after RIO+20
26 June 2012
Intellectuals call for “rapid implementation of forms of democratic global governance”
Manifesto for global democracy released
Well-known intellectuals from over ten countries have written a joint manifesto “for a global democracy” that will be presented this week on Wednesday at an event in London, five days after the United Nations Conference on Sustainable Development in Rio de Janeiro and one week after the G 20-meeting in Los Cabos, Mexico. In the document, around twenty-five initial signatories stress that
The manifesto’s initiator: Fernando Iglesias from Argentina
Image: CEUNPA the challenges of globalization require “the rapid implementation of forms of democratic global governance on all the issues that current intergovernmental summits are evidently incapable of solving.”
The text states that politics lag behind the facts as the “economy has been globalized but political institutions and democracy have not kept pace.” According to the document, the international order that emerged from the end of Second World War and the fall of the Berlin Wall “has not been able to manage the great advances in technology and productive systems for the benefit of all humanity.”
Support for a UN Parliamentary Assembly as “embryo of a future World Parliament”
The signatories suggest that “more extensive and deeper forms of democracy” need to be created at the global level. Nation-states should become “part of a wider and much better coordinated structure, which involves democratic regional institutions on all the continents, the reform of the International Court of Justice, a fairer and more balanced International Criminal Court and a United Nations Parliamentary Assembly as the embryo of a future World Parliament.”
As the statement emphasizes, this goal of a new democratic world order should be reached by a “process open to all human beings, with the goal of a creating a participative global democracy.” The signatories call on “every human being to participate in the constitution of a global democracy.”
One of the initiators, the Argentinian intellectual and politician Fernando Iglesias, commented that the manifesto “is a pluralist declaration that emphasizes the shared values between people from very different backgrounds and convictions, and the need to progress toward new regional, international and global democratic institutions capable of facing the challenges of the 21st century.”
The manifesto's signatories
... more >
Intellectuals call for ?rapid implementation of forms of democratic global governance? | Campaign for a UN Parliament
