The Government of the United States hosted the first of two Summits for Democracy on 8–10 December 2021. In the face of increasing challenges to democracy globally, they aimed to bring together leaders from government, civil society and the private sector to set out a global affirmative agenda for democratic renewal and provide a space for countries to make both individual and collective commitments to strengthen and protect democracy. Countries were asked to submit written commitments on strengthening democracy at home and abroad. By mid-March 2022, 55 countries had made their written commitments available on the United States’ State Department website.
This webinar* is aimed as a reflection and discussion of the written Summit commitments submitted by countries to strengthen and protect democracy at home and abroad. The discussion will aim to: 1) provide an overview of the commitments made, identifying focus areas, domestic versus international commitments, clusters of countries that have made similar commitments, their level of specificity and type of commitments both overall and on specific focus areas (open government and LGBTQI rights); 2) identification of commitments gaps and alignment against democratic performance indicators; and 3) identify possible next steps in commitment refinement, monitoring and implementation.
The discussion is aimed to inform commitment refinement and monitoring activities during the Year of Action.
