Originally published on the CGS blog on June 11, 2009.
Boutros Boutros-Ghali, former Secretary General of the United Nations and current president of the Egyptian National Council on Human Rights, has called for the creation of a direct, democratic relationship between citizens of the world and the world’s international institutions through the establishment of a UN Parliamentary Assembly, a goal that Citizens for Global Solutions has long advocated. He stated that such an assembly is necessary for the strength and expansion of democracy, saying that, in this era of globalization, “democracy within the state will diminish in importance if the process of democratization is not extended to the system of international governance as well.
He also expressed the urgency of this issue, noting the abundance of “problems which can only be solved effectively at the global level” and the threat they pose to democracy. He cited economic concerns at the top of the list.
“The last time an economic crisis of such magnitude occurred, it … contributed to the rise of fascism, the outbreak of the Second World War, and genocide,” Mr. Boutros-Ghali remarked. “During the current global economic crisis, we should not turn a blind eye to this lesson.”
Read the full article here: http://www.opendemocracy.net/article/boutros-boutros-ghali/UN-parliament-global-democracy
