CREATING PRACTICAL UN AGENDA FOR DEMOCRATIZATION VITAL IN ASSISTING NEW OR RESTORED DEMOCRACIES, SAYS SECRETARY-GENERAL

Press Release
SG/SM/6710

CREATING PRACTICAL UN AGENDA FOR DEMOCRATIZATION VITAL IN ASSISTING NEW OR RESTORED DEMOCRACIES, SAYS SECRETARY-GENERAL

Following are remarks of Secretary-General Kofi Annan, delivered by Under-Secretary-General for Political Affairs Kieran Prendergast, to the opening of the Ministerial Meeting of countries participating in the Third International Conference of New or Restored Democracies, in New York today:

It gives me great pleasure to extend my best wishes to this important meeting of New and Restored Democracies. This is a welcome opportunity for us to examine and discuss the progress we have achieved in the field of democratization since the last International Conference on New or Restored Democracies, in Bucharest, just over a year ago.

I commend your decision to invite Mrs. Janet Jagan, President of the Republic of Guyana, as the keynote speaker at this event. Throughout her life, Mrs. Jagan has personified the quest for democracy and the process of continuing democratization. She has become a beacon of solidarity with people struggling for independence. In her own country, Guyana, she was one of the leaders of that struggle. Already in the 1950s, she held high political office; she has now returned to the highest office in her country, first as Prime Minister and now as President.

Let me also extend my appreciation to Mr. Andrei Plesu, Foreign Minister of Romania, for organizing this meeting. The Government of Romania not only played host to the Third International Conference of New or Restored Democracies; it has also done excellent work in following up and carrying forward the results of the conference.

Creating a practical United Nations agenda for democratization and good governance, as I have proposed in my report to the General Assembly, is vital to our efforts to assist more effectively, new or restored democracies. Democratization should serve as a concept to help us address many of the problems and tensions in today's world, as well as a vision to guide us in the next century.

There is no one democratic model. Every democracy, like each individual, has its own character -- depending on specific political, social and economic circumstances, cultures and traditions. All democracies, like all human beings, have their own pace of development. There will be progress, but there will also be setbacks and periods of stagnation. There is much we can learn from each other -- from exchanges among different countries living through this process of transition.

I hope, therefore, that the experiences already made available through your conferences will be shared through an open dialogue with the entire membership of the United Nations; and that this wealth of wisdom will come to serve as a resource to old, new and restored democracies everywhere in the world.

I thank you all.

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