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Moving Towards a United Nations Parliament
by Gordon Glass

One of the main objectives of our time must be to work towards improvement and effectiveness of global decision-making within the United Nations system. Much of the UN system functions laudably well, on a relative shoestring, through the unsung work of very many people who are firmly dedicated to its international principles of improving international relations, international operations and the position of those who live in sub-standard conditions. Being ongoing and positive, this development work invariably does not receive the global media coverage that it deserves.

However, it is in the field of the UN’s primary responsibility: the maintenance of International Peace and Security, that the system has become so clearly dysfunctional. Almost two decades of attempts to “reform” the UN have achieved little improvement in practice: the system has demonstrated that, as is often the case with systems, it cannot change itself – and it needs pressure and assistance from outside itself.

There is only one superpower with greater authority than the United Nations, and that is the Voice of Global Public Opinion, or the power of “We the Peoples...”, in whose name the UN was established. “We the Peoples” of the world need to remind the member states of the world that they were established to be in the service of the people as a whole, not just of themselves nor of their own favoured clique of supporters. It is “We the People”, acting together, who have the power to change the United Nations – and the world. We cannot rely upon anyone else to do it for us! Unfortunately the United Nations was specifically designed in the 1940s to enable a few victorious member states to retain their power in perpetuity. This no longer works in our interconnected, interdependent and globalised world of the 21st century. “We the Peoples” urgently need our own collective voice within the UN, in the form of a UN Parliamentary Assembly. The UN is now, in our region of the world at least, the last level of governance which does not have a parliament. And it shows!

Whatever one’s opinion of the current state of the European Union, at least it was specifically designed to be able to evolve. The European Project has been effective at transforming Europe from a group of states entirely at war into a powerful political and economic regional force. Certainly, it still has its deficiencies, as does any organisation, but its proof of effectiveness is that it is a powerfully attractive institution to those outside it.

Yet an improved United Nations does not have to be modelled upon the European Union; on the contrary, we now have the technology and collective global wisdom and experience to aim, and achieve, far better for us all. There are those who dismiss the idea of a United Nations Parliamentary Assembly as ‘just another talking shop’: they are not interested in remedying the UN’s “democratic deficit”, nor in building greater global democracy. There are those who want to hang on to their own little outdated fiefdoms of power and influence, rather than join the global revolution to improve the way the world is run. It is striking, though, how even those who oppose the idea, invariably acknowledge that there is a sense of inevitability that such a body will be created “some time”. So the debate is already not about ‘whether’, but about ‘when’. Why don’t we just get on with it?

Well, some of us have been getting on with it. Over the last 3 years we have established a Campaign for the Establishment of a United Nations Parliamentary Assembly (www.UNPAcampaign.org) with regular committee meetings in Switzerland. This campaign has snowballed in support over the last year in particular. Full details of the development of the campaign are available on the website but, in summary, there are now over 1500 people from 113 countries who have signed up to the International Appeal for a UNPA, including 418 Members of Parliament (16 from the UK), 106 civil society groups and 126 Professors. The support transcends most boundaries of national, party and ethnic groupings. Support for the idea comes from previous UN Secretaries-General, ex-Prime Ministers as well as past and current Cabinet Ministers and Parliamentarians around the world

The Campaign was formally launched worldwide in the spring of 2007, with almost simultaneous launches in ten countries across five continents: Europe, Africa, North America, South America and Asia. In London, the Rt Hon Clare Short hosted the launch in the Houses of Parliament, with prominent support for the Appeal from the leadership of the Liberal Democrats and from senior MEPs.

In the autumn of 2007, a cross-party group of four senior MEPs launched their booklet promoting the cause within the European Parliament. The European Parliament as a whole had previously resolved to support the idea in June 2005. In October 2007, the Pan-African Parliament also resolved to “take the initiative” in support of a UNPA. So between the European Union and the Pan-African Parliament, the highest regional levels of the democratic representatives of “We the Peoples” have resolved to work towards the establishment of a UNPA. Together they represent the peoples of 80 member states of the United Nations – that is over 40%. It is no accident that parliamentarians working internationally support the desire for a United Nations Parliament: they see the clear need for it.

Also last autumn, we organised a meeting of invited campaigners at the UN in Geneva which was attended by 30 people from 18 countries, including 6 parliamentarians from 4 continents. This consolidated the progress made so far and developed policies and strategies for the future.

It seems as though the world stands at a crossroads of global public opinion between whether the world should aim for the highest and best that mankind might achieve collectively, or whether we should all defend our own petty individual selves against such a future vision and keep the world floundering aimlessly in our present limited circumstances – or worse. After all, if we don’t know where we are going, we might well end up where we don’t want to be! We can certainly design a better way to manage our world.

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