Launched in April 2007, the initiative is campaigning for the establishment of a new body alongside the UN General Assembly. “Direct representation of citizens would help the world to increasingly see itself as a global community,” is one argument in favor of the global parliament. In addition, the members of the parliament would not be bound by the instructions of their governments, as is currently the case with the officials of the UN member states sent to the General Assembly. Once established, the body should be gradually developed from a consultative assembly into a “world parliament with genuine information, participation and oversight rights” so that global society can confront the many major problems such as war, disease, poverty and climate change in a fair and more effective way. The campaign has so far been supported by around 860 members of parliament from 106 countries, representing an estimated 137 million people worldwide. However, the goals are also supported by many thousands of individuals and well-known personalities from politics, science, civil society and cultural life. Among others, the philosopher and former State Secretary for Culture Julian Nida-Rümelin, the former Minister of Justice of the Federal Republic of Germany Herta Däubler-Gmelin and the former President of the Bundestag Rita Süssmuth have signed the campaign’s appeal. In June 2011, the European Parliament called on the EU foreign ministers to put the establishment of a Parliamentary Assembly at the United Nations on the agenda of the General Assembly. In mid-2013, there was an initial meeting between the head of the UNPA campaign and representatives of the subcommittee “United Nations, International Organizations and Globalization” set up by the Bundestag’s Committee on Foreign Affairs. In order to achieve its goals, the campaign continues to solicit donations. Among other things, donations will be used to establish an international office with full-time staff, send representatives to conferences and meetings, produce and distribute information material and organize press conferences and panel discussions. HVD President Frieder Otto Wolf commented on the Federal Association’s decision to officially support the goals of the UNPA campaign: “Global society will not succeed in tackling its profound crises and huge common problems if people give up their right to have a say, their right to participate and thus ultimately their right to self-determination. Not only a further democratization of the European Union, but also the democratization of the United Nations is therefore not only sensible but indispensable from a humanist perspective.” A global week of action for a world parliament will take place this year from October 17 to 24.
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