Let’s celebrate the United Nations International Day of Democracy on Sunday, September 15, 2024. The first International Day of Democracy was celebrated in 2008.
“Democracy is as much a process as a goal, and only with the full participation of and support by the international community, national governing bodies, civil society, and individuals, can the ideal of democracy be made into a reality to be enjoyed by everyone, everywhere.”
The International Day of Democracy has been established to raise people's awareness of the importance of protecting and effectively realizing human rights. It is time to seize the moment to build a more equal, inclusive, and sustainable world with full respect for human rights. The values of freedom, respect for human rights, and the principle of holding periodic and genuine elections by universal suffrage are essential elements of democracy.
In turn, democracy provides the natural environment for the protection and effective realization of human rights. These values are embodied in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and further developed in the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, which enshrines a host of political rights and civil liberties underpinning meaningful democracies.
Democracy is a universally recognized ideal and is one of the core values and principles of the United Nations. The United Nations promotes good governance, monitors elections, supports civil society to strengthen democratic institutions and accountability, ensures self-determination in decolonized countries, and assists in the drafting of new constitutions in post-conflict nations. Justice and inclusion, in the spirit of 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and particularly Sustainable Development Goal 16, will need to be central elements building a world that respects and honours contributors worldwide. Thank you to all those individuals who have strengthened democracies around the world!
I want to thank teachers, college and university professors, lawyers, legal assistants, judges, librarians, public policy professionals and historians for your efforts to safeguard democracies. There are hundreds of occupations in today’s labour market that play a role in safeguarding our democracies–take a moment to thank individuals that you think have made a difference.
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