Definition of democracy --- In 2000, I was the protagonist of the negotiations of the resolution of the Commission on Human Rights evenbtually adopted as 'Promoting and consolidating democracy' (resolution 2000/47). This was the first resolution in the history of the United Nations trying to produce an internationally negotiated agreement on the definition of democracy ('democracy' as you know is not refered to in the Charter of the United Nations).

While several delegations had serious problems in accepting democracy, in its political meaning, they could not object plainly to the notion. Therefore, we had to fight on the territory of semantics.

For example, the initial title of the draft resolution was "Code of democractic conduct". We had to water it down to the final title (see above).

Also, the initial draft contained in its first operative paragraph a definition of democracy. This was also considered by some too Procustrean, so we had to transform the definition into a list of "ways" to "consolidate" democracy. In subsequent years, the list of features of democracies was expanded, while the pressure to water it down led to the inclusion of "inter alia".

Diplomacy and language are old friends

Source author: Petru Dumitriu PetruD@diplomacy.edu