Clinton Urges World Democracies to Support Mideast, North Africa

01 July 2011

Secretary Clinton and Lithuanian President Grybauskaitė speak in the presidential palace in Vilnius, Lithuania.

Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton is calling on democratic countries around the world to support countries in transition to democracy across the Middle East and North Africa.

“This is an hour of need, and every democracy should stand up and be counted,” Clinton told the Community of Democracies July 1 in Vilnius, Lithuania, during the group’s sixth ministerial meeting. She said citizens across the Middle East and North Africa are demanding the same universal rights, dignity and opportunity Eastern and Central Europeans claimed two decades ago.

She said that while the political outcome in those countries in the Middle East and North Africa “will be determined by the people themselves,” Community of Democracies members “have a stake in that outcome and a responsibility to help.”

“We see our own stories in theirs. And we know that, just as any one democracy depends on people working together, a community of democracy depends on all nations, not only working together, but renewing our commitment,” Clinton said. “We believe that established democracies have a special duty to help those that are emerging.”

The secretary said that while every transition is unique, there are shared lessons for people in the Middle East and North Africa to draw on.

“From Europe to Latin America to Africa to Asia, people have learned the fundamentals of successful democratic transitions: accountable institutions rooted in the rule of law; equal protection and participation for all citizens, especially women; a vibrant civil society; a free press; an independent judiciary and economic opportunity; integration into the international community and its norms and institutions; and leaders who understand that legitimacy flows from consent, not coercion,” Clinton said.

The secretary added that democracies flourish through connections to, and support from, other democracies. She called on the Community of Democracies to be “vibrant and responsive to what lies ahead,” and applauded reforms adopted under the current Lithuanian chairmanship. The group next will be chaired by Mongolia. The organization, founded in 2000, is a “global intergovernmental coalition of democratic countries, with the goal of promoting democratic rules and strengthening democratic norms and institutions around the world,” according to its website.

Clinton’s participation in the June 30-July 1 ministerial comes after a stop in Budapest, Hungary, where she took part in the inauguration of the Lantos Institute. The new institute is named after Hungarian-born Tom Lantos, the only Holocaust survivor to serve as a member of the U.S. Congress. 

While in Lithuania, Clinton also held consultations with President Dalia Grybauskaitė at the presidential palace in Vilnius. The two discussed military security, energy independence, women’s issues and democratization around the world.