Seminar on a United Nations Parliamentary Assembly in Paris

"Democratize globalization": exchanges and proposals in Paris on September 21, 2019, the International Day of Peace

Organized by the Union of European Federalists-France in collaboration with Democracy Without Borders, a seminar on "Democratizing globalization with the creation of a United Nations Parliamentary Assembly?" was held in Paris on September 21st at the Charles-Léopold Mayer Foundation.

Bringing together about thirty participants, primarily academics and representatives of civil society, the conference included three workshops focused on conflict resolution, human rights and the environment, considering in particular climate change as focus topic of this year's International Day of Peace.

The participants were welcomed by Chloé Fabre, President of the UEF Île-de-France, and François Leray, French representative of the Campaign for a United Nations Parliamentary Assembly.

Among other things, the participants agreed that the creation of a United Nations Parliamentary Assembly should be a step-by-step process, initially starting with a parliamentary assembly with powers limited to the most urgent global issues. For example, a world parliament would be able to debate democratically and at the right scale the global environmental crisis and effective collective solutions.

Speakers included, in alphabetical order, Anne-Laure Baldacchino, Climate Ambassador of the Center for United Nations Constitutional Research (CUNCR); Monique Chemillier-Gendreau, lawyer and Professor Emeritus of Public Law and Political Science at the University of Paris VII; Maja Groff, international lawyer based in The Hague, winner of the New Shape Prize awarded by the Global Challenges Foundation; Tahar Houhou, a "world citizen" since 1989, involved in the associative movement; Marion Larché, doctor in public law and author of a thesis on the functions of international law in the jurisprudence of the European Court of Human Rights; as well as Marie-Christine Vergiat, an activist and French politician, Member of the European Parliament from 2009 to 2019 and Vice-President of the League of Human Rights.

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First model UN Parliamentary Assembly held in Buenos Aires

With a focus on preservation and conservation of the environment, university students participated in a simulation of a global parliamentary session

This past Friday, the Argentine Congress hosted a simulated session of a United Nations Parliamentary Assembly, in which around 60 students from the departments of Political Science and International Relations from the University of Belgrano took part.

The event was held in the plenary chamber of the Senate of Argentina in Buenos Aires and was organized by the civil society organization Democracia Global: Movimiento por la Unión Sudamericana y el Parlamento Mundial in collaboration with the University of Belgrano. It was part of the international campaign for a United Nations Parliamentary Assembly which is endorsed by over 1,600 current and former members of parliament from more than 130 countries.

Students discussed the preservation and conservation of the environment as a global theme from the perspective of global representatives who are called on to represent global citizenship and the planetary interest.

The session was chaired by the provisional president of the Argentine Senate, Federico Pinedo as well as senator Esteban Bullrich, national deputy Fernando Iglesias and Cristian Gimenez Corte, an official representative of the United Nations.

Senator Pinedo stated that “We need to establish norms and agreements in order to solve global issues.” Senator Bullrich said that “it is very important that we not only discuss these issues but we act to change the situation and find common solutions.”

During the opening of the event, Democracia Global’s Executive Director Camila Lopez Badra stated that “the younger generations are the future”, adding that “citizens need a supranational body in which they are represented.”

Furthermore, she referred to the main topic of the model's debate: “Global citizens live in a shared planet and we must preserve and care for the environment”.

Lopez Badra affirmed that “climate change affects all of us” and highlighted that “one in every four species in the world is at risk of extinction; the oceans are heating up, there is an increase in pollution of the air and water, and there is an increasing lack of care for the environment.” With reference to the forest fires in the Amazon she stated: “Today, the planet’s lungs are on fire.”

Througouht the discussion, the university's students agreed on the necessity of “taking immediate action in order to have a tomorrow and preserve our shared future.”

As a closing statement, the official for the United Nations, Cristian Gimenez Corte, emphasized the importance of “increasing awareness of the necessity of creating international institutions that hold legitimacy.”

In his role as President of the World Federalist Movement, deputy Fernando Iglesias welcomed this “academic experience” and affirmed that the event is “a valuable precedent.”

Fernando Iglesias is a founding member of Democracia Global whose objective is to develop global democracy through the creation of democratic institutions at the continental, international and global levels.

“Hopefully, this experience will help global citizens – especially young people – link the key challenges underlying our survival as humankind with the political sphere”, Iglesias concluded.

A model resolution on “the preservation of native forests” was the initiative that got the most support among the simulation's participants. 

The model UN Parliamentary Assembly was held to raise an awareness for the “construction of a parliament that would deal with global issues from a diverse array of perspectives and provide a voice to the world's citizens.”

Source: parlamentario.com

Why a UN Parliamentary Assembly is supported across party lines

Even if a UN Parliamentary Assembly is usually associated with progressive movements there are very strong reasons for conservatives to also support the idea

The proposal of a United Nations Parliamentary Assembly (UNPA) is supported across party lines. It was endorsed by the Socialist International, the World Congress of Green parties, as well as the Liberal International, and the international appeal for a UNPA was signed by politicians and officials from all political affiliations.

But often the idea of a world parliament is primarily associated with a progressive liberal, socialist or left movement which tries to tame the worst excesses of globalization: a lack of democracy at the international level, growing inequality or environmental degradation. Conservatives, however, often seen as the preservers of traditions – and in this context the inviolability of the national state – are thought to be less supportive of this idea. In the following I will argue that this is a mistake.

The paradox of today’s globalized world is that you need change in order to conserve. With the rapid changes in the world's economy and a growing convergence of markets, the shrinking influence of national governance constantly undermines the kind of democracy we know. But if the economic system within a (world) society is changing so fundamentally, retaining the political system – in order to leave everything as it is – is a fallacy.

Throughout the 20th century, the increasing intertwinement of national states and political issues has lead to the creation of multinational political unions such as the European Union or the Organization of African Unity, now  the African Union. Even if things do not always run as planned (Brexit is just one of many examples), a return to national solo efforts is neither possible nor desirable. And this is not only because of values such as international solidarity or cooperation. It is also because the ever changing economic sector affects our world and our lives at a global scale and will do so even more in the future.

It could be argued that the economic system is taken too seriously and that the development from small entities like villages towards bigger entities like kingdoms and nations is a constant feature of human history – even without globalization. This is certainly true. But until now we never experienced a global system in which the economic and financial sphere had such an enormous influence on policymaking throughout the world.

We are now faced with two alternatives: either we watch the global system be shaped by financial markets, multinational companies or undemocratic international organizations, or the world's citizens take back control and design the economic transformation and politics in general in a democratic way, from local to global.

Even conservatives can’t deny that the first alternative would undermine their goal to retain our traditions and institutions dramatically. Powerful - and democratic - global governance is needed and a United Nations Parliamentary Assembly is an important step towards this goal.

The author is currently an intern at the UNPA campaign's secretariat.

Global Diplomats Descend on Canberra for Model Global Parliament

International politics recently visited Canberra as representatives of various nations and organisations met at the Australian National University to discuss pressing global issues. Tensions occasionally boiled over as motions were debated rigorously.

After the event, diplomats returned to their dorms, share houses, and other forms of student accommodation as another successful Model Global Parliament had come to an end.

The MGP is a forum which allows students the opportunity to address global issues of our time in an environment similar to a national parliament or United Nations sitting. The forum is also an ongoing feasibility test for a future world parliament.

This year’s Canberra event held in late May was organised by the Crawford School Student’s Association, in conjunction with Pera Wells, the Australian representative on the Steering Committee for the Global Interdependence Movement. The event was introduced by speeches from Professor Tom Kompas, (Director of the Crawford School of Public Policy), Professor Bruce Chapman (architect of the Australian HECS), and Federal MP Dr Andrew Leigh.

The central theme underpinning the Canberra MGP was global inequality. Thomas Piketty’s ‘Capital in the Twenty-First Century’ and Andrew Leigh’s ‘Battlers and Billionaires’ were set as background readings to spark the fire within the student parliamentarians. The meeting also focused on three specific topics: food security, water and energy, and capitalism.

Students were randomly allocated to various regions or organisations which they were required to represent. Some of these included Latin America, Asia, Africa, North America and Europe, Global Civil Society Organisation, International Conservation Union, and Mayors of Global Cities.

Motions that were passed on food security involved increasing agricultural research and the reduction of food wastage. Water and energy motions focused on limiting the privatisation of water supplies and supporting renewable energy development projects in Africa. The topic of Capitalism produced motions on increased progressive taxation and more effective and equal distribution.

The MGP moves through various Australian cities each year. Check the webpage or the Crawford School Students Association on Facebook for ongoing details.

"We want global democracy" flash mob during Obama speech in Berlin

A group of young international students and workers living in Berlin are organizing a federalist action on the occasion of U.S. President Barack Obama's speech in Berlin which he will deliver at the Brandenburger Tor tomorrow, on June 19th, fifty years after the famous speech of John F. Kennedy ("Ich bin ein Berliner").

As Michele Fiorillo, one of the organizers, writes on the event's Facebook page it's

A 'last minute' social (network) campaign to let the "people of the World" know and let the european and global public opinion debate the "Manifesto for a Global Democracy" that calls for a new governance of Earth, starting with the reform of the United Nations and the establishment of a World Parliamentary Assembly...

In essence, the group will try to hold up a banner and say to US President Obama and to the people gathering at Brandenburger Tor: "No globalization without representation." 

On the Facebook page they explain that they call on Obama to take the leadership, together with all others of good will, "to change the governance of the United Nations," and to "start a road-map towards the project of a World Federation." As Obama said in his first speech in Berlin on July, 24th 2008, when he presented himself as "fellow citizen of the world": "People of the world, look at Berlin!"

If you're not in Berlin, you can still help the campaign as a "citizen of the world" by sharing the Facebook event with your friends or by sending them the link to the Global Democracy Manifesto.

Realtime updates are available on the Facebook event page.