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Commonwealth Secretariat press release

Commonwealth and la Francophonie Host Meeting on Democracy and Pluralism in Cameroon

20 January 2000

The Commonwealth Secretariat and the International Organisation of La Francophonie (OIF) are jointly organising a colloquium on 'Democracy in Pluralistic Societies', which will be held in Yaoundé, Republic of Cameroon, from 24-26 January, 2000. It is the first time the two organisations, whose membership together comprises more than one-third of the world's population, have undertaken a joint initiative of this kind. 

The conference will be opened by President Biya of Cameroon, and will be attended by the Secretaries-General of the two organisations: Chief Emeka Anyaoku (Commonwealth), and Dr Boutros Boutros-Ghali (La Francophonie).  There will be 18 participants selected from across the 105 combined member states of the two organisations, and a further 9 experts from the host country. 

The idea for a joint colloquium arose from a Commonwealth/UNESCO conference in Paris in January 1999 on constructive pluralism, which concluded that, despite its potential for division, pluralism should and can be a positive phenomenon.  

The Secretaries-General of both the Commonwealth and La Francophonie are concerned by the potential for division and conflict that can arise where pluralism is not managed successfully. The last year alone has seen the international community intervene to deal with the causes of ethnic conflict in Europe, Russia, Asia and Africa. Cameroon has been selected as a venue to highlight the importance to Africa of managing pluralism successfully. The host country is composed of diverse ethnic, linguistic and religious groups and is a member of both organisations. 

It is planned that the colloquium will: identify the characteristics of pluralist societies; look at constitutional measures and mechanisms aimed at guaranteeing and supporting pluralism; study legislation and practices in the areas of democracy and the organisation of political parties; and examine the policies adopted by civil societies aimed and building positive and constructive pluralism. The overall aim of this meeting will be to produce for policy and opinion makers ideas on how to forge constitutional and institutional structures which promote democracy together with stability and national cohesion in pluralistic societies. 

The conclusions of the discussions will be made public. 

Note to Editors: 

The Commonwealth has 54 member states which have a total population of 1.7bn. La Francophonie, with a total population of 560m, has 51 member states and four observers. Cameroon, Canada, Dominica, Mauritius, Seychelles and Vanuatu are members of both organisations. St Lucia is a full member of the Commonwealth and an associate member of La Francophonie.

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