Building Democracy for Peace, Development, and Human Rights

The World Movement for Democracy is a global network of democrats, including activists, practitioners, academics, policy makers, and funders, who have come together to cooperate in the promotion of democracy. The Washington, DC-based National Endowment for Democracy (NED) initiated this nongovernmental effort in February 1999 with a global Assembly in New Delhi, India, to strengthen democracy where it is weak, to reform and invigorate democracy even where it is longstanding, and to bolster pro-democracy groups in countries that have not yet entered into a process of democratic transition. At the conclusion of that Inaugural Assembly, participants adopted, by consensus, a Founding Statement creating the World Movement for Democracy as a “pro-active network of democrats.” Emphasizing that the World Movement is not a new centralized organization, the statement declares that the resulting network “will meet periodically to exchange ideas and experiences and to foster collaboration among democratic forces around the world.” The World Movement would also make use of different information and communication technology to ensure the continuation of networking.