E-parliament
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Contents |
[edit] The e-Parliament
The e-Parliament is a not-for-profit organization that links together the world's democratic members of parliament and congress into a single forum. The intention is that this community of democratic legislators, together with interested organizations and citizens, can address a democracy gap at both the national and global levels.
[edit] Beginnings
The e-Parliament was born in In early 2001, when William Ury, co-author of the best-selling book ‘Getting to Yes’, and Nicholas Dunlop, a former Secretary-General of the legislators' network Parliamentarians for Global Action, were struck by an idea. By linking the world's democratic legislators together through the internet, with a voting system and committee structure comparable to that of a national parliament, it would be possible to address the lack of democracy at the global level.
By creating a kind of informal world parliament, they hoped to create the first genuinely democratic world institution. At the same time, they planned a parallel global problem-solving process, alongside the intergovernmental talks, which would be transparent, accountable, inclusive and flexible. Even though a global e-Parliament cannot make decisions that bind anyone, and the power of decision rests as before in national parliaments, it could nonetheless be potentially influential, since legislators play a central role within each national government.
A three-year design process brought together leading legislators, researchers, civil society groups and business leaders in a creative brainstorming process. The result is the e-Parliament with the services provided through the e-Parliament website. The e-Parliament will develop gradually, issue by issue and adding additional services one at a time. It can engage steadily increasing numbers of citizens and legislators as time goes on.
[edit] The e-Parliament now
The e-Parliament currently runs three networks of legislators, on energy and climate change, democracy and weapons in space. The first international e-Parliament hearing took place in the US Congress on September 14th 2005. A group of democratically elected legislators from ten countries held a joint parliamentary hearing and dialogue about the possible deployment of weapons in space. The meeting was webcast live to enable participation from journalists and citizens worldwide.
The next e-Parliament hearing will take place in Kenya on 17th-19th November 2006.
