Article originally published by Democracy Without Borders

The Stimson Center in Washington D.C. recommends that the United Nations should establish a parliamentary network as an advisory body to the UN General Assembly in order to address its “democracy and legitimacy deficits”. In a policy brief on the UN’s 75 anniversary that is commemorated this year, the think tank explains that the new UN Parliamentary Network, in short UNPN, “would act as a platform for direct participation, input, and accountability claims by the peoples of the world on governance matters pertaining to the UN.”

The document authored by Stimson’s Cristina Petcu elaborates that “the increasing transnational nature of global challenges requires a shared commitment to cooperation and collective action based on multilateral principles” and that such action “requires both representative and legitimate decision-making, two elements that are insufficiently embedded within the UN system” because UN member states “are represented solely by the executive branch of national governments with no formal direct channels for legislative branch involvement.”

The proposal for a UNPN was first put forward in the report of the Albright-Gambari-Commission on Global Security, Justice and Governance five years ago with the long-term objective of creating a UN Parliamentary Assembly (UNPA), as the Stimson study points out. According to Stimson, “formalizing a full-fledged parliamentary body at the United Nations will require more time to garner sufficient political support. The UN Parliamentary Network idea, by contrast, is less ambitious in nature and requires fewer political obstacles to be overcome.” . . .