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WORLD CITIZEN LETTER: 560
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WCL 560 June 2007
An elected U.N. assembly
Little noticed, on 23 April (St. George's Day, that bastion of former English patriotism), was a headline in the Independent of London "Europeans launch appeal for elected UN assembly". It began by announcing that: "Some 541 politicians, academics and business leaders from Europe and around the world have signed an appeal for the creation of a UN parliamentary assembly to overcome the "democratic deficit" in global affairs and give citizens a bigger voice."
The campaigners include our local Littlehampton world citizen, Dame Anita Roddick, [see WCL73, “Littlehampton - world centre”] founder of the Body Shop, but it goes more than global with Arthur C Clarke, author of 2001: Space Odyssey, and adds four Nobel Prize winners and 377 MPs from 70 countries. One chief object is to provide "a global citizens' platform to bring about change on issues such as global warming." The campaign, then launched with a secretariat based in Germany, should have been rolled out across the world since then, although so far we have seen no more of it, apart from the valiant efforts of George Monbiot in Guardian articles.
The Israeli peace campaigner Shimri Zameret said the idea followed the successful creation of the International Criminal Court and: "We were thinking: what is the next step in developing international democracy?" The support of the MPs, including 20 from the UK and 48 MEPs, was enlisted for what organisers hope will eventually lead to a "world parliament" at the UN, "an idea certain to be opposed, however, by the American hosts of the United Nations". Recalling that the world federalists spearheaded the campaign for that success, the striking fact for world citizens and world federalists must surely be that there has been no indication that the long-standing world federalist movement does not have an input into this new initiative.
Only nine Americans have signed the appeal and Mr Zameret said the appeal did not have a US branch because of lack of support in America for the world body. However, he continued: "The world is different since the fall of the Berlin Wall... On Iraq, Afghanistan and Palestine, it is time to hear the voice of the people in global affairs and not just London, Madrid, Mumbal, Ottawa, Rome and Vancouver."
As an "indispensable" first step, the plans envisage setting up a consultative UN parliamentary assembly; attended by representatives of national parliaments. The former UN secretary-general Boutros Boutros-Ghali is to be patron of a conference in October. As one of the appeal's signatories, he declared: "A Parliamentary Assembly would make the UN more transparent, more efficient and more democratic".
The appeal recommends "a gradual implementation of democratic participation and representation on the global level". Over time, the assembly should be vested with "genuine rights of information, participation and control" and could eventually be composed of directly elected members. Thus, it could evolve into a world parliament.
The document, drawn up by a coalition of non-government organisations, says: "Humanity faces the task of ensuring the survival and well-being of future generations as well as the preservation of the natural foundations of life on earth. We are convinced that in order to cope with major challenges such as social disparity; proliferation of weapons of mass destruction, the threat of terrorism or the endangerment of global ecosystems, all human beings must engage in collaborative efforts... To ensure international cooperation, secure the acceptance and to enhance the effectively and directly included into the activities of the United Nations and its international organisations."
John Roberts
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