UN Parliament discussed at the UN Civil Society Conference in Nairobi

At the UN Civil Society Conference in Nairobi in May 2024, the establishment of a United Nations Parliamentary Assembly (UNPA) was among the recommendations presented and discussed at two sessions on inclusive global governance.

The sessions were part of almost forty self-organized civil society workshops and twenty events to form so-called “ImPACT coalitions”. According to the conference website, these are intended to drive forward certain reform initiatives until the United Nations Summit of the Future in September 2024 and beyond. The topics of these coalitions are diverse and range from artificial intelligence, earth system governance, gender equality or UN Charter reform to drug policy, peacebuilding or underrepresented communities.

As Democracy Without Borders reports, the two sessions on inclusive global governance discussed and called for the establishment of a UNPA as well as a permanent Global Citizens' Assembly, a World Citizens' Initiative and a UN Envoy for Civil Society.

The UNPA was presented by the Executive Director of Democracy Without Borders, Andreas Bummel, and the former Member of the European Parliament, Jo Leinen. It is intended to ensure that elected representatives are involved in the work of the UN. Jo Leinen pointed out that the European Parliament and the European Citizens' Initiative were examples from which lessons could be learned.

According to the report, the four proposals relate to a chapter on the “Transformation of Global Governance”, which is to be included in a Pact for the Future to be adopted at the summit. In a plenary session on the civil society recommendations on the first day of the conference in Nairobi, Andreas Bummel said: “The Pact for the Future is supposed to be a bold document. It should therefore open the door for these proposals to be implemented”.