Parliamentary Assembly at the United Nations

Proposed flag

A parliamentary assembly at the United Nations , also known for short as the UN Parliament or World Parliament (United Nations Parliamentary Assembly, UNPA), is to be set up as the new organ of the United Nations , according to the will of many international organizations , international non-governmental organizations and international networks .

history

The idea of a UN parliament already existed when the United Nations was founded in 1945, but was not represented on a large scale until the 1990s. With the advancing globalization , however, the approach has become topical again in recent years: National parliaments and NGOs are trying to strengthen citizen participation and democracy in international institutions.

vision

The delegates of this parliamentary assembly should, depending on the proposal, be sent by the parliaments of the member states or be elected directly by the citizens of the member states. According to Article 22 of the UN Charter, the assembly could be set up as a subsidiary body by resolution of the UN General Assembly . A simple majority would be sufficient for this. The establishment as the main body would also be possible. However, this would require an amendment to the UN Charter. According to Article 108 of the same, a two-thirds majority in the UN General Assembly including the approval of all five UN veto powers and ratification by two thirds of the member states of the United Nations would be necessary.

The establishment as an international organization , which would be linked to the United Nations through a cooperation agreement, would also be conceivable . The Interparliamentary Union , a parliamentary assembly attended by delegates from 147 parliaments, is also being discussed as a "parliamentary arm" in the United Nations. The IPU has existed since 1889 and cannot make any binding decisions. There is also no institutional connection with the UN. However, since 2003 it has had observer status at the UN General Assembly .

supporter

The leading representatives of the idea in Germany and internationally include Andreas Bummel , co-founder of the campaign and managing director of Democracy without Borders , and MEP Jo Leinen . As co-authors, they published the book The Democratic World Parliament: A Cosmopolitan Vision in March 2017 in Dietz-Verlag .

With the European Parliament , the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe , the Pan-African Parliament and the Latin American Parliament, four continental parliamentary institutions in the world are in favor of the establishment of a parliamentary assembly at the United Nations. The Argentine parliament is the first national parliament to support the call for a parliament at the United Nations.

In 2010, in addition to the federal board of Bündnis 90 / Die Grünen , Bob Brown , the parliamentary chairman of the Australian Greens , advocated the establishment of a UN parliament. In June 2011, the European Parliament also called on the Council of the EU to advocate a UN Parliament within the framework of the common foreign and security policy . This demand was taken up in an open letter to the Federal Chancellor and the Foreign Minister, which was signed by 37 clubs and associations and numerous personalities and published on September 20, 2011. The signatories included Sigmar Gabriel , Hans Eichel , Erwin Teufel , Rita Süssmuth and Heiner Geißler as well as numerous professors, around 70 members of all parties from the Bundestag and the European Parliament , Attac , the Association for the Environment and Nature Conservation , the German Society for the United Nations , the Young European Federalists and World Vision .

Campaign for a UN Parliament

In April 2007, as part of the “Campaign for a Parliamentary Assembly at the United Nations”, an international network of non-governmental organizations and parliamentarians was formed that works exclusively with this goal. Around 1,500 MPs and more than 250 non-governmental organizations from around the world have now joined the campaign. The secretariat of the campaign is the Berlin-based association Democracy without Borders (formerly: Committee for a Democratic UN ), founded in 2003 . The supporters include or were also celebrities such as Emma Thompson , Edgar Mitchell , Günter Grass , Roméo Dallaire or Boutros Boutros-Ghali .

Web links

Individual evidence

↑ Cf. for example Resolution 1476 (2006) ( Memento of September 22, 2008 in the Internet Archive ) of the Consultative Assembly of the Council of Europe of January 23, 2006;
Press release ( memento of September 6, 2012 in the web archive archive.today ) of the Pan-African Parliament of October 25, 2007.

^ The implementation of a UN parliamentary assembly on UNPA Campaign, accessed on August 7, 2017

↑ INFO-BRIEF Topic: The idea of a parliamentarization of the United Nations as a contribution to the debate on “Global Governance” and democracy , Scientific Services of the German Bundestag , page 23 3.4 The change of the IPU to the parliamentary arm of the UN, by Prof. Dr. Thomas v. Winter, July 4, 2005, accessed August 7, 2017

^ United Nations Official Document A-RES-57-32 Resolution . In: UN General Assembly session 57. November 19, 2002. Retrieved August 18, 2017. (English)

↑ 3sat.online: Conversation with Andreas Bummel - on the subject of a democratic world parliament - 3sat.Mediathek. June 2, 2017. Retrieved June 7, 2017 .