Paul Kurtz

The world needs ... to establish an effective World Parliament - and elections to it based on population - which will represent the people, not their governments. ... This new World Parliament would enact legislative policies in a democratic manner. Perhaps a bicameral legislature is the most feasible with both a Parliament of peoples and a General Assembly of nations.

Robert Muller

It is inconceivable that world affairs should remain the monopoly of the executive branch of national governments. This major flaw in democracy and remnant from the past must be corrected. At least to begin with, a UN Consultative Parliamentary Assembly should be created.

Erskine Childers

We need a United Nations Parliamentary Assembly, where our directly elected representatives can monitor and contribute to the performance of executive governments. They do need help. Those who have been practising double standards need the realisation that the representatives of the citizens of this planet are close by, watching, and alert to expose all unethical international behaviour.

Albert Einstein

The method of representation at the UN should be considerably modified. The present method of selection by government appointment ... cannot give the peoples of the world the feeling of being fairly and proportionately represented. The moral authority of the UN would be considerably enhanced if the delegates were elected directly by the people.

Albert Camus

The only way out of international dictatorship is to place international law above governments, which means that there must be a parliament for making it, and that parliament must be constituted by means of worldwide elections in which all nations will take part.

Ernest Bevin

We need a new study for the purpose of creating a world assembly elected directly from the people of the world, as a whole, to whom the Governments who form the United Nations are responsible and who, in fact, make the world law which they, the people, will then accept and be morally bound and willing to carry out."

Gerhart Hauptmann

The most obvious things are the hardest to do, for peoples and nations as well as for individuals. What is the present League of Nations? Nothing. We all long for a world parliament. We need a real League of Nations.

William Sulzer

When the peoples of all the nations are capable of governing themselves through an International Parliament then and not till then, will war cease to burden man and universal peace become a thing accomplished.

Alfred, Lord Tennyson

For I dipt into the future, far as human eye could see, / Saw the vision of the world, and all the wonder that would be; …Till the war-drum throbbed no longer, and the battle-flags were furl’d / In the Parliament of man, the Federation of the world. There the common sense of most shall hold a fretful realm in awe, / And the kindly earth shall slumber, lapt in universal law.

Appeal for a Parliamentary Assembly presented at the United Nations in New York

President of the UN General Assembly receives campaign representative

Over 1,400 current and former lawmakers from more than 100 countries and hundreds of renowned personalities from politics, science, cultural life and civil society have signed an international appeal urging the United Nations and its member states “to establish a Parliamentary Assembly at the United Nations.” The appeal and

Mr. Bummel and Mr. Lykketoft at UN headquarters

Image: UN

the list of signatories was presented to the President of the 70th UN General Assembly, Mogens Lykketoft, at UN headquarters in New York.

The document states that “in order to cope with major challenges such as social disparity, proliferation of weapons of mass destruction, the threat of terrorism or the endangerment of global ecosystems, all human beings must engage in collaborative efforts.” The appeal says that “people must be more effectively and directly included into the activities of the United Nations and its international organizations” and calls for “a gradual implementation of democratic participation and representation at the global level.” Originally launched in 2007, the document is still open for endorsements.

Meeting with Mr. Lykketoft on Friday, the coordinator of the international Campaign for a UN Parliamentary Assembly, Andreas Bummel, explained that the new body could be established by the UN General Assembly without a reform of the UN’s Charter. He said that a parliamentary dimension could help to revitalize the UN’s main body and could enhance the world organization’s democratic legitimacy.

Recently, the Commission on Global Security, Justice & Governance co-chaired by former US Secretary of State Madeleine Albright and former Nigerian Foreign Minister and former UN Under Secretary-General Ibrahim Gambari recommended the establishment of a UN Parliamentary Network in order to overcoming the UN’s democratic deficit.

Endorsement by numerous former UN officials

Prominent supporters of the appeal with ties to the UN include former UN Secretary-General Boutros Boutros-Ghali, former Under-Secretary-Generals Shashi Tharoor, Brian Urquhart and Heitor Gurgulino de Souza, former Assistant Secretary-General and former President of Slovenia, Danilo Türk, former Assistant Secretary-General Anders Wijkman, the former commander of the UN mission in Rwanda, Roméo Dallaire, the UN’s former rapporteurs on the right to food, Olivier de Schutter and Jean Ziegler, the former rapporteurs on torture Theo van Boven and Manfred Nowak, and former UNESCO Director-General Federico Mayor.

The campaign calls on the UN’s member states to start deliberations on the proposal. Last year, the UN’s rapporteur for the promotion of a democratic and equitable international order, Alfred de Zayas, recommended that the UN should further study the matter.