On 19 April 2004, the Commission on Human Rights adopted the Resolution 2004/30, based on
the draft presented by Romania and entitled "Enhancing the role of regional, sub-regional and
other organizations and arrangements in promoting and consolidating democracy". The delegations
of Peru, United States and Timor Leste associated themselves with Romania as main co-sponsors.
Eventually, seventy-five Member States signed the resolution as co-sponsors.
The new resolution is a new cross-regional and bridge building initiative, meant to contribute
to strengthening dialogue and cooperation among countries that are willing to improve their
efforts of promoting and consolidating democracy. Its main purpose is to emphasize the
importance of the role that regional and subregional organizations may play in promoting and
consolidating democracies, taking into account their knowledge of the specific needs in each
region.
The resolution recognizes that the respective organizations have a considerable potential of
disseminating good practices, and developing research on democracy and human rights so as to assist
populations in making more informed choices. It acknowledges that democracy may contribute to
preventing conflicts, and to accelerating reconstruction and reconciliation in post-conflict
situations; it recognises that the mandates of UN peace operations should include relevant
objectives to this purpose.
The format of the draft was conceived so as to indicate that reforming the working methods of
the Commission on Human Rights and streamlining the thematic resolutions are possible:
- the draft has a new focus, which intends to add value to previous resolutions on democracy;
- with one single exception, there is no repetition whatsoever of paragraphs
previously adopted by this body;
- the preamble is reduced to a minimum, with a view to emphasizing the Commission's
readiness to adopt action-oriented resolutions.