11:05 A.M. EST
Real Audio of Briefing
[Transcript Prepared by Diversified Reporting Services, Inc.]
MODERATOR: Good morning, and welcome to the Foreign Press Center. We are delighted this morning to have with us Paula Dobriansky, the Under Secretary of State for Global Affairs, to give a briefing on the Second Ministerial Conference of the Community of Democracies, which will be held in Seoul, South Korea November 10 -12.
Dr. Dobriansky has truly a global portfolio, being responsible for a broad range of issues, including democracy, human rights, labor, counternarcotics and law enforcement, refugee and humanitarian relief matters, as well as environmental and scientific issues.
She will have a brief opening statement to make, and then after that we'll proceed to questions. Because time is limited, I'll ask you to please stick to the subject announced and introduce yourselves and the news organization, and please use the microphones.
Paula.
UNDER SECRETARY DOBRIANSKY: Thank you. Well, I am pleased to have this opportunity to discuss with you the upcoming meeting of the Community of Democracies, which will take place November 10-12 in Seoul, Korea.
The Community of Democracies, first, to begin with, is an important initiative which is designed to bring together democratic nations of the world so that they may support one another in their own democratic development, cooperate regionally for improving democracy and promote the spread of democracy internationally.
Now, participation in this is not based on what maybe constitutes, sometimes, typical criteria of maybe regional or ethnic identities. Rather, it is based on a common commitment to democratic values and institutions.
Secretary Powell will lead our delegation, the American delegation, to the Seoul ministerial next month, and I think it's particularly fitting, given our commitment to this effort, that our commitment is articulated in a way by a statement that the Secretary had made much earlier last year, in which he said that this century should not be known as the American, or anybody's, but as the Century of Democracy.
Now, I wanted to say a bit about the development of the Community of Democracies, about the plans specifically for the Seoul meeting, and then also a bit about our expectations for the meeting.
The Community of Democracies movement was launched in Warsaw, Poland in 2000. The first meeting of the Community of Democracies brought countries together and culminated in the Warsaw Declaration, which was a reaffirmation, if you will, of the basic principles of democracy: equality; freedom of expression; freedom of the press; due process rights; transparent, participatory and accountable government.
As a consequence of the meeting that took place in Warsaw, there was, in February 2001, a meeting that was convened by the Organization of American States which focused particularly on regional steps and regional effort. It was later, as a result of the discussions in the OAS, where there was an appeal to refine democratic principles in, if you will, the articulation of democratic principles in the hemisphere. And hence, we saw later the adoption of the Inter-American Democratic Charter by the Organization of American States.
Now, the Seoul meeting will build upon the historic work that was begun in Warsaw. It will continue the practice of partnering a ministerial conference of national representatives with a parallel, but yet integrated, conference of nongovernmental organizations and civil society representatives.
In fact, let me just underscore this point: We see one of the most significant aspects of the upcoming Seoul meeting is the fact that there is a public-private partnership at work here, where you have the ministerial conference taking place, at the same time the nongovernmental meeting taking place, and there will be several points during the three days in which these two integrated sectors will, in fact, come together on issues.
The organization of attendees is also a little bit different. In Warsaw, there were participants. In Seoul, there will be participants as well as observer nations. And this system is basically designed to try to acknowledge the progress that, in particular, observer countries are making toward greater democracy.
Those who are coming as observers, those who have not yet fully solidified their democratic path -- and the goal is to have them engaged, to be involved in hearing and benefiting from the discussions about making greater steps toward democracy and improved human rights, while also enabling observers to be given the opportunity to hear and benefit from the democratic experiences of participant countries.
The Community of Democracies has a convening group, and let me say a word about the convening group because the convening group has been responsible for the organization, if you will, separate from the Koreans, who are hosting this, in providing some overall guidance to the organizational effort.
The convening group of countries include Chile, Mexico, Korea, India, the Czech Republic, Poland, Portugal, Mali, South Africa, as well as the United States. And in addition to the issue of participation as well as observer status, the convening group also talked about the issue about the roundtables which will be held during the Seoul meeting.
The four roundtables will cover different aspects of democratic development. The United States and Poland, for example, will co-host one roundtable on consolidating democratic institutions. There will also be other roundtables to address media and democracy. There will be one that will be focused on regional cooperation to promote democracy. And then the fourth one will be focused on the coordination of international assistance.
Our expectations for Seoul will be, or will center around, the fact that we see not only a reaffirmation of the principles laid down in the inaugural meeting in Warsaw, but will also concentrate on approving an action plan to better implement these principles. Discussions will highlight, in fact, regional cooperation to advance democratic process, including actions that states can take when the democratic institutions of a neighboring state are threatened, for example. It will also focus on, meaning the action plan, will also focus on other issues and how best to improve areas vital to democratic growth, such as education, such as good governance, anti-corruption efforts, fostering healthy civil societies.
Community of Democracies is built on the premise that it is in the interest of all nations to support democratic development. Better democracies will make safer neighbors, better trading partners and stronger allies. And this initiative -- indeed, democracy as a whole -- directly supports our desire to have a more secure world and to support the development of those countries who are committed certainly to these principles and certainly to a democratic path.
Let me stop there. I would welcome questions that you may have.
QUESTION: Chris Cockel from the China Post from Taiwan. Can you tell me, does the Community of Democracies focus on particular non-democratic countries for conversion, if you like? And with this in mind, can you outline of the initiatives as regards promoting democracy in China?
UNDER SECRETARY DOBRIANSKY: Well, let me put it this way: The purpose of the Community of Democracies is to bring democracies together to talk about steps that could be taken to further democracy. I've mentioned to you four roundtables: one which will focus on regional cooperation, media and development; one that focuses on solidifying or strengthening democratic institutions; and then also democratic assistance.
So if I may say, the focus is going to be a very broad one. It is not confined just to one region. In fact, the way the roundtables will be set up -- this is again on the ministerial side -- the way the roundtables are set up, they are set up in such a way to have interaction and to look at this issue in a broader context.
Secondly, I've indicated that there will also be a nongovernmental component to this. In fact, one roundtable in which all will be integrated together in a discussion will be on the issue of democratic assistance and how democratic assistance can be better and maybe more effectively rendered. For a discussion like that, you have to have the involvement of not only governments at play but also the private sector.
So I would imagine that issues of those areas where democracy needs to be nurtured, needs to be furthered, I think you can expect to be on the table. I expect that there will be a vibrant public and private discussion on this.
And let me also just add one other note, and that is that in addition to the roundtable discussions, there will also be many occasions in which both will be enabled to have, if you will, private discussions, discussions outside of the official forum, so to speak, on all of these matters. But it's not confined specifically to one area, one region, one country; it is taking a global and a more holistic view.
QUESTION: I'm Hiro Aida with Kyodo News, Japan's news agency. I'm just wondering, you know, the statement says that 118 nations have been invited. So that means the participation is on invitation basis, right? Who decided who's going to join this meeting and how was it decided?
And also, you know, 21 observers. Could you just pick up and give us the names of those observer nations and what kind of nations are observers?
UNDER SECRETARY DOBRIANSKY: Okay. On the first, I mentioned -- and maybe I wasn't clear -- on the mechanism of the convening group, and I mentioned the countries of the convening group.
The convening group met on a monthly basis and the purpose of the convening group was to try to take stock of those countries to which invitations would be extended to. The convening group looked to a variety of sources to draw from in making evaluations. But before it did, most significantly, the convening group itself put together a list of criteria. And, in fact, Portugal was responsible for coming forward on behalf of the convening group as a whole to put together a document, if you will, a type of a non-paper, which would articulate the kind of criteria to be looked at.
Here, the kind of criteria that would be considered, was considered, included: elections, such as free, fair, periodic elections; multi-party system; rule of law; separation of powers; issues pertaining to human rights; and so forth.
Having said that, when the convening group came together, it also looked at -- and I was about to say sources -- and sources meaning there are different nongovernmental organizations that have also provided their views and outlook on the state of democracy and the world. And we took those into account into our deliberations.
In sum, the convening group basically then collectively made a determination ultimately on the extension of the invitations for participation.
As for the observers, in this case I also suggested in my comments, my opening remarks, that the context for observers here, one of the -- maybe one of the issues that was put on the table coming out of Warsaw was the issue of how, as the Community of Democracies goes forward, how can it seek to try to reach out to those countries that may be grappling with democracy but are not there yet and that may have issues still but, by their inclusion, there could be some benefit there.
So, in that regard, the observer countries are those that, again, the convening group made a determination on collectively and includes those countries in which there have been trends indicating, and steps indicating, a movement in -- with respect to democracy.
Some of the countries -- in fact, they're listed, by the way. Seoul has a website and they're fully listed. But to give you some examples, Afghanistan, Armenia, Azerbaijan -- these are some of the countries.
QUESTION: (Inaudible.)
UNDER SECRETARY DOBRIANSKY: No.
QUESTION: (Inaudible.)
UNDER SECRETARY DOBRIANSKY: Okay, thank you.
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