Committee: Inter-Parliamentary Union and UN Parliament complementary

An analysis recently published by the Committee for a Democratic UN (KDUN) examines the relation between the establishment of a UN Parliamentary Assembly (UNPA) and the work of the international association of national parliaments, the Inter-Parliamentary Union (IPU). Frequently it is argued that the functions of a UNPA are already provided by the IPU. The paper instead concludes that the "UNPA provides a pragmatic response to the global governance democratic deficit which is not offered by the IPU." It notes "basic differences" between the IPU and the proposed UNPA: "The IPU is an association of national parliaments which assists them to improve their oversight at the national level in matters of international nature. The UNPA's purpose, by contrast, is to exercise parliamentary functions directly at the international level in its own right." According to the analysis, both institutions are complementary.