On the occasion of the G20 Summit on July 7/8 in Hamburg, Democracy Without Borders called for the establishment of a Parliamentary Assembly to strengthen the United Nations. A model that the UN could draw upon was the European Parliament. The Campaign for a UN Parliamentary Assembly (UNPA) that is coordinated by the NGO is supported by nearly 1,500 current and former members of parliament from over 100 countries and numerous academics, former UN officials and personalities.
Self-appointed exclusive clubs of governments are not the right place to decide on important global issues
“More and more issues are being dealt with by the G20. The agenda no longer only includes a regulation of the financial markets but also matters such as climate policy, the fight against tax evasion, corruption, inequality or poverty. Confidential deliberations of a self-appointed exclusive club of governments are not the right place to decide on important global issues. In order to strengthen and democratize global collaboration we suggest the creation of a UN Parliamentary Assembly,” commented Andreas Bummel, director of Democracy Without Borders and coordinator of the campaign.
Initially, the UN Parliament largely would have advisory powers. As the European lawmaker Jo Leinen and Andreas Bummel explain in their new German book “Das demokratische Weltparlament” (an English edition is forthcoming), the assembly shall act as a starting point for the development of a future world parliament that is vested with more rights.
The proposal of Democracy Without Borders was taken up in reports on the G20 summit by Wirtschaftswoche, a weekly business news magazine, by the newspaper Neues Deutschland as well as in the live blog of the German television channel Phoenix.
Members of Democracy Without Borders participated in the peaceful protests that took place on the weekend before the G20 summit. Together with the NGO “One World” from Israel, Democracy Without Borders organized a workshop on global democracy and a world parliament at the alternative “Global Solidarity Summit” that was convened by numerous civil society groups as a G20 counter-event. The proposal of a world parliament was also presented at the Interfaith Summit in Potsdam which was one of the many conferences ahead of the G20 summit in Germany.
A few days ahead of the G20 summit, the European Parliament adopted a resolution with recommendations to the EU’s governments on the EU’s UN policy. The resolution includes a call on the Council of the EU to support a debate on the creation of a UNPA during the next session of the UN General Assembly that begins in September. Democray Without Borders welcomed the recommendation as an “important step.”
A report on the resolution of the European Parliament with comments from the European lawmakers Jo Leinen and Elmar Brok can be found here.
Top image: Members of Democracy Without Borders call for a world parliament at the G20 protests
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