Campaign for the Establishment of a United Nations Parliamentary Assembly

The official logo of the CEUNPA.

The Campaign for the Establishment of a United Nations Parliamentary Assembly (CEUNPA) is a global network of more than 270 non-governmental organizations (NGOs) and 700 parliamentarians from around 140 countries devoted to establishing a United Nations Parliamentary Assembly.^[1]

Campaign objectives

CEUNPA-supported symbol of a UNPA, reflecting parliamentary benches and recalling the Flag of the United Nations

The Campaign's objectives:^[1]

• To make the UNPA proposal visible in political debates and the media
• To facilitate the creation of national and local networks of individuals, non-governmental organizations and parliamentarians advocating a UNPA in their sphere of influence
• To establish a global multi-stakeholder coalition which unites parliamentary and civil society efforts for a U.N. Parliamentary Assembly
• To facilitate contacts and debates with potentially like-minded parliaments and governments

Profile

Steering committee

The Campaign's Secretariat is led by the Committee for a Democratic UN.^[2] The work of the Campaign is guided by an informal Steering Committee, which helps to define the Campaign's goals, policies and strategies. The Steering Committee consists of the NGOs Committee for a Democratic UN, Society for Threatened Peoples International, World Federalist Movement-IGP, 2020*Vision Ltd. and since October 2010 also Democracia Global.^[3]

Regional and national networks

The Campaign for the Establishment of a United Nations Parliamentary Assembly has built coalitions and established national and regional networks all over the world as for example in New Zealand,^[4] in the Dominican Republic,^[5] in Nigeria,^[6] in Norway,^[7] in Libya,^[8] in Germany,^[9] in Uganda,^[10] in Nepal,^[11] in Mexico,^[12] in Bulgaria,^[13] in Argentina,^[14] in France,^[15] in India,^[16] in the United States,^[17] in China,^[18] in Kenya,^[19] in Switzerland,^[20] in Canada,^[21] in Great Britain,^[22] in Tanzania,^[23] in Spain,^[24] in South Africa^[25] and in Italy.^[26]

Funding

Current major funding is provided by the Ford Foundation, the Committee for a Democratic UN and Stiftung Apfelbaum, but the primary contributions to the CEUNPA's work come from the campaign participants that carry out the work necessary to realize a UNPA.^[27]

History

The policy of the Campaign is based on the "Appeal for the Establishment of a Parliamentary Assembly at the United Nations" which was presented at launch events in over ten countries during April and May 2007.^[28] 552 persons were initial signatories to the petition, among them parliamentarians and individuals such as Nobel Prize laureates, Right Livelihood Award laureates, civil society leaders, three former prime ministers, several former foreign ministers and Boutros Boutros-Ghali (former UN Secretary General ).^[29] At a meeting in November 2007 the Campaign reiterated its policy as formulated in the appeal.

Although the CEUNPA's early literature seemed to emphasize indirect election of the UNPA as a necessary first step, in November 2007, the organization noted that some countries could choose direct election of delegates in the first stage of the body's existence.^[30] Similarly, early CEUNPA statements stressed the UNPA's oversight role over the UN and its bodies, but the November 2007 statement clarified that the UNPA could also have a role overseeing the Bretton Woods institutions. In a statement on the financial crisis issued in April 2008 this position was confirmed and outlined in more detail.^[31]

As to September 2010 the appeal has been signed by around 3,670 people.^[32]

See also

• United Nations Parliamentary Assembly
• Committee for a Democratic UN
• Reform of the United Nations
• Cosmopolitan democracy

References

External links

• Campaign for the Establishment of a United Nations Parliamentary Assembly.
• Appeal for the Establishment of a Parliamentary Assembly at the UN.