appear in the Charter, there is nevertheless a strong normative basis for the UN's role. The Universal Declaration of Human Rights makes clear that: "The will of the people shall be the basis of the authority of government; this will shall be expressed in periodic and genuine elections which shall be by universal and equal suffrage and shall be held by secret vote or by equivalent free voting procedures." And the Human Rights Committee's General Comment 25 of 1996 elaborates on the meaning of "genuine" by requiring: freedoms of expression, assembly and association; universal suffrage; freedom to support or oppose the government without coercion; and the need for different political views to be presented in elected assemblies. A resolution by the Commission on Human Rights in 2000 also makes clear that electoral processes must be open to multiple parties. Genuine elections combined with respect for human rights will go a long way to assuring the effective functioning of a democracy.

It is no coincidence that human rights are best protected in democratic societies

Why has the UN adopted this difficult path, sometimes creating difficulties with some of its Member States? The end of the Cold War allowed the international community to consider the issue of democracy in a new light. After the 1993 World Conference on Human Rights determined that "Democracy, development and respect for human rights and fundamental freedoms are interdependent and mutually reinforcing", Secretary-General Boutros Boutros- Ghali led the way with An Agenda for Democratization in 1996 in which he described democracy as "the basic element of a peaceful and cooperative international system." By the time his successor, Kofi Annan, presented his report In Larger Freedom in 2005, the then Secretary-General was able to claim that "the United Nations does more than any other single organization to promote and strengthen democratic institutions and practices around the world."

The reason for the UN's enthusiasm for democracy can be found in the relationship between democracy and each of the three main purposes of the UN. To put it in a nutshell, the UN has come to the firm conclusion that democracy is an essential requirement for the realization of peace, human rights and development.

Democratic peace theory has intrigued the international community since it was first espoused in the eighteenth century by Immanuel Kant. For much of the next couple of centuries it looked like a hopelessly utopian idea but in more recent times the evidence has become irrefutable that consolidated democracies do not go to war against each other. Democracy as a path to peace gives the UN a means to achieve its most important objective.

It is no coincidence that human rights are best protected in democratic societies. The two concepts are mutually reinforcing. It is through respect for human rights that societies create the space for peaceful democratic contestation and it is through these democratic processes that human rights find their most ardent defenders. The human rights records of even established democracies require further improvement but the selfcritical mechanisms of democracy offer the means for that improvement. The relationship between democracy and development is the most difficult to establish. The initial idea that development was an essential prerequisite of democracy has been reappraised by Amartya Sen who explains that it is wrong to ask if a country is "fit for democracy" because in practice nations become "fit through democracy". While the evidence continues to be assembled, we are in a strong position to assert that sustainable quality development requires democracy and the higher the quality of democracy, the higher the quality of development.

"The United Nations should not restrict its role to norm-setting but should expand its help to its Member States to further broaden and deepen democratic trends throughout the world. To that end, I support the creation of a democracy fund at the United Nations to provide assistance to countries seeking to establish or strengthen their democracy." Kofi Annan's vision has come to fruition. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon has been able to shape the role of the UN Democracy Fund by requiring it "to pay particular attention to civil society organizations. Their work and participation remain the key to building democracies from the ground up."

Today UNDEF is strongly supported by some 35 donors among the UN's Member States. It focuses its energy on strengthening the voice of civil society in the democratic process. It disburses around US$ 25 million each year to civil society organizations around the world contributing to civic education, to strengthening the voice of women and vulnerable groups, and to other ways of nurturing the peaceful contestation of ideas and policies. It is the latest and most direct articulation of the UN's commitment to democracy promotion.