Two events on global democracy coming up in Rome

Next week on Tuesday, September 11, two exciting events on global democracy will take place in Rome, gathering some of the world's leading experts on the subject.

The first event at 12:00 is a public debate on the establishment of a United Nations Parliamentary Assembly with Virgilio DASTOLI, President of the Movimento Europeo and of the Spinelli-Group, Senator Roberto DI GIOVAN PAOLO, President of the Federalist Intergroup in the Italian Senate, Fernando IGLESIAS, Council Chair of the World Federalist Movement and former Argentine parliamentarian,Lucio LEVI, Università di Torino and President of the Movimento Federalista Europeo, and Heikki PATOMAKI, University of Helsinki.

At the second event at 15:00, the Manifesto for Global Democracy (here's the website) will be presented to the Italian public by Prof. Roberto ESPOSITO, Istituto Orientale di Napoli, Prof. Fernando IGLESIAS, Cattedra Spinelli (CUIA) - Democracia Global, Prof. Lucio LEVI, Università di Torino - Movimento Federalista Europeo, Prof. Raffaele MARCHETTI, Libera Università Internazionale degli Studi Sociali, Prof. Giacomo MARRAMAO, Università degli Studi di Roma Tre, and Prof. Heikki PATOMAKI, Università degli Studi di Helsinki. Here is the event's page at Facebook.

For more details, download the invitations here:

Debate on a UN Parliamentary Assembly
Presentation of the Manifesto for Global Democracy

OpEd in the Times of India argues for a global parliament

In an opinion piece published in the Times of India today, titled "Towards a global Parliament", Richard Falk and Andrew Strauss argue that what has worked in India since independence of the country in 1947 should work as well at the global scale: Parliamentary democracy.

They point at numerous examples of international parliamentary institutions that already exist, primarily the European Parliament, to underpin the proposal of a global parliament. "There is no principled reason why the establishment of citizen representative institutions should be the litmus test for legitimate governance at the local, provincial and national levels, but not at the global level," the US-American professors write.

Falk and Strauss have published numerous articles on a global parliamentary assembly before. Last year, the Committee for a Democratic U.N. released a volume of their collected works. An Indian edition was presented in May in Delhi.

Read the entire article in the Times of India here

Input requested for a manifesto on democracy and sustainable development

The Foundation for Democracy and Sustainable Development has launched a consultative process to develop the world’s first manifesto for democracy and sustainable development. The aim of the process that runs until the end of November 2012 is to provide a platform for action around the world to ensure that democracy is properly equipped to deliver sustainable development outcomes.

According to FDSD, "Democracy needs to be cherished if it is to thrive and adapt to pressures that climate change, resource scarcity and major demographic shifts will create. The manifesto will set an agenda for tackling problem areas such as the way that democracy is so often hitched to business-as-usual economic growth, or lack of respect for future generations. At the same time, there's an increasing risk that unsustainable development could erode democracy."

FDSD asks for suggestions on methods, institutions, policies or practices that can point the way to democratic decision-making that is tailored to sustainable development. "We want to hear from anyone – whether an individual or on behalf of an organisation - who cares about democracy and what it can do to deliver a healthy environment and fairness for all now and in the future. We're particularly keen to get ideas on practical actions that could equip democracy to deliver sustainable development. Should a UN Parliamentary Assembly be among them, for example?," said Halina Ward, FDSD's director.

To take part in the public consultation process, you can fill in and submit this on-line form that sets out three questions on principles, actions, and vision.

Please share this information within your networks if you possibly can. If you’d like any further information, or you would be interested in hosting a consultation workshop or consultation exhibition stand, please write to Halina Ward at manifesto@fdsd.org.

More information is available at FDSD's website.

On the transition from "Old" to "New Geopolitics"

Yesterday, Richard Falk, an international law and international relations scholar who taught at Princeton University for forty years (and who supports the Campaign for a UN Parliamentary Assembly), published a blog post on the transition from "Old Geopolitics" to "New Geopolitics."

"A number of developments on the global stage are suggesting that a New Geopolitics is indeed struggling to be born, although unable at this stage to challenge seriously the reign of the Old Geopolitics," Mr. Falk writes. A "striking example of New Geopolitics" according to Mr. Falk was the realignment that took place in the closing days of the 2009 Copenhagen UN Conference on Climate Change when "the United States sought to circumvent unwieldy and uncongenial procedures involving 193 states by selecting the participants in a hegemonic coalition that consisted of itself, China, India, Brazil, and South Africa."

This move was challenging "that part of the Old Geopolitics associated with the idea of the equality of states as the basis of legitimate multilateral lawmaking in the 21st century."

The civil society vision of the New Geopolitics, writes Mr. Falk, "inclines strongly in the transformative direction of Global Democracy, making all institutions of governance subject to the imperatives of transparency, accountability, stakeholder participation, rule of law, and attention to the human interest/global justice/climate change diplomacy. A first institutional step toward Global Democracy could involve the establishment of a Global Parliament that would directly represent people, not governments."

Richard Falk has been writing on the subject for a long time. Recently, a book was published with collected works of Richard Falk and Andrew Strauss on a global parliament.

Read the entire blog post here

Vilasrao Deshmukh, Indian Union Minister, passes away

India's Union Minister for Science and Technology and former Chief Minister of Maharashtra Vilasrao Deshmukh (67) passed away at a hospital in Chennai yesterday. As a cabinet member, Shri Deshmukh was one of the foremost supporters of the international Campaign for a United Nations Parliamentary Assembly in India. He was passionate about the cause and had recently organized the release of the Indian edition of the book "Towards A Global Parliament" edited by Richard Falk and Andrew Strauss in New Delhi.

Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, Congress president Sonia Gandhi and BJP chief Nitin Gadkari were among leaders from across the political spectrum who paid tributes.

Shri Deshmukh's death is a big loss to the efforts towards a more democratic global order. May his soul rest in peace.

Videos and podcast of recent presentations now available

Recently, there was a panel on the Campaign for a UN Parliamentary Assembly at the World Federalist Movement's World Congress in Winnipeg. In the previous post we published some pictures and the resolution adopted there on "Global democracy and United Nations Reform; Federalism at different levels."

In the meantime, videos of the panel presentations and of the discussion are also available. They can be watched here at Vimeo. Covered are an introduction by Fergus Watt, Executive Director of WFM-Canada, the presentations by Andreas Bummel, Secretary-General of the UNPA-Campaign, and former Canadian parliamentarians Bill Blaikie and Warren Allmand as well as the Q&A session afterwards.

Here you can also find an audio podcast of a presentation of Andreas Bummel at the Commonwealth Club of California in San Francisco on July 2 on a "United Nations Parliamentary Assembly and Global Democracy." The presentation puts the question of a UN Parliamentary Assembly into a long-term perspective and covers subjects such as the development of world law and a new global social contract.

Finally, if you read French, here you can download an article recently published in the journal of the French National Assembly, Le Journal du Parlement, on "Renforcer la démocratie au moyen d 'une assemblée parlementaire mondiale."

Some images of and resolution adopted at the WFM Congress in Winnipeg

The World Federalist Movement-Institute for Global Policy and most of the organizations affiliated with it (here's the website) are closely involved in the Campaign for a UN Parliamentary Assembly. WFM has been supporting a UN Parliamentary Assembly for more than twenty years. The movement's annual meeting is always an opportunity for exchange and reflection. Recently, many UNPA campaigners met at the congress in Winnipeg, see our report here for more details.

Following up on our report, we've now uploaded the full text of the resolution adopted at the Congress on "Global democracy and United Nations Reform; Federalism at different levels." Here you can download the PDF file. It includes sections on global democratization, rule of law, UN reform, global economic, social and environmental governance, and regional federalism.

Here is also a selection of photos taken at the Congress:

[AFG_gallery id='1']

Artwork: A world parliament would transcend national boundaries

Often it is taken for granted that the world is politically devided among today's nearly 200 nation-states. This new artwork of the Campaign for a UN Parliamentary Assembly (see right, click on the image for a larger size) brings home the message that actually Earth is one indivisibable habitat and that the boundaries created by nation-states are artifical constructs.

Proponents of a world parliament argue that one of its key features would be to transcend national borders. It is expected that the members of a world parliament would group according to their political viewpoint rather than according to their national origin. This would put them into a good position to tackle problems from a broader, transnational perspective. For the first time, a political body would exists that would allow to pursue the common interest of humanity rather than just narrow national interests. The overall idea is captured with the slogan "One Common Home. One Common Future. One Common Parliament."

The artwork is available as a postcard. Supporters can contact the campaign's Secretariat to obtain copies.

Hello world, the Campaign for a UN Parliamentary Assembly now has a blog

Despite of the holiday season we're not idle. Finally we had the time to establish a long awaited official campaign blog. This is the first post!

If you visit the news section you will see that we are covering the campaign's major activities and other relevant news in the field of global democracy on a regular basis ever since the campaign was started (in English, German, French and Spanish, due to the tireless work of our pro bono translators from around the world who we would like to thank on this occasion). It is fair to say that we are the only website in the world that covers all that has to do with the question of a global parliament and most of our reports include original content that you will not find anywhere else.

Nonetheless, although we are proud of our coverage, for quite some time we've been realizing that we really need an additional way to highlight noteworthy developments and events that are otherwise not covered in the international news section and thus do not get appropriate acknowledgment. We are delighted that as of now this campaign blog exists for this purpose.

Tentative blog categories

The blog will allow us to keep you even better up to date. The campaign's secretariat, and campaign participants from around the world, for example national coordinators, can make use of it to publish reports and comments on their work, to highlight developments, events, and meetings or to feature new supporters. For this kind of posts we will establish a category "From the Campaign.

As the name says, the category "Resources" will include all posts that feature and present resources that are valueable for the campaign. Background information, general analysis, hints to books and other publications will be found in the category "Knowledge."

We intend to publish opinions and comments from campaign supporters on topical issues close to our cause from time to time. For this we'll have the category "Opinion & Comments." Guest submissions will be most welcome. We'll set up some formal guidelines for unsolicited submissions once the blog has become more established.

Generally we hope that the blog will become a platform to share information on all kind of things close to our cause. Everything that does not fit into the four categories already mentioned will be collected under "Miscellanea."

Finally, it will be possible for the blog's readers to comment on and to discuss all posts. For convenience we're making use of Facebook's comment plugin for this.

We'll not double post any content from the news section on the blog so don't forget to check there, too, if you are looking for news!

Obviously, it's all still very fresh. Suggestions are welcome.

Initiative fordert transnationale Referenden, warnt, dass die Demokratie "in Gefahr" sei

Aktivisten, Experten, Forscher, Journalisten und Politiker aus elf europäischen Ländern trafen sich in Burgas, Bulgarien, um die Entwicklung der Bürgerbeteiligung und der direkten Demokratie in Europa und der Welt zu diskutieren. In einer bei dem Treffen verabschiedeten gemeinsamen Erklärung wurde betont, dass "Demokratie die wichtigste Frage unserer

Gerald Häfner, MdEP, Präsident von Democracy International

Bild: DI

Zeit ist, da Probleme wie der Klimawandel, der Umgang mit Ressourcen und der Umwelt, der Zustand der bürgerlichen Rechte sowie politische Lösungen wirtschaftlicher, finanzieller und sozialer Fragen von der Qualität der Demokratie und der Frage, wer am Ende die Entscheidungen trifft, abhängen".

Gleichzeitig, so die Erklärung weiter, sei Demokratie in einer Welt "in Gefahr, in der immer mehr politische Entscheidungen auf internationaler und transnationaler Ebene getroffen werden, während demokratische Mitwirkung und Kontrolle noch innerhalb der Nationalstaaten stattfindet. Aus all diesen Gründen wir brauchen mehr Demokratie, Bürgerbeteiligung und direkte Demokratie".

Das Treffen wurde von Democracy International, einer weltweiten Koalition zur Verwirklichung und für den Ausbau der direkten Demokratie in Europa und der Welt, organisiert. Laut der in Burgas angenommen Erklärung fordert Democracy International "das Recht auf Initiativen und Referenden in allen Ländern und auf lokaler, regionaler, nationaler oder transnationaler Ebene". In Anbetracht der Lage in Europa forderte die Initiative einen Europäischen Konvent über die Zukunft der EU und eine europaweite Volksabstimmung über dessen Ergebnis.

Wie die Initiative auf ihrer Website berichtet, arbeiten Menschen aus der ganzen Welt seit 2002 zusammen, um die Idee der direkten Demokratie und von mehr Bürgerbeteiligung zu fördern. Im Jahr 2011 wurde Democracy International dann als formelles Netzwerk von Einzelpersonen und Nichtregierungsorganisationen gegründet.

"Unser grundlegendes Ziel ist die Etablierung der direkten Demokratie als Ergänzung zur repräsentativen Demokratie auf der ganzen Welt und auf allen Ebenen der Regierung, also lokal, regional, national und transnational", sagt Gerhald Häfner, Präsident von Democracy International und grünes Mitglied des Europäischen Parlaments aus Deutschland.

Häfner über die Ziele der Initiative

 

Häfner war im vergangenen Jahr einer der Unterzeichner eines offenen Briefes, der die deutsche Regierung dazu aufgefordert hat, die Initiative zur Einrichtung einer Parlamentarischen Versammlung bei den Vereinten Nationen zu ergreifen.

Website von Democracy International