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At the United Nations Democracy Caucus, Ambassador Dalius Čekuolis, Permanent Representative of Lithuania in the United Nations, reiterated Lithuania's commitment to promoting and strengthening democracy and presented some of the recent national initiatives in this field. The full text of the statement is available on-line.

Statement of Ambassador Dalius Čekuolis
Permanent Representative of Lithuania in the United Nations

at the Meeting of the United Nations Democracy Caucus

United Nations, New York
May 10, 2012

Excellencies, dear colleagues,

· I would like to thank Mongolia for organizing the meeting of the UN Democracy Caucus and welcome Ambassador Suren Badral to New York.

· Our special welcome and congratulations are addressed to Ambassador Maria Leissner, the first Secretary-General of the Community of Democracies. Maria, Lithuania is very pleased that the reform of the Community, started during our Presidency under your devoted stewardship, is well on track today.

· Lithuania assures its partners in the Caucus that we, in particular as a member of the Executive Board of the Community of Democracies, will continue to actively contribute to achieving our common goals set in the Vilnius Declaration and priorities under the Presidency of Mongolia.

· Let me briefly mention our few most recent undertakings at home.

· The international conference of the Parliamentary Forum for Democracy on the role of parliamentarians in strengthening democracies in Eastern Europe was held in Vilnius, Lithuania, on 3 May 2012. The parliamentarians, researchers, civil society representatives discussed key threats and challenges to democracy and civil societies in the region, current cases where democracy is at risk and adopted a Declaration, confirming the Forum’s commitment to strengthening and defending the democratic norms and institutions around the world.

· On 26-29 April 2012 the Young Leaders Forum, which was established in 2010 during Vilnius Democracy Days, and the Lithuanian Model of United Nations organized the international UN simulation conference “Youth Goes Global”. The young leaders encouraged young civil society representatives to participate in the United Nations democracy building and addressed the Mongolian Presidency, the Parliamentary Forum for Democracy and the United Nations with the request to foster networks which support young active people around the world and provide channels for the exchange of ideas in promoting democratic principles.

· As the Community of Democracies is further developing its approach to the issue of women and democracy, a conference “Gender, Science and Democracy” will be held in Vilnius on 21-22 June within the Programme of Lithuanian coordination of Nordic Baltic Eight (NB8) cooperation in 2012. The event will combine unique experiences of different regions and cultures, as well as promote best practices and outline guidelines for further initiatives. It will consist of the practical interactive part in the form of a GenEqualityCamp and 3 plenary sessions: “Why Gender Equality Matters?” session will address the issue of gender equality education from the state level perspective; “Higher education as Precondition to Gender Equality” session concerns the role of higher education when dealing with gender equality issues and “Innovative Methods and Good Practices” session will concentrate on best examples of different means and media for gender equality education.

· Indeed, partnership with women, youth, civil society, parliaments is an indivisible and strong feature of the Community of Democracies. Such an approach provides the UN Democracy Caucus members wide possibilities for action within the UN.

· Lithuania once again welcomes Mongolia’s choice of education for democracy as its priority for the Presidency. We congratulate the governments of Finland, Luxembourg, Mongolia, Nigeria and Romania for launching the Initiative Group on Education for Democracy (IGED) and look forward to further action in this regard, including and especially within the UN system.

· The UN system has been successfully providing its support for many governments, especially those building new and restored democracies. In 2005, the UN Secretary General established the UN Democracy Fund (UNDEF) to support democratization efforts around the world. As a new member of UNDEF Advisory Board, Lithuania is convinced that the projects selected and funded by the Fund contribute substantially to strengthening the voice of civil society and promoting human rights. It is extremely important that the large majority of UNDEF funds go to local civil society organizations. This year UNDEF is considering funding a project by the Council of the Community of Democracies “A Civil Society Strategy for Strengthening Democracy Education”. As UNDEF subsists entirely on voluntary contributions from governments, we call on all countries of the Community of Democracies to consider contributing to the Fund. Certainly, the same call for contributions – financial and/or in-kind - applies towards the activities of the Community itself.

· Finally, Lithuania is looking forward to our common endeavors in preparations for the 2013 Ministerial Conference in Ulaanbaatar and promoting and strengthening democracy.

Thank you for your attention.