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 UN at 75: Time to Give Citizens a Voice
The UN wants a “global conversation”Next year the United Nations will commemorate its 75th anniversary. The General Assembly determined that all the UN’s activities in 2020 shall be guided by
Andreas Bummel, Lysa John and Bruno Kaufmann | 17.11.2019
On the need of a democratic global government
Human civilization may not be able to survive if we do not manage to create a global government. This proposition may seem out of place at a time of rising
Jo Leinen and Andreas Bummel | 04.05.2019
In 1919, the revolutionary German government proposed a world parliament
One hundred years ago, following the First World War, the new revolutionary government of Germany proposed a world parliament. In a piece published in the German newspaper taz, Jo Leinen and
Andreas Bummel | 22.04.2019
The case for a UN Parliamentary Assembly and the Inter-Parliamentary Union
This paper looks into the relationship between the Inter-Parliamentary Union (IPU) and the proposed United Nations Parliamentary Assembly (UNPA). It outlines the characteristics of these two bodies and provides an
DWB and Andreas Bummel | 06.02.2019