Summit for Democracy opens
‘We stand at an inflection point in our history’
The free world stands at a historic “inflection point,” its values and ideals under existential threat both at home and abroad, U.S. President Joe Biden said Thursday as he tried to rally world leaders and citizens alike to the cause of government by, of and for the people.
Biden’s call to arms came at the outset of his two-day Summit for Democracy, a Zoom-based gathering of government officials, business leaders, union heads and civil society advocates from more than 100 countries around the world.
“This is the defining challenge of our time,” the president said, Secretary of State Antony Blinken sitting alongside, to a pair of massive screens filled with the checkerboard images of more than 80 world leaders, including Prime Minister Justin Trudeau.
“Yes, democracy is hard — we all know that. It works best with consensus and co-operation. When people and parties that might have opposing views sit down and find ways to work together, things began to work. But it’s the best way to unleash human potential and defend human dignity and solve big problems.”
Lofty rhetoric notwithstanding the summit has been greeted with muted enthusiasm at best, and at worst charges that it’s not practising what it preaches.
Of the 111 countries invited to take part, 37 of them “severely restrict” the ability of people to freely organize, participate in and communicate with the political and social structures around them, according to the international civil society alliance known as Civicus.
Seven participating nations were downgraded in the group’s latest annual freedom index, while only five per cent of the population represented at the summit live in countries — Canada among them — where civic and democratic rights are fully protected.
Civicus ranks the U.S., on the other hand, as “obstructed,” thanks in large part to the widening limits on voting rights in southern states, persistent efforts to limit access to abortion, the treatment of protesters and ongoing social tensions related to COVID-19.
Stand Up America, a progressive grassroots group founded in the wake of Donald Trump’s election win in 2016, reminded supporters Thursday that the Biden administration has yet to pass long-promised bills to protect voting rights in the U.S.
“We’re now a year into President Biden’s term and he has yet to deliver on voting rights and protecting our democracy,” the missive read.
“A year’s worth of press conferences, speeches and Zoom calls don’t add up to much when our voting rights are being eroded.”
Trudeau urged leaders during the first plenary session of the summit to “work together,” according to a release from the Prime Minister’s Office — the sessions were not open to the media.
“We must continue to work to safeguard our institutions, counter the rise of authoritarianism, and protect and expand democratic rights and freedoms worldwide in order to create a more secure, stable, and prosperous world for future generations.”
He announced $5 million in human rights funding for the United Nations and $3 million for State Department programs for LGBTQ and religious rights.
He also cited Canada’s spearheading an international declaration against arbitrary detention, a product of China’s three-year imprisonment of Canadian citizens Michael Spavor and Michael Kovrig starting in 2018.