NDI mourns the passing of Senator Edward M. Kennedy who believed that the development of democracies and respect for human rights would lead to a safer and more peaceful and prosperous world. “His advocacy of democracy and human rights around the world affirmed our country’s highest values and provided vital support to democratic forces,” said NDI Chairman Madeleine K. Albright.

He was a leader in advancing the peace process in Northern Ireland, and a clear and constant voice against the Chilean dictatorship. When Poland’s struggling democrats needed outside assistance before the fall of the Berlin Wall, Senator Kennedy helped craft the U.S. response that aided the Solidarity movement. As chief sponsor of the Anti-Apartheid Act of 1985, he brought economic and moral force to bear on the minority regime in South Africa. And he defended political dissidents in the Soviet Union and Burma, fought for humanitarian relief in Bangladesh and Sudan, and confronted atrocities in Rwanda and Cambodia. While he strongly opposed the war, it was the Kennedy amendment that provided assistance for development of democratic institutions in Iraq.

Senator Kennedy was the 1997 recipient of NDI’s Democracy Award, presented to him by Paul Kirk, the then-NDI chairman and the long-time chairman of the John F. Kennedy Presidential Library.

“No individual legislator,” Kirk said, “worked harder or longer or with greater success or commitment to principle for the advancement of the cherished values of democracy here at home and in more corners of the globe than Edward Kennedy.” Democrats worldwide will miss his deep and abiding commitment to their cause.   

Published on August 28, 2009