German Greens support Campaign for a United Nations Parliament

Claudia Roth during a speech in Göttingen in September 2007

Image: Wikimedia Commons

The Secretariat of the Campaign for a UN Parliamentary Assembly announced today that the federal board of the German green party, Bündnis 90 / Die Grünen, has decided to endorse the initiative. “We share the view that democratic participation and representation gradually also needs to be implemented at the global level. Important internationaldecisions should no longer be taken by a few government representatives who meet behind closed doors. A global parliament would be well suited to make the United Nations more democratic and more transparent,” commented party chair Claudia Roth.

The call for a United Nations Parliamentary Assembly is supported by green parties all over the world. In the final declaration of the second global greens congress that met in May 2008 in Sao Paulo it is stated that the greens “support the creation of a United Nations Parliamentary Assembly (UNPA) as a parliamentary body within the UN system. As a first step it should be composed of representatives of national parliaments but it should become a directly elected body.”

At that time, the chair of the Canadian greens, Elizabeth May, stated that “the resolution adopted by the congress underlines that the green movement is convinced that a dialogue is needed on the notion of a bi-cameral system at the UN.”

The German greens are currently not part of the governing coalition in Germany. At the last elections in September 2009, however, the party got 10.7 percent of votes and won 68 parliamentary seats. From 1998 to 2005, the party designated the German foreign minister, Joschka Fischer.

Top image: Federal party conference of the Greens in 2009, by Jens Matheuszik, pottblog.de