Happy Democracy Day! Today, September 15th, marks the third annual Democracy Day as designated by the United Nations General Assembly resolution A/62/7 – making today about as close to a birthday that this blog can get! The UN resolution encourages governments and non governmental organizations to strengthen programs devoted to the promotion and consolidation of democracy and invites all to celebrate and recognize democracy as a universal human right.
Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon released a video message commemorating the occasion and affirming that development can only fully take place within the context of democracy saying:
Development is far more likely to take hold if people are given a genuine say in their own governance and a chance to share in the fruits of progress. On this international day of democracy, let us recognize that democratic governance is a yearning shared and voiced by people the world over. Democracy is a goal in its own right, and an indispensable means for achieving development for all humankind.
The Secretary General also noted that “we should all be troubled” by the setbacks in democracy that have occurred in the past year and reaffirmed the “pivotal role” that democracy plays in development – a message that he noted should be heard at the upcoming Millennium Development Goals summit, and the world over.
But Democracy Day wouldn’t be complete without hearing what the people themselves thought about democracy. To that end, the UN sponsored photo and video competitions in which participants had to answer the question “Democracy is…”. Winners of the video competition can be found here, while winners of the photo competition can be found here. Both my favorite photo and video out of the winners came from Iran - a place that has known its own violent struggle for democracy in the past year.Kevin Baghdadchi’s photo, below, comes with the caption, “Democracy is the state of being free to act and look different from the way others do,” although its his picture itself that speaks a thousand words.
Kevin Baghdadchi's Winning Photo "Democracy is being different from others"
Farbod Koshtinat’s video, below, answers the competition’s question saying “Democracy is what my brothers and sisters requested and you shed their blood for it. But still, we will fight on, we haven’t given up on our dream.”
So what does this blog, Developing Democracies, say that democracy is? Here’s a crack at it: Democracy is a system of government created by the people, for the people, and controlled by the people – making it an end in itself and the best means to protect human rights and promote responsible development. An answer inspired by Ban Ki-Moon’s video? Nothing wrong with that. Happy Democracy Day – alternative definitions welcome in comments!
