U.S. Says United Nations Has Key Role in Promoting Democracy

Democratic nations should help the UN live up to founding principles

The United States wants the United Nations to assume a more important role in the promotion of democracy around the world and it sees the U.N. Democracy Fund as a way to achieve that goal.

A State Department fact sheet issued September 9 says the United States believes that democratic countries should work together more closely "in order to help the United Nations live up to its founding principles." The Democracy Caucus at the United Nations is a vehicle for democratic countries to advance the United Nations’ work on rule-of-law issues and human-rights matters as well as the pursuit of good governance.

The United States also supports U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan’s initiative to replace the existing Commission on Human Rights with a proactive Human Rights Council.

The new council would not include member states with a record of human-rights abuse. The new council would also have the advantage of meeting throughout the year to address grave issues instead of being confined to a brief, six-week stint as the commission has been.