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Democracy organizations co-leads of the youth democracy cohort (International IDEA, The European Partnership for Democracy, the European Youth Network and Africtivistes) call on civil society organisations and other stakeholders around the world to promote youth political participation as a bedrock of the summit for democracy process for the future.

This paper provides an overview of the purpose, work and outputs of the 16 Democracy Cohorts established or announced by February 2023 in the context of the Summit for Democracy organized by the US Government.

The main contribution of the Democracy Cohorts to the Summit for Democracy process is as key drivers of change by following up on and scaling up existing commitments, and establishing a vision for democratic renewal beyond the Second Summit.

International IDEA has just published new case studies on Mexico and Belgium as part of the ´

The Summit for Democracy is an initiative headed by the United States Government to discuss how to advance the Summit’s three broad themes: strengthening democracy and defending against authoritarianism; addressing and fighting corruption; and advancing respect for human rights.

It is with deep sorrow and heavy heart that we share the sad news of Dr Bassma Kodmani’s passing. A highly reputed political scientist and a professor of International Relations at Paris University, she was the founder and board member of the Arab Reform Initiative, which she had led as Executive Director.

“The European Parliament has a commendable record of standing up for human rights and democracy, and International IDEA is keen to support that continued effort”.

Every year, several institutions and organizations select a word of the year, reflecting the ethos, concerns, interests (and even internet searches) of people around the world during that time. One such institution is the Collins Dictionary, which selected “Permacrisis” as the word of the year for 2022.

As Turkey grapples with the aftermath of two devastating earthquakes, questions have arisen about whether the 2023 general and presidential elections will be postponed or held under a state of emergency. According to International IDEA’s Democracy Tracker, Turkey’s democratic performance has been consistently declining over the past two decades.

As global democracy faces headwinds, EU should lead in new geopolitical reality 

The European Union has traditionally been one of the world’s staunchest advocates of democracy but major changes have affected the global democracy landscape in recent years. With the support of the Swedish Ministry for Foreign Affairs, International IDEA led an analysis of the EU’s external democracy policy during 2022 to inform the EU discussion on democracy during Sweden’s 2023 Presidency of the Council of the EU.

This Policy Brief provides a snapshot of the full Recommendations Report: The EU’s External Democracy Policy in a New Geopolitical Reality. Its purpose is to inspire future EU democracy policy to ensure it can defend democracy globally and at home in line with the EU’s declared intention to become a stronger geopolitical player.

Despite three decades of international support and an intensified, structured EU accession process in the last 20 years, democracy is not faring significantly better in the region. Montenegro, Serbia and, as of mid-2022, also Albania and North Macedonia are candidates for EU accession with official negotiations opened. Bosnia and Herzegovina was granted status of candidate country under the condition of further reforms in October 2022.

The state of democracy in the Latin America and the Caribbean region is clouded by the global geopolitical context affected by the Covid-19 pandemic, a hard-hitting recession and the commercial tensions between China and the USA.

The European Union’s Eastern Partnership (EaP) covers six countries: Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Georgia, Republic of Moldova and Ukraine. The Covid-19 pandemic put a strain on fledgling democracies in the EaP region, aggravating pre-existing concerns, such as the weak rule of law, insufficient accountability of executive branches vis-à-vis legislatures and fragile media freedoms (see International IDEA 2022).

Over the last five years, the continent has witnessed a decline in the number of democratic systems, with 45 per cent of the population now living in hybrid regimes. The quality of democracy is also impacted by increasing insecurity, attempts at reversing the presidential term limits, contested electoral outcomes and an increased role for the military in regime transitions.

International IDEA, with the support from the European Commission, has been contributing to increasing effective evidence-based and coordinated support for democracy across the world through the Supporting Team Europe Democracy (STED) project. Within this project, the Summit for Democracy (S4D) emerged as a unique opportunity to place democracy at the center of the global agenda.

International IDEA and the European Commission co-hosted a hybrid event on 13 December 2022, ‘Beyond the Summit for Democracy, opportunities and the way forward’. The first Summit for Democracy (S4D) and Year of Action put the spotlight on democracy at a critical time, it engaged leaders to formulate domestic and external commitments on democracy and human rights.

Former Reuters environment correspondent and author of The Great Melt Alister Doyle talks about the role of the United Nations, especially the COP conferences, in dealing with the threat of climate change.

International IDEA, in collaboration with the European Commission (EC) and the Youth Political and Civic Engagement Cohort of the Summit for Democracy (S4D), held on 15 November 2022, an online peer-to-peer dialogue, Promoting the role of youth in political and democratic spaces. The event explored commitments on youth presented by governments at the S4D, drawing lessons learnt and identifying opportunities for further engagement for the Year of Action.

On 30 November 2022, International IDEA launched two new knowledge products under the Global State of Democracy Initiative: