On 15 May 2017, Parliamentarians for Global Action (PGA) convened a Roundtable on Strategies to Strengthen the United Nations by Increasing Democratic Representation, hosted by the House of Representatives of the Netherlands with the support of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Netherlands. The aim of the Roundtable was to explore mechanisms to increase the democratic representation and accountability of the United Nations (UN) through an establishment of a subsidiary parliamentary body of the UN General Assembly or an improvement of existing mechanisms. The Roundtable provided an opportunity for leading representatives of regional Parliaments, the Inter-Parliamentary Union, the United Nations Parliamentary Assembly Campaign (UNPA) and the academia to exchange ideas and assess the pros, cons, and challenges of democratic representation of Legislators of Member States within the United Nations system.
The opening remarks were delivered by co-hosts Mr. Pieter Omtzigt, MP (Netherlands), member of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) and member of PGA, and Prof. dr. N.J. Schrijver, member of the Senate of The Netherlands, leader of the Dutch delegation to PACE, member of the OSCE Parliamentary Assembly and of the Executive Committee of IPU. The co-hosts introduced the key issues in agenda and raised insightful remarks, which prompted and inspired the discussion during the session that followed.
The first panel discussed the role of parliamentarians in promoting democratic representation and accountability in the UN. The panelists included Mr. Andreas Bummel, Global Coordinator of the UNPA Campaign, Ambassador Anda Filip, Director of External Relations at IPU, and Prof. Dr. Hans Köchler, University of Innsbruck, founder and President of International Progress Organization, and Mr. Charles Santiago, MP (Malaysia), Chair of the ASEAN Parliamentarians for Human Rights and Member of PGA. The panelists addressed the proposal of a UNPA, including the manner in which MPs would be elected, the inclusion of non-democratic Parliaments and the impact the UNPA could have on decisions made by UN organs.
Mr. Bummel stressed the need for a Parliamentary body in the UN and the importance of creating a new space for MPs to be involved in the decisions adopted at the UN. The goal of the campaign is to create a body with distinctive rights and powers based upon Article 22 of the UN Charter. Mr. Bummel suggested that the Parliamentary body should begin with a more consultative role, and once the General Assembly and the public become more familiar with the involvement of parliamentarians, the body could gradually increase its powers and mandate. The Parliamentary Assembly, however, would not assume the functions of the General Assembly (GA), as the GA will always have an irreplaceable role, for instance, being the organs with the statutory authority to request advisory opinions to the International Court of Justice. The UNPA Campaign suggests that all countries should be allowed to have representatives in the Assembly, including non-democratic states. Mr. Bummel noted that UN membership is not tied to any state regime format, and that the inclusion of MPs from these countries has the potential to strengthen their domestic systems. Accordingly, the UNPA Campaign suggests an apportionment of seats according to the principle of degressive proportionality as applied in the European Parliament under the provision that every country gets at least two seats, while larger ones may get more. The idea of degressive proportionality is that while larger states should get more seats in total than smaller ones, smaller states would be allocated more seats than would be allocated strictly in proportion to their population.
Ambassador Anda Filip explained the mandate of the IPU and its role as inter-parliamentary body in the international arena. The IPU attempts to bring the voices of Parliaments and Parliamentarians to the UN and its agenda, while maintaining a clear separation of powers to promote independence and autonomy by existing as an institution separate from the UN. Ambassador Filip also mentioned that the IPU can use its powers to perform similar roles to those suggested for a UNPA, such as having members participate directly and indirectly in the UN and exercising parliamentary oversight. In her concluding remarks, she suggested that participants consider strengthening the tools already available instead of creating new institutions.
Prof. Dr. Hans Köchler discussed the democratic deficit and the gap between the UN Charter and the decision-making processes at the UN. He noted that the existence and structure of the UN Security Council (UNSC) and its decision-making process is undemocratic because it acts as the executive and legislative power of the international community. Dr. Köchler brought attention to the veto powers of the five permanent members of the UNSC, which could in practice imply that a resolution to establish a Parliamentary body would be rejected, given the reluctance of the five nations to delegate any of their powers to a newly created body at the UN. If a UNPA resolution were to succeed, Dr. Köchler reminded everyone that this body would not be a panacea because it would only be able to make recommendations. However, he believes it would represent an important step towards more accountability and transparency of the UN system, more involvement of civil societies, and decreasing the democracy gap. Dr. Köchler suggested that representatives of the people, rather than representatives of the state, might be better suited to monitor and oversee actions and decisions of the UNSC, especially when its Chapter VII powers would be invoked, in addition to making recommendations to the UNGA.
Mr. Charles Santiago, MP, contributed to the Roundtable by sharing his experiences as a Member of Parliament of Malaysia and Chair of the ASEAN Parliamentarians for Human Rights (APHR), whose objective is to investigate and raise awareness of the human rights violations in the Asian South Eastern States. Mr. Santiago discussed the difficulties of establishing an inter-parliamentary assembly with consultative powers within ASEAN, given that Member States have high regard for the principle of non-interference in domestic affairs. Regretfully, Mr. Santiago noted that several ASEAN Member States consider human rights’ matter as falling exclusively within their domestic jurisdiction and reject any form of international cooperation, which is seen as interference. In this respect, he pointed out to the current human rights’ situation in Myanmar.
The second working session focused on sharing lessons-learned from regional parliaments and organizations. Ms. Margareta Cederfelt, MP (Sweden), Chair of PGA’s International Council and Rapporteur of the Committee on Political Affairs and Security of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE), gave opening remarks and facilitated the session. Mrs. Cederfelt briefly explained the mandate of the OSCE, which consists of 57 participating states supporting stability, International Peace and Security around the world, from Canada to Mongolia. Mrs. Cederfelt introduced the idea of parliamentary mediation and stressed the importance of parliamentarians working together and sharing responsibilities. She informed the group that the OSCE is working to apply these methods to work on the issue of migration. The panelists included Dr. Felipe Michelini, former Member of the Latin American Parliament, Board Member of the Trust Fund for Victims of the International Criminal Court and Head of Delegation of Uruguay of “la Comisión Administradora del Río de la Plata”, Dr. Bernadette Lahai, MP (Sierra Leone), Chair of the PGA Sierra Leone National Group and Vice-President of the Pan African Parliament, and Prof. Niels Blokker, Leiden University, former Deputy Legal Advisor at the Dutch Ministry for Foreign Affairs. The panelists discussed the added benefits of regional parliaments, the challenges that arise from working in both regional and national parliament, and the most effective ways of implementing decisions adopted at both these levels into international and national agendas.
Mr. Felipe Michelini discussed the successes and challenges of Parliaments from Latin America. He observed that most countries are democratic, with traditional Rule of Law based on written laws and fair and regular elections. However, Mr. Michelini noted that in practice that there are extreme socioeconomic gaps in many nations. In addition, many of the Latin American countries have only in the last decades overcome prolonged civil wars, while in some countries, urban and rural violence within an authoritarian culture still occurs. Notwithstanding these challenging issues facing the region, Mr. Michelini reaffirmed his belief that Latin America is an active and engaged participant of the international community. He pointed out that all States in South America joined the no-impunity zone of the Rome Statute of the ICC and several countries, including Argentina, Chile and Uruguay, incorporated and harmonized aspects of the Rome Statute into their domestic legislative frameworks. All Latin American States resisted the US Campaign (2002-05) to enter into Bilateral Non-Surrender Agreements. Dr. Michelini stressed that all these achievements were possible thanks to the leadership role of an existing parliamentary network, Parliamentarians for Global Action (PGA), not regional parliaments. The perseverant work of MPs became sustainable and bear fruits in light of a partnership with civil society members. Moving forward, Mr. Michelini suggested that MPs need to strengthen their capabilities and tools to monitor and push their governments forward. He also called upon MPs to engage more with academics and NGOs, such as PGA, to develop tools and capabilities to make their governments adhere to higher standards of Rule of Law.
Dr. Bernadette Lahai shared her experiences as Vice President of the Pan-African Parliament (PAP) and active member of the ACP-EU Joint Parliamentary Assembly, a transregional parliamentary body created to democratize the framework of development cooperation and addressed the North-South divide through political dialogue. She discussed the structure of PAP, how members are elected and the roles they fulfill. Dr. Lahai provided concrete examples of structures and roles for Parliamentarians in a UN Parliamentary Assembly, such as monitoring implementation processes and making recommendations for the UNGA, as the PAP does with the African Union. She also discussed the challenges that arise from the existence of regional parliaments, such as MPs’ dual responsibility, absenteeism, term limits and election processes. Dr. Lahai offered the PAP’s solution to the issue that arises when an MP does not get re-elected in their national parliament. To combat the constant changes that were occurring in the PAP when MPs would lose their seats in the national parliaments, the PAP decided that MPs could be in office for one five-year term. During the term, they would remain in the PAP, regardless of whether they remain members of their national parliaments. Dr. Lahai also suggested studying the powers and operations of the existing international bodies before creating a new parliamentary body.
The session ended with remarks from Prof. Niels Blokker, who spoke about his research on many different types of international parliamentary bodies. Based on his observations and studies, Prof. Blokker raised other practical questions that need to be answered before creating a UNPA, such as whether each state should have the same number of MPs or if it should vary by population size, whether or not the body will have budgetary power, and whether or not they will have legislative powers. While Prof. Blokker highlighted benefits of regional parliaments, he emphasized that their existence is not a solution to all democracy gaps, but that they can be useful stepping stones.
Following a vivid and inspiring discussion involving informative contributions from panelists, the Roundtable concluded with remarks made by Prof. dr. Schrijver and Dr. David Donat Cattin, Secretary General of PGA. They summarized the key issues discussed during the Roundtable, highlighting the necessity of parliamentary representation in the form of a decision making or advisory body to the UN. They emphasized the importance of further examining the existing UN Working Methods, their effectiveness as well as of assessing the necessary aspects of the existing UN Mechanisms that need to be strengthened. Based on the valuable information provided during the Roundtable, as well as a very useful comparison of existing regional Parliaments, participants were called upon to engage with this topic at the national and international levels, in particular, to determine which concept would be the most valuable to strengthen the effectiveness of the UN System and which existing model of a regional parliamentary body could serve as an inspiration of consultative assemblies for the UNPA.
