Join our Global Week of Action from October 19-28 2018 and join the call for the establishment of a World Parliament that will give representation and political power to all world citizens.
Climate change, environmental pollution, terrorism, weapons of mass destruction, arms race, antibiotic resistance, pandemies, unregulated financial markets, economic and social injustice, forced migration… the list could be expanded on and on. We have many urgent global challenges. But we lack adequate political tools to solve these challenges. Our current international system is dysfunctional. In a time when multilateralism and international agreements are under attack, changes to make it more democratic and more efficient are more important than ever.
Only a World Parliament can reflect the equality of all human beings
In their book A World Parliament: Governance and Democracy in the 21st Century, the authors, Andreas Bummel and Jo Leinen, show that the establishment and gradual development of a democratic World Parliament is the key towards a more peaceful, just and sustainable global society. It’s a moral matter and a matter of democratic principles. If all human beings are to be regarded as equal, then only a World Parliament could reflect this value at the global level. The core democratic principle is one person, one vote. For the first time in human history, a World Parliament would canalize this principle in world politics. But it’s not only a moral matter. It’s also a matter of finding pragmatic and realistic solutions to unavoidably global challenges. Global challenges need global solutions. Only a democratic World Parliament would be sufficiently legitimate to deal with our common human problems in an effective way.
This conclusion is also confirmed in the Agenda 2030 Sustainable Development Goals. Goal 16 for example says that to build peace, justice and effective governance we need “accountable and transparent institutions” and “responsive, inclusive, participatory and representative decision-making at all levels”. The global level is both the highest of all political levels and it is also the foundation for sustainable development everywhere. Without global sustainability there can be no local sustainability. A World Parliament is the key reform to reach the Sustainable Development Goals and to build a better world also beyond the year 2030.
Our vision must be a democratic World Parliament, a platform for the collective voice of humanity as well as for the unique voice of each individual human being. One first pragmatic step towards this goal would be to establish a United Nations Parliamentary Assembly as suggested by the UNPA Campaign.
We, world citizens and human beings around the world are called on to pave the way for future generations. Wherever we live on Earth, in rural areas or in mega cities, in poverty or in luxury, we are responsible for each other and for the life foundations on this planet, and we should now come together to build a better world.
Check out here what you can do to participate in the sixth Global Week of Action for a World Parliament this October 2018.
Should you use Facebook, here is an event page that you can join and share.
Image: Participants of the federalist seminar in Ventotene calling for a “World Parliament Now”, the Global Week of Action’s slogan, in 2015 (learn more about the famous Ventotene seminar here).
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