Fifty Indian MPs support global parliament for effective governance

New Delhi, May 17 (ANI): To improve the democratic character of global governance, the world's citizens should be given more responsibility through a global parliament.

This suggestion took center stage on Wednesday at the presentation of an Indian edition of a new book titled "A Global Parliament" that was chaired by Vilasrao Deshmukh, Minister of Science and Technology and organized by Dr. Shashi Tharoor.

According to American professors Richard Falk, University of California and Andrew Strauss of Widener University democratic decision-making needs to be "extended to the global system."

At the release of the book at the CSIR Building in New Delhi, Deshmukh said the proposal was "bold" and "worth serious consideration."

He remarked: "In a first practical step, a largely consultative United Nations Parliamentary Assembly could be created and national parliaments, including the Indian parliament could send elected representatives to the global parliament. UNPA could become the peoples' chamber at the United Nations while United Nations General Assembly can act as the upper house."

Deshmukh also supported an international campaign for the creation of a UN Parliamentary Assembly which is supported by more than 800 elected representatives throughout the world and hundreds of leading personalities, among them over 50 members of the Parliament of India.

Parliamentarian Tharoor, who was contender for the post of UN Secretary General in 2006, said: "UN Parliamentary Assembly will a consultative body of UN General Assembly to begin with and will be the voice of the people globally. For practical reasons the representatives to UNPA should be elected by the national parliaments of different countries so that even non-democratic countries such as China could take part in it."

In the book, Falk and Strauss argue that a number of twenty to thirty countries that are geographically, culturally and economically diverse could initiate a project to create a global parliament.

They take the view that direct elections are a necessary condition and that over time more and more countries would join.

In the preface former UN Secretary General Boutros Boutros-Ghali of Egypt concurs that democracy, to be effective, needs to extend beyond state borders.

The book is a compilation of articles and essays by Falk and Strauss that appeared in journals such as Foreign Affairs and newspapers like The International Herald Tribune or The Times of India between 1997 and 2010. (ANI)