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Secretary-General hails UN Democracy Fund and calls for further support

Writing in the report on the prevention of armed conflict, Secretary-General, Annan underlined the role of democratization in building peace and called on member states to continue funding the Democracy Fund.

As mentioned in the report...
"As part of an overall aim to deepen and expand United Nations support for democracy and to make it more concrete, the United Nations Democracy Fund was established in July 2005. The Democracy Fund is intended to reinforce the work that the United Nations system is already doing in the area of democratization, human rights and people’s participation. The priorities of the Democracy Fund include strengthening democratic dialogue; support for constitution-related assistance processes, civil society empowerment, civic education and voter registration; and strengthening political parties, citizens’ access to information, human rights and fundamental freedoms, accountability, transparency and integrity."

"A more robust and strategic approach to assistance in democracy-building, elections and constitutional capacity should be developed, and, to that end, I hope that the two main intergovernmental efforts to advance the principles of democracy — the movement of new or restored democracies and the Community of Democracies — can explore ways to best complement each other and work together. I also welcome and hope for more support from Member States to strengthen United Nations electoral assistance and constitutional assistance. Further, Member States should continue to support the United Nations Democracy Fund as an innovative and strategic tool to strengthen democratic institutions and practices." Click here for the full report.