The Model Global Parliament Program
- A simulated democratic global forum, wherein representatives of geopolitical regions work alongside non-governmental organisations of international significance, in order to determine practical solutions to global problems.
- A joint initiative of the World Citizens' Association of Australia (WCAA) and the Institute for Global Peace and Sustainable Governance (IGPSG)
The MGP is an education program that offers a unique opportunity for students to understand the challenges and pathways to achieve effective global governance in the 21st Century; to enable them to be exemplary world citizens and help them ensure a sustainable future for generations to come. It further allows students to improve their public speaking skills, debate in the New South Wales Legislative Council, and interact with civil society groups advocating for a world parliament.
“The only way peace can be achieved is through world government.”
-Jawaharlal Nehru, 1st prime minister of the Republic of India
AIM
The aim of the MGP is to provide participants with a platform to collectively explore which global issues need their attention, and how they think a global parliament could formulate effective solutions and improve global governance in the future. The MGP is essentially an educational platform for students to learn to think and talk together about global issues, using parliamentary procedures. It is intended to enable students to explore new ways of addressing the evident gaps in democratic global governance arrangements and to present, contest issues and enact ideas about how to shape the future for the benefit of a better world for all living things.
Several Model Global Parliaments have already taken place around Australia in recent years, in Melbourne, Canberra, and in Sydney and have met with great success. This initiative arose out a need to reach out to our youth through the educational process to enable them to be the instigators and role models for peace, social justice and human rights within their peer groups, their community, their country and the global community in general.
A full digest of participants' responses to the pilot iteration of the Model Global Parliament program has been made available here.
How It Works:
In the MGP, participants play the role of MPs in a democratically elected global parliament, empowered to seek practical and attainable solutions to global problems, and not subject to the restrictions of the present United Nations organization. Each MP belongs to a group representing a nation-state or a geopolitical regional organisation and endeavours to speak for his/her constituency. Motions are proposed by the MPs in writing prior to sitting, and, once approved by a committee, are debated on the day as in any normal parliament.
Regions of the World
The delegates to the Model Global Parliament will represent different geographical regions of the world, or regional organisations. For practical reasons, there will be up to 12 groups, of up to 5 members each.
Some possible groups are:
Some possible groups are:
