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 democracies that still work well, governments have depended on the ethical quality of politicians to abide by unwritten, historical conventions for propriety and protection. Today the worst cases of abuse have fallen below this high standard of leadership behaviour with increasingly bold, despotic and corrupt actions that take advantage of the absence of basic regulation.

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, the regulations that define and govern them, and the timely help of neighbouring countries, to protect us from disaster and tyranny.

There have always been bad people attracted to the power of government. We're now living in a world that is actively damaged by them, but we know how to write robust definitions and regulations that can stop these abusive and corrupt 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. We have the living proof that we can no longer rely on a leader being a good person, we must have guard rails for leadership.

The fundamental problem is, there has never been a trusted custodian for the oversight of such rules, something outside the reach of the abuse and corruption they are designed to constrain. We have allowed the profound conflict of interest of governments being solely responsible for their own oversight. This responsibility must now be distributed inside and outside of the state, to ensure robust minimum standards of conduct and respect for rights.

GCHRD history

The GCHRD started in 2006 in Canada as an attempt to address the growing weakness of democratic outcomes. It is based in Vancouver today. Since then, GCHRD engagement with the public about certified standards of democratic process has produced strong and positive feedback. Our public communications (see images throughout this site) have attracted the attention of top democracy advocates in over 30 countries, along with some of the most progressive politicians.

To gauge public support we travelled over 15,000 kilometres around Canada in 2015 to discuss these issues with citizens directly. We found a clear understanding of the importance of robust democratic process, and feedback we received strongly supported the need for independent process protections. This positive feedback was reinforced by the high quality of public suggestions for extending the scope of process protections beyond the basic proposals used in our testing presentations. After 20 years of work on civics, it's clear that failure to address chronic governance issues by enacting even basic aspects of these protections, lay at the root of public discontent with politicians in general.

mission

The GCHRD will work to implement effective standards of human rights and democratic process, to improve the quality of life in democracies, by promoting international cooperation and oversight.

The GCHRD is intended to show the need for a new institution similar to the Intenational Law Commission, to operate in concert with other global institutions and national governments. It would fill an important international gap in the rational-legal framework by setting standards of process to ensure the strength and fairness of civics institutions and should also have the responsibility to publicly report on both the quality of implementation of those processes and of rights protections.

new global civic structure

Beyond the need for a set of standards, the quality of deployment for democratic process is advanced through public measurement and reporting. Ultimately, the most important function of the GCHRD will be the analysis of national implementations of rights and democratic process, with findings published publicly.

The analysis process will undoubtedly uncover new forms of circumvention and erosion as time passes, so an important response will be the publication of updated standards to address new abuses.

United Nations Organizations

• international deliberation, cooperation and dispute resolution

• representatives appointed by national governments

• voluntary participation by national governments

International Criminal Court

• prosecution of individuals for genocide, crimes against humanity, war crimes and crimes of aggression

• representatives appointed by national governments

• voluntary participation by national governments

• national governments select judges

Global Council for
Human Rights and Democracy

• international standards of rights and democratic processes, certify government implementations

• oversight and public reporting on rights and process implementation

• voluntary participation by national governments

• citizens nominate their most trusted representatives from qualifying candidates

public commentary

The GCHRD is a long way from fulfilling its primary goals. In the interim, an important function will be public commentary to highlight how damage to democratic processes is a cause of common political issues.

Our tools are, social media comment on current events, and the publication of reports on major topics of process and rights. Our comments and reporting attempt to cast an objective light on the erosion, dysfunction and manipulation of democratic processes and universal human rights.

If your organization is advancing one of the issues within our scope of action, we would be happy to work with you to develop and promote commentary, analysis or reports on the subject.

If you are a member of government and wish to improve the strength of democracy in your country, we would be pleased to start a dialogue about shared goals.