KUWAIT, May 23, 2011 – At the conclusion of an intensive, two-day forum hosted by the Center for Dialogue among Civilizations and Defense of Liberty and titled “Renewing Dialogue for Peace and Advancing Freedom and Human Rights in Today’s World,” Sheik Fahad Al Salem Al Ali Al Sabah called for reform in the Middle East region before a group of former world leaders. He told the gathering of Members of the Club de Madrid, former prime ministers and presidents, Nobel Prize winners and human rights luminaries: “We cannot have democracy on paper; it must be democracy in action and on the ground.”

The Club de Madrid and the Spanish Ministry of Foreign Affairs co-organized a debate on “Changes in the Arab World: Revolutions towards Democracy?” held in the Diplomatic School of Madrid on April 5, with keynote speeches by Wim Kok (Prime Minister of the Netherlands, 1994-2002 and President of the Club de Madrid), Lionel Jospin (Prime Minister of France, 1997-2002), Sadig Al Mahdi (Prime Minister of Sudan, 1966-1967 and 1986-1989) and Abdul-Kareem Al Eryani (Prime Minister of Yemen, 1980-1983 and 1998-2001) through a video message.

Click here to watch the video message from Prime Minister Al-Eryani

Gallery of Pictures in Flickr

Speech by Prime Minister Sadig Al Mahdi, Sudan (1966-1967, 1986-1989)

Speech by Prime Minister Lionel Jospin, France (1997-2002)

Speech by Prime Minister Wim Kok, Netherlands (1994-2002)

Former members of the Iranian Parliament and current opposition thanked the Club de Madrid for its March 16 letter to Ayatollah Ali Khāmene’I through which it expressed its concern about the abduction of Mr. Mir Hossein Mousavi and Mr. Mehdi Karoubi, former Prime Minister and Parliament Speaker of Iran and prominent candidates to the presidential elections, together with their respective wives. “Having received considerable echo within international and national media, this initiative was felt as a crucial support for all those fighting for freedom in Iran”, they say.   

Madrid, March 16th, 2011 – The Club de Madrid, concerned about the abduction of Mr. Mir Hossein Mousavi and Mr. Mehdi Karoubi, has taken action and has sent an open letter to the Supreme Leader of the Islamic Republic of Iran, the Ayatollah Seyed Ali Hoseyni Khāmene’I.

The Roundtable, titled “Global economic crisis and the Asia-Pacific region: Sustaining Asian dynamism in a post-crisis world”, discussed the challenges of sustaining Asia’s dynamism in the aftermath of the global financial crisis. It was jointly organized by the UN Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (ESCAP) and the Club de Madrid with the support of Casa Asia.

Guided by this provocative question, the Club de Madrid´s Shared Societies Project launched the first of a series of discussions in the nine-month process to develop an economic argument for inclusion by analyzing the relationship between social cohesion, economic growth and well-being

More than 110 Yemeni stakeholders – including 70 women – from all political parties participated in a joint discussion led by Member Kumaratunga and UNDP Technical Advisor Jackie Weatherspoon on the role of women in politics (6-9 Dec). Club of Madrid’s final activity of this project also included high-level meetings to discuss project findings and recommendations with Yemen’s Vicepresident, Speaker of the Parliament; Speaker of the Shura Council; and Minister of Foreign Affairs. 

The main annual event of the organization, held in Madrid on 12-13 November 2009, concluded with a call for more and better democracy that delivers.