Meeting on UNPA hosted in New Zealand's Parliament

15. Oktober 2010

A meeting was held on Thursday 14th October 2010 in the Maori Affairs Select Committee Room in the Parliament House of New Zealand - with the Treaty of Waitangi displayed on the wall - to discuss the proposal for a United Nations Parliamentary Assembly (UNPA) and how to build support for the proposal within the Oceania region.

Participants of the meeting in Wellington
Image: CEUNPA

The meeting was hosted by Sue Kedgley, MP, and comprised eight New Zealand MPs from across the three main parties: National, Labour and Green, along with the President of the World Citizens Association from Australia, and other individuals from civil society.

The meeting found common ground that the system for global decision-making needed to be improved and that the United Nations system had a serious democratic deficit and lack of democratic accountability. There were discussions about the best options for development and improvement for the future, and around the merits of the proposal for a UN Parliamentary Assembly, following a presentation by Gordon Glass, member of the Steering Committee for the UNPA campaign.

The meeting generated a number of proposals for building a strategy in New Zealand and in Oceania to support change within the United Nations system. A majority of the MPs present, including each of the parties, agreed to support the campaign and to take the UNPA proposal back to their parties for further debate and action. Two attendees, one from within Parliament and one from outside, agreed to be points of contact in the region for future action.

Top image: Parliament of New Zealand, by CEUNPA

«
»