Originally published on the CGS blog on March 3, 2014.
Dear Jake,
Now you are 3 years old! It is a delight to watch you grow up and I admire the way you “keep an eye on” your twin sisters Annette and Clair. I’m so proud of the way you can put together your jigsaw puzzle map of the world all by yourself. I want to transform our world so that children everywhere can be healthy, happy, and caring towards others.
My last letter concluded with a sentence “There is much to be done to turn the United Nations into a strong, democratic, federation of nations.” I am reading a new book about this by a friend of mine, Professor Joe Schwartzberg, Professor Emeritus from the University of Minnesota. (Transforming the United Nations System: Designs for a Workable World.) Joe has done a lot of work creating a comprehensive plan to transform the United Nations so that it works better to solve the global problems facing planet earth. Joe shares my vision that we need systems in place to create and maintain world peace through world law with freedom and justice for all.
Joe’s first two suggestions involve what could be described as a legislative branch of a United Nations system. First he describes how the existing General Assembly (GA) should modify its voting so that the vote of each nation is weighted to take into account the size of its population, the amount of money it contributes to the United Nations budget, and the sovereign equality of nations. With weighted voting, Joe proposes that the GA could pass binding resolutions which are needed to move us towards the establishment of law for global issues like world peace and security.
Joe’s 2nd suggestion is to create a World Parliamentary Assembly (WPA) as part of the UN system in which the people of the world would be represented rather than the nations (as is the case in the GA). This would create a 2 house legislative branch for the UN similar to the way the United States has 2 Houses in our Congress. Joe has a very comprehensive plan for “baby stepping” our way towards a WPA. You’ll understand “baby steps” better when Clair & Annette start walking later this year!
Joe suggests that the number of seats in the WPA would be determined by a formula similar to the weighted voting described earlier for the GA. The number of seats for each nation would take into account the size of the population, the amount of money they contribute to the UN budget, and the sovereign equality of nations. Joe suggests that the seats be filled by representatives of political parties reflecting the parties in each country so that, for example, the USA would have both Republicans and Democrats seated in the WPA. In baby step 1 Joe suggests that the Nations appoint representatives to the WPA and they have only an advisory role. In step 2 there would be popular, fair, democratic elections within each nation and increasing legislative authority so that working together with the GA, the WPA would form binding global legislation in important matters of global concern. Joe has a vision for step 3 of a maximally democratic system in which national boundaries are often ignored and the number of people represented by each WPA member is relatively similar everywhere. This step might not happen even in your lifetime, if at all.
There are many exciting possibilities that could come out of these changes in the UN. It could lay the foundation for the establishment of global laws to help bring peace to our world. It also will help promote democracy in nations where it is lacking, by exposing all nations to democratic processes and elections.
Lots of good things for us to think about while you put together your jigsaw puzzle map of the world.
Love,
Gram
