News

As the outgoing Presidency of the Community of Democracies, on June 28-July 1 in Vilnius Lithuania hosts international events, which are dedicated to the promotion of democracy and will focus on new democracies and civil society.

The events will also discuss the reform initiative of the Community of Democracies. Because the Community unites almost one hundred and fifty countries and the main decisions are taken by the Convening Group, which has only 17 members, a decision was made to expand it by inviting some countries that actively participate in the work of the Community of Democracies and to strengthen support to new and emerging democracies, etc.

On 1 July at the sixth ministerial conference of the Community of Democracies in Vilnius, Lithuania is to officially hand over the two-year Presidency of the Community of Democracies to Mongolia together with the reform package that was prepared and approved by the Community of Democracies.

Lithuanian Presidency established the Parliamentary Forum, Youth Forum and Corporate Democracy Forum of the Community of Democracies. Their meetings will take place in the capital of Lithuania.

On June 28-July 1 in Vilnius, the 6th ministerial conference of the Community of Democracies, Women Enhancing Democracy event, Youth Forum, Parliamentary Forum, Corporate Democracy Forum and Civil Society Forum will be attended by about 1000 guests from foreign countries.

40 delegations of guests, headed by presidents, parliament speakers, prime ministers, ministers of foreign affairs and other ministers are expected to take part in the events.

Presidents of the Kyrgyz Republic, Kosovo, Mongolia and Finland, Albanian and Latvian parliament speakers, the Slovak Prime Minister, U.S. Secretary of State, EU High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy, foreign ministers of many countries of the Community of Democracies, heads of international organizations, their divisions and non-governmental organizations have confirmed their participation already.

There have been significant developments in North Africa and the Middle East during the term of Lithuania’s Presidency of the Community of Democracies. These developments have enabled drawing attention to the Lithuanian Presidency’s objectives - the strengthening of the role of the civil society and women in government.

The Community of Democracies is an intergovernmental structure, which aims to strengthen and deepen democratic norms and practices worldwide. Democracies and developing democracies take part in its activities. The activity of the Community of Democracies is based on the Charter of the United Nations, the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and the Warsaw Declaration of 2000.

Lithuania took over the two-year Presidency of the Community of Democracies in July 2009 and this July will officially hand it over to Mongolia.

To the attention of media representatives: you can find programmes of all the events of the Community of Democracies in Vilnius here. For journalists’ convenience, the press centre will be located at the Lithuanian Exhibition Centre LITEXPO and will be open from 30 June to 1 July. Requests to take interviews from the participants of the events are to be submitted to the MFA’s Press and Public Relations Division via e-mail at media@urm.lt or by phone: 2362451; during the events, the requests are to be left at the media information desk in the Press Center or submitted via e-mail at media@vilnius2011.mfa.lt or by phone: 8630 57577.

Women Enhancing Democracy event and the Community of Democracies Ministerial Conference will be broadcast live at http://vilnius2011.mfa.lt/.