POSITION PAPER OF THE TRANSNATIONAL RADICAL PARTY FOR THE SEOUL MEETING OF THE COMMUNITY OF DEMOCRACIES

09 September 2002

The Transnational Radical Party (TRP) welcomes the Warsaw Declaration and considers the Community of Democracy process as a major contribution in the promotion of democracy. On the occasion of the Second Ministerial Conference of the Community of Democracies convened in Seoul from 10 to 12 November 2002, the TRP wishes to present a position paper on the possible developments concerning the activities of the Community of Democracies (CoD) and its members on the promotion of democratic norms and the ascertainment of civil and political rights the world over. The following recommendations are based on the General Motion adopted by the TRP in Tirana, Albania from 31 October to 3 November at the 2nd session of its 38th Congress; the full text of the motion can be retrieved at www.radicalparty.org. The TRP believes that for over 50 years the most important international and regional institutions, first and foremost the United Nations, have adopted universal declarations, international treaties and declarations of intent sanctioning human, civil and political rights for all the inhabitants of this planet, rights that are systematically violated by most states. The TRP wishes to stress that we are witnessing an alarming and systematic erosion of democracy through the violation of the rule of law, which is the very foundation of real democracies. The TRP is convinced that the military interventions that are sometimes necessary to ensure international peace and security, and which may be carried out by individual states, NATO or on the basis of a UN mandate, are no longer suitable for the promotion of democracy and freedom in countries under totalitarian, dictatorial and authoritarian regimes. Considered that in a joint Statement of Foreign Ministers of the Convening Group of the CoD issued in New York on September 12, 200, during the Millennium Assembly of the United Nations, a series of initiatives were announced among which: