A report from a meeting of
the Human Rights Council
11 June 2013
Making democracy happen
An easy to read version
Disclaimer:
This is an easy-to-read version of the summary of the Panel
discussion on common challenges facing States in their efforts
to secure democracy and the rule of law from human rights perspective
(A/HRC/24/54).
This document was published by the Office of the United Nations
High Commissioner for Human Rights.
This does not mean that the Office of the United Nations
High Commissioner for Human Rights agrees to everything
written in this document.
This easy-to-read version of the text was prepared by Inclusion Europe
www.inclusion-europe.org following the European standards for making
information easy to read and understand www.easy-to-read.eu.
© European Easy-to-Read Logo: Inclusion Europe.
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About this document
This document is a report from a meeting
of the Human Rights Council.
In this report, you will find out
what people talked about in the meeting.
The Human Rights Council is a group of countries
that work together on rights.
We call it ‘Council’ for short.
The Council works to make sure that
all people in the world can use their rights.
Rights are things that should happen equally
for everyone.
For example, everyone has the right to:
 vote in elections
 have a say in the way his or her country is run
The Human Rights Council is part of the United Nations.
The United Nations is a group of countries
that works to make the world a better place.
Almost all countries in the world
are part of the United Nations.
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What was the meeting about?
The Human Rights Council had a meeting
on 11 June 2013.
The meeting was about democracy.
Democracy is a way of ruling a country.
Democracy means that all people can have a say
in the way their country is run.
Democracy is a best way of ruling a country.
All countries should try to make democracy happen.
In the meeting, people talked about
how democracy works in countries
all over the world.
They talked about problems countries have
to make the democracy happen.
They also talked about ways to solve these problems
and make democracy work.
People from different parts of world
talked about their experience with democracy.
This meeting was accessible to persons with disabilities.
 People in the wheelchair could get easily
into the room.
 There was a person making sure that
deaf people could take part in the meeting.
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What is democracy?
Democracy is a way of ruling a country.
Democracy means that all people can have a say
in the way their country is run.
 People vote in elections and
choose their government.
Every person can vote or
become candidate in elections.
 People can tell their government
what they think should be done.
They can check the work of the government.
 Everyone can say out loud what they think.
Newspapers, TV and radio stations
can do their work freely.
This means the government does not tell them
what to do.
 All people have the same rights and duties.
All people are equal.
In democracy, all people respect the law.
The law is a set of rules for people
who live in a country.
The government makes sure that
the law is fair for everyone.
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Democracy is good way of ruling a country.
Democracy is good for countries
and good for people.
But many countries have problems
to make democracy happen.
Some countries do not have democracy at all.
These countries have a dictatorship.
Dictatorship means that 1 person
or a small group of people makes all the decisions
in the country.
 Ordinary people do not have a say
in the way their country is run.
 They cannot choose people in the government.
 They cannot say what they think
should be done in the country.
 The government tells newspapers,
TV and radio stations
what they can talk about.
In these countries, the law is often unfair.
Many people do away with breaking the law.
In these countries, many people have problems
using their rights.
Some people are treated badly or unfairly.
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Examples from different parts of the world
Many countries in the world
try to make democracy happen.
Many of these countries had dictatorship before.
It takes a lot of work for a country
to change from dictatorship to democracy.
This change can take many years.
In the meeting, people spoke about countries that
try to make democracy happen.
They spoke about some of the problems
they had to make democracy work.
Here are some examples:
 Romania
Romania is a country in Europe.
For many years, there was a dictatorship.
Many people were afraid of the government.
It was hard to make democracy work
because many people did not trust the government.
It was important to change the way
people think about government.
This means making sure that:
 All people can use their rights.
 The law is fair for all people.
 All people respect the law.
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 Arab countries
Many things are changing in the Arab countries.
Many countries got rid of dictatorship.
Now they have to make the democracy happen.
This is not easy.
They have to make sure that
all people can use their rights.
All people must have a chance
to take part in society.
 Central African Republic
Central African Country is a country in Africa.
They did not manage to make democracy happen
because different groups of people started fighting
between each other.
The government has no control of the country
anymore.
People do not respect the law.
Having democracy would make things
in the country better.
The United Nations can help
the Central African Republic to make this happen.
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 Latin America
Governments in Latin America agreed that
all people have the right to democracy.
This means that governments have a duty
to make the democracy happen.
Governments in Latin America need to work on
making sure that all people respect the law.
The law must be fair for all.
People in Latin America must have the chance
to check the work of their governments.
How can we make democracy happen?
All countries have to work hard
to make democracy happen.
For democracy, it is important that:
 People can choose their government
in elections.
All people must have a chance
to take part in elections.
 Everyone can have a say in the way
things are run in his or her country.
Governments have to make sure that
all people have a say in important decisions,
including people with disabilities.
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 People can check
what their government is doing.
To make this happen, it is important
that the media like TV and newspapers
can talk freely about the government.
 Everyone respects the law,
including the government.
In some countries it is more difficult
to make democracy happen.
That is why countries need to work together
and help each other.
The United Nations can do a lot to help
countries with democracy.
To make democracy stronger,
countries need to make sure that all people
can use their rights.
The Human Rights Council can help countries
to make this happen.
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