New association to push for Spain’s support of a UN Parliamentary Assembly
A new organization was created in Barcelona to advocate for the creation of “a supranational and democratic authority” that is capable of dealing with global challenges. “We live in a world that is deeply affected by problems connected with overpopulation, poverty, energy, labor rights, gender violence, and the ongoing instability of the ecological, financial and economic system. Each of these issues create negative feedback loops on the others. The result is a highly complex
Joan Marc Simon, CEUNPA's new coordinator in Spain |
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global crisis,” explained Joan Marc Simon, former secretary-general of the Union of European Federalists and one of the founding members of the association, at a launch event that was carried out in March. The focus of the “World Democratic Governance project association”, short WDGpa, is to stress the “unavoidable need to re-think and re-found the world order in a democratic way.”
WDGpa plans to push for Spain’s support of the establishment of a United Nations Parliamentary Assembly as a step towards a world parliament. “We urgently need a world parliament that is strong enough to sanction new supranational forms of governance. This world parliament would be based on direct and indirect participation of citizens worldwide, which would develop a real and solid global democracy,” said Simon. WDGpa intends to coordinate its activities closely with other international efforts, most importantly with the Campaign for a UN Parliamentary Assembly and the World Federalist Movement which serves as Secretariat of the Coalition for the International Criminal Court. This week, Mr. Simon was appointed as coordinator and contact person of the Campaign for a UN Parliamentary Assembly (CEUNPA) in Spain.
The launch of the association on March 19th was held at the Institute of Catalan Studies in Barcelona was attended by nearly one hundred people, including representatives of institutions, politicians, and members of several Catalan civil society organizations. Other founding members of WDGpa include the president of the organization Josep Xercavins, formerly coordinator of UBUNTU-World Forum of Civil Society Networks, and the secretary-general Carme Valls, former Catalan member of parliament.
Website of WDGpa
Spanish supporters of the Appeal for a UN Parliamentary Assembly
Top image, from left to right: Joan Marc Simon, Carme Valls, Bill Pace, and Josep Xercavins, at the launch event on March 19, by WDGpa