International IDEA Seminar on United Nations & Democracy

Agenda | Project Outline

As part of the “UN & Democracy” project, International IDEA will host a seminar on 22-23 October at Cambridge University, England looking at past United Nations experiences with promoting and establishing democracy in post-conflict situations. International IDEA has invited UN policy-makers, past officials of peace-keeping operations and transitional authorities and academics to join in an in-depth look at UN experiences in Bosnia, Haiti, Kosovo and East Timor. Following the seminar, International IDEA will produce a position paper for the UN with advice on how to promote democracy in post-conflict states

A second seminar will be held in Nairobi Kenya in November looking at UN peace-keeping operations and experiences in Africa, including case studies of Sierra Leone, Somalia and Rwanda. In early 2002, International IDEA and the United Nations Development Programme will host a larger conference on UN & Democracy at UN headquarters in New York, with a keynote address provided by the Secretary General, Kofi Annan.

Project Outline: "The United Nations and Democracy"

2001/2002

Over the past decade, the United Nations has become increasingly active in promoting democratic processes around the world in the new trend in its peace operations, development co-operation and the promotion of human rights. At the UN multilateral policy fora, there have also been increasing efforts made by governments to search appropriate forms of international co-operation to support democratization processes. Policy debates at the General Assembly, Conferences on New or Restored Democracies and the Community of Democracies initiative are a few examples of such efforts, in recognition that peace, development and democracy are inextricably linked in today's world.

In 2000, International IDEA undertook a small project entitled "Democracy and Global Co-operation at the United Nations: Towards Peace, Development and Democratization". The outcome of this project was presented to the UN Secretary-General in the form of a discussion paper, as International IDEA's contribution to the UN Millennium Assembly. The recommendations contained in this paper were extensively reproduced in a report of the UN Secretary-General submitted to the General Assembly (A/55/489), who argued that they deserve serious consideration and that some of the structural changes it proposes should be considered in the context of the implementation of the Brahimi report.

After consultations with the UN, IDEA decided to continue to assist the UN during 2001 and early 2002 in the form of policy advice and the facilitation of debates on strategies for democratization support in the context of UN operations. The project, entitled 'United Nations and Democracy', is fully funded by the government of Norway and will be undertaken in co-operation with the International Peace Academy (IPA). The main objective of the project is to provide the UN with policy advice in their strategy formulation and to "mainstream" democratization support in the context of UN operations. International IDEA's specific contribution will be to help the UN with formulating more concrete strategies for democratization support, largely in the context of peacebuilding operations. It is also hoped that the outcome of this project will feed into the ongoing efforts at the UN to further develop and strengthen its conflict prevention strategy.

The core activities of the project include the following:

1. A preparatory workshop was held in April 2001 in NY, hosted by the Norwegian Permanent Mission to the UN. A number of substantive issues of democratization were identified which need further reflection and analysis.

2. Two regional seminars are planned in October/November 2001 to review and analyze how democratization issues have been handled in a number of selected past and on-going UN operations. Each seminar will examine complex challenges of democratization in different places and attempt to draw lessons-learned that can be useful for the future:

• In Cambridge, U.K., a seminar will be held to review UN experiences in Haiti, Bosnia/Kosovo and East Timor.
  

• In Nairobi, a seminar will be held to review UN experiences in Namibia, Somalia, Rwanda and Sierra Leone.

3. Conference on UN and Democracy in New York in February 2002 with a broader and more senior participation, including the UN Secretary-General, with the objectives to:

• Mainstream the fundamental idea of democratization being part of peace-building and preventive strategies
  

• Initiate debates on the concrete policy ideas, drawn from case studies from the regional seminars, with UN Secretariat and member states
  

• Feed into the forthcoming multilateral policy debates at the Fifth UN Conference on New and Restored Democracy as well as at the Second Conference of the Community of Democracies

The outcome of this process will hopefully be substantive inputs into the UN peacebuilding and conflict prevention strategies, which will begin to be debated at various UN fora with specific reference to support for democratization.