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UNDEF event on the International Day of Democracy

The Secretary-General, Mr. Ban Ki-moon, gave the keynote address (text/video) at the UNDEF event on the International Day of Democracy on 15 September 2008. The first International Day of Democracy was celebrated on that day following the designation of the date by General Assembly Resolution 62/7. The date was chosen to commemorate the adoption of the Universal Declaration on Democracy by the Inter-Parliamentary Union in 1997.

The UN celebrated this event in a number of ways. UNDEF hosted an Information Event to explain how the UN Democracy Fund operates and to hear from voices from the field undertaking UNDEF funded projects.

The Event took place at the Dag Hammarskjöld Library Auditorium at the UN on 15 September 2008 at 3pm. Apart from presentations about UNDEF and its projects, there was a question and answer session on UNDEF. A programme of the event is available for download below.

UNDEF Event Programme

	The program began with welcoming remarks by Roland Rich, Executive Head of UNDEF. The complete remarks can be dowloaded here and a video can also be downloaded.
	The keynote address was delivered by H. E. Mr. Ban Ki-moon, Secretary-General. The full text can be downloaded here. A video is also available.
	H.E. Mr. Jean-Maurice Ripert, Permanent Representative of France and Member of UNDEF Advisory Board, gave a speech to the audience. A video of it is available for download.
	The next speaker was H.E. Mr. Yukio Takasu, Permanent Representative of Japan and Member of UNDEF Advisory Board. The video can be downloaded here. The full text can be downloaded here.
	Prof. Michael Doyle, Chair of the UNDEF Advisory Board, spoke about the work of UNDEF and its significance. His words can be read here. A video of the speech is also available for download.
	A slideshow on UNDEF projects was narrated by Cristina Colón, UNDEF Senior Programme Officer. The photos can be viewed here.
	Ms. Farrah Parvaiz Saleh, the Executive Director of Citizen's Commission for Human Development, gave a report from the field on the UNDEF project "Strengthening Democratic Practices in Pakistan" and presented a video about the project, that can be downloaded here. She also responded to a question from the audience.
	Mme Voré Gana SECK, Présidente, Conseil des ONG d'Appui au Développement, reported from the field on the UNDEF project "Dialogue des sociétés civiles pour la Démocratie en Afrique de l'Ouest" and gave a presentation, that can be downloaded here.

There was a question and answer session with members of the UNDEF Board (Amir Dossal, Executive Director of the UN Office for Partnerships, and Michael Doyle) and UNDEF staff (Roland Rich) responding to questions from the floor. Video of the question and answer session is available here.

The program closed with some video clips about UNDEF:

The first video clip was of His Excellency Ambassador Heraldo Muñoz of Chile, speaking at the roundtable discussion "Strengthening the Culture of Democracy" organized by The Century Foundation and Friedrich Ebert Stiftung on 04 June 2008.

The second video was about the first community radios in Sao Tome and Principe, established by International Alert, UNICEF, and UNDP.

The third video clip is taken from the Women's Peace Coalition project.

The fourth video has been produced by participants of the "Democracy, Human Rights and Media in Sierra Leone" project, conducted by Journalists for Human Rights.

The fifth video clip is from the "Why Democracy?" project by STEPS International.

A video recording of the entire event can be downloaded here. It is about 1 hour and 35 minutes in length.