The Problem

Governance issues around the world continue to prove there are significant deficiencies in the processes and regulatory frameworks, that would protect the integrity of national democracies. In the best cases, governments have depended on the ethical quality of politicians to abide by unwritten, historical conventions, and in the worst cases, despotic and corrupt leaders have counted on the weakness of national law to subvert the function of democracy for personal gain.

On the best of days, we can expect good people to cooperate and build the best government they can, but we must also plan for the worst days, when we must rely on the strength of our civic institutions and the regulations that govern them, to protect us from disaster and tyranny.

There have always been bad people attracted to the power of government. We know how to write robust rules that stop abusive behaviours. We need to make sure those rules are present at every level of government, everywhere and we must ensure they are constantly updated to protect against new forms of abuse.

The real problem is, there has never been a trusted custodian for these rules, outside the reach of the corrupt politicians they are designed to constrain. It is a profound conflict of interest for a government to be solely responsible for its own oversight.

GCHRD History

The GCHRD started in 2006 in Canada and is based in Vancouver today. Since then, our engagement with the public about certified standards of democratic process has produced strong and positive feedback. Our social media presence (see images throughout this site) attracted the top democracy advocates in over 30 countries, several progressive politicians from leading western nations and one head of state. To gauge grass roots support we travelled over 15,000 kilometres around Canada in 2015 to poll citizens directly. We found they clearly understand the importance of robust democratic process and they strongly support the need for process protections. We also received many excellent suggestions for additions to the basic standards we presented.

Mission

The GCHRD will work to maintain democracies as the most trusted governments in the world, by providing research, publication and advancement of the highest standards of fair democratic process and the independent codification of universal human rights.

Civic Structure

The GCHRD is designed to operate in concert with other global institutions and national governments. Our work fills an important functional gap between the United Nations and the International Criminal Court, and requires operational independence from the daily politics of national governments.