Global People’s Assembly session on “Global Democracy and the UN”

The Global People’s Assembly (GPA), convened by Global Call To Action Against Poverty and co-organized by over 50 civil society groups, serves as a platform for the voice of the people while government leaders meet at the UN in New York. The 2023 assembly will take place opposite the UN and online during the high-level week of the UN General Assembly and the Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) summit. The full program that features numerous sessions is available at peoplesassembly.global.

Session on Global Democracy and the UN

The UN is the most important body for international collaboration but there are few, if any, means for citizens, elected representatives or civil society to influence or take part in its deliberations, even less its decision-making. This session continues a process of reflection and mobilization on improving participation and representation at the UN. It will be actionoriented and focus on how to advance specific proposals, in particular such that were endorsed by previous GPAs and/or other platforms such as the Global Futures Forum (GFF) or the “We The Peoples” campaign for inclusive global governance. In view of a global trend of rising authoritarianism, the UN’s role in advancing democracy will also be considered

Session program

• Introduction to the session’s theme and proceedings (Moderator: Rita Kakati Shah, Democracy Without Borders and UMA)
• Overview of proposals and context
• UN World Citizens’ Initiative, UN Parliamentary Assembly, UN Special Rapporteur on Democracy (Nudhara Yusuf, Global Governance Innovation Network and Stimson Center)
• UN Civil Society Envoy (Mandeep Tiwana, CIVICUS)
• Context: Global Futures Forum, Summit of the Future and SDG 16 (Jeffery Huffines, C4UN)
• Interactive discussion
• Conclusions

The session program is also available as a PDF file here. The session is co-organized by Democracy Without Borders, Coalition for the UN We Need, CIVICUS, Democracy International, TAP Network and The Millennials Movement.

Registration

In order to participate either online or in-person in this session, please register for the Global People’s Assembly here. You will then receive a link and/or further guidance. We encourage participation in the entire assembly!