Statements » Campaign for a UN Parliamentary Assembly

Creating a UN Parliamentary Assembly would help strengthen global democracy and, through international political cooperation, help tackle the common problems faced by all of humanity. Bringing politicians together worldwide is the key to transcending the barriers of national borders and the limits of national parliaments. The UN General Assembly is a voice for the world's governments. A UN Parliamentary Assembly would give a voice to the elected representatives of the world's peoples.

Peter Tatchell, Human rights activist and Director of the Peter Tatchell Foundation, U.K., 2017

It is high time that there is a body at the United Nations that brings parliamentarians from all UN member states together. The UN would benefit from involving elected representatives in its deliberations. After all, in many cases it's them who are needed to help implement UN policy at the national level, especially if it comes to the Agenda 2030. A UN Parliamentary Assembly would also provide for democratic oversight of the UN's operations, including playing a meaningful role vis-à-vis the Security Council. This additional layer of accountability would increase the world organization's democratic character and its credibility so that external control and economic exploitation by the strong on the weak nations and their lands is suppressed.

Nomsa Tarabella-Marchesi, Member of the National Assembly of South Africa, 2017

Globalisation is now seen as a threat in many countries. This is, to a large extent, because people feel a sense of powerlessness and have no say or sense of control over global forces. This view is gaining credence, fuelling the growth of populism and extremism and forcing a retreat into narrow forms of identity that undermine cohesion. We therefore need to democratise international bodies and agencies. A citizen-elected UN Parliamentary Assembly will create the opportunity to discuss and influence decisions beyond our borders. This will also help to develop a much greater sense of joint purpose and common humanity and break down the divisions based on nationality, ethnicity and faith that are presently the cause of so many tensions and conflicts.

Ted Cantle, Founder of the Institute of Community Cohesion Foundation; visiting professor at the University of Nottingham and Nottingham Trent University, 2017

I support the idea of a Parliamentary Assembly at the United Nations. We are facing growing global challenges that can only be solved by joint action. That's why democratically legitimate and transparent political decision-making procedures are not only needed at the national level but at the international level as well.

Bernd Westphal, Member of the German Parliament; Speaker of the Working Group on Energy and Economic Affairs of the Parliamentary Group of the Social Democratic Party, 2017

I endorse the establishment of a United Nations Parliamentary Assembly because the United Nations needs to be handed back to those to whom it actually belongs - the people of the world.

Leo Igwe, Nigerian human rights advocate and humanist, 2017

Sven Teschke, CC BY-SA 3.0

Political decision-making procedures need to be democratically legitimate, transparent and accountable. This applies to the global level as well. That's why I support the idea of a Parliamentary Assembly at the UN.

Bärbel Bas, Chief Whip of the Parliamentary Group of the Social Democratic Party in the German Bundestag, 2017

The UN still grants governments a monopoly on the representation of their societies. This monopoly is no longer tenable. A more inclusive system of global democracy is needed. As an important step towards a fundamental transformation of the UN and the development of a democratic world parliament, I support the creation of a UN Parliamentary Assembly which would give citizen-elected representatives a voice.

Prof. Tim Murithi, Extraordinary Professor of African Studies, Centre for African Studies, University of the Free State, and Head of Programme, Institute for Justice and Reconciliation, Cape Town, South Africa, 2017

Foto-AG Gymnasium Melle, CC BY 3.0

In the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe I have been working on important cross-border issues together with parliamentarians from other member states and learned a lot from them in the process. A Parliamentary Assembly at the United Nations could complement the collaboration of governments in the General Assembly and the UN's various subsidiary bodies with a structured collaboration of parliaments. I consider this to be very useful.

Ute Finckh-Krämer, Member of the German Parliament, 2017

Oscar Wettersten, CC BY 3.0

As a long time activist and now a Roma woman elected to the European Parliament, I see the need of democratising the representation of the UN through a UN Parliamentary Assembly. We as peoples of the world need the possibility to be able to directly influence the UN's political agenda and its implementation. It is a matter of our human rights and their full realisation.

Soraya Post, Member of the European Parliament from Sweden, 2017

Free world trade needs a clear political and eco-social framework if it is not to have ruinous effects. Global regulation calls for democratized global institutions based on checks and balances, among them a global parliament. In the long run, this is the only way to protect freedom and its preconditions which are under threat today intertemporally and across national borders. For this it will also be necessary to achieve a serious - and not only bogus - democratization of the world's nation-states.

Prof. Dr. Felix Ekardt, LL.M., M.A., Director of the Research Center on Sustainability and Climate Policy (Leipzig/Berlin) and Professor for Public Law and Legal Philosophy at the University of Rostock. For more than 20 years he has been dealing with global constitutionalization. (2017)

by Frankie Fouganthin, CC BY-SA 4.0

Humanity is a community of fate that is increasingly faced with cross-border challenges. That's why global decision-making is inevitable. Through a World Parliament we need to make sure that the emerging world order is democratic and as close to the citizens as possible.

Jens Orback, Secretary General for the Olof Palme International Center (2008-2016) and Minister for Democracy, Metropolitan Affairs, Integration and Gender Equality (2004-2006), Sweden