Global Democracy and the African Children’s Parliament
by Glen T. Martinwww.radford.edu/~gmartin
Secretary-General, World Constitution and Parliament Association (WCPA) www.wcpa.biz

The World Constitution and Parliament Association, since 1982, has been organizing Provisional World Parliaments under the authority of Article 19 of the Constitution for the Federation of Earth. These Parliaments are not simply conferences about peace and democracy. They derive their authority to debate and enact provisional world legislation from the Earth Constitution, as outlined in Article 19. Voting delegates at these Parliaments must sign a pledge that they recognize the Earth Constitution as the supreme law for planet Earth. Observers to the Parliaments are also welcome but may not vote unless they support the Constitution for the Federation of Earth.

This is one very significant difference between the WCPA and most other global democracy organizations. The WCPA is attempting to “jump-start” global democracy by actually beginning the process of developing democratic world law. Since 1982, the Provisional World Parliament has developed a body of high-quality provisional world law that is modeling for the people of Earth the kind of law they should be developing to deal with our immense global problems of militarism, weapons of mass destruction, global warming, resource depletion, and human rights violations.

Global democracy under democratic world government simply will not happen unless people rapidly begin thinking outside of the ideological boxes presented to them by the system of sovereign nation-states and global monopoly capitalism. By accepting the framework of the nation-state and monopoly capitalism as givens within which we have to work for a democratic world order, we are defeating ourselves from reaching our goal from the very start. Global democracy is not possible under the system of “sovereign” nation-states and peace and prosperity for all humanity is simply not possible under global monopoly capitalism. The WCPA and the Provisional World Parliament have been working outside these restricting ideological boxes for two generations.

The Eighth session of the Provisional World Parliament met in Lucknow, India in August 2005, and was generously hosted by the City Montessori School (CMS) of Lucknow. It involved the participation and artistry of many students from CMS, Lucknow, and addressed, as all Parliaments have, the terrible global crises confronting humankind. The Ninth Session met in Tripoli, Libya in April 2006, hosted by the Revolutionary Committees Movement of Libya. The meetings of the Parliament were concurrent with an assembly of the African Children’s Parliament, with children participating from several African nations.
The African Children’s Parliament his been an initiative of a number of African nations independently in which the children of these countries organize a parliament in their countries order to (1) gain experience and leadership skills in democratic debate and procedures and (2) give a voice for their own concerns and interests to the governments of their respective countries. The idea of an African Children’s Parliament for all of Africa is still a developing one that may become a reality in the future. Since a number of African countries have children’s parliaments, some have the idea that there could be a Children’s Parliament for all of Africa.

The Provisional World Parliament, at its meetings in Libya, helped encourage that movement toward an official African Children’s Parliament by inviting representatives from the children’s parliaments of African nations to meet concurrently with the Provisional World Parliament. At these meetings, the approximately 40 children from the children’s parliaments of several nations formulated a resolution concerning the fight against malaria. They presented this to the Provisional World Parliament in an official ceremony. The Provisional World Parliament, which included 57 delegates from 29 nations, unanimously voted to support the fight against malaria in Africa. A delegation from the City Montessori School of Lucknow also participated in these ceremonies and made a wonderful statement on behalf of the 30,000 CMS students and the children of the world.

The Tenth Session of the Provisional World Parliament is now scheduled for Kara, Togo (West Africa) from June 21 to 24, 2007. Delegates will arrive in Lome, Togo, on June 20 and return to Lome on June 25 or 26th. The Parliament will coordinate with another meeting of the African Children’s Parliament with children representatives from a number of African countries. We are hoping in this way that we can support the development of an African Children’s Parliament for all of Africa. As with European unity, African, Asian, or Latin American unity will be very positive developments as long as they are part of the development of world unity under the Earth Constitution.

Global democracy is not possible without world unity under a real democratic Constitution that legislates real, enforceable world law. In a world of fragmentation under sovereign nation-states and monopoly capitalism, gigantic undemocratic forces in the form of military power of nation-states and economic power of gigantic corporations necessarily destroy democracy, as well as peace, the global environment, and human well-being. The two bills of rights in the Earth Constitution (Articles 12 and 13) are enforceable by all the organs of world government, including the world police. They guarantee every human being within the Federation of Earth not only democracy and political freedom, but the right to have a protected, safe, and healthy environment. This is what global democracy will ultimately mean.