Global parliamentary leaders confront rising threats to democracy
Source: NDI
Last month, parliamentary leaders from across the globe visited Washington, D.C., to contribute to the first ever House Democracy Partnership (HDP) Leadership Forum, where they participated in peer-to-peer discussions on some of the most urgent threats to democracy around the world—rising authoritarianism, anti-democratic propaganda, political polarization—and discussed how legislative bodies can best respond. The Forum, held July 16-18, was the first of its kind in the fourteen-year history of the HDP, a bipartisan commission of the U.S. House of Representatives working to support the development of effective, independent and responsive legislative institutions worldwide.
HDP Chairman Rep. David Price (D-NC), and HDP Co-Chair Rep. Vern Buchanan (R-FL) welcomed more than 40 delegates from sixteen countries representing a wide variety of political structures. Delegates included parliamentary leaders and democracy champions from Armenia, Colombia, Georgia, Guatemala, Haiti, Indonesia, Iraq, Kenya, Kosovo, Kyrgyzstan, Lebanon, Liberia, Nepal, North Macedonia, Peru, and Sri Lanka.
Rep. Price opened the Leadership Forum with a powerful reminder that the future of democracy rests on the ability of policymakers—like those who gathered that day at the Library of Congress—to affect positive change in the lives of the people they represent. “For the sake of representative democracy, we simply cannot fail,” said Price, who added that he hoped the Forum would serve as a foundation for legislators to deliver on the promise of democracy.
“These are not easy days for democracy,” said Derek Mitchell, president of the National Democratic Institute (NDI), which implements activities on behalf of HDP in partnership with the International Republican Institute (IRI). Mitchell noted that the world has undergone remarkable changes since HDP was first established in 2005, and that its work to bring legislators together to build more resilient and representative institutions is more critical now than ever.
Click here to read the full article published by NDI on 21 August 2019.
Image by NDI
Last month, parliamentary leaders from across the globe visited Washington, D.C., to contribute to the first ever House Democracy Partnership (HDP) Leadership Forum, where they participated in peer-to-peer discussions on some of the most urgent threats to democracy around the world—rising authoritarianism, anti-democratic propaganda, political polarization—and discussed how legislative bodies can best respond. The Forum, held July 16-18, was the first of its kind in the fourteen-year history of the HDP, a bipartisan commission of the U.S. House of Representatives working to support the development of effective, independent and responsive legislative institutions worldwide.
HDP Chairman Rep. David Price (D-NC), and HDP Co-Chair Rep. Vern Buchanan (R-FL) welcomed more than 40 delegates from sixteen countries representing a wide variety of political structures. Delegates included parliamentary leaders and democracy champions from Armenia, Colombia, Georgia, Guatemala, Haiti, Indonesia, Iraq, Kenya, Kosovo, Kyrgyzstan, Lebanon, Liberia, Nepal, North Macedonia, Peru, and Sri Lanka.
Rep. Price opened the Leadership Forum with a powerful reminder that the future of democracy rests on the ability of policymakers—like those who gathered that day at the Library of Congress—to affect positive change in the lives of the people they represent. “For the sake of representative democracy, we simply cannot fail,” said Price, who added that he hoped the Forum would serve as a foundation for legislators to deliver on the promise of democracy.
“These are not easy days for democracy,” said Derek Mitchell, president of the National Democratic Institute (NDI), which implements activities on behalf of HDP in partnership with the International Republican Institute (IRI). Mitchell noted that the world has undergone remarkable changes since HDP was first established in 2005, and that its work to bring legislators together to build more resilient and representative institutions is more critical now than ever.
Click here to read the full article published by NDI on 21 August 2019.
Image by NDI