United Nations in Geneva (The Epoch Times)

The great problems of our times—war, disease, hunger, climate change—require co-operative solutions. Yet self-interested nations often obstruct social and environmental progress. How can the UN be transformed into a global community able to take timely and effective action?

Substantive UN reform has proved intractable, largely because of the veto granted by the permanent Security Council powers to themselves in 1945. One simple strategy for change is introducing a new element into the UN which forces the entire system to re-organize.

That new element, as proposed by a coalition of NGOs, is a UN Parliamentary Assembly (UNPA) that would act as a peoples’ watchdog with moral clout.

Assembly members would not be accountable to national governments but directly to constituent citizens. This key point must be emphasized—national governments will not be able to fire, recall or instruct UN Parliamentarians.

That independence will allow these representatives to raise sensitive issues, table innovative proposals, and create uproar when the UN and its member states fail to discharge their responsibilities. For the first time the United Nations will have an official opposition inside the gates.

The proposal for a UN Parliamentary Assembly is based on the actual development of the European Parliament which currently represents almost 500 million citizens in the European Union. Shortly after WWII, the Europeans started with a seed that they nurtured—an assembly drawn from parliamentarians of member countries. Originally advisory in nature, this body was given co-decision powers and converted to direct elections in 1979.

Through its questionings and special commissions, the EP kept bureaucrats and member governments on their toes, shined light on backroom processes, and gave citizens and nongovernmental organizations significant influence. Europe underwent a remarkable transformation. From slaughtering and demonizing each other through two catastrophic World Wars, Europeans are now sitting in the same parliamentary chamber, organized not along national but party lines.

At the UN, a consultative Parliamentary Assembly could be established as a subsidiary body by a vote in the General Assembly under Article 22, and without changing the UN Charter. It can begin despite any Security Council veto. If powerful countries do not participate in its creation and operation, they risk isolation and the appearance of opposing democracy.

The historical record demonstrates, as with the Land Mines Treaty and the International Criminal Court, that, if a few countries urged on by civil society take the lead, there is no stopping a smart idea with momentum.

Since April 2007, an international campaign has collected endorsements from over 680 national parliamentarians in 90 countries, from the European and Pan-African Parliaments, from Nobel and Right Livelihood Laureates, from respected academics, from former foreign ministers and prime ministers, and from the first national parliament, the Argentine Chamber of Deputies.

There are too many wars today, too many hungry people, too much damage to the environment. It’s time to hasten the arrival of a global democratic institution with immense transformative potential.

Larry Kazdan is a Council Member of the World Federalist Movement-Canada, an organization that advocates more effective global governance and monitors developments at the United Nations.