Abbreviation LI | Type Federation | |
Purpose World federation of liberal political parties and organisations | ||
Liberal International (LI) is a political international federation for liberal political parties.
Contents
- Aims
- Bureau
- Publications
- Oxford Manifesto
- Leadership
- Members
- Cooperating organizations
- Liberal think tanks and foundations
- References
Its headquarters is located at 1 Whitehall Place, London, SW1A 2HD within the National Liberal Club. It was founded in Oxford in 1947, and has become the pre-eminent network for liberal parties and for the strengthening of liberalism around the world. The Oxford Manifesto describes the basic political principles of the Liberal International.
Aims
The Liberal International Constitution (2005) gives its purposes as
to win general acceptance of Liberal principles which are international in their nature throughout the world, and to foster the growth of a free society based on personal liberty, personal responsibility and social justice, and to provide the means of co-operation and interchange of information between the member organisations, and between men and women of all countries who accept these principles.
The principles that unite member parties from Africa, the Americas, Asia and Europe are: respect for human rights, free and fair elections and multi-party democracy, social justice, tolerance, market economy, free trade, environmental sustainability and a strong sense of international solidarity.
The aims of Liberal International are also set out in a series of seven manifestos, written between 1946 and 1997 and are furthered by a variety of bodies including a near yearly conference for liberal parties and individuals from around the world.
Bureau
The 13th president of Liberal International is Juli Minoves of the Liberal Party of Andorra (PLA), formerly Andorra's foreign minister and representative to the United Nations. Minoves succeeded to Hans van Baalen, leader of the delegation and spokesperson on Foreign Affairs and Defence for the Dutch People's Party for Freedom and Democracy in the European Parliament.
Former Presidents include Lord John Alderdice, Dutch politician and former European Commissioner Frits Bolkestein, German politician Otto Graf Lambsdorff, and Spain's first democratically elected prime minister after the Franco dictatorship Adolfo Suárez.
Other members of the bureau include Deputy President Helen Zille, and Vice Presidents Cecilia Wikström MEP, Dzhevdet Chakarov MP, Baroness Falkner of Margravine, Kasit Piromya, Markus Löning, and treasurers Robert Woodthorpe Browne MBE and Shih-chung Liu. The secretary general is Emil Kirjas, a former president of the International Federation of Liberal Youth.
Publications
Liberal International has two main publications:
Oxford Manifesto
The Oxford Manifesto, drawn up in April 1947 at Wadham College in Oxford by representatives from 19 liberal political parties, led by Salvador de Madariaga, is a document describing the basic political principles of the Liberal International.
The Oxford Manifesto was inspired by the ideas of William Beveridge and is regarded as one of the defining political documents of the 20 century.
Fifty years on, in 1997, Liberal International returned to Oxford and issued a supplement to the original manifesto, The Liberal Agenda for the 21st century, describing Liberal policies in greater detail. The second Oxford Manifesto was adopted by the 48th Congress of Liberal International, which was held on 27–30 November 1997 in the Oxford Town Hall.
Leadership
Members
In addition to the member organizations listed below, the International has a single individual member, Martin Lee, the founding chairman of Democratic Party (Hong Kong).
Cooperating organizations
Liberal think tanks and foundations
The International is also in a loose association with the following organisations: