Is democracy losing ground? Is it failing to protect human rights? Forty Club de Madrid members and 100 renowned experts on democracy from academia, multilateral and multi government organizations, think tanks, the private sector, and civil society will address these challenging questions and develop transformative ideas to foster democracy around the world
Democracy and Human Rights in Decline? A Call to Action is co-organized by the Club de Madrid and the Robert F. Kennedy Center for Justice and Human Rights and hosted by the European University Institute. Click here to see the program and preliminary list of participants
The main sponsors of the Policy dialogue are Humanity United, an organization dedicated to building peace and advancing human freedom, and the Alan B. Slifka Foundation, devoted to social change philanthropy
Federica Mogherini High Representative of the European Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy, will open the ‘Democracy and Human Rights in Decline? A Call to Action’ Policy Dialogue on the 23rd of November with a keynote speech on ‘The Future of Democratic Governance’. Romano Prodi, Club de Madrid Member and former Prime Minister of Italy, will also participate in the inaugural session (and also during the rest of the gathering) with a reflection on the global and regional democratic trends and the relationship between democracy and economy. Dario Nardella, mayor of Florence, will welcome the participants to the Dialogue and to the city.
Vaira Vike-Freiberga, President of the Club de Madrid, Kerry Kennedy, President of the RFK Center For Justice and Human Rights, and Brigid Laffan, Director of the Global Governance Program at the European University Institute, will kick off the debates on the present, the future and the quality of democracy. Forty Club de Madrid members from every continent including, Kjell M. Bondevik (Norway); Felipe Calderón (Mexico); Kim Campbell (Canada); Felipe González (Spain); Ricardo Lagos (Chile); Chandrika Kumaratunga (Sri Lanka); Sadiq al Mahdi (Sudan); Olesegun Obasanjo (Nigeria); Roza Otunbayeva (Kyrgyzstan) or Jigme Yoser Tingley (Buthan) will be joined by 100 high level experts in order to initiate the drafting of transformative democratic agendas and action orientated proposals to foster democracy in this challenging times.
Renowned international experts and practitioners, such as Larry Diamond from Stanford University and Professor JHH Weiler, President of the EUI; Roelf Meyer (former South African minister under F. W. De Klerk and Nelson Mandela and key facilitator of South Africa’s transition to democracy); Beatriz Merino (former Prime Minister of Peru); entrepreneurs and philanthropists like Mo Ibrahim and Steve Killelea or the Slifka Foundation; multi-government and multilateral institutions, (UN, OECD, SEGIB, Community of Democracies); human rights organizations (Human Rights Watch); civil society (OXFAM, Partnership for Change); academia (Berstelman Stiftung, IDEA, FLACSO, Carnegie Endowment); and the private sector (Microsoft) will all be represented.
This two-day gathering is not structured as a ‘typical’ conference: it will forego long speeches in favour of small-group dialogues that will serve to launch the 18-month multi-stakeholder Next Generation Project: a Club de Madrid-led response to signals of democratic decline in all regions of the world. The program is structured in few Plenary Sessions and several breakout time slots with different, regionally based ‘working groups’ where Club de Madrid Members, participating scholars and expert practitioners will engage in open, dynamic exchange of ideas.
Note to editors
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If you are interested in covering the 2014 Policy Dialogue or wish to request one to one interviews please visit https://clubmadrid.org/en/programa/policy_dialogue_2014 and fill in the accreditation form in the Press Room Section. |
Club de Madrid, Media Contacts:
Luis Pérez: +34 607 694 354 // + 34 91 154 82 38 Press Officer lperez@clubmadrid.org
Susana Mañueco: + 34 626 20 93 30 // + 34 154 82 36 Press Coordinator smanueco@clubmadrid.org
RFKC Media Contacts:
Europe: Valeria D’Agostino: + 39 055 5389250 // + 39 349 2210113 European Press Officer europepress@rfkcenter.org
United States: James Santel (917-284-6352) santel@rfkcenter.or
Interactive coverage
The plenary sessions will be webcast through the Club de Madrid web page. All sessions will be tweetted by @CLUBdeMADRID, @RFKCenter, @RFKEurope and @EuropeanUni
Policy Dialogue Hashtag: #NGD
