The first Summit for Democracy was hosted by the United States "to renew democracy at home and confront autocracies abroad".
Key Highlights
Aim: The summit aimed to have a dialogue between participating governments and civil society, and show how open, rights-respecting societies can work together to effectively tackle the challenges of present time.
Themes: The Summit was centred around three principal themes:
Strengthening democracy and defending against authoritarianism;
Fighting corruption; and
Promoting respect for human rights.
Commitments: The US President called on the countries to make “concrete commitments” to reaffirm their democratic values in the face of sustained and alarming challenges to democracy and universal human rights.
Presidential Initiative: The US President also announced the establishment of the Presidential Initiative for Democratic Renewal, a targeted expansion of US support for democracy around the world.
Under the initiative, the efforts will focus on:
Supporting a free and independent media;
Fighting corruption;
Bolstering democratic reformers;
Advancing technology for democracy; and
Defending free and fair elections and political processes.
India’s Stand
India said it is the largest democracy in the world with 2,500-year-old democratic traditions and proposed to share the country’s democratic experience through digital solutions.
It cited the elected republican city-states such as Lichhavi and Shakya that flourished in India as far as 2500 years back.
India highlighted that democracies should jointly deal with social media and crypto currencies, so that they are used to empower democracy, not to undermine it.
Citing that democracy has taken various shapes across the world, India said there is a need to work on the democratic practices.
It also said that there is a need to continuously enhance inclusion, transparency, human dignity, responsive grievance redressal and decentralisation of power.
