Program Areas

Program Areas

International Team

Andreas Bummel

Germany/South Africa
Executive Director

Andreas Bummel is founder and executive director of Democracy Without Borders. He is known worldwide as an expert and advocate for a world parliament. The campaign he has been leading for a Parliamentary Assembly at the UN has been supported by more than 1,500 parliamentarians from over 100 countries. Since 2021, he has been one of the co-convenors of the “We The Peoples” campaign, which advocates for more democracy at the UN. By now, over 300 groups from around the world have joined, including leading environmental and civic rights NGOs. From 1998 to 2018, he served on the Council of the World Federalist Movement, which played a central role in supporting the creation of the International Criminal Court. Since 2023 he is among those promoting a UN Special Rapporteur on Democracy. He has spoken at events in over two dozens of countries, including at Yale University, the London School of Economics, the Athens Democracy Forum, and the Pan-African Parliament, among other venues. In recognition of his work, the Society for Threatened Peoples made him a honorary member. He was born in Cape Town, South Africa, in 1976.

Andreas authored the book A World Parliament: Governance and Democracy in the 21st Century (with Jo Leinen) which provides an account of the history, relevance and implementation of a global parliament. In 2024, a second expanded and updated edition was published.

The future must wait: little outcome on global participation at UN Summit
The long-anticipated UN Summit of the Future, originally proposed for the previous year, was held in New York on 22-23 September 2024. It was promoted by the UN as a
Andreas Bummel | 08.11.2024
A World Parliament: Governance and Democracy in the 21st Century (2nd ed)
Updated and expanded second edition of the book “A World Parliament: Governance and Democracy in the 21st Century”
Jo Leinen and Andreas Bummel | 26.07.2024
Global citizens’ assemblies: expanding the global democracy agenda
In recent years, democracies around the world have experimented with citizens’ assemblies. The main idea behind such assemblies is that randomly selected citizens, who form a statistically representative sample of
Farsan Ghassim and Andreas Bummel | 21.02.2024
International poll: public supports a world parliament and world law
An international survey on behalf of Friedrich Ebert Foundation found that public sentiment strongly approves of a world parliament in 13 of 15 countries covered.
Andreas Bummel | 05.10.2023