News

During the Days of Democracies in Vilnius, which brought together the young people from various countries that fight for democracy, Lithuania’s current Presidency of the Community of Democracies held the constituent meeting of the Young Leaders’ Forum on 23 June in Vilnius.

The event at the Seimas (Parliament) was attended by young people from the South Caucasus and Eastern European countries, Burma/Myanmar, Kenya, Venezuela, the U.S.A., Sweden, Hungary and other countries.

The Institute of Democratic Politics and the National Endowment for Democracy in Washington organized the event with the support of Lithuania’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

Lithuania’s Minister of Foreign Affairs Audronius Ažubalis welcomed the participants of the event and promised to announce about the establishment of the Young Leaders’ Forum at the conference commemorating the 10th Anniversary of the Community of Democracies that is due in Krakow on 2-4 July. Over 500 participants are expected to attend the event.

The Minister stressed that democracy and freedom were values, for which “we must fight every day.”

According to the Minister, the present-day democratic world starts to forget about the importance of these values, and autocratic regimes began to exploit “the social and economic weaknesses of democratic societies” that became clearly visible after the global economic crisis.

“Your sincere passion to fight for democracy and for freedom in various parts of the world has to prove once again to the aging democratic world that values are eternal and universal and that values are invincible even when autocracies take all the possible weapons to commit their own acts of violence,”  said A. Ažubalis.

The Community of Democracies, which today is comprised of over 100 democratic countries of the world, was established ten years ago. Governments of democratic countries and the civil society are currently active within the Community through over 40 non-governmental centres around the world.

In April, a convening meeting of the Working Group on Gender Equality was held in Vilnius. In the middle of March, the Parliamentary Forum of the Community of Democracies was launched at the initiative of Lithuania. The Forum serves as a platform for parliamentarians to promote their cooperation in strengthening democracy.

For more information on Lithuania’s Presidency of the Community of Democracies please visit here.