Liberal International

Liberal International is a political international federation for liberal parties. 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 allegedly are: respect for human rights, free and fair elections and multiparty-democracy, social justice, tolerance, free 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.^[1]

Bureau

The president of Liberal International is Hans van Baalen, leader of the delegation and spokesperson on foreign affairs and Defense for the People's Party for Freedom and Democracy in the European Parliament. Immediate past President is Lord Alderdice, a British Liberal Democrat peer who was leader of the Alliance Party of Northern Ireland. Other members of the bureau include Deputy President Juli Minoves Triquell, Vice Presidents Abir Al-Sahlani, Dzhevdet Chakarov, Wolfgang Gerhardt, Mamadou Lamine Ba, Hsiao Bi-khim, Josep Soler , and treasurers Art Eggleton and Robert Woodthorpe Browne. The secretary general is Emil Kirjas, a former president of the International Federation of Liberal Youth. Former Presidents of Liberal International include Dutch politician and former European Commissioner Frits Bolkestein and German politician Otto Graf Lambsdorff.

Publications

Liberal International has two main publications. The first, LI-news^[2] is a weekly dossier of news items that are relevant to the organisation's member parties or cooperating organisations. The second, Liberal Matters, is a magazine published several times a year highlighting a particular liberal theme.

The Oxford Manifesto

The Oxford Manifesto, drawn up in April 1947 by representatives from nineteen Liberal political parties at Wadham College in Oxford, led by Salvador de Madariaga, is a document which describes the basic political principles of the Liberal International.^[3] The Oxford Manifesto was inspired by the ideas of Lord William Beveridge. It is regarded as one of the defining political documents of the twentieth century.

Fifty years on, in 1997, the Liberal International returned to Oxford, and issued a supplement to the original manifesto, called 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.^[4]

Members

Full members

Observer parties

Cooperating organisations

• Africa Liberal Network
• Alliance of Liberals and Democrats for Europe (ALDE)
• Council of Asian Liberals and Democrats
• European Liberal Democrat and Reform Party
• Friedrich Naumann Stiftung
• Dr. Y. Foerder Foundation
• Fondazione Libro Aperto
• Fondazione Luigi Einaudi
• International Federation of Liberal Youth (IFLRY)
• International Network of Liberal Women
• The Alliance of Liberals and Democrats for Europe in the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (ALDE-PACE)
• Swedish International Liberal Centre
• Network of Arab Liberals (NAL)
• Neue Zürcher Zeitung
• National Democratic Institute, an organisation with ties to the Democratic Party (United States), though government-sponsored through the National Endowment for Democracy
• Red Liberal de América Latina

Liberal think tanks and foundations

The International is also in a loose association with the following organisations:

• Liberales Institut (Switzerland)
• Teldersstichting (Netherlands)
• The Bertil Ohlin Institute (Sweden)
• CentreForum (UK)

See also

• Liberalism worldwide
• Prize For Freedom

References

External links

• Liberal International official site
• The Liberal Agenda for the 21st century