The theme of this year’s Assembly “Democracy for All: Ensuring Political, Social and Economic Inclusion” provided the framework of many of the discussions that took place in the panel workshops. As Chair of the Steering Committee, Club de Madrid Member Rt. Hon. Kim Campbell presented the welcoming remarks alongside Tawakkol Karman, 2011 Nobel Laureate from Yemen; Yevgeniy Zhovtis, Director of Kazhakstan International Bureau of Human Rights and Rule of Law; and Glanis Changachirere, Director of the Institute for Young Women Development in Zimbabwe. Further discussions focused on the challenges to achieving full inclusion for women, youth , ethnic and religious groups, indigenous populations, sexual minorities, and other excluded groups in all societies.
During the Session on “A Conversation on Democracy for all: ensuring political, social and economic inclusion”, Rt. Hon. Kim Campbell held an interesting debate with Beatriz Merino, former Prime Minister and Ombudsman of Peru Beatriz Merino, and also a member of the NetPLUSS (Network of Political Leaders United for Shared societies) of the Club de Madrid on inclusive policy frameworks, to which they both brought good practices on social inclusion from different perspectives.
We had the opportunity to link with many of the more than 500 participants at the Movement, all of them working on Democracy related issues, and we shared many of the Shared Societies materials, such as the books of the 10 Commitments and Approaches to build Shared Societies and the books on the Economics of Shared Societies in the Democracy Fair that was installed in the Forum.
“…the time has come for democrats thorough the world to develop new forms of cooperation to promote the development of democracy. Such cooperation is needed to strengthen democracy where it is weak, to reform and invigorate democracy even where it is longstanding, and to bolster pro-democracy groups in countries that have not yet entered into a process of democratic transition”. From the Founding Statement of the World Movement for Democracy.
