World Conference of Speakers of Parliaments.

• Author: Johnsson, Anders B.

Leaders of the world's parliaments met at UN Headquarters in New York from 7 to 9 September 2005 for the Second World Conference of Speakers of Parliaments, to bring their vision of multilateral cooperation to the hub of international politics. At the outset, the role of the institution of parliament is first and foremost a domestic one. These institutions are a diverse set, each zealously guarding its own independence and imbued with traditions, which in some cases date back more than a thousand years.

There is also a place for the leaders of parliaments in the UN General Assembly for various reasons. The first is a symbolic one. The Conference was held the week preceding the 2005 World Summit, with more than 150 Heads of State and Government attending. The presence of the speakers offered a timely reminder that democratic Governments are subject to the scrutiny of their parliaments and any decision of their leaders in the multilateral sphere will have to be debated in parliament if it is to be put into effect. Second, their presence in such a large number testified to a growing tendency within the international organizations to include parliaments in their affairs. At a time when the United Nations is in the throes of reform, the need for a more stringent democratic oversight of the work of multilateral organizations is being expressed more and more openly. Third and most importantly, it was a reflection of the changing agenda of the parliaments themselves.

The very first Conference of Speakers took place in 2000, on the eve of the Millennium Summit. Since then, the world has changed enormously. Tensions have been broken, often in very ugly forms. Across the board, there have been calls for more robust global governance, along with stronger democratic guarantees. Parliaments are directly concerned by these appeals. How should such intentions be translated into practical action? Not surprisingly, opinions differ. There are some who energetically champion a global parliamentary assembly, composed of parliamentarians initially delegated from their national assemblies and later directly elected, which would sit alongside the United Nations and scrutinize its affairs.

The view of the Inter-Parliamentary Union (IPU), convenor of the Conference, is more tempered. It makes little practical or political sense to set up a separate parliamentary assembly alongside the existing governmental General Assembly. The real priority is to ensure that there...