Taking Democracy Global:

[ChristineMarie]

TAKING DEMOCRACY GLOBAL:
ASSESSING THE BENEFITS
AND CHALLENGES OF A GLOBAL
PARLIAMENTARY ASSEMBLY

http://www.oneworldtrust.org/documents/taking%20democracy%20global.pdf

[ChristineMarie]

Creation by the United Nations General Assembly as a Subsidiary
Organ

Article 22 of the United Nations Charter empowers the General Assembly
to “establish such subsidiary organs as it deems necessary for the
performance of its functions.”

The proposal that the General Assembly
acting under Article 22 create a parliamentary assembly as a “subsidiary
organ” has been suggested on several occasions over the years. For
example, Erskine Childers and Brian Urquhart endorsed this approach
in their 1994 book, Renewing the United Nations System. Perhaps most
recently it has been proposed by the Germany-based Committee for a
Democratic U.N. in its paper, Developing International Democracy: For
a Parliamentary Assembly at the United Nations.

The idea is attractive in
that it provides a way around the cumbersome United Nations Charter
amendment process, but it is not without political difficulties of its own.
Whether a parliament can be properly characterized as a subsidiary
organ of the General Assembly and whether it can be properly deemed
necessary for the performance of its functions is legally questionable
in that the parliament would not be answerable to that body.

Indeed,
the entire rationale for a parliament is to introduce into global decisionmaking
an independent popularly representative body. While the General
Assembly has in the past established autonomous entities such as the
United Nations University, none of its creations have been intended to
be an independent source of political authority. The International Court
of Justice has opined in the 1987 United Nations Administrative Tribunal
advisory opinion that the General Assembly cannot delegate powers to
a subsidiary organ that it does not itself possess or are not implied as
consistent with the overall structure of the Charter.

Since the General
Assembly does not have the power to represent directly the citizens of
the world, and the United Nations is structured under the Charter as
an interstate organization opponents of the project could challenge the
General Assembly’s powers to create a parliament.

page 6
http://www.oneworldtrust.org/documents/taking%20democracy%20global.pdf

[ChristineMarie]

http://www.un.org/Depts/dpko/SRSG/mideast.ht

Agenda item 113
Follow-up to the outcome of the Millennium Summit
Note by the Secretary-General
1. In the Outcome document of the 2005 World Summit (resolution 60/1), the
Heads of State and Government recognized the importance of the unique expertise
and resources that the United Nations system brings to global issues. The global
leaders commended the extensive experience and expertise of the various
development-related United Nations organizations and their important contributions
to the achievement of the Millennium Development Goals and other broader
development objectives.
2. However, the leaders recognized the need to build on ongoing reforms aiming
at a more effective, coherent and better performing United Nations country
presence. They specifically invited me to “launch work to further strengthen the
management and coordination of United Nations operational activities so that they
can make an even more effective contribution to the achievement of the
internationally agreed development goals, including the Millennium Development
Goals”. The principal challenge for this work was identified as being in the fields of
development, humanitarian assistance and the environment, while taking into
account the cross-cutting areas of gender equality, sustainable development and
human rights.


http://unsystemceb.org/features/swc/report_systemwidecoherence.pdf/download