Council for a Community of Democracies

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Council for a Community of Democracies is a US-based organisation.

"Drawing on the historical precedent of the American Revolution, and reacting to the worst century of war in human history, the first CCD began in 1979 as the Committees of Correspondence, uniting private citizens in many countries around an idea that later became the Committee for a Community of the Democracies (CCD). Its first president was James R. Huntley, who was about to publish his landmark book, Uniting the Democracies. Its mission was to advance a greater sense of unity and civilization among the world’s democracies — in a sense public diplomacy in reverse, the public educating its governments. Later presidents included American University Dean William E. Olson, Sam De Palma, former Assistant Secretary of State, and David Popper, former US Ambassador to Chile.
"After the U.S. election in 1980, CCD set as its goal influencing the foreign policy of the new Reagan Administration. Two years later President Reagan made his famous speech at Westminster Hall armed with ideas provided by CCD, calling upon nations worldwide to promote democracy by fostering the infrastructure of democracy — free press, unions, political parties, and the rule of law. Later that year a CCD paper dealing broadly with the goal of a community of democracies led to endorsement by President Reagan of a bi-partisan American political foundation headed by Hon. William E. Brock “to determine how the United States can best contribute as a nation to the global campaign for democracy now gathering force.” The first international meeting of that foundation, held in November 1982, led to the “Declaration of London” calling for an association of democracies composed of all genuine democracies.
"The next year President Reagan presented Congress with his “Project Democracy” and a request for $31 million earmarked for establishment of the National Endowment for Democracy (NED). In 1985, NED provided funding for a major CCD conference in Racine, Wisconsin attended by 36 representatives from 26 countries. Opening with a letter from Reagan, the Wingspread conference adopted, among other resolutions, a proposal to establish a worldwide association of democracies and a proposal for a caucus of the democracies at the United Nations." [1]

Vision

"We seek a community of nations working together to strengthen democracy across a wide spectrum of cultural and religious traditions and transparency of government processes, sound electoral systems, respect for human rights and the rule of law, active civic education, prevention of official corruption and related core values basic to democratic governance. Our aim is to foster awareness of the importance of democracy both as a central organizing principle of official government foreign policy and as the basis of international alliances of non-governmental organizations devoted to the strengthening of democracy. We believe that, a prime example of cooperation among democracies was the creation of the United Nations and the Atlantic alliance and those institutions that contributed to a strong, prosperous and European Union. We are convinced the time has arrived for the democracies of the world to build upon the experience of these organizations, a new institutional framework for global cooperation among democratic nations and those who aspire to govern themselves in accordance with democratic principles."

Board of Directors

Senior Advisors

Funding Sources

CCD is funded by grants from:

In 2002, CCD received grants from

  • U.S. Department of State
  • Netherlands Institute for Multiparty Democracy
  • German Embassy
  • Royal Danish Ministry of Foreign Affairs

Source

Contact

Address:
1801 F. Street NW, Suite 308
Washington, DC 20006
Tel: 202-789-9771
Fax: 202-789-9764
website: www.ccd21.org

Resources and articles

Related Sourcewatch

References

  1. ↑ CCD: The First 5 Years, CCD, accessed September 26, 2007.
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