The Community of Democracies organized its Seventh Ministerial Conference on April 27-29 in Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia. ICNL’s President, Douglas Rutzen, participated in a plenary panel on threats against civil society. The panel also included the following members:
- Carl Bildt, Foreign Minister of Sweden;
- R.M. Marty M. Natalegawa, Foreign Minister of Indonesia;
- Karel Schwarzenberg, Foreign Minister of the Czech Republic;
- Miroslav Lajcak, Foreign Minister of Slovakia;
- Joe Costello, Minister for Trade and Development, Ireland;
- Maina Kiai, UN Special Rapporteur on the rights to freedom of peaceful assembly and of association; and
- Deepak Obhrai, Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister of Foreign Affairs of Canada, who moderated the panel.
During his presentation, Mr. Rutzen summarized global civil society legal trends and presented concrete actions governments can take to protect civic space. Aung San Suu Kyi and a number of other dignitaries attended this presentation.
A global intergovernmental coalition of over 100 countries, the Community of Democracies seeks to strengthen democratic norms and institutions around the world. ICNL is pleased to support the work of the Community of Democracies, particularly through our participation in the Community of Democracies Working Group on Enabling and Protecting Civil Society.