Background

The Council was created on 15 October 1993, in the meeting in Taipei, Taiwan. There are nine unit parties, an associate member, and one party with observer status. Currently, many democrats in Asia hold a relationship with CALD. CALD has also opened its membership to like-minded individuals, and regularly engages with non-member political parties from Japan and South Korea with which it shares the same democratic values. The Democratic Party of Japan is one of the examples. On the other hand, for the convenience of particular members, they also accept individual members like the situation in Hong Kong. The Democratic Party of Hong Kong is represented in CALD by Martin Lee and Sin Chung Kai. The third individual unit of the CALD was Indonesia's ex-President Abdurrahman Wahid 1940–2009. Aung San Suu Kyi and Corazon Aquino 1933-2009 are honorary members of CALD.