The establishment of a United Nations
Parliamentary Assembly was one of the subjects of an
academic conference organized by the German United
Nations Association (UNA-Germany) at the end of last week
in Berlin. Scholars from across Germany gathered at the
Japanese-German Center of the Free University of Berlin
Fifteen years after the publication of an "Agenda for
Democratization" by then UN Secretary-General Boutros
Boutros-Ghali the conference sought to assess the state
of affairs. The document of the former UN
Secretary-General - who is a prominent supporter of the
Campaign for a UN Parliamentary Assembly - was a starting
point of the two-day discussions.
The proposal for a UN Parliamentary Assembly was
presented at a panel by Peter Spiegel, vice chairman of
the Committee for a Democratic U.N. in Berlin. Mr.
Spiegel argued that democratizing the UN was also a
measure to promote democracy internationally. He prompted
to ask the question why the democracies of the world
"obstruct efforts for democratizing international
organizations."
Earlier Professor Lothar Brock with University of
Frankfurt dealt with the question of what the democracy
deficit at the UN is and explained why he supports the
proposal for a UN parliament. In the course of his
presentation, Professor Brock touched upon many of the
subjects of the conference such as the embedding of
democracy in the self-conception of the UN, preconditions
for democracy, models of democracy, interdependency of
democracy at the nation-state and international levels,
forms of legitimization, need of legitimacy and possible
consequences.
With regard to a UN Parliamentary Assembly, the
participants did not reach a common standpoint. Broad
agreement was reached on the assessment that democracy is
anchored in the values of the UN and that the world
organization's legitimacy needs to be improved.
UNA-Germany plans to publish the presentations of the
conference in a German-language compilation. The meeting
built on a first conference on world law organized by
UNA-Germany in November 2008.
