Symposium discusses the question of whether democratic global governance is possible

Bob Brown: Creation of a global parliament “inevitable”

At a symposium held last Friday at the University of Sydney the question was addressed whether “democratic global governance” was possible. The featured speaker was Senator Bob Brown from the Australian Greens Party, who has twice

Bob Brown

Image: Australian Greens

introduced resolutions into the Australian Senate in support of a United Nations Parliamentary Assembly and who talked about “The inevitability of a global parliament.”

Brown emphasized the struggle ahead to achieve a sustainable way of living for the planet. “We are already consuming resources at 120% of the sustainable rate, and on current projections the rate will get five times worse by the end of the century. Until we recognize that we’re all equal on this little planet, we’re not going to be able to live with each other.” He attacked national sovereignty as a “prescription for failure”, and said the world should operate under a bicameral parliament to determine international issues like nuclear weapons, transnational financial arrangements and a tax to solve world poverty. “It’s simply common sense”, Brown said.

Another speaker, Michael Cornish from the University of Adelaide, discussed the idea of a UN Parliamentary Assembly. He pointed out that

Jake Lynch, Michael Cornish and Bob Brown

Image: WCA

it is a proposal that “seeks to democratise global governance through the gradual implementation of democratic participation and representation, using the existing United Nations as its vehicle for implementation.” Many details remain to be worked out, but the principle of democracy is clear. Government must be “of the people, by the people, for the people”, as Abraham Lincoln said. He asked the audience to “dream big, and then persist, and persist, and persist to make it into a reality”.

European integration as a model?

The lead speaker was Chris Hamer, President of the World Citizens Association of Australia, who discussed “Pathways to Democratic Global Governance”. He noted that uniting seven billion people and 200 nations under a global parliament or world federation is an enormous task, “analogous to climbing Mount Everest.” World

Brett Bowden, Chris Hamer and Jonathan Kuyper

Image: WCA

federalists, he said, “have tried various routes, including the constitutional route, the UN reform route, the democratic route, and the regional route.” He emphasized that since “nobody can predict where the eventual breakthrough might occur, world federalists need to support each other in pushing forward on all fronts.”

According to Hamer, the most successful strategy has been that of European integration which started with a small group of progressive states in an association with limited aims. It evolved through successive treaties to arrive at the present European Union. He suggested that this strategy could be reproduced at the world stage and put forward a scheme for a “World Community of Democracies”, based upon NATO and the OECD, as a first step towards an eventual system of universal, democratic global governance.

Other speakers at the event included Brett Bowden, from the University of Western Sydney, Jonathan Kuyper, from the Centre for Deliberative Democracy at the Australian National University, and Jake Lynch, the Director of the Centre for Peace and Conflict Studies.

The occasion coincided with Bob Brown’s retirement from the Australian Senate. He told the audience that he was looking forward to “getting out of the cage and getting on to important issues” as an advocate for global democracy and a global parliament.

The symposium was hosted jointly by the World Citizens Association of Australia, and the Centre for Peace and Conflict Studies at the University of Sydney.

02 April 2012: World Congress of Green parties calls for a United Nations Parliamentary Assembly

Top image: Students at the University of Sydney, Australia, listen to UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon’s lecture, transmitted live via speakers, By United Nations, 7 September 2011, CC BY-NC-ND 2.0

Call for a UN Parliamentary Assembly gains traction among Swedish lawmakers

Sweden could pioneer the project of "making the UN more democratic," supporters say

Almost thirty Swedish lawmakers from six different national parties, both members of Riksdagen and the European Parliament, have endorsed an appeal addressed to the UN and its member states “to establish a Parliamentary Assembly at the United Nations.” According to the statement “a gradual implementation of democratic participation and representation on the global level” is recommended. Initially, the new global parliamentary body could be composed

From left to right: Swedish lawmakers Christer Winbäck, Bodil Ceballos and Åsa Lindestam

Image: Riksdagen

of national parliamentarians but in a later stage, as the appeal states, the assembly could be directly elected and act “as the voice of the citizens.”

The elected representatives from Sweden that support the proposal for a UN Parliamentary Assembly (UNPA) include the chairman of the Left Party (Vänsterpartiet), Jonas Sjöstedt, and the two spokespersons of the Green Party (Miljöpartiet), Åsa Romson and Gustav Fridolin. Several of them are members of the national parliament’s Committee on Foreign Affairs.

One member sitting on the committee, Christer Winbäck with the Liberal Party of Sweden (Folkpartiet), commented that "the establishment of a UN Parliamentary Assembly would allow to give the UN the muscles it needs to meet global challenges more effectively as it would then have real democratic legitimacy, something it lacks today." Another member of the committee, Bodil Ceballos, who represents the Green Party in the committee said: "The need to make global governance stronger and more democratic is obvious. Not only when it comes to the challenges of climate change and environmental destruction. We also need to do more to meet our responsibility to stand up for democracy and human rights."

According to Åsa Lindestam, a member of the Swedish Social Democratic Party and of the parliament's Committee on Defence, "it's still a long journey until a fully-fledged UNPA will be in operation." She added that "there are many questions that need to be explored further, for example regarding its authorities and their limitation. But all journeys start with a first step. Sweden has a tradition of strong commitment to the United Nations as a central actor for international peace and for the protection of human rights. Why shouldn't we show the way in making this body more democratic?"

Swedish campaign network envisaged

Internationally, the appeal for a UN Parliamentary Assembly is supported by over 800 members of parliament and many other distinguished individuals

Petter Ölmunger, the campaign's coordinator in Sweden

from more than 100 countries. The statement was launched by an international campaign in 2007. In February this year, a national coordinator for Sweden was appointed for the first time. “Our goal is to intensify political support for the proposal in Sweden and to establish a national network that works towards this end,” said Petter Ölmunger who holds the honorary position as coordinator for Sweden and serves as a pastor in Göteborg.

The director of the Dag Hammarskjöld Foundation in Uppsala, Henning Melber, said that “there’s no question that the proposal for a UN Parliamentary Assembly merits serious consideration. I personally support it.”

Other supporters of the appeal for a UN Parliamentary Assembly from Sweden include ten professors and personalities such as the internationally bestselling author Henning Mankell, the former advisor to the Swedish prime minister Stefan Edman, K.G. Hammar, former archbishop of Church of Sweden and Torbjörn Tännsjö, a professor of practical philosophy at University of Stockholm who authored a book on global democracy in 2008.

List of Swedish lawmakers supporting the UNPA appeal
List of all signatories from Sweden
The appeal in Swedish

Further reading

28.02.2012: OpEd by Petter Ölmunger in Göteborgs Posten, "En gränslös ekonomi kräver global motvikt"

Top image: Riksdagen of Sweden in Stockholm, by hammershaug (Flickr), CC BY 2.0

World's citizens should elect global parliament, argued in a book released in Delhi

Union Minister Shri Deshmukh presents book, supports establishment of a UN Parliamentary Assembly

In the era of globalization the world’s citizens should be given more responsibility through a directly elected global parliament. This suggestion to improve the democratic character of global governance took center stage on Wednesday at the presentation of an Indian edition of a new book titled "A Global Parliament" that was chaired by Vilasrao Deshmukh, Minister of Science and Technology. According to the authors, U.S. professors Richard Falk,

Union Minister Shri Deshmukh and Shri Tharoor, MP, during the presentation

Image: CEUNPA

University of California, and Andrew Strauss, Widener University, democratic decision-making needs to be "extended to the global system."

At the release of the book in CSIR Building in New Delhi, Vilasrao Deshmukh, Minister for S&T said that the proposal was "bold" and "worth serious consideration." "It’s generally accepted that global governance needs to become more democratic. This is an innovative proposal how this could be done," he noted. "In a first practical step", he remarked, "a largely consultative United Nations Parliamentary Assembly could be created and national parliaments, including the Indian parliament, could send elected representatives to the global parliament. A UN Parliamentary Assembly could become the peoples' chamber at the United Nations while the United Nations General Assembly can act as the upper house."

Shri Deshmukh further added: "I support an international campaign for the creation of a UN Parliamentary Assembly which is endorsed by more than 800 elected representatives throughout the world and hundreds of leading personalities, among them over 45 members of the Parliament of India. I hope that an elected global parliamenary assembly will become a reality in our lifetime."

"To begin with, a UN Parliamentary Assembly will be a consultative body of the UN General Assembly and will be the voice of the people globally. For practical reasons, the representatives to the UN Parliamentary Assembly should be elected by the national parliaments of different countries so that even non-democratic countries such as China could take part in it." said Shashi Tharoor, a Member of the Lok Sabha who was nominated by the Government of India for the post of UN Secretary General in 2006. He added: "Everything takes time and we in India should support the creation of a global parliamentary assembly at the UN."

The preface to the Indian edition of the book that was published by Yash Publications states that promoting a UN Parliamentary Assembly would "fit well into India’s support of democracy and by doing so India could catch the world's imagination as it did when it strongly advocated for the end of colonialism and apartheid."

In the book, Falk and Strauss argue that a number of twenty to thirty countries that are geographically, culturally and economically diverse could initiate a project to create a global parliament. They take the view that direct elections are a necessary condition and that over time more and more countries would join. In the preface former UN Secretary General Boutros Boutros-Ghali of Egypt concurs that democracy, to be effective, needs to extend beyond state borders.

The book is a compilation of articles and essays by Falk and Strauss that appeared in journals such as Foreign Affairs and newspapers like The International Herald Tribune or The Times of India between 1997 and 2010. It is available from major online bookstores such as Amazon.com and Barnes and Nobles.

More details on the book
Pictures of the event

01 December 2011: Collected works on a global parliamentary assembly published in one volume

Manifesto calls for replacement of G8/G20 with democratic UN Parliamentary Assembly

International assembly releases manifesto ahead of worldwide mass protests

As hundreds of thousands of people around the world prepared to take to the streets this weekend as part of a global call for change, an international and inter-movement assembly formed of supporters of Occupy, Take the Square and Latin American, African, Asian and Middle Eastern social movements

Logo for the "12M15M" protests

Image: democraciarealya.es

has released a statement describing concrete suggestions for what such global change should entail.

The statement, titled “Global May Manifesto,” calls for “systemic change” in the global economic and political system, in particular for a democratization of international institutions such as the International Monetary Fund, the Bank for International Settlements and the United Nations. The text that was also published on-line by the Guardian, says that “all decisions affecting all mankind should be taken in democratic forums like a participatory and direct UN Parliamentary Assembly or a UN people’s assembly, not rich clubs such as G20 or G8.” The declaration demands “full democratization of international institutions, and the elimination of the veto power of a few governments.” Among other things, the activists also suggest global taxation of financial transactions and an abolition of tax havens.

While endorsed by consensus by the international assembly earlier this month, the statement makes clear that it “does not speak, or claim to speak, on behalf of everyone in the global spring/Occupy/Take the Square movements.” In a press release issued today, Alvaro Rodriguez, 31, from the Indignados movement in Spain who participated in the process of writing the statement, said: “While the statement does not represent the position of local and city assemblies, the next step is to present it to assemblies around the world for consideration, discussion and revisions, as part of a dialogue of the 'Global Spring' movements taking place across six continents.”

Full text of “GlobalMay Statement” at InterOccupy.org

Top image: Protesters marching on the street on 15 May 2011 in Madrid, by Álvaro Herraiz San Martín, found at Flickr, CC BY-NC-SA 2.0

Further reading

14 October 2011: Amid international protests, intellectuals and activists issue manifesto for global democracy

Links

http://www.globalmay.org/

Debate on global parliament at Earth System Governance conference

The creation of a global parliament was a hotly debated issue at an expert panel that occurred on Thursday as a side event of the Lund Earth System Governance conference in Sweden. While there was agreement that strengthening global democracy was desirable, the participants in the discussion had divided opinions as to whether the creation of a global parliament was the right approach.

In his introductory comments, the coordinator of the Campaign for a UN Parliamentary Assembly, Andreas Bummel, pointed out that since the 1990s political support for the establishment of a parliamentary UN body has grown but that the subject has been largely neglected by academic research. Bummel observed that over 150 international parliamentary institutions are now in existence, the most advanced being the European Parliament. He added, however, that there is no formal parliamentary body at the United Nations nor at any other major international intergovernmental organization.

In his opening remarks, Frank Biermann, the chair of the Earth System Governance Project and professor of political science at VU University, Amsterdam, said that questions involving whether and how elected representatives could meaningfully participate in global governance could be usefully

John Dryzek, Australia

Picture: CEUNPA

subject to further academic exploration. He noted that the extent to which representative structures might enhance the global system's accountability and legitimacy (two core subjects of the Earth System’s Project) are particularly ripe for study. Referring to an article recently published in Science magazine by over 30 scholars, Biermann said that adopting more qualified majority voting and weighted voting mechanisms in international norm-setting organizations is increasingly being recognized as beneficial and that likely voting schemes in a parliamentary body could contribute to trends in this regard.

According to John Dryzek, a professor of political science at Australian National University, the establishment of a global parliament would only make sense in the context of global state building and should not be pursued. Democracy, he said, should be understood in a broader

Andrew Strauss, U.S.

Picture: CEUNPA

way than having elections. The institution of parliament should not be extrapolated to the global level because this would limit other options. In addition, he argued that China and the United States, two of the world’s most important powers, for different reasons would not be willing to participate in such a project. Utilizing the concept of path dependency, Jonathan Kuyper, a PhD student under Dryzek's supervision, similiarly argued that a decision to create a global parliament could not be reversed and that such an institution would "crowd out alternatives."

A strong statement in favor of a global parliament was made by Andrew Strauss, a professor of international law at Widener University in the United States. Strauss argued that democracy requires some sort of institutionalized representation. He explained that it is hardly an accident that the governmental systems of every democracy in the world are centered around an elected assembly or parliament. He observed that through the elected representatives of a global parliament, a direct link would be established between the world’s citizens and the institutions of global governance. Further, he said, the present system of global law-making is dysfunctional because states have the ability to opt out of any agreement. According to Strauss, a global parliamentary assembly could potentially mobilize political and moral pressure that would make it more difficult for countries to disregard international law.

The international conference in Lund brought together over two hundred researchers from 30 countries and various, mainly social science disciplines for three days to explore ways in which a more legitimate, democratic and accountable earth system governance might be achieved. The conference featured 16 keynote speakers and 40 panels. It was the third conference of this kind organized by the Earth System Governance project. The next will take place in January 2013 in Tokyo.

The side event was jointly organized by the Earth System Governance Project and the Campaign for a UN Parliamentary Assembly. It was moderated by the project's director, Ruben Zondervan.

Image: Panel on global parliament, in the picture from left to right: Ruben Zondervan, Andrew Strauss, Andreas Bummel, Frank Biermann, John Dryzek

World Congress of Green parties calls for a United Nations Parliamentary Assembly

The third international gathering of Green parties worldwide, the Global Greens Congress, closed yesterday in Dakar, Senegal, with the adoption of various resolutions, one of which dealt with the question of global democracy. "Greens recognize that the need to strengthen democracy and participation in the system of global governance has become urgent," the resolution states. Taking note "of the fact that no parliamentary body exists within the

Senator Bob Brown during the Global Greens Congress in Dakar

Picture: European Greens

framework of the United Nations, the World Bank group, the International Monetary Fund or the World Trade Organization", the Congress declared "its support for the creation of a United Nations Parliamentary Assembly (UNPA) as a parliamentary body within the UN system."

Representatives of over 70 Green parties from across the world met for three days in Senegal's capital and deliberated on issues such as solidarity, democracy, biodiversity, climate change, and the future of the Global Greens movement. In a statement made during a plenary session on Friday, Australian Senator Bob Brown said that the influence of global corporations at the international level was too strong. This should be counterbalanced by a "global parliament" that is dealing with genuinely global issues and that "makes sure that the basic needs of every citizen of the world" can be met. "Every citizen should have an equal say on global matters," Senator Brown suggested. "One person, one vote, one value." A week before, Senator Brown had delivered a major speech on the subject in Hobart, Tasmania.

At a workshop on Saturday the issue of a global parliament was discussed in detail at the Green's World Congress. Introductions to the proposal of a UN Parliamentary Assembly were provided by Kennedy Graham, a Green parliamentarian from New Zealand, and Didier Coeurnelle, a delegate with Ecolo from Belgium. The workshop concluded that a UN Parliamentary Assembly in a first step should be composed of representatives of national parliaments "but ultimately it should become a body that is directly elected by the world’s citizens," as the final resolution states. Coeurnelle who introduced the resolution on behalf of Ecolo, the Australian Greens, the French Greens, and the Young European Greens, commented that "Parliamentary democracy is not a perfect system, but it has proven to be the best available at the municipal, regional, national and even multinational levels. It is time to promote parliamentary democracy at the world level as well."

The second Global Greens Congress in May 2008 in Sao Paulo already adopted a resolution in support of a UN Parliamentary Assembly. The proposal is supported across party lines. Other international party networks that did endorse it include the Socialist International and the Liberal International. In December 2011, the parliament of the South American community Mercosur passed a statement and in June 2011, the European Parliament called on the EU's member states to promote the idea.

Download resolution (in English)

Further reading:

23 March 2012: Bob Brown delivers the 3rd annual Green Oration

08 May 2011: Green youth organizations in Europe endorse call for elected UN assembly

Image: Delegates vote during a plenary session, by Philippe Bossin

ACTA confirms "need of an elected global parliament", says Committee

Treaty could become "dangerous precedent for undemocratic global rule-making"

The Committee for a Democratic United Nations (KDUN), a non-governmental think tank based in Berlin, Germany, says that the "shockingly intransparent and undemocratic" international negotiations for an Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement ACTA confirm the urgent need "for a global watchdog that is elected by the world's citizens." According to the Committee that adovcates democratization of global governance, "there was no meaningful public consultation, no involvement of

ACTA is a "masquerade", says Kader Arif, MEP (picture: May 2011)

Image: S&D Group in the EP

parliaments or elected representatives, the drafts were only published very late and after strong public protests, and on top of that governments did invite global corporate lobbyists to provide feedback, giving them, and not the public and their elected representatives, an opportunity to influence the treaty’s regulations according to their wishes." According to the Committee's chairman, Andreas Bummel, "ACTA is an example for secret diplomacy, something that should belong into the history books" and its ratification "should be rejected."

"We strongly oppose this attempt to establish a precedent for undemocratic and intransparent global rule-making. By ratifying this treaty, parliaments would rubber-stamp the scandalous negotiation process and thus approve of their own complete disempowerment. It has to be made clear that so-called plurilateral negotiations that are conducted in this manner are unacceptable and will not succeed. For this reason alone, parliaments should reject the treaty," said Mr. Bummel.

KDUN argues that the power of corporate lobbyists and secretive intergovernmental negotiations should be counterbalanced by an elected global parliament. "ACTA is a most fitting example that illustrates the democratic vaccuum at the global level. International agreements no longer only deal with foreign policy issues. They can deeply interfere into people's lives. For this reason, civil society and, above all, elected parliaments need to be involved from the beginning. It is no longer sufficient to present parliaments with finished and signed treaties."

KDUN acts as Secretariat of the international Campaign for a UN Parliamentary Assembly that is supported by legislators and civil society groups from over 100 countries. A United Nations Parliamentary Assembly is conceived as a first pragmatic step towards a world parliament. At the most recent international meeting in the Senate of Argentina, the campaign declared that "those who are to be affected by a decision should have a chance to take part in it. As important decisions taken at the global level today affect all human beings, we recognize the need to democratize global governance."

Recently, the European Parliament's rapporteur on ACTA, Kader Arif from France, a supporter of the campaign, resigned from this position, condemning "the whole process which led to the signature of this agreement."

Avaaz, a global citizen’s movement, is collecting online signatures to call on the European Parliament to not ratify ACTA. After strong public protests, the ratification process of ACTA was stopped in Poland yesterday. According to Reporters without Borders, ACTA would restrict the freedom of expression on the internet.

See also previous reports:

12 November 2009: Committee: Intransparency of negotiations on ACTA confirms need of global parliamentary body

Top image: "Stop ACTA" protests in Poland, 25 January 2012, by olo81 (Flickr), CC BY 2.0

Ombudsperson for Future Generations at the UN would be “step towards global democracy”

The World Future Council calls on the United Nations Conference on Sustainable Development that will take place in June 2012 in Rio de Janeiro to mark the 20th anniversary of the UN’s Earth Summit in 1992 to endorse the establishment of an “Ombudsperson or High Commissioner for Future Generations”

Jakob von Uexküll, Chair of the World Future Council Foundation (right), and Andreas Bummel, Secretary-General of the UNPA-Campaign (left), in London

Image: CEUNPA

at the international and national levels.

“The establishment of the office of an Ombudsperson for Future Generations at the United Nations would be a step towards global democracy,” said the chairperson of the World Future Council Foundation, Jakob von Uexküll, at a meeting in London on Wednesday, December 21. “The purpose of this institution would be to safeguard the right of current and future generations to healthy economic, environmental and social conditions by representing and protecting their interest to sustainable development at the UN and in global policy-making. An independent Ombudsperson of this kind who can freely interact with the public and make recommendations would make the UN more open, more accountable and more democratic,” Mr. Uexküll added.

The World Future Council (WFC) consists of around fifty respected personalities from all five continents and all walks of life. They represent governments, parliaments, the arts, civil society, science and the business world. According to the Council, “future justice is about remaking our governance frameworks – institutions, policies, and laws – so they facilitate just cooperation, broad-based participation, and an equitable sharing of resources and benefits of economic scientific and technological progress.”

“For future justice to be effective, it is necessary that short-term vested interests are counterbalanced in global and national institutions with long-term joint interests of humanity. The proposed Ombudsperson is a first important step into this direction. In the long run, I believe that as a body of independent elected representatives, a United Nations Parliamentary Assembly would provide an excellent forum to introduce and emphasize the necessary global view,” Mr. Uexküll explained.

According to the international “Appeal for the Establishment of a Parliamentary Assembly at the United Nations”, one of the body’s purposes would be to facilitate “collaborative efforts” of “all human beings” in order to ensure “the survival and well-being of future generations as well as the preservation of the natural foundations of life on Earth.”

Top image: Group picture at one of the meetings of the World Future Council in 2011

Meeting in The Hague commemorates pioneer of a UN Parliamentary Assembly

Discussion on Erskine Childers’ recommendations for renewing and democratizing the UN at 15th anniversary of his death

The renewing and democratizing of the UN was the subject of an event held on Tuesday in The Hague to commemorate the 15th anniversary of the death of Erskine Childers, an Irish citizen and one of the UN’s “most outstanding international civil servants”,

Erskine Childers (1994/5)

Image: E. Childers

as the keynote speaker, Jan Pronk, remarked.

Mr Pronk, himself a former UN official and former Dutch Minister for Development Cooperation who knew Childers, gave a sketch of the ideals originally underlying the UN’s foundation and described the development of the world organization. Referring to a collection of Childers’ speeches that was recently published by the Dag Hammarskjöld Foundation, Mr Pronk highlighted the broad range of recommendations that Childers put forward in order to strengthen the UN. “Childers always reminded his audiences of the roots of the UN that tend to be forgotten. The UN was intended to play a central role in international economic and social affairs. However, the World Bank, the International Monetary Fund and the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade, now the WTO, were allowed to escape from any meaningful central coordination. Just as in the days of Erskine Childers, we still need a new San Francisco conference that rearranges the United Nations and the Bretton Woods system”, the professor at the Institute of Social Studies in The Hague said.

Erskine Childers was “one of the strongest advocates of a United Nations Parliamentary Assembly after the Cold War”, the other speaker, Andreas Bummel, pointed out. The Secretary-General of the Campaign for a UN Parliamentary Assembly presented the proposal and stressed that Childers considered the idea to be “the ultimately most important reform in the UN system” because the assembly would create a direct link between the world organization and the world’s peoples. “As Childers knew, this would create an unprecedented positive momentum”, Mr Bummel said.

In 1996 until his untimely death in the same year, Childers served as Secretary-General of the World Federation of United Nations Associations (WFUNA). Ten years later, in memory of Childers, WFUNA adopted a resolution that expressed the organization’s support for the establishment of a UN Parliamentary Assembly.

The event was jointly organized by the World Federalist Movement of the Netherlands (WFBN) and the Dutch United Nations Association (NVVN). The discussion was moderated by Yvonne Donders, Chair of NVVN and professor at the University of Amsterdam.

Collected speeches and articles of Erskine Childers

Pictures of the event

Top image: Marjolijn Snippe at the opening of the event, by Nicola Fraccaroli

Union minister and prominent lawmakers in India support call for a UN Parliamentary Assembly

India should approve of proposal, says former foreign minister

Nearly forty sitting members of parliament from India cutting across party lines, around half of them each from the Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha, support an appeal addressed to the UN and the governments of its member states “to establish a Parliamentary Assembly at the United Nations.” According to the statement “a gradual implementation

Union minister Shri Vilasrao Deshmukh

Wikipedia

of democratic participation and representation on the global level” is recommended.

The list of Indian lawmakers that have endorsed the proposal includes current union minister Vilasrao Deshmukh, union ministers of state Saugata Roy and Dinsha Patel as well as former union ministers Mani Shankar Aiyar, Saifuddin Soz and Shashi Tharoor, the latter of whom served as junior foreign minister in Manmohan Singh’s cabinet from 2009 to 2010.

Commented Shri Deshmukh, union minister of science, technology and earth sciences: “Yes, I support the establishment of a UN Parliamentary Assembly and it would be good if the proposal is seriously considered by the United Nations.”

“Of course a lot of details need to be investigated. Still the government of India could express at the UN General Assembly

Shri Sashi Tharoor

Wikimedia, by WEF

that in principle it regards the proposal of a UN Parliamentary Assembly with favor,” said Shri Tharoor at a meeting with representatives of the Campaign for a UN Parliamentary Assembly in Delhi on Thursday, 8th December.

Indian experience instructive

Shyam Benegal, the renowned director and screenwriter who is a member of the Rajya Sabha, declared his support of a UN Parliamentary Assembly recently. "When India was granted independence, skeptical observers said that so remarkably diverse a country in terms of religion, language, and culture could not maintain a representative democracy.

Shri Shyam Benegal

Wikimedia, by S.K. Bordoloi

Yet, despite these doubts, that is exactly what India has done. Today similar doubts are often expressed with regard to global democracy. Based on our experience, I believe that obstacles can be overcome and that first small steps to build democracy at the global scale are now necessary and possible,” Shri Benegal argued.

Former union minister Mani Shankar Aiyar added that "at Independence, Jawaharlal Nehru said, 'We look upon the world with clear and friendly eyes.' One proof of that would be Indian support to a World Parliament."

Supporters of the appeal for a UN Parliamentary Assembly from India also include BJP vice president Najma Heptullah who served as a member of the Rajya Sabha for four terms and who was president of the Inter-Parliamentary Union from 1999 to 2002, the worldwide umbrella organization of national parliaments, or eminent individuals such as Professor M.S. Swaminathan who was considered by Time magazine "one of the most influential Asian people of the 20th century" and Ela Bhatt, founder of SEWA and a member of The Elders.

Indian lawmakers that support the campaign

Top image: Parliament buildings in Delhi, Source: Flickr, Creative Commons, by Couche Tard