Is Democracy the Road to Peace?

Press Release:

Is Democracy the Road to Peace?

Stockholm, 6 December 1999 -- Anna Lindh, Swedish Minister for Foreign Affairs, Thorvald Stoltenberg, former Norwegian Minister of Foreign Affairs, Viola Furubjelke, Charirman of the Standing Committee on Foreign Affairs in the Swedish Parliament and Bengt Säve-Söderbergh, Secretary-General, International IDEA are among the participants at the conference "Is Democracy the Road to Peace?" to be held in Stockholm this week, 9 December.

The conference will bring together policy-makers as well as experts and researchers to discuss the building of democracy in post-conflict situations, with a focus on Kosovo, the Great Lakes area and East Timor. Dr Thomas Carothers from the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, who has just published the book, Aiding Democracy Abroad, will also participate.

Since the fall of the Berlin wall, more than fifty countries around the world have organized elections for the first time in their existence. But at the same time, we have seen more than a hundred serious violent conflicts around the world.

The nature of the conflicts have changed dramatically. Whereas most violent conflicts over the course of the twentieth century have been between states, in the 1990s almost all major conflicts have taken place within states. A desire for self-determination or adequate recognition of communal identity, rather than ideology or the conquest of territory has generally been the cause of the strife.

The new challenges of conflict management for the international community, and the need for increased support for democratization processes and sound governance will be discussed in this conference organized by the International Institute for Democracy and Electoral Assistance (International IDEA) in co-operation with the Committee of Foreign Affairs of the Swedish Parliament, Forum Syd, FUF (Swedish Development Forum) and the Swedish United Nations Association.

The conference will take place in the Swedish Parliament (Förstakammarsalen, entrance from Riksplan, Norrbro) at 10.00-15.30 and is open for the media. Please indicate if you would like to:

• Attend the conference 9 December

• Attend a press meeting at 12.00 with some of the speakers, among them Thorvald Stoltenberg, in Förstakammarsalen.

• Receive more information via e-mail

International IDEA, Strömsborg, S-103 34 Stockholm, Sweden

Monika Ericson, m.ericson@idea.int, tel: 08-698 3744

Madelene Kornfehl, m.kornfehl@idea.int, tel: 0706 585885

The International Institute for Democracy and Electoral Assistance (International IDEA) was founded in February 1995. The Institute’s overall objective is to promote and advance sustainable democracy world-wide and to improve and consolidate electoral processes. There are currently 19 member-states: Australia, Barbados, Belgium, Botswana, Canada, Chile, Costa Rica, Denmark, Finland, India, Mauritius, Namibia, the Netherlands, Norway, Portugal, South Africa, Spain, Sweden, and Uruguay. There are also five associate members: International Federation of Journalists, International Press Institute, Parliamentarians for Global Action, the Inter-American Institute for Human Rights and Transparency International. International IDEA has formal agreements with the International Commission of Jurists, the Inter-Parliamentary Union, the United Nations Development Programme, the Inter-American Development Bank, and co-operates closely with Switzerland.