Parliamentary dimension of the United Nations
- Author(s):
- Parliamentary Assembly
- Origin
- Assembly debate on
23 January 2006 (1st Sitting) (see Doc. 10771, report of the Political
Affairs Committee, rapporteur: Mrs de Zulueta). Text adopted by
the Assembly on 23 January 2006 (1st Sitting).
- Thesaurus
1. The Parliamentary Assembly refers
to its
Resolutions 1289
(2002) on parliamentary scrutiny of international institutions
and
1373 (2004) on
strengthening of the United Nations.
2. Despite wide acknowledgement that the United Nations (UN)
should be reformed, reaching an agreement on the nature of this
reform is proving to be a difficult and laborious task. Results
have been achieved in some areas, such as the decision to set up
a peacebuilding commission as well as a human rights council. No
agreement has been reached on the general thrust of the reforms,
however, while negotiations on some important aspects, such as those
relating to the enlarged representativity of the Security Council,
seem to have reached a deadlock. At the same time, events such as
the war in Iraq and the Oil-for-Food scandal have eroded confidence
in the UN multilateral system and the credibility of the organisation.
3. At this crucial moment, the Assembly calls for a renewed impetus
in the continuation of the UN reform process. In its view, a durable
and forward-looking reform should be led by the objective of rendering
the whole United Nations system more transparent, legitimate and
accountable before its member states as well as public opinion at
large. For this reason, the reform cannot be limited to making the
organisation more reflective of current geopolitical realities but
should aim at incorporating democratic mechanisms in the UN system,
with a view to redressing the democratic deficit in global governance
and bring the United Nations closer to the people.
4. In this context, the Assembly believes that the issue of the
closer involvement of parliamentarians in UN activities should be
brought to the forefront of the current reform discussions as it
is a fundamental means to associate the people – through their elected
representatives – to the UN deliberative process, the oversight
of UN activities and the monitoring of the implementation of UN
decisions by member states.
5. Parliamentary involvement in the work of the UN should be
enhanced progressively. This process should begin through the setting
up within national parliaments of groups of members of parliament
to support co-operation with the United Nations, by ensuring that
parliamentarians are fully informed of UN activities. The process
should culminate with the inclusion in the UN system of a parliamentary
assembly with consultative functions.
6. The Assembly takes note of the recommendations put forward
in the report of the Panel of Eminent Persons on United Nations-Civil
Society Relations – the so-called Cardoso report – concerning the engagement
of parliamentarians in UN work and welcomes the growing association
of parliamentarians with UN activities, in the form of strengthened
co-operation between the United Nations and the Inter-Parliamentary Union
(IPU).
7. This strengthened co-operation is welcome as it improves the
familiarity of national parliamentarians with UN activities and
provides them with a podium in UN instances. The Assembly, however,
believes that in order to have a lasting impact on the legitimacy,
accountability and representativity of the United Nations system,
the involvement of parliamentarians in UN work should be further
developed so as to become systematic and structurally linked with
the functioning of UN institutions. In particular, given its deliberative
and oversight functions as well as its role as the most representative
global forum, the UN General Assembly is ideally placed to act as
an interface with parliamentarians.
8. A decisive step towards the development of a UN parliamentary
dimension could be the establishment of an experimental parliamentary
committee with consultative functions for General Assembly committees.
It would be composed of national delegations, elected by national
parliaments, with due respect to the principle of representativity
of the different political forces present in parliament and with
due consideration to gender balance. This parliamentary committee
should be of reasonable size and ensure a fair geographical representation
of all the regional groupings currently existing in the General
Assembly. Within each regional grouping, national delegations would
rotate on a periodic basis. Should this experiment be successful,
the structure and functioning of this committee could inspire the
establishment of a UN parliamentary assembly with consultative functions
for the plenary General Assembly.
9. In light of the above, the Assembly urges Council of Europe
member and observer states to:
9.1 encourage
debates on issues discussed at the UN in national parliaments as
well as in regional parliamentary assemblies;
9.2 allow the active participation of parliamentarians in
national delegations to the General Assembly.
10. In addition, the Assembly invites the UN Secretary-General
to give further consideration to he recommendations of the Cardoso
report concerning the engagement of parliamentarians and suggest proposals
along the same lines.
11. Finally, the Assembly invites the UN General Assembly to:
11.1 envisage appropriate ways for
involving parliamentarians in its activities by: working with the
IPU and other inter-parliamentary representative bodies and devising
a step-by-step strategy, which could include the following stages:
11.1.1 working with the IPU and other
inter-parliamentary representative bodies and devising a step-by-step
strategy, which could include the following stages:
11.1.1.1 setting up a network of regional
parliamentary assemblies to discuss emerging UN priorities, with
consultative functions for one or more General Assembly committees;
11.1.1.2 setting up a parliamentary committee to discuss issues
of special global or regional importance and/or the UN budget, with
consultative functions for one or more General Assembly committees;
setting up a UN parliamentary assembly, based on national delegations,
with consultative functions for the General Assembly;
11.1.1.3 setting up, together with the United Nations and its institutions,
of national information and research centres for parliamentarians,
local government representatives, representatives of NGOs and volunteers
in member states;
11.1.1.4 setting up, together with the United Nations and its institutions,
of national information and research centres for parliamentarians,
local government representatives, representatives of NGOs and volunteers
in member states;
11.1.2 adopting clear rules for the involvement of parliamentarians
in its work, setting out their rights and responsibilities, as well
as the obligation for parliamentary delegations to ensure a fair representation
of the political parties or groups in their parliament and give
due account to gender balance considerations;
11.1.3 setting up a panel to make precise proposals on the recommended
size, composition and rota system of parliamentary committees and/or
a UN parliamentary assembly;
11.2 consider additional measures to ensure better interaction
between the General Assembly and national or regional parliaments,
in particular those encouraging the more active involvement of the Speakers
or Presidents of these assemblies in the work of the regional groupings
of the General Assembly.
