Club of Madrid

Club de Madrid

Formation	2001
Headquarters	Madrid, Spain
President	Danilo Türk
Vice Presidents	Han Seung-soo Laura Chinchilla Miranda
Website	www.clubmadrid.org

Club de Madrid is an independent, non-partisan, non-profit organization created to promote democracy and change in the international community. It is composed of 126 regular members from 73 countries, including 7 Nobel Peace Prize laureates and 20 first female heads of State or Government. Club de Madrid is the world's largest forum of former heads of state and government.

Among its main goals are the strengthening of democratic institutions and counseling on the resolution of political conflicts in two key areas: democratic leadership and governance, and response to crisis and post-crisis situations.

Actions

The Club de Madrid pushed for a constitutional reform in Haiti and promoted the adoption of a National Pact in 2014 to reach a democratic consensus.

In June 2022, the Club de Madrid called on the Tunisian President Kais Saied to release the politician Hamadi Jebali.

Composition

As of April 2023, there are 126 full members, all of whom are previous government officials with full voting rights. The club also has institutional members and foundations – private and public organizations that share similar democratic objectives, including FRIDE, the Gorbachev Foundation of North America (GFNA), both original sponsors of the founding conference in 2001, the Madrid City Council, the Regional Government of Madrid, and the Government of Spain. Additionally, there are six honorary members (e.g. Kofi Annan, Aung San Suu Kyi) and several fellows, who are experts on democratic change.

The club is based in Madrid (Spain), although meetings are held worldwide. Currently, Danilo Türk, the former President of Slovenia (2007-2012), is the organization's president, and it has two vice presidents: Han Seung-soo (Korea) and Laura Chinchilla (Costa Rica). A former president of the Club of Madrid is Vaira Vike-Freiberga (2014–2019).

The club was created from an event that was held in October 2001 in Madrid, a four-day Conference on Democratic Transition and Consolidation (CDTC). This event brought together 35 world leaders, over 100 academics, and policy specialists from Europe, the Americas, Asia, and Africa to discuss ideas and a means of implementation from both objective and subjective perspectives. The conference discussed eight main topics:

• Constitutional design
• The Legislative branch and its relation with the Executive branch
• The Judicial branch and its relation with the Executive branch
• Anti-corruption procedures
• The role of the armed forces and security forces
• Reform of the state bureaucracy
• Strengthening of political and social pluralism and political parties
• Economic and social conditions

Structure and organization

The Club de Madrid's primary asset is its membership, which includes 95 distinguished former heads of state and government of democratic nations. The comparative advantage of the Club de Madrid is based on the following key assets:

• Personal experience and status of its Members.
• Access to the world's leading experts on democracy.
• Specialization in democratic transition and consolidation issues.
• Practical approach to its activities, through the implementation of projects with tangible results.

Full Members are members of the Club de Madrid who provide their personal and political experience as former Heads of State and Government. Their appointment, based on a proposal from the Board of Directors, is approved by the General Assembly.

Direct exchanges with current leaders of countries in the process of democratic transition on a peer-to-peer basis, and the Member's ability to deliver the right message at the right time, are two of the major assets of the Club de Madrid. In this sense, the Members of the Club de Madrid can also help focus much needed international attention on targeted countries and leverage the work of other institutions trying to promote democracy.

The club's members are supported by a network of world-class experts who work together to offer assistance on a range of democratic reform issues. The Club de Madrid is composed of four executive and advisory bodies:

• General Assembly
• Board of Directors
• General Secretariat
• Advisory Committee

Funding sources

The club is a non-profit organization and members offer their services on a pro bono basis. It relies financially on donations which are used to support a permanent secretariat and fund some specific project. The club's accounts are audited annually by an external organization.

The Club of Madrid Foundation (US)

The Club of Madrid Foundation Inc. (COMFI) is a grant-making foundation that has US 501(c)(3) tax exemption status. It exists to raise funds in support of the club's charitable and educational activities.

COMFI is independent and not controlled by the Club itself, but solely by a four-person Board of Directors, all of whom reside in the US.

Members

Several members of the Club played prominent roles in the diplomatic and military proceedings aimed at ending the wars in the former Yugoslavia during the 1990s:

• In 1991, Milan Kučan, then the President of the newly independent Slovenia, negotiated the Brijuni Agreement, bringing an end to the Ten-Day War.
• In 1993, Bosnian politician Zlatko Lagumdžija advised the then-President of Bosnia and Herzegovina against agreeing to the Vance-Owen peace plan. The two had been kidnapped by the JNA in Sarajevo in 1992, before their release was negotiated through the UN.
• Former Polish Prime Minister Tadeusz Mazowiecki was a special U.N. emissary to Bosnia and Herzegovina in 1992 and, in 1993, issued a report on human rights violations in the former Yugoslavia. In 1995, Mazowiecki stepped down in protest of the lack of international response to the atrocities being committed in Bosnia, particularly the Srebrenica massacre.
• U.S. President Bill Clinton was instrumental in pushing NATO to intervene in Bosnia and Kosovo. In 1995, his efforts produced Operation Deliberate Force, resulting in the Dayton Accords which ended the Bosnian War. In 1999, the U.S. and other NATO powers, during the Kosovo War, issued the Rambouillet Agreement, an ultimatum threatening the Serbian government to let NATO forces through their territory with no accountability or face a series of bombings in retaliation. Its refusal by Belgrade resulted in the 1999 bombing of Serbia, during which NATO utilized air supremacy and strategic bombing to cripple Serbian forces and force them to withdraw from Kosovo.
• Former Swedish Prime Minister Carl Bildt served as the EU's Special Envoy to the Former Yugoslavia and was a co-chairman of the Dayton Conference. He became the first High Representative for Bosnia and Herzegovina after the war, from 1995 to 1997, and was the UN Secretary-General's Special Envoy for the Balkans from 1999 to 2001.
• Other Club de Madrid members involved in the diplomatic process include the late Helmut Kohl, the former Chancellor of Germany who oversaw the reunification of East and West Germany, who was a signee to the Dayton Accords, Canadian Prime Minister Jean Chrétien, who urged support for Canada's participation in Operation Allied Force, and Finnish President Martti Ahtisaari who, along with Russian Prime Minister Viktor Chernomyrdin, convinced Serbian President Slobodan Milošević to retreat from Kosovo in accordance with NATO's demands.

List of current members

List of members as of 30 April 2022.

Member statistics

Regional background of members:

• Africa and the Middle East – 19
• the Americas – 29
• Asia-Pacific – 16
• Europe – 57

The political affiliation of members:

• Socialist/Social democrat/Centre-left – 44
• Centrist – 17
• Liberal conservative/Christian democrat/Centre-right – 30
• Conservative/Right-wing – 17
• No affiliation – 13

Office held (some members have held both):

• President – 71
• Prime Minister – 54

List of Secretary-Generals

	Name	Start	End	Nation	Party	Office(s) held
	Fernando Perpiñá-Robert		2010	Spain		Spanish diplomat
	Carlos Westendorp	2010		Spain	SSWP	Minister of Foreign Affairs (1995-1996)

List of honorary members

	Name	Age	Nation	Party	Office(s) held
	Aung San Suu Kyi	79	Myanmar	NLD	State Counsellor of Myanmar (2016–2021)
	Ban Ki-moon	80	South Korea	None	Secretary-General of the United Nations (2007–2016)
	Jimmy Carter	100	United States	Democratic	President of the United States (1977–81)
	Enrique V. Iglesias	94	Uruguay Spain	(unknown)	President of the Inter-American Development Bank (1998–2005) Secretary General of the Iberoamerican General Secretariat (2005–13)
	Jacques Delors	99	France	Socialist	President of the European Commission (1985–95)
	Javier Solana	82	Spain	Socialist	Secretary General of NATO (1995–99) and High Representative of the EU for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy (1999–2009)

List of members of the constituent foundations

	Name	Age	Nation	Party	Office(s) held
	Diego Hidalgo	82	Spain	(unknown)	Founder and President of, and donor to, Fundación para las Relaciones Internacionales y el Diálogo Exterior (FRIDE) Founding Member and Senior Fellow of the Gorbachev Foundation of North America (GFNA)
	T. Anthony Jones	(unknown)	(unknown)	(unknown)	Vice-president and executive director of GFNA
	George Matthews	(unknown)	United States	(unknown)	Chairman and co-founder of GFNA
	José Manuel Romero Moreno	84	Spain	(unknown)	Vice President of FRIDE

List of former members (deceased)

	Name	Died	Nation	Party	Office(s) held
	Jorge Sampaio	September 10, 2021(2021-09-10) (aged 81)	Portugal	Socialist	President of Portugal (1996–2006)
	Òscar Ribas Reig	December 18, 2020(2020-12-18) (aged 84)	Andorra	AND	Prime Minister of Andorra (1990–1994)
	Tabaré Vázquez	December 6, 2020(2020-12-06) (aged 80)	Uruguay	PS	President of Uruguay (2005–2010, 2015–2020)
	Sadiq al-Mahdi	November 26, 2020(2020-11-26) (aged 84)	Sudan	Umma	Prime Minister of Sudan (1966–1967, 1986–1989)
	Benjamin Mkapa	July 24, 2020(2020-07-24) (aged 81)	Tanzania	CCM	President of Tanzania (1995–2005)
	Abdurrahim El-Keib	April 21, 2020(2020-04-21) (aged 70)	Libya	None	Acting Prime Minister of Libya (2011–2012)
	Javier Pérez de Cuéllar	March 4, 2020(2020-03-04) (aged 100)	Peru	UPP	Secretary-General of the United Nations (1982–1991) President of the Council of Ministers of Peru (2000–2001)
	Bacharuddin Jusuf Habibie	September 11, 2019(2019-09-11) (aged 83)	Indonesia	Golkar	President of Indonesia (1998–1999)
	Belisario Betancur	December 7, 2018(2018-12-07) (aged 95)	Colombia	Conservative	President of Colombia (1982–1986)
	Wim Kok	October 20, 2018(2018-10-20) (aged 80)	Netherlands	Labour	Prime Minister of the Netherlands (1994–2002)
	Kofi Annan	August 18, 2018(2018-08-18) (aged 80)	Ghana	None	Secretary-General of the United Nations (1997–2006)
	Álvaro Arzú	April 27, 2018(2018-04-27) (aged 72)	Guatemala	Unionist	President of Guatemala (1996–2000) Mayor of Guatemala City (2004–2018)
	Ruud Lubbers	February 14, 2018(2018-02-14) (aged 78)	Netherlands	Christian Democratic	Prime Minister of the Netherlands (1982–1994) UN High Commissioner for Refugees (2001–2005)
	Quett Masire	June 22, 2017(2017-06-22) (aged 91)	Botswana	BDP	President of Botswana (1980–1998)
	Helmut Kohl	20170616June 16, 2017(2017-06-16) (aged 87)	Germany West Germany	Christian Democratic	Chancellor of West Germany (1982–1990) Chancellor of Germany (1990–1998)
	James Mancham	20170108January 8, 2017(2017-01-08) (aged 77)	Seychelles	Democratic	President of Seychelles (1976–1977)
	Mário Soares	20170107January 7, 2017(2017-01-07) (aged 92)	Portugal	Socialist	Prime Minister of Portugal (1976–1978, 1983–1985) President of Portugal (1986–1996)
	António Mascarenhas Monteiro	20160916September 16, 2016(2016-09-16) (aged 72)	Cape Verde	MPD	President of Cape Verde (1991–2001)
	Patricio Aylwin	20160419April 19, 2016(2016-04-19) (aged 87)	Chile	PDC	President of Chile (1990–1994)
	Abd Al-Karim Al-Iryani	20151108November 8, 2015(2015-11-08) (aged 81)	Yemen North Yemen	GPC	Prime Minister of North Yemen (1980–1983) Prime Minister of Yemen (1998–2001)
	Adolfo Suárez	20140323March 23, 2014(2014-03-23) (aged 81)	Spain	MN (until 1977) UCD (1977–82)	President of the Government of Spain (1976–81)
	Tadeusz Mazowiecki	20131028October 28, 2013(2013-10-28) (aged 86)	Poland PR Poland	KO "S" (1980–91) UD (1991–94)	Prime Minister of Poland (1989–91)
	Inder Kumar Gujral	20121130November 30, 2012(2012-11-30) (aged 92)	India	Janata Dal	Prime Minister of India (1997–98)
	Václav Havel	20111218December 18, 2011(2011-12-18) (aged 75)	Czech Republic Czechoslovakia	OF (1989–93) None (1993–2004)	President of Czechoslovakia (1989–92) President of the Czech Republic (1993–2003)
	Ferenc Mádl	20110529May 29, 2011(2011-05-29) (aged 80)	Hungary	None	President of Hungary (2000–05)
	Raúl Alfonsín	20090331March 31, 2009(2009-03-31) (aged 82)	Argentina	UCR	President of Argentina (1983–89)
	Leopoldo Calvo-Sotelo	20080503May 3, 2008(2008-05-03) (aged 82)	Spain	UCD	President of the Government of Spain (1981–82)
	Lennart Meri	20060314March 14, 2006(2006-03-14) (aged 76)	Estonia Soviet Union	Isamaa (since 1992)	President of Estonia (1992–2001)
	Valentín Paniagua	20061016October 16, 2006(2006-10-16) (aged 70)	Peru	AC	President of Peru (2000–01)
	Fidel V. Ramos	July 31, 2022 (age 94)	Philippines	Lakas	President of the Philippines (1992–1998)

See also

• CC9

External links

• Official website
• "Members of the Club of Madrid by region (March 2014)" (PDF). Club of Madrid. March 2014. Archived from the original (PDF) on 21 November 2014. Retrieved 6 August 2014.