A United Nations Parliamentary Assembly (UNPA) is a proposed addition to the
United Nations System
The United Nations System consists of the United Nations' six principal organs (the General Assembly, Security Council, Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC), Trusteeship Council, International Court of Justice (ICJ), and the UN Secretariat) ...
that would allow for greater participation and voice for members of parliament. The idea was raised at the founding of the
League of Nations
The League of Nations (french: link=no, Société des Nations ) was the first worldwide intergovernmental organisation whose principal mission was to maintain world peace. It was founded on 10 January 1920 by the Paris Peace Conference that ...
in the 1920s and again following the end of World War II in 1945, but remained dormant throughout the
Cold War. The
Campaign for a United Nations Parliamentary Assembly (CUNPA) was formed in 2007 by
Democracy Without Borders
Democracy Without Borders, or DWB is an international nongovernmental organization established in 2017 with national chapters across the world and a legal seat in Berlin that promotes "global democracy, global governance and global citizenship". ...
(formerly Committee for a Democratic U.N.) to coordinate pro-UNPA efforts, which as of June 2017 has received the support of over 1,600
members of parliament
A member of parliament (MP) is the representative in parliament of the people who live in their electoral district. In many countries with bicameral parliaments, this term refers only to members of the lower house since upper house members of ...
from over 100 countries worldwide. The
Commission on Global Security, Justice and Governance The Albright-Gambari Commission, formally known as the Commission on Global Security, Justice & Governance, is a commission that was formed by the Hague Institute for Global Justice and the Stimson Center to consider new frameworks for collective ac ...
, chaired by former U.S. Secretary of State
Madeleine Albright
Madeleine Jana Korbel Albright (born Marie Jana Korbelová; May 15, 1937 – March 23, 2022) was an American diplomat and political scientist who served as the 64th United States secretary of state from 1997 to 2001. A member of the Democratic ...
and former Nigerian Foreign Minister
Ibrahim Gambari
Ibrahim Agboola Gambari, (born 24 November 1944), is a Nigerian academic and diplomat who is currently serving as Chief of Staff to the President of Nigeria.
Early life and education
Ibrahim Agboola Gambari was born on 24 November 1944 in Ilo ...
, has called for the creation of a United Nations Parliamentary Network "to raise greater awareness and participation by strengthening the voices of legislators in global institutions." The commission proposes that this Network "would be similar in initial composition to the Parliamentary Network on the World Bank and International Monetary Fund and the
Parliamentary Conference on the World Trade Organization The Parliamentary Conference on the World Trade Organization is a group that is organized jointly by the Inter-Parliamentary Union and the European Parliament. Its steering committee is composed of around 30 representatives from various member parli ...
". In July 2018, the
European Parliament
The European Parliament (EP) is one of the legislative bodies of the European Union and one of its seven institutions. Together with the Council of the European Union (known as the Council and informally as the Council of Ministers), it adopts ...
adopted a recommendation to the
European Council endorsing a proposal for the establishment of a United Nations Parliamentary Assembly.
Supporters have set forth possible UNPA implementations, including promulgation of a new treaty; creation of a UNPA as a subsidiary body of the UN General Assembly; and evolution of a UNPA from the
Inter-Parliamentary Union or another
non-governmental organization
A non-governmental organization (NGO) or non-governmental organisation (see American and British English spelling differences#-ise, -ize (-isation, -ization), spelling differences) is an organization that generally is formed independent from g ...
. Several proposals for apportionment of votes have been raised to address disparities in population and economic power of UN members. CUNPA advocates initially giving the UNPA advisory powers and gradually increasing its authority over the UN system. In 2018, CUNPA's co-founders
Jo Leinen and
Andreas Bummel
Andreas Bummel (*9. February 1976 in Cape Town) is co-founder and Director of Democracy Without Borders and of the international campaign for a United Nations Parliamentary Assembly.
From 1998 to 2008 he was coordinator for UN reform issues of th ...
published a 420-page book on the history, current relevance and future implementation of the idea titled "A World Parliament: Governance and Democracy in the 21st Century".
History
Proposals for a parliamentary assembly in the global organization of nations date back to at least the 1920s, when
League of Nations
The League of Nations (french: link=no, Société des Nations ) was the first worldwide intergovernmental organisation whose principal mission was to maintain world peace. It was founded on 10 January 1920 by the Paris Peace Conference that ...
founders considered (and rejected) plans to include a people's assembly as part of the league's structure. League and UN founding documents include few mechanisms for direct participation by citizens or legislators, aside from
Article 71 provision allowing
ECOSOC
The United Nations Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC; french: links=no, Conseil économique et social des Nations unies, ) is one of the six principal organs of the United Nations, responsible for coordinating the economic and social fields ...
to grant
consultative status
The consultative status is a phrase whose use can be traced to the founding of the United Nations and is used within the UN community to refer to "Non-governmental organizations ( NGOs) in Consultative Status with the United Nations Economic and So ...
to certain organizations, and the
Chapter XVIII and
XIX requirements that ratification and amendments be approved by member states "in accordance with their respective constitutional processes" which typically involve legislative and/or public input. In 1945, a people's world assembly was proposed by British politician
Ernest Bevin
Ernest Bevin (9 March 1881 – 14 April 1951) was a British statesman, trade union leader, and Labour Party politician. He co-founded and served as General Secretary of the powerful Transport and General Workers' Union in the years 1922–194 ...
, who said in the
House of Commons
The House of Commons is the name for the elected lower house of the bicameral parliaments of the United Kingdom and Canada. In both of these countries, the Commons holds much more legislative power than the nominally upper house of parliament. T ...
that "There should be a study of a house directly elected by the people of the world to whom the nations are accountable."
On 16 October 1945, before the
UN Charter
The Charter of the United Nations (UN) is the foundational treaty of the UN, an intergovernmental organization. It establishes the purposes, governing structure, and overall framework of the UN system, including its six principal organs: th ...
had even entered into force, retired
U.S. Supreme Court Justice
The Supreme Court of the United States (SCOTUS) is the highest court in the federal judiciary of the United States. It has ultimate appellate jurisdiction over all U.S. federal court cases, and over state court cases that involve a point of ...
Owen J. Roberts and former New Hampshire Governor
Robert P. Bass
Robert Perkins Bass (September 1, 1873July 29, 1960) was an American farmer, forestry expert, and Republican Party (United States), Republican politician from Peterborough, New Hampshire, Peterborough, New Hampshire. He served in both houses of t ...
held a conference in
Dublin, New Hampshire
Dublin is a town in Cheshire County, New Hampshire, United States. The population was 1,532 at the 2020 census. It is home to Dublin School and ''Yankee'' magazine.
History
In 1749, the Masonian proprietors granted the town as "Monadnock No. ...
, which passed the Dublin Declaration. It stated that the UN Charter was inadequate to preserve peace and proposed the transformation of the
UN General Assembly
The United Nations General Assembly (UNGA or GA; french: link=no, Assemblée générale, AG) is one of the six principal organs of the United Nations (UN), serving as the main deliberative, policymaking, and representative organ of the UN. Cur ...
into a
world legislature, opining, "Such a government should be based upon a constitution under which all peoples and nations will participate upon a basis of balanced representation which will take account of natural and industrial resources and other factors as well as population. It cannot be based on treaties...in which the states...act and vote as states". It called for "limited but definite and adequate power for the prevention of war."
Grenville Clark
Grenville Clark (November 5, 1882 – January 13, 1967) was a 20th-century American Wall Street lawyer, co-founder of Root Clark & Bird (later Dewey Ballantine, then Dewey & LeBoeuf), member of the Harvard Corporation, co-author of the book '' Wo ...
and other participants in the Dublin conference went on to become active in the
United World Federalists
Citizens for Global Solutions is a grassroots membership organization in the United States.
History
Five world federalist organizations merged in 1947 to form the United World Federalists, Inc., later renamed World Federalists-USA. In 1975, ...
(UWF) and the global
World Federalist Movement
The World Federalist Movement advocates strong democratic institutions adhering to the principles of subsidiarity, solidarity and democracy.
The movement formed in the 1930s and 1940s by citizens groups concerned that the structure of the ne ...
. UWF enjoyed some success in the postwar period, as 23 state legislatures passed bills supporting the organization's goals, but
McCarthyism prompted many prominent members to resign lest
Senator Joseph McCarthy
Joseph Raymond McCarthy (November 14, 1908 – May 2, 1957) was an American politician who served as a Republican U.S. Senator from the state of Wisconsin from 1947 until his death in 1957. Beginning in 1950, McCarthy became the most visi ...
ruin their careers. In the United States,
internationalism
Internationalism may refer to:
* Cosmopolitanism, the view that all human ethnic groups belong to a single community based on a shared morality as opposed to communitarianism, patriotism and nationalism
* International Style, a major architectur ...
came to be associated with communism.
In the post-
Cold War era, several factors contributed to a more favourable environment for UNPA proposals. A
Trilateral Commission
The Trilateral Commission is a nongovernmental international organization aimed at fostering closer cooperation between Japan, Western Europe and North America. It was founded in July 1973 principally by American banker and philanthropist David ...
report notes that the shift from a world led by the two rival Soviet- and U.S.-led blocs meant a general diffusion of power. Growth of economic interdependence, proliferation of transnational actors, nationalism in weak states, spread of technology, and increasing numbers of issues (such as global environmental problems and
weapons of mass destruction
A weapon of mass destruction (WMD) is a chemical, biological, radiological, nuclear, or any other weapon that can kill and bring significant harm to numerous individuals or cause great damage to artificial structures (e.g., buildings), natu ...
containment) that are both domestic and international generated stronger incentive to develop international cooperation than ever before. Democracy in general had spread; in 2003,
Freedom House counted 121 electoral democracies, compared to 66 in 1987 and 30 in 1975 (although by the mid-2000s, the trend appeared to have stagnated). The rapidly integrating European Union, a unique supranational body whose European Parliament was gradually growing in power, provided an example to the world of how a multi-nation parliament can evolve and function. The
World Trade Organization
The World Trade Organization (WTO) is an intergovernmental organization that regulates and facilitates international trade. With effective cooperation
in the United Nations System, governments use the organization to establish, revise, and ...
and similar organizations generated great concern as they seemed to be gaining more influence and control over trade disputes, yet were not accountable to the people;
[Watson, Graham (26 September 2007)]
The Case for Global Democracy: Cross Party Coalition of MEPs calls for a UN Parliamentary Assembly
. Graham Watson MEP. Retrieved 7 December 2007. U.S. President
Bill Clinton
William Jefferson Clinton ( né Blythe III; born August 19, 1946) is an American politician who served as the 42nd president of the United States from 1993 to 2001. He previously served as governor of Arkansas from 1979 to 1981 and agai ...
argued, "We must insist that international trade organizations be open to public scrutiny instead of mysterious, secret things subject to wild criticism." A "
new diplomacy" seemed to be taking shape in which
NGOs
A non-governmental organization (NGO) or non-governmental organisation (see spelling differences) is an organization that generally is formed independent from government. They are typically nonprofit entities, and many of them are active in ...
and governments cooperated to create new global institutions such as the
International Criminal Court
The International Criminal Court (ICC or ICCt) is an intergovernmental organization and international tribunal seated in The Hague, Netherlands. It is the first and only permanent international court with jurisdiction to prosecute individuals f ...
. U.S. Advisory Commission on Public Diplomacy Chairman Harold C. Pachios of
Preti, Flaherty, Beliveau & Pachios noted:
In early 1993, the
House of Commons of Canada Standing Committee on External Affairs and International Trade presented a report stating, "By way of building the public and political constituency for the United Nations, the Committee recommends that Canada support the development of a United Nations Parliamentary Assembly." The
Campaign for a Democratic United Nations The International Network for a United Nations Second Assembly (INFUSA) is a largely defunct organization devoted to the establishment of a United Nations Parliamentary Assembly. According to Citizens for a United Nations People's Assembly Citizens ...
(CAMDUN), the
International Network for a United Nations Second Assembly The International Network for a United Nations Second Assembly (INFUSA) is a largely defunct organization devoted to the establishment of a United Nations Parliamentary Assembly. According to Citizens for a United Nations People's Assembly Citizens ...
(INFUSA), and the Global People's Assembly Movement (GPAM), began circulating UNPA proposals around 1995, and other organizations, such as
One World Trust
The One World Trust is a charitable organization that promotes education and research into changes required in global governance to achieve the eradication of poverty, injustice, environmental degradation and war. It develops recommendations o ...
, began publishing analyses of how to proceed in the current political situation.
On 8 February 2005, on the initiative of the Committee for a Democratic UN (today Democracy Without Borders), 108 Swiss Parliamentarians signed an open letter to the Secretary-General calling for the establishment of just such a body. On 14 May 2005, the Congress of the
Liberal International
Liberal International (LI) is a worldwide organization of liberal political parties - a political international. It was founded in Oxford in 1947 and has become the pre-eminent network for liberal parties, aiming to strengthen liberalism aroun ...
issued a resolution stating that "the Liberal International calls on the member states of the United Nations to enter into deliberations on the establishment of a Parliamentary Assembly at the United Nations." On 9 June 2005, the
European Parliament
The European Parliament (EP) is one of the legislative bodies of the European Union and one of its seven institutions. Together with the Council of the European Union (known as the Council and informally as the Council of Ministers), it adopts ...
issued a resolution that contained an item stating that Europarl "calls for the establishment of a United Nations Parliamentary Assembly (UNPA) within the UN System, which would increase the democratic profile and internal democratic process of the organisation and allow
world civil society to be directly associated in the
decision-making process
In psychology, decision-making (also spelled decision making and decisionmaking) is regarded as the cognitive process resulting in the selection of a belief or a course of action among several possible alternative options. It could be either rati ...
; states that the Parliamentary Assembly should be vested with genuine rights of information, participation and control, and should be able to adopt recommendations directed at the UN General Assembly;
.. In 2006,
Citizens for a United Nations People's Assembly circulated a petition to UN
Secretary-General
Secretary is a title often used in organizations to indicate a person having a certain amount of authority, power, or importance in the organization. Secretaries announce important events and communicate to the organization. The term is derived ...
Kofi Annan to "convene a High Level Panel to determine the steps required for the establishment of a Peoples' Parliamentary Assembly within the United Nations Organization"
In April 2007, international NGOs launched the
International Campaign for a United Nations Parliamentary Assembly, the principal current movement for the establishment of a UNPA.
Its secretariat is led by
Democracy Without Borders
Democracy Without Borders, or DWB is an international nongovernmental organization established in 2017 with national chapters across the world and a legal seat in Berlin that promotes "global democracy, global governance and global citizenship". ...
. Over 150 civil society groups and nearly 1,500 parliamentarians from all over the world are taking part in the Campaign. As of June 2017, CUNPA's appeal was endorsed by thousands of signatories from over 150 countries, among them hundreds of parliamentarians, civil society leaders, leading academics and distinguished individuals such as former UN Secretary-General
Boutros Boutros-Ghali
Boutros Boutros-Ghali (; , ar, بطرس بطرس غالي ', ; 14 November 1922 – 16 February 2016) was an Egyptian politician and diplomat who served as the sixth Secretary-General of the United Nations (UN) from 1992 to 1996. An academic ...
, the President of the Pan-African Parliament,
Gertrude Mongella, Academy Award winner
Emma Thompson, SF-author Sir
Arthur C. Clarke and
Edgar Mitchell, former NASA astronaut and sixth human being to walk on the moon. On 25 September 2007, the statement by H.E. Mr.
José Sócrates
José Sócrates Carvalho Pinto de Sousa, GCIH (born 6 September 1957), commonly known as José Sócrates (), is a Portuguese politician who was the prime minister of Portugal from 12 March 2005 to 21 June 2011. For the second half of 2007, he ...
,
Prime Minister of Portugal, on
behalf of the European Union, at the United Nations 62nd Session of the General Assembly, General Debate, stated, "We remain committed to the reform of its main bodies in order to enhance the Organization's representativity, transparency and effectiveness." On 24 October 2007, the
Pan African Parliament
The Pan-African Parliament (PAP), also known as the African Parliament, is the legislative body of the African Union. It held its inaugural session in March 2004. The Parliament exercises oversight, and has advisory and consultative powers, ha ...
unanimously adopted a resolution calling for the establishment of a Parliamentary Assembly at the United Nations, noting, "in contrast to regional international bodies such as the
African Union, the European Union, the Council of Europe, or
Mercosur
The Southern Common Market, commonly known by Spanish abbreviation Mercosur, and Portuguese Mercosul, is a South American trade bloc established by the Treaty of Asunción in 1991 and Protocol of Ouro Preto in 1994. Its full members are Arge ...
, the United Nations and its
specialized organizations is one of the last international fora lacking an integrated and institutionalized Parliamentary Assembly."
[Pan African Parliament (October 2007)]
A United Nations Parliamentary Assembly
. 8th Ordinary Session of the Pan-African Parliament, Midrand, South Africa, October 2007, Committee on Cooperation, International Relations and Conflict Resolution, Motion introduced by Mokshanand Sunil DOWARKASING (Mauritius), Adopted by the house on 24 October 2007. Retrieved 7 December 2007. So far, four international conferences of CUNPA have taken place.
[Campaign for the Establishment of a United Nations Parliamentary Assembly](_blank)
Retrieved 12 December 2011.
One of the most influential and well-known pro-UN organizations,
UNA-USA
The United Nations Association of the United States of America (UNA-USA) is a nonprofit grassroots organization dedicated to promoting political and public support for the United Nations among Americans. A program of the United Nations Foundation ...
has been on both sides of the issue. In 2003, UNA-USA's executive director of policy studies, Jeffrey Laurenti, wrote an article, "An Idea Whose Time Has Not Come", arguing that there were important unresolved issues of inclusivity, authority, and efficiency with the UNPA.
[Laurenti, Jeffrey (May 2003)]
UN Reform: Is a World Parliamentary Assembly needed? An Idea Whose Time Has Not Come.
United Nations Association of the United States of America. Retrieved 7 December 2007. UNA's position seemed to reverse in November 2006, when the 38th plenary session of the
World Federation of United Nations Associations
The World Federation of United Nations Associations (WFUNA) (French: ''Fédération Mondiale des Associations pour les Nations Unies'', FMANU) was founded in 1946 as a Federation of national associations. Its objectives are to promote the values o ...
issued a resolution stating that it "Supports the establishment of a United Nations parliamentary Assembly as a consultative body within the United Nations system as a voice of the citizens; Calls upon the governments of the United Nations member states, parliamentarians and civil society representatives to jointly examine possible steps and options to create a United Nations Parliamentary Assembly."
According to Stefan Marschall, the post-World War II years, particularly the 1980s and 1990s, saw tremendous growth in
parliamentary assemblies Parliamentary assembly may refer to:
*National Parliament, a type of state legislative assembly body
*Assembly of national parliaments, an inter-parliamentary institution of state national legislatures
*International parliament, a supranational leg ...
, with more than 40 established since 1949. About 42% of the world's parliamentary assemblies are formally affiliated with an
intergovernmental organization
Globalization
Globalization, or globalisation (English in the Commonwealth of Nations, Commonwealth English; American and British English spelling differences#-ise, -ize (-isation, -ization), see spelling differences), is the process of ...
; 32% are informally affiliated; and 26% are unaffiliated. The spread in parliamentary assemblies was spurred by acceptance of
parliamentarism
A parliamentary system, or parliamentarian democracy, is a system of democratic governance of a state (or subordinate entity) where the executive derives its democratic legitimacy from its ability to command the support ("confidence") of the ...
as a means of legitimizing decisions; initiatives for intergovernmental cooperation reaching a point at which stronger parliamentary backing was needed; and regional integration. However, many global organizations, such as the UN and WTO, still lack a parliamentary assembly and "have been heavily criticized for what is supposed to be an institutional deficit."
On 9 February 2010, a resolution of an international conference of sitting and former judges of the supreme courts of over 30 countries that took place in Lucknow, India, called for a revision of the United Nations Charter and for the establishment of a world parliament.
In 2013, the
East African Legislative Assembly
, native_name_lang =
, transcription_name =
, legislature =
, coa_pic =
, coa_res =
, coa_alt =
, foundation = 30 November 2001
, house_type =
, body ...
passed a resolution supporting the establishment of a UNPA, and urged the
East African Community
The East African Community (EAC) is an intergovernmental organisation composed of seven countries in the Great Lakes region of East Africa: the Democratic Republic of the Congo, the United Republic of Tanzania, the Republics of Kenya, Burun ...
to take the initiative to promote the development of a common African position in support of the envisaged Parliamentary Assembly. The resolution, which argued that a UNPA would improve the UN's transparency, accountability and effectiveness, was proposed by
Mike Sebalu and supported by
Makongoro Nyerere
Charles Makongoro Nyerere (born 30 January 1959) is a Tanzanian CCM politician and a retired army officer of the Tanzania People's Defence Force. He is currently serving as a member of the East African Legislative Assembly.
Early life and ca ...
,
Frederic Ngenzebuhoro,
Adam Kimbisa,
Dan Kidega,
Nusura Tiperu, and
Abubakar Zein Abubakar.
In July 2018, the
European Parliament
The European Parliament (EP) is one of the legislative bodies of the European Union and one of its seven institutions. Together with the Council of the European Union (known as the Council and informally as the Council of Ministers), it adopts ...
adopted a recommendation to the
European Council endorsing a proposal for the establishment of a United Nations Parliamentary Assembly.
Implementation
Five options for creating a UN Parliamentary Assembly have been proposed in various assessments.
Alfred-Maurice de Zayas
Alfred-Maurice de Zayas (born 31 May 1947) is a Cuban-born American lawyer and writer, active in the field of human rights and international law. From 1 May 2012 to 30 April 2018, he served as the first UN Independent Expert on the Promotion o ...
, the
summarizes several options as:
Amending the UN Charter
Amending the UN Charter, possibly through a Charter Review Conference under
Article 109 of the UN Charter, is a commonly cited possibility, including by
Louis Sohn and
Grenville Clark
Grenville Clark (November 5, 1882 – January 13, 1967) was a 20th-century American Wall Street lawyer, co-founder of Root Clark & Bird (later Dewey Ballantine, then Dewey & LeBoeuf), member of the Harvard Corporation, co-author of the book '' Wo ...
in their 1958 book ''
World Peace Through World Law''. According to Pat Orvis of the
Foreign Policy Association
The Foreign Policy Association (formerly known as the League of Free Nations Association) is a non-profit organization founded in 1918 dedicated to inspiring the American public to learn more about the world. The Foreign Policy Association aims to ...
, this path is difficult because it requires ratification by two-thirds of UN members, including all five permanent members of the
Security Council
The United Nations Security Council (UNSC) is one of the six principal organs of the United Nations (UN) and is charged with ensuring international peace and security, recommending the admission of new UN members to the General Assembly, an ...
. There have been only five amendments to the UN Charter since 1945, and none of them were done through the Article 109 process.
Establishing the UNPA as a subsidiary body of the UN General Assembly
The
World Federalist Movement-Canada
The World Federalist Movement — Canada (WFMC) is a member organization of the World Federalist Movement, a global citizens movement dedicated to promoting institutions of world governance. WFMC has a national headquarters in Ottawa, and active ...
asserts that the
General Assembly
A general assembly or general meeting is a meeting of all the members of an organization or shareholders of a company.
Specific examples of general assembly include:
Churches
* General Assembly (presbyterian church), the highest court of presb ...
has authority to establish the UNPA as a subsidiary body of the UN General Assembly under
Article 22 of the UN Charter.
Erskine Childers and
Sir Brian Urquhart endorsed this approach in their 1994 book, ''Renewing the United Nations System''. The Committee for a Democratic UN recommended the establishment of UNPA by Article 22 or a transformation of the
Inter-Parliamentary Union in its report, ''Developing International Democracy'', authored by
Andreas Bummel
Andreas Bummel (*9. February 1976 in Cape Town) is co-founder and Director of Democracy Without Borders and of the international campaign for a United Nations Parliamentary Assembly.
From 1998 to 2008 he was coordinator for UN reform issues of th ...
, co-founder and director of the UNPA campaign. In 2006, the
Council of Europe passed a resolution noting, "A decisive step towards the development of a UN parliamentary dimension could be the establishment of an experimental parliamentary committee with consultative functions for General Assembly committees."
Nongovernmental organization of democratically elected legislators.
Parliamentarians for Global Action
Parliamentarians for Global Action (PGA) is a non-profit, non-partisan international network of committed legislators, that informs and mobilizes parliamentarians in all regions of the world to advocate for human rights and the rule of law, democr ...
, however, have suggested a non-governmental organization of democratically elected legislators, which they claim would have the advantage of not requiring the cooperation of (sometimes dictatorial) national governments or world parliamentary organizations with dictatorial members, so only democratic legislators, parliaments and countries would be represented. Dieter Heinrich critiqued this approach by saying, "If it did succeed on any scale, it would divert resources from pressuring governments on thousands of specific issues, which citizens are good at, into the operation of a pan-global institutional structure, which citizens' groups are ill equipped to do...And the resulting assembly would always be of doubtful legitimacy (who does it really represent?) and of unlikely value as an evolutionary starting point for a real world parliament."
[Heinrich, Dieter (October 1992)]
The Case for a United Nations Parliamentary Assembly
(PDF). CEUNPA. Archived from th
original
on 27 November 2011. Retrieved 11 October 2022.
Stand-alone treaty
Andrew Strauss of the
One World Trust
The One World Trust is a charitable organization that promotes education and research into changes required in global governance to achieve the eradication of poverty, injustice, environmental degradation and war. It develops recommendations o ...
, has put forward establishing a new, stand-alone treaty, which he claims would require as few as 20 or 30 economically and geographically diverse countries to establish a UNPA,
which could expand as more countries ratified the treaty. Strauss notes that this is the method by which most international bodies, such the
World Health Organization
The World Health Organization (WHO) is a specialized agency of the United Nations responsible for international public health. The WHO Constitution states its main objective as "the attainment by all peoples of the highest possible level of ...
,
International Labour Organization
The International Labour Organization (ILO) is a United Nations agency whose mandate is to advance social and economic justice by setting international labour standards. Founded in October 1919 under the League of Nations, it is the first and o ...
, and
International Criminal Court
The International Criminal Court (ICC or ICCt) is an intergovernmental organization and international tribunal seated in The Hague, Netherlands. It is the first and only permanent international court with jurisdiction to prosecute individuals f ...
, were founded.
[Strauss, Andrew (2007)]
Taking Democracy Global: Assessing the Benefits and Challenges of a Global Parliamentary Assembly
(PDF), One World Trust
The One World Trust is a charitable organization that promotes education and research into changes required in global governance to achieve the eradication of poverty, injustice, environmental degradation and war. It develops recommendations o ...
, 2007. Retrieved 7 December 2007. José Enrique Alvarez, Professor of International Law at
New York University School of Law
New York University School of Law (NYU Law) is the law school of New York University, a private research university in New York City. Established in 1835, it is the oldest law school in New York City and the oldest surviving law school in N ...
suggests this route would begin via a conference of
plenipotentiaries
A ''plenipotentiary'' (from the Latin ''plenus'' "full" and ''potens'' "powerful") is a diplomat who has full powers—authorization to sign a treaty or convention on behalf of his or her sovereign. When used as a noun more generally, the word ' ...
to draft the treaty which would then need to be
ratified
Ratification is a principal's approval of an act of its agent that lacked the authority to bind the principal legally. Ratification defines the international act in which a state indicates its consent to be bound to a treaty if the parties inten ...
by each individual countries.
[Alvarez, Jose E]
The New Treaty Makers
, Boston College Law School
Boston College Law School (BC Law) is the law school of Boston College. It is situated on a wooded campus in Newton, Massachusetts, about 1.5 miles from the university's main campus in Chestnut Hill, Massachusetts.
With approximately 800 stud ...
. Retrieved 7 December 2007.
Use and/or transform the Inter-Parliamentary Union
The
Inter-Parliamentary Union (IPU) is a body which was granted
observer status
Observer status is a privilege granted by some organizations to non-members to give them an ability to participate in the organization's activities. Observer status is often granted by intergovernmental organizations (IGO) to non-member parties and ...
in 2002.
The IPU's Second World Conference of Speakers of Parliament adopted a resolution stating, "We would greatly welcome more substantive interaction and coordination with the United Nations, and call upon the world body to resort more frequently to the political and technical expertise which the IPU together with its Member Parliaments can provide." Moreover, a 2005 article by IPU Secretary-General
Anders B. Johnsson stated that, "It makes little practical or political sense to set up a separate parliamentary assembly alongside the existing governmental General Assembly." The
Inter-Parliamentary Union has at times supported a reformed IPU as a substitute for a UNPA, saying, "The Union had the necessary experience, and further bureaucracy should be avoided." Many national parliaments, however, are currently not members of the IPU.
Powers
The CUNPA proposes that the UNPA begin as a consultative body whose powers could be augmented as it evolved into a directly elected assembly: "Step by step, it should be provided with genuine rights of information, participation and control vis-à-vis the UN and the organizations of the UN system." An article in the ''
Asian-Pacific Law & Policy Journal'' notes that precedents for this idea include the
British Parliament
The Parliament of the United Kingdom is the supreme legislative body of the United Kingdom, the Crown Dependencies and the British Overseas Territories. It meets at the Palace of Westminster, London. It alone possesses legislative suprem ...
,
French Estates-General
In France under the Ancien Régime, the Estates General (french: États généraux ) or States-General was a legislative and consultative assembly of the different classes (or estates) of French subjects. It had a separate assembly for each of ...
,
U.S. Congress
The United States Congress is the legislature of the federal government of the United States. It is bicameral, composed of a lower body, the House of Representatives, and an upper body, the Senate. It meets in the U.S. Capitol in Washin ...
, and the
European Parliament
The European Parliament (EP) is one of the legislative bodies of the European Union and one of its seven institutions. Together with the Council of the European Union (known as the Council and informally as the Council of Ministers), it adopts ...
, which are all systems in which, over time, power shifted to directly elected officials: "In the past, fledgling democracy has always had to compromise with the realities of power and evolve step-by-step, where possible. This is often accomplished in the form of a 'non-democratic' additional house in the parliamentary structure. Thus, in Britain, the necessity of compromise of the 'common people' with the powers and interests of the armed and titled nobility necessitated a bicameral system incorporating the
House of Lords
The House of Lords, also known as the House of Peers, is the upper house of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. Membership is by appointment, heredity or official function. Like the House of Commons, it meets in the Palace of Westminste ...
, as well as the
House of Commons
The House of Commons is the name for the elected lower house of the bicameral parliaments of the United Kingdom and Canada. In both of these countries, the Commons holds much more legislative power than the nominally upper house of parliament. T ...
. The French Estates-General included similar power blocs as 'estates' or functional separate houses, and the United States Senate reflected a necessary compromise of the interests of less populous states hesitant to subject themselves to 'democratic inundation' by the more populous states."
[Sheppard, Robert (2000)]
Towards a U.N. World Parliament: U.N. Reform for the Progressive Evolution of an Elective and Accountable Democratic Parliamentary Process in U.N. Governance in the New Millennium
Asian-Pacific Law & Policy Journal. Retrieved 7 December 2007.
World federalists
The World Federalist Movement advocates strong democratic institutions adhering to the principles of subsidiarity, solidarity and democracy.
The movement formed in the 1930s and 1940s by citizens groups concerned that the structure of the new ...
often point out that a democratic union of peoples, rather than governments, is suggested by the opening words of the
Preamble to the United Nations Charter
The Preamble to the United Nations Charter is the opening (preamble) of the 1945 United Nations Charter.
History
Jan Smuts from South Africa originally wrote the opening lines of the Preamble as, "The High Contracting Parties, determined to preve ...
, "We the peoples ..." This sentiment was expressed by
Theo van Boven
Theodoor Cornelis (Theo) van Boven (born 16 May 1934, Voorburg) is a Dutch jurist and professor emeritus in international law.
In 1977, he was appointed director of the United Nations' Division for Human Rights, a precursor of the UN Human Rights ...
, who said, "A more democratic United Nations as envisaged by the campaign for a UN Parliament will strengthen the legitimacy of We the peoples of the United Nations in whose name the UN Charter was proclaimed."
According to the Committee for a Democratic UN, "The UNPA concept is the first step towards a democratic world parliament". World federalists typically view an empowered democratic assembly as a means of preventing war by providing everyone a peaceful means of pursuing their political objectives.
Walter Cronkite
Walter Leland Cronkite Jr. (November 4, 1916 – July 17, 2009) was an American broadcast journalist who served as anchorman for the ''CBS Evening News'' for 19 years (1962–1981). During the 1960s and 1970s, he was often cited as "the mo ...
, for instance, said, "Within the next few years, we must change the basic structure of our global community from the present anarchic system of war and ever more destructive weaponry to a new system governed by a democratic UN federation."
But there is some opposition to the idea of an empowered global parliament. A 2007
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poll of approximately 12,000 respondents asked, "How likely would you be to support a Global Parliament, where votes are based on country population sizes, and the global parliament is able to make binding policies?" Of those polled, 19.1% responded "Very unlikely–it is a bad idea"; 14.9% responded "Quite unlikely–but it might work"; 23.1% said "Quite likely–but with reservations"; and 14.4% said "Very likely–it is a good idea". The poll was broken out by country, and the U.S. and Australia showed the strongest opposition. Potential challenge to the UNPA are political organizations such as the
concerns.
as part of and promoting this...Further, the European assembly has proven to be a rubber stamping mechanism of bureaucratic decisions. This is not democracy." In addition, a