Petter Ölmunger
13. December 2018
Around United Nations Day on 24th October 2018, a global week of a action was celebrated for the fifth time with activities across the world in support of the establishment of a democratic world parliament.
The week of action’s declaration points out that “in order to create global solutions we need a global political body that can facilitate global democratic discussions and take global decisions.” According to the document, such a body has to be elected by the world’s citizens. “The world’s citizens should vote for their world representatives,” it says.
A democratically elected body is needed
In Tel Aviv, Israel, there was a public event organized by One World: Movement for Global Democracy. The event, that was hosted by the Rosa Luxemburg Stiftung Tel-Aviv office, was titled ‘The day after the nation-state? Thoughts on democracy, federalism and the world.’
Picture from the Tel Aviv event. From left: Roy Dia, Asher Levi and Oded Gilad.
The two speakers, Roy Dayan and Oded Gilad, presented the idea that since so many of the forces that shape our lives are global, it is unrealistic to expect nation-states to regulate them effectively. To check and balance the powers of the global market, they argued, it is necessary to create federal state mechanisms at the global level, whose power and legitimacy will be anchored in the will of the world’s citizens. At the heart of this idea is the concept of a world parliament, and at the end of the event, after a very engaging discussion, most of the participants joined for a group photo holding the week of action’s slogan, ‘World Parliament Now!’. At the conference on supranational democracy in Lecce in April, Oded Gildad held a speech on a similar subject that can be watched here .
In Stockholm, Sweden, Democracy Without Borders Sweden, and other co-hosting organizations arranged a presentation of the book A World Parliament: Governance and Democracy in the 21st Century , written by Jo Leinen and Andreas Bummel. In his presentation the latter focused on the need of a transformation from international law to world law and stressed that a UN Parliamentary Assembly would be a first viable step. A video of the talk is available at Youtube .
Support of a UN Parliamentary Assembly
In Buenos Aires, Argentina, the organization Democracía Global arranged several student workshops on the proposal to establish a UN Parliamentary Assembly. As in Tel Aviv and Stockholm, during the event a photo was taken of participants with the message “World Parliament Now”.
Students from the organization Democracía Global organizing a photo action for a World Parliament.
In Orono, Maine, United States, Citizens for Global Solutions organized activities in support of the Campaign for a UN Parliamentary Assembly. “ We endorsed the campaign, contacted elected representatives, and spread the word on social media”, said Shirley Davis, Chair of CItizens for Global Solutions, Maine Chapter.
In Berlin, Germany, a new project on internet voting tools was launched by Democracy Without Borders Germany. The purpose is to create a new internet tool for global debate, voting and elections. After a meeting a picture was taken in front of the Brandenburg Gate, one of Germany’s key landmarks.
There were also photo actions and activities in Paris (France), Brussels (Belgium), Düsseldorf (Germany), Mingora City (Pakistan), and Nakazaki-cho Osaka (Japan). In Genova (Italy) an event was hosted by Movimento Federalista Europeo Genova and GFE Genova. In Kingston (Canada) an event was hosted by the World Federalist Movement Canada. In Si Sa Ket (Thailand) an event was hosted by World Unification Club. And in Stenungsund (Sweden), finally, another event was hosted by United Nations Association of Stenungsund, Tjörn and Orust (UNA-STO).
Next year’s Global Week of Action for a World Parliament will be held from 19-27 October 2019. Here you can find out what you can do.
Top image: Photo taken in front of the Eiffel tower in Paris organized by the Union of European Federalists.
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