The Diplomat
The President of the World Jurists Association, the Spanish lawyer Javier Cremades, yesterday in New York, at the opening of the 28th World Law Congress, stressed the importance of reinforcing the rule of law in the face of the advance of ideologies that seek to weaken democracies.
The Congress, which is being held at the headquarters of the United Nations and which is due to be closed today by His Majesty the King, brought together some 2,000 legal professionals in New York, as well as journalists, academics and political leaders, including several heads of state from different countries.
At the opening session of the Congress yesterday, the President of Ecuador, Guillermo Lasso, stressed the importance of defending and consolidating democracy as a fundamental basis for the development and progress of countries, and warned of the “worrying increase” of authoritarian and populist governments in Latin America. Lasso stated that these regimes use democratic mechanisms, such as elections, to gain access to power and, once in office, gradually erode the foundations of the democratic system.
In the same vein, Javier Cremades, President of the World Jurists Association, an institution celebrating its 60th anniversary, advocated defending the rule of law and called attention to the fact that autocracies “try to infiltrate and influence democracies in order to weaken them”.
Cremades believes that the rule of law is threatened today by ideologies and parties of different political persuasions that work to avoid the limitation of power that the law represents and which is the guarantee of respect for human dignity, peace and freedom.
After the opening session, a series of round tables were set up in which some 200 panellists from all over the world debated throughout yesterday on different issues that could affect the rule of law, in line with the Congress motto of “Peace through Law”.
Today, a series of speeches are scheduled, including that of Felipe VI, who in 2019 received the World Peace and Freedom Prize, awarded by the World Jurists Association, which on this occasion will be presented to the President of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen.
The Prime Minister of Canada, Justin Trudeau, will present the award to Von der Leyen, in whom the World Jurists Association rewards “her commitment, preparation, professionalism and humanity” as head of the European Commission, which it considers the cornerstone of the institutional architecture of the European Union, with jurisdiction to supervise, develop and apply the rule of law.
The World Peace and Freedom Prize has been awarded over the years to different personalities from around the world, such as Winston Churchill, Nelson Mandela, or US Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, among others, or even to Colombian society for its commitment to democracy and the rule of law, and was collected by the then President of Colombia, Iván Duque.
