Last weekend, Liberal International (LI) met in The Hague to mark its 209th Executive Committee.
The meeting brought liberal leaders and policymakers together to advance LI’s mission of advancing human rights and promoting liberal values globally. ALDE Party Vice-Presidents Sal Brinton and Yevheniia Kravchuk represented the ALDE Party at the meeting, which was hosted with the support of VVD.
Dilan Yeşilgöz-Zegerius (VVD, NL) opened the meeting, underscoring the need for a decisive Europe that protects freedom and security. She expressed her gratitude for those who fought for our freedoms but warned that these freedoms are under pressure again, eighty years after the Second World War:
"The war in Ukraine shows how quickly freedom can be attacked, how the existence of a sovereign country is threatened, and how the lives of millions of people can suddenly be endangered. While the strong Ukrainians are fighting and holding out against the aggressor Putin, both for their safety and freedom and ours, the threat is indeed coming our way from various quarters.”
Vice-President Brinton, who also serves as the chair of LI's Human Rights Committee led a delegation to visit and hold meetings at the International Criminal Court, launched a new LI Human Rights Toolkit. She also awarded the 2024 Prize for Freedom to the family of Victoire Ingabire Umuhoza, a Rwandan opposition leader who is currently imprisoned in Rwanda, saying that:
“It was an honour to be able to present Victoire’s LI Prize for Freedom Award 2024 to all three of her children in her enforced absence, and we call on the Rwandan Government to free her.”
Vice-President Kravchuk spoke on a panel entitled 'Shock and Yawn: how do liberals navigate the politics of perpetual crisis and insecurity' alongside speakers from Lebanon, Taiwan and Venezuela.
Delegates also adopted a number of policy resolutions, including one entitled ‘Ensuring a Just Peace and Strengthened Security for Ukraine’ which reaffirmed that: “no peace plan can undermine Ukraine’s territorial integrity, independence, or sovereignty” and that “no negotiations or decisions concerning Ukraine can be made without Ukraine.”
ALDE Party also co-hosted a session which featured speeches from legislators, former legislators and policy analysts from Cambodia, Denmark, Hong Kong, Japan, Philippines, Taiwan, Ukraine and United Kingdom on security in the Indo-Pacific and Europe.
ALDE Party-affiliated member parties Moderaterne (DK) and NEOS (AT) both became full members of Liberal International.