Paulina Chavez
Press Secretary
[email protected]
Remarks as delivered on November 10, 2015
Dear Madeleine, dear friends, this is a moment I wouldn't miss. First of all for the pleasure to be here with all of you, but especially for the honor to receive this award from NDI, an organization with a fantastic record in the promotion of democracy and human rights in the world, and especially from the hands of a very dear friends, Madeleine Albright, a reference to all of us.
In a moment like this, I would like to start by saying, that I am very worried when I see more and more people around the world saying that with the large number of conflicts we are facing, the international community should bet on stability against democracy. As if democracy was the cause of the mess in which a large parts of the world are, and as if democracy was responsible for the large number of refugees we are facing. And this is something that I absolutely cannot accept.
First of all this is the reason for some to justify dictatorships. And I was born in a dictatorship. By the way, quite the stable one, it lasted for about 48 years. But that stability allowed it not only to oppress the Portuguese people but to engage war for 13 years in three African countries. Which means there is no linkage within stability and peace. At the same time I lived the Carnation Revolution, I had the privilege to be in the first line of defense of the Portuguese democracy against the attempt by the extreme left and the radical military to create the new dictatorship. And that was not an easy battle. Even if it was a bloodless one, fortunately. Many forecasted that we would lose. I remember Henry Kissinger telling to Mario Soares my leader at the time, that he would be the Kerensky of Western Europe we were in the Cold War at the time. The fact is that we won, and probably in the streets of Lisbon for the first time last century the Mensheviks have defeated the Bolsheviks. But that has shown me how difficult it is to preserve and consolidate democracy. And how much the democracy must be nurtured in order to prevail. And when I see now some saying that looking at the Arab Spring, that democracy is responsible for the problems we have, it is important to tell them that long lasting dictatorships, by destroying democratic institutions, by crashing the civil society, by undermining the possibility to enjoy human rights or the rule of law, they not only are creating the conditions for extremist ideologies and for radical terrorist activities to develop but they are also not allowing their societies to create those instruments that are necessary to overcome challenges, difficulties, contradictions, in a peaceful way. And so long lasting dictatorships become a factor of instability and sooner or later a threat to peace. [clapping]
And I have to say that international communities is also sometimes responsible for what is happening. First this idea that in a post-conflict situation, democracy and the election mean the same thing, and so many times international communities after elections just leaves the country to their own resources and possibilities. And, of course, sometimes conflict comes again to those same countries. Or the idea that if you intervene and topple a dictator the then abandoned democracy will flourish by itself. No. Democracy is something that indeed needs to be nutritious. That is why NDI is so important. I have been following the activities of NDI since the good old days in which I had the privilege to work with NDI on several occasions and also the privilege to work with Madeleine Albright facing some of the crises that democracy faced during the end of the last century and the beginning of this century. The Balkans, East Timor. And I know that NDI active everything from Washington to as far as Gaziantep. It's understood that to nurture democracy one needs to build democratic institutions and to support them. We need to strengthen the civil society, we need to uphold human rights and the rule of law against corruption and interests of cliques in any country in the world. And that those are the conditions that allow democracy to prevail and with democracy prevailing to allow stability and peace also to prevail. And it is exactly the absence of those conditions, it is exactly the fact that democracy is not able to prevail in many parts of the world that is responsible for the mess that we are living today in so many regions. I’ve been in the present functions for about 10 years. And I have to say that the world has changed enormously. Ten years ago we had 38 million refugees and internally displaced people by conflict, today we have 60 million. The world became much more dangerous and the areas of fragility have increased quite dramatically. Even if there was economic progress and a lot of technological development that should allow us to live much better than 10 years ago. But if one looks at the impact of conflict and displacement, we are witnessing a staggering escalation of that impact. In 2010 conflict was displacing 11,000 people each single day, in 2011 14,000, in 2012 23,000, 2013 32,000, 2014 42,500 people displaced by conflict every single day in the world. And facing this staggering escalation our capacity to respond is today totally unable to provide the basic core protection and the minimum life saving assistance to so many people displaced in the world. And it is clear that international community has lost much of its capacity to prevent conflicts and to timely solve them.
To face this situation many things are required, but if I were, if I had to choose one, I would say leadership. And of course leadership is required for any country or any organization in any situation facing whatever problem exists, and in today’s world we need leadership for all the challenges that the world confronts. From climate change to the impact of new technologies in some sensitive areas. But allow me to mention three aspects that are absolutely key for what I am doing. First, leadership for peace. I remember in the good old days I was describing, I remember in the Crisis of East Timor, when it was absolutely necessary to avoid a massacre the only thing that mattered was that the President of the United States was convinced that action was necessary. As soon as he was convinced that action was necessary what seemed impossible the day before became necessary the day after and an intervention took place and the massacre was avoided.
Now things a little bit more difficult. Power relations are less clear, and we have seen the sovereignty agenda gaining grounds to human rights and the democracy agenda in many parts of the world. So leadership now needs to be a little bit more sophisticated to allow for peace to be reestablished or to prevail in several parts of the world. That’s why it was so important to see Secretary Kerry in Vienna, bringing together those countries that have influence in the parties to conflict in Syria, that have leverage over the parties to conflict in Syria, to make them understand that Syria, like other wars in today’s world, are wars where nobody is winning, everybody is losing. That became a clear threat to not only to regional stability but global peace and security. That there is only one rational thing for everybody to do, to join efforts independently of the difference of interests, the contradictions that exists, to join efforts to put an end to this nonsense. We need leadership to bring together the key actors that are relevant in each situation for peace to be able to established.
Then leadership for democracy. And there I have to say I am not talking about military intervention or things of this sort. But when one looks at the example that is so important in our section today, the example of Tunisia. It is a country that has been remarkable in all aspects. A country whose experience is something that everybody should follow everywhere in the world, a country for which we have an enormous admiration, but a country that faces enormous economic and social difficulties with large youth unemployment and a country that has not received enough support from the international community. [clapping] And to be honest, when I speak with some of my European friends, I see them more worried in making sure that Tunisia stops the flow of people into the Mediterranean than in providing Tunisia with the instruments to allow for the economic and social development that will bring the peace dividend to its people and to allow to even further consolidation of the democracy process in tunisia. We need leadership in making sure that in emerging democracy or democracy in the process of consolidation are a priority in international development operation in order to make sure that they are successful in their experiences and that those experiences will prevail.
And then leadership in refugee protection. When some are closing their borders, it is necessary to say that this is the moment to enhance humanitarian support to refugees wherever they are and 86% of them are in the developing world. To enhance support to those countries who are supporting them, Jordan, Lebanon, are having a dramatic impact in their economy, in their society. They need much more international solidarity than what they are getting. But especially leadership in providing for borders to be open and for legal opportunities to be given for refugees to find safety in the developed world. And this is true in Europe today more than in anywhere else but it is also true in North America, in Australia, in other parts of the world. It is absolutely essential that refugees have more opportunities in resettlement, in humanitarian mission, in visa policies, in fair reunification programs and in other forms allowing them to come legally to where they will find protection in the near future instead of having to put themselves in the hands of smugglers that violate their human rights and cause so many of them to die, as it is happening today in the Mediterranean.
This is complex world in a difficult moment, when the world is complex, when the world is difficult it is even more important to stick to our principles. Democracy and human rights against the false stability of tyrannies. Tolerance, the understanding of the importance of diversity against xenophobia and racism, and finally a clear bet on the protection of those values that are absolutely central for democracy to prevail. The values that correspond to the most important contribution that I believe Europe and the United States in formation at the time have given to all civilization, the values of the enlightenment. If we stick to those values, if we do it with full commitment, if we do it with transparency, if we do it without double standards, I am sure peace, democracy will prevail. I am sure there will be less refugees in the world and those that have unfortunately to become refugees with find a solution for their plight. Thank you very much. [clapping]
