(Seychelles News Agency) - Seychelles’ former President James R. Mancham, has been nominated to form part of a select committee of ‘Le Club de Madrid’ that will engage with academics, politicians, civil society representatives and other public opinion leaders to assess the current state of democracy in the world.

According to a statement released from Mancham’s office today, the committee is tasked with making recommendations on how to reverse what has been described as a decline in democratic practices.

The World Leadership Alliance - Club de Madrid, is an elite group comprised of former democratic heads of state from all over the world, including former United States presidents Jimmy Carter and Bill Clinton, former South African president Thabo Mbeki, and former Russian president Mikhail Gorbachev. 

The Club engages with currently-sitting heads of state and participates in various fora to advocate further democratic development.

Mancham is currently attending the Global Shared Society Forum in Baku, Azerbaijan, where over 150 prominent political figures from 57 countries, including a number of Club de Madrid members, convened to discuss sustainable development targets, conflict resolution in difficult situations as well as improving institutional frameworks.

According to Mancham, who issued a statement from Baku this morning, the study being undertaken by the committee on 'Next Generation Democracy' would help to clarify the reality behind what he called a “perceived crisis” surrounding democracy as a form of government and whether any decline was regional or a global process. 

“Le Club de Madrid's objectives (are) of course to advance democracy worldwide and to assess its quality with a view to prevent deterioration,” said the former president of the Seychelles islands. “It is a challenging task but we must face the reality of today against the background of having a democracy that can deliver what is required for a better world within the complexity of modern times.”