• Impact Group
• Model UN Parliament

Impact Group

UN Parliament

The Impact Group UN Parliament brings together young people from all over the world to discuss the idea of a directly elected second chamber next to the General Assembly in the United Nations. We organize simulations about the negotiation process of the UN Parliament’s statutes and host high-level discussions about global democracy.

Model UN Parliament

Fifty students from Germany, Europe, and around the world took on the roles of ambassadors in the first-ever simulation of a UN Parliament delegates’ assembly in Halle (Germany) in April 2016.

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Parliaments are the guarantors of legitimate representation in modern democracies. While the breadth and scope of today’s transnational issues call for more popular representation within the institutions of global governance, there is no such thing as a world parliament yet. The United Nations (UN), one of the most mature organisations of global governance, convenes the General Assembly following the principle of one-country-one-vote, but lacks direct popular representation based on the principle of one-person-one-vote.

We propose to debate and simulate the introduction of a “UN Parliament” (or “UN Parliamentary Assembly”) as a “second chamber” next to the General Assembly. Proposals for such a world parliament are not new. On the occasion of the 200th anniversary of the publication of Kant’s Perpetual Peace in the 1990s, political theorists of all stripes have engaged in vivid debates about the cosmopolitan heritage of liberalism and the notion of a world parliament. In recent years, as practitioners, activists and scholars decry the inadequacy of UN structures, the idea of instituting a democratic body of popular representation at the UN level has gained political momentum. The CISS Impact Group ‘UN Parliament’ is dedicated to taking up those debates, facilitating an exchange of views on the proposal, and assessing the chances and challenges of this bold vision.

The Impact Group UN Parliament aims to contribute to the discussion on the proposal of a UN Parliamentary Assembly. Two major events are scheduled for the year 2016:

In spring, the Impact Group will organize a Model UN Parliament. Inspired by the Model United Nations concept, the Model UN Parliament will simulate the debates on the establishment of a UN Parliament among UN member states. The roles of the delegates will be played by international students who will lead fictitious negotiations on the structure and rules of a future UN Parliament, e.g. how many seats each nation gets, how representatives are elected, and what the powers of the new organ will be.

In autumn, the Impact Group will host the CISS Symposium on a UN Parliament. Academics and activists from around the world will be invited for discussions on the role of democracy in the current world order as well as the prospects of transferring the logic of parliamentary democracy to the global level. The Symposium’s guiding question will be: Democratizing World Politics or Perpetuating Hegemonic Orders? Exploring the Idea of a UN Parliament.