Leonard Angel

Director, Institute for Ethics and Global Justice 

Philosophy & Humanities, Faculty Emeritus, Douglas College

Current Interests

Ethics;

Democracy;

Sustainability;

Global Justice Policies;

Global Parliamentary Assembly: There are two main kinds of democratic deficit: despotism, and the lack of a suitable structure for input. There are many despotic states; but all citizens in the world face the second deficit, since at the moment there is no democratic representation of citizens around the world. The theory and practice behind creating a global parliamentary assembly needs to be developed.

Events (Ongoing)

Campaign for the United Nations Parliamentary Assembly (Ongoing:  2007 April to . . .):

The Campaign for a United Nations Parliamentary Assembly is an initiative to give citizens, not just countries, a direct voice at the UN.

The UNPA campaign, headquartered in Germany, is a global network of parliamentarians and non-governmental organizations advocating direct representation of citizens at the United Nations. A consultative parliamentary assembly is envisaged as a practical first step towards establishing a directly-elected world parliament with co-decision powers over the UN system. This initiative has been endorsed by 826 members of national parliaments in at least 102 countries, including at least 74 MPs and Senators from Canada.

Leonard's Comment on Endorsing the UNPA:

People all around the world are working (officially, only since the end of April beginning of May 2007) for global citizen's voices in what would/will be called the United Nations Parliamentary Assembly. This would/will be one of the most important transformations the world has seen--a voice for each person in the world through people who are not controlled by any nation-state government. The plan is open to each citizen of the world to endorse. Please check it out, and, if you're agreeable to it, as I expect you will be, endorse it. Then you can say to your children/grandchildren/friends/friends' children or grandchildren etc in the many decades to come: "I supported its development when it was still a dream." It's being supported by Boutros Boutros-Ghali (former Secretary-General of the UN), Vaclav Havel (former President of Czechoslovakia), hundreds of parliamentarians around the world, etc. It's still a dream, but it's a vivid one, acted on by many Nobel Prize winners, etc.

To check it out, go to UNPA Campaign.org or UNPA Campaign.ca or KDUN, and, if you need questions answered, find the FAQ (November 2006, under documents, under old documents, EN (for English)) for frequently asked questions. Once your questions are satisfactorily answered, go back to the main page and find the appeal sheet to sign up.