The Community of Democracies (CoD) is pleased to launch the Working Group on Democracy and Technology, chaired by Governing Council Member State Georgia. The Working Group will act as an informal, voluntary structure for joint discussion and action to harness digital technology to support effective and accountable democratic governance. It will foster collaboration around developing and using digital public goods, such as governance platforms and open source tools, that support democracy and democratic institutions.

Areas of collaboration will include exchanging best practices and ideas on technological solutions supporting democracy and advancing the Sustainable Development Goals’ implementation. The Working Group will also engage and participate in multilateral initiatives and architecture to build digital systems that respect human rights and democratic values, as established in the Warsaw Declaration and the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.

The Chair of the Working Group, Georgia, joined the CoD Governing Council in October 2019, bringing valuable experience and adding to its diversity. Throughout its digital journey, Georgia has followed good practices and shared its success stories with different stakeholders. Georgia demonstrates that the foundation of good governance rests on transparent, responsible, accountable, open, and participatory government, responsive to the people’s needs and aspirations, that such a foundation is one of the indispensable conditions for the full realization of human rights.