Manifesto highlights connection of sustainability and democracy "at all levels"

People’s manifesto sets out a global agenda for action, supports the creation of a UN Parliamentary Assembly

With the support of a diverse group of initial signatories from twenty-five countries, a Manifesto for Democracy and Sustainability was published today. According to the document, human activities have exceeded the earth’s natural limits but democracy is “failing to deliver sustainability.” The drafters have identified areas where democracy most urgently needs to change to deliver a healthy environment and fairness for everyone at the same time. The document intends to “guide a global movement for change” that helps

Participants of a consultation workshop at the Salzburg Global Seminar in December 2012

Image: Rob Fish/SGS

“to transform democracy so that it is an engine for sustainability.”

“Democracy and sustainability are the two vital elements of what we will pass on to future generations, but their crucial inter-dependence has been neglected,” said John Lotherington, Chair of the Foundation for Democracy and Sustainable Development Foundation (FDSD), the organisation behind the international process that created the Manifesto.

Among other things, the manifesto emphasizes that “the interests of all people affected by public decisions need to be taken into account. Decision-makers at all levels should also be accountable to all affected people.” Accordingly, it goes on, “the scale and effects of sustainability challenges often demand that democracy bursts out of its national borders. In decision-making at the international level democracy, not the self-interest of individual governments or groups of governments should be the basis for engagement.” One of the commitments included in the document pledges support for the “creation of a Parliamentary Assembly of the United Nations as the first step towards a system of global democracy.”

The Secretary-General of the Campaign for a UN Parliamentary Assembly, Andreas Bummel, one of the manifesto’s “founder signatories” explained that “not less, but more democracy is the key to a sustainable world society that respects the Earth's natural boundaries. This is especially true with regard to the global level where democracy is still virtually absent. It is an outstanding feature of this manifesto that it calls for a strengthening of democratic decision-making, participation and representation at all levels of governance alike.”

Launch video of the manifesto

Sharan Burrow, another initial signatory and General Secretary of the International Trade Union Confederation stated that “we are all part of a global democratic movement for change. This is an important initiative.”

The manifesto is the heart of a new online platform which invites the public to share ideas and actions around the subjects of democracy and sustainability. The founder members include current and former politicians, experts, educators and activists, as well as concerned individuals, national, international and grassroots networks and alliances.

Read and endorse the manifesto here

Top image: The initiative’s logo, by FDSD

Human Development Report 2013 includes feature on the proposal of a world parliament

This year's Human Development Report 2013 titled "Rise of the South: Human Progress in a Diverse World" that was presented to the public yesterday includes a feature article contributed by the Member of the European Parliament from Germany, Jo Leinen, who is also Co-Chair of the Campaign for a United Nations Parliamentary Assembly. As flagship publication of the United Nations Development Program, the report is highly respected and receives strong international attention.

"At a time when intergovernmental decision-making has shown its limits, the quest for equity and sustainability and the urgency of addressing defining challenges for our planet require the engagement of the global citizenship, " Mr Leinen argues in the article published on page 112 (PDF here).

He explains that a world parliament would "complement the United Nations General Assembly" and would be "composed of delegates from national parliaments, representing multiple political parties from each country." Countering one of the standard arguments that refers to the existence of countries with doubtable democratic character, Mr Leinen goes on to note that "since the great majority of national parliaments are democratically elected, such a body would have a high level of representativeness and political accountability." Furthermore, Mr Leinen points out that

The deliberations would possess a high moral and political authority, although the final decisionmaking power would remain with national governments. The composition of each national delegation could be determined either by national parliaments or through special elections allowing citizens to choose representatives for the world parliament. Delegation size would be proportional to a country’s population, an approach considerably different from international bodies where voting quotas are based on monetary contributions.

It is not the first time that the UNDP's Human Development Report elaborated on the subject. In 1999 already, for example, the report argued that:

With the new challenges of globalization, and the need to ensure stronger action on old problems and new, the time has come to rethink the global architecture. Some of the key elements of an improved international architecture: ...  A broader United Nations, including a two-chamber General Assembly to allow for civil society representation.

Resolution of the East African Legislative Assembly

As reported, the East African Legislative Assembly, the parliamentary body of the East African Community, adopted a resolution in support of the establishment of a UN Parliamentary Assembly on 29 January 2013. In a subsequent statement, the assembly's speaker, Margaret Zziwa from Uganda, said that 

The fact that there still is no parliamentary body at the UN more and more interferes with the world organization's democratic legitimacy. A UN Parliamentary Assembly would strengthen the democratic nature of the UN and bring it closer to the citizens. That's one of the reasons why the East African Legislative Assembly supports its establishment.

In the meantime, the full text of the resolution as adopted by EALA has been released.

According to the resolution, EALA believes that a "United Nations Parliamentary Assembly would improve the transparency, accountability and the effectiveness of the United Nations." Among other things, it is stressed that a UN Parliamentary Assembly could be established "simply by a vote of the United Nations General Assembly in accordance with Article 22 of the Charter of the United Nations without an amendment of the United Nations Charter."

This is an important point as amending the UN's Charter is a very difficult process and only happened five times so far since 1945. Not only would the five permanent members of the UN Security Council have to agree, any change would also have to be ratified by two thirds of the UN member states.

Finally, EALA "urges the Partner States of the East African Community to take the initiative to promote the development of a common African position in support of the establishment of a United Nations Parliamentary Assembly."

We are very curious about how the EAC governments will respond to this call.

Here's the official document.

East African legislators support the creation of a United Nations Parliamentary Assembly

EAC governments urged to promote a joint African position

At a session in Bujumbura, Burundi, the East African Legislative Assembly adopted a resolution on Tuesday that supports the creation of a United Nations Parliamentary Assembly. In the document which was introduced by Ugandan lawmaker Mike Sebalu, the parliamentary body of the

Lawmaker Mike Sebalu moved the resolution adopted by the assembly in Bujumbura, Burundi

Image: EALA

East African Community urges the organisation's five member states Burundi, Kenya, Rwanda, Tanzania, and Uganda, "to take the initiative to promote the development of a common African position in support of the establishment of a United Nations Parliamentary Assembly."

The resolution outlines the growing role and involvement of international organizations such as the United Nations and its specialized agencies in key sectors such as the promotion of peace and security, economic development, health, education, the environment and sustainable development. It notes that nonetheless there is no formal parliamentary body at the United Nations that allows for parliamentarians to take part in its deliberations. According to Mr Sebalu, the insufficient formal involvement of elected representatives limits the democratic legitimacy of the world organization. According to the resolution the formation of a UN Parliamentary Assembly would be a tool to "improve the transparency, accountability and the effectiveness of the United Nations."

With the approval of the resolution, the East African Legislative Assembly joins a number of regional and continental parliaments that have expressed support for a UN Parliamentary Assembly. In particular, a similar one was passed by the Pan-African Parliament on October 24, 2007. In a first reaction, the Secretary-General of the international Campaign for a UN Parliamentary Assembly, Andreas Bummel, stated that EALA's resolution constitutes "an important milestone in the international efforts for democratizing the United Nations."

The resolution points out that a UN Parliamentary Assembly could be established simply by a vote of the United Nations General Assembly in accordance with Article 22 of the Charter of the United Nations without an amendment of the United Nations Charter.

The East African Legislative Assembly was established in 2001. Its membership is made up of nine representatives from each EAC member state who are elected by the national parliaments. Since June 2012, the assembly is chaired by Margaret Zziwa from Uganda. The treaty for the East African Community provides that partner states shall accord special importance to co-operation with the United Nations and its agencies and other international organizations.

EALA website

Top image: Flags of the EAC and its member states. Photo: EAC

Protesting for "real democracy" in Israel and the world, Israeli citizens cede their vote to Palestinians

Ahead of the upcoming elections in Israel on 22 January 2013, Israeli and Palestinian peace activists have called on Israeli citizens to cast their vote according to instructions taken by Palestinian counterparts. Making use of a Facebook page established for the purpose, numerous pairs of Israeli and Palestine citizens have already agreed on such an arrangement.

A statement published on the Facebook page declares that 

We are Palestinians and Israelis who refuse to participate in the illusion of democracy anymore. In the upcoming Israeli elections we, citizens of Palestine, will exercise our civic right to vote. We, Israeli citizens, will give up our own votes and instead vote as our Palestinian counterparts tell us to.

According to the statement, the campaigners believe that the principle of democratic equality requires that "either the Israeli occupation stops, or  all Palestinians must be allowed to vote in the Israeli elections." "To leave Palestinians subjects of a state in which they are not full citizens, is in contradicion with the basic principles of democracy."

The campaign's statement also declares that "without equality between citizens, the UN and other global institutions cannot be democratic."

In addition to "getting rid" of the veto power of the five permanent members of the UN Security Council as "one of the most important steps" to make the UN more democratic, the campaigners thus are convinced that

No less important is giving citizens, not just governments, a voice in the UN system. A specific proposal that has been gaining considerable support in recent years is the establishment of a United Nations Parliamentary Assembly. Such a UNPA, an embryo for a UN parliament and modelled after the European Parliament, would allow representation even for those citizens that have no recognized government, like the Palestinians. A UNPA will also give a voice not just to the majority but also to minorities within Israel - minorities that are not represented by the Israeli government but by opposition parties.

For more information, visit the campaign's Facebook page.

Final resolution of the 13th International Conference of Chief Justices

A few days ago we reported on the International Conference of Chief Justices of the World that was organized for the 13th time by City Montessori School in Lucknow, India.

At the closing session of the conference, the participating chief justices and judges unanimously passed a final resolution. This resolution states, among other things, that the participants are...

of the view that the present world scenario requires a democratic global governance structure and enforceable world law, for which the world urgently requires a World Parliament

and that they...

urge all the Heads of State and heads of government of the world, as representatives of the people of their respective countries, to urgently meet to form such a democratic World Parliament in a time-bound manner, on a pattern based on the European Parliament of 27 European nations and the Euro currency of 16 countries.

The full resolution can be downloaded here as a PDF file.

"World Judiciary Summit" in Lucknow affirms call for a World Parliament

Judges and legal experts from over 60 countries deliberated on more democratic and more effective global governance

The establishment of a world parliament was a main subject endorsed at the 13th "International Conference of Chief Justices of the World" that was convened by City Montessori School in Lucknow, India, this weekend. At the meeting, chief justices, judges and legal experts from over 60 countries deliberated on the need of strengthening international law in order to meet the challenges of global problems such as climate change.

Pupils warmly welcomed the arriving conference participants on Wednesday

Image: CMS

At the opening, chief justice Benjamin Odoki from Uganda stated that "steps are needed to constitute a world judicial system and world parliament. No one is above the law, international law must be strictly enforced and implemented." Uttar Pradesh Assembly speaker Mata Prasad Pandey emphasized that a world parliament was "the need of the hour."

According to the organizer of the conference, Jagdish Gandhi, the chief justices gathered in Lucknow generally agreed "that even though the cultures and traditions of various countries are widely different, still there prevails an underlying unity as we are all members of one human family. Therefore, we need one enforceable international law to hold us together and prevent wars. Only when world laws are uniform and equally applicable on all countries, can we hope for a peaceful and happy world society." Dr. Gandhi added that the participating chief justices are convinced that this mission "can only be accomplished by the establishment of a World Parliament with representatives of all countries."

The subject of a world parliament was addressed in many interventions. The First President of the Supreme Court of Turkey, Ali Alkan, for instance, stated that "a democratically elected world parliament, some amendments in the UN charter like exclusion of veto powers and an enforceable legal system are the ways which can help us protect the future of the world's children and generations yet unborn."

At the previous conference last year, a final resolution was adopted unanimously that included the recommendation that "for the enactment of world law", a "World Parliament may be constituted."

With over 44,000 pupils, City Montessori School is recognized as Guiness record holder for being the world's largest school. The instituion considers itself the "self-appointed guardian of the world's two billion children and of future generations."

The conference in Lucknow was covered by the Deccan Herald, The Indian Express, The Pioneer, and other Indian newspapers.

Conference website

Previous reports

09 February 2010: Chief Justices of Global South call for world parliament

Top image: Plenary of the World Judiciary Summit 2012. Photo: City Montessori School

U.S. Senator and UNPA Supporter Benjamin Cardin Wins Re-Election

The first sitting U.S. parliamentarian to endorse the establishment of a UN Parliamentary Assembly easily secured re-election in U.S. elections last month.

Senator Benjamin Cardin of Maryland has served in the U.S. legislature since 1987, first in the lower chamber and then, from 2007, in the upper chamber. His re-election in November was to a second six-year term in the U.S. Senate. He won his seat again by a better than 2:1 margin. He endorsed the establishment of a UNPA in October 2011. 

Mr. Cardin has a long-standing interest in foreign affairs, democratization and human rights. He serves on the Senate Foreign Affairs Committee and is co-chair of the U.S. Helsinki Commission. This latter role also engaged him in the Parliamentary Assembly of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe. He served as Vice President of the Assembly until last year. His engagement and leadership in the intergovernmental parliamentary body encouraged the Campaign to approach him as a likely supporter of a UNPA.

Mr. Cardin’s endorsement of a UNPA came after a committed outreach effort by the Campaign’s U.S. coordinator, Mr. Tony Fleming, who also happens to be a constituent of the Senator.

Mr. Fleming met with the Senator’s legislative staff on Capitol Hill in Washington, DC, then with his staff at the Helsinki Commission. Over the course of several conversations, Mr. Fleming shared the Campaign’s goals and discussed the costs, timing, logistics, representation and accountability of the proposed Assembly. In addition to meetings with legislative staff, he met with officials at the U.S. State Department to introduce the Campaign and to gather their perspective on the proposed assembly. At two of these meetings, the Secretary-General of the international Campaign, Andreas Bummel from Germany, participated as well.

During the annual meeting of the OSCE Parliamentary Assembly in summer 2011, Senator Cardin met with several other OSCE PA members at a sidebar convention about the UNPA proposal. Canadian Senator Consiglio Di Nino and Swedish parliamentarian Åsa Lindestam had each previously endorsed the Campaign and encouraged Senator Cardin’s support. At the meeting, they largely agreed on the objectives of establishing a UNPA in the future and on the need for a very specific plan of action with steps for the short, medium and long term if the project was to succeed.

The Co-Chair of the UNPA Campaign, the European parliamentarian Jo Leinen, expressed his encouragement to the Senator in a letter on other human rights efforts. In response, Senator Cardin concluded from the discussions so far that

...to the extent that the establishment of a UNPA would bring more transparency, oversight and effective governance to the Secretariat and other structures of the United Nations, I would support its establishment.

A number of former U.S. officials have recently added their support, including former Senator Adlai Stevenson and former Representative Paul Findley of California. Mr. Cardin is the first sitting U.S. parliamentarian to endorse the proposal of a UN Parliamentary Assembly, and his broad respect across the U.S. political spectrum encourages Campaign supporters in the United States.

Internationally, more than 800 sitting members of parliament and over 300 former elected representatives are on record as supporters of a UNPA.

UN's Independent Expert reasserts that the establishment of a UN Parliamentary Assembly should be explored

Following a similar statement at the UN General Assembly's Third Committee in New York earlier this month (here's our report), the UN's Independent Expert on the Promotion of a Democratic and Equitable International Order, Alfred de Zayas, has now reasserted this week that the establishment of a United Nations Parliamentary Assembly should be explored. The recent remark was made by Mr. de Zayas at an international expert meeting in Caux, Switzerland, on a draft declaration on the right of peoples to peace that is being worked on by the UN Human Rights Council's Advisory Committee. 

Here's the respective excerpt from Mr. de Zayas' speech (that can be downloaded in full from the UN's website):

Article 3 of the Draft Declaration deals with the issue of disarmament, which is crucial to the prevention of armed conflict.  Not only is article 6 of the ICCPR in play, but also the right to individuals to meaningfully participate in the conduct of public affairs, as stipulated in article 25 of the ICCPR.  There is a very obvious disconnect between governments and the people, and a worrisome lack of transparency.  In many countries it is quite evident that the military-industrial complex exercises a thoroughly undemocratic influence over government policies and that the voice of the people that demands education and health care instead of more guns is not being heard.  The whole contemporary discussion over “austerity measures” gains a particular relevance in connection with military expenditures which are not democratically decided by the people, and would certainly be rejected if there were the least attempt to carry out referenda thereon.  In this context the establishment of a United Nations Parliamentary Assembly should be explored. Such an Assembly would give greater voice to the real needs of peoples and could also facilitate, coordinate or conduct world referenda or opinion polling that would better reflect vox populi.

The meeting in Caux was attended by diplomats from over twenty countries and was organized by the Permanent Mission of the Organisation of the Islamic Cooperation to the UN in Geneva in cooperation with the Spanish Society for International Human Rights Law, the International Observatory of the Human Right to Peace, the World Council of Churches, the Japanese Committee on the Human Right to Peace and the International Association of Peace Messenger Cities.

New statements in support of a United Nations Parliamentary Assembly

There are many remarkable sound bites on the need and the importance of a UN Parliamentary Assembly, a world parliament, and global democracy. We've collected around one hundred of them so far in this document. Recently, we've started to post them one by one as "quote of the day" on our wall at Facebook and to an album at Flickr.

We now want to highlight six remarkable new statements that were made in the past several weeks by supporters of the Campaign for a UN Parliamentary Assembly. If you follow the campaign at Facebook, you might have seen them already. At any rate, here they are again:

Let's start chronologically with a statement made by the President of the Parliament of Mercosur, Ignacio Mendoza from Paraguay, at the beginning of October:

The Mercosur Parliament supports the establishment of a UN Parliamentary Assembly as a means to create a citizen-based democratic world order. As a regional international parliament we very well understand the challenges but also the tremendous benefits that this endeavour entails.

You can read more about the Mercosur Parliament's endorsement in this news report of December 2011. 

After that Ove Bring, a professor emeritus of international law at Stockholm University, Sweden, stated that...

A world parliament of citizens would complement the UN system in a democratic way and contribute to strengthening the compliance to international law and human rights principles.

Then Heikki Patomäki, Professor of World Politics, University of Helsinki, Finland, put a spotlight on the need to create international law democratically:

Global crises require global solutions. Occasional summits, intergovernmental agreements and international cooperation are not enough. For instance, the globalization of finance requires new functional and democratic institutions as well as an elected body capable of coordinating their activities and determining the contents of international law, a world parliament.

Under the impression of the terrible civil war in Syria, Abdulbaset Sieda, then President of the Syrian National Council and in exile in Sweden, said on October, 26 that...

The United Nations is dysfunctional and unable to act. I strongly support the creation of a democratically elected UN Parliamentary Assembly. This is what is desperately needed to give the world's citizens a true voice.

Around two weeks later, we were delighted to publish a statement by Yossi Beilin, an experienced Israeli politician who was a member of the Knesset for more than ten years and who has held ministerial positions in the governments of Yitzhak Rabin, Shimon Peres and Ehud Barak:

There is no substitute for the United Nations as the primary organization in which almost all countries participate. However, reflecting the realities of an ever-changing world, the UN should be complemented by a Parliamentary Assembly that helps maintain a strong relationship with the public across the world, feels its pulse, and tries to meet people's needs and desires.

Last but not least, for the moment, the well-known Nigerian environmentalist and until November chair of Friends of the Earth International, Nnimmo Bassey, spoke out in favor of a UN Parliamentary Assembly because...

Intergovernmental summits have proven to be ineffective, too ineffective, in addressing the challenges of climate change, the loss of biodiversity or environmental protection. Negotiators are trapped in narrow national interests as well as the interests of corporations on their national delegations. The lowest common denominator negotiated by the world's governments is not enough. It is indeed time to have the world's citizens heard through an elected UN Parliamentary Assembly.