The time is right to put into practice the principle "That which concerns everyone must be decided by everyone." The Security Council – with the five permanent members’ power of veto – more often than not serves only to block decisions adverse to those five, or even only one of them. Where really is democracy in the world today? We need a World Parliament which effectively represents all the peoples of the Earth.

Mario Capanna, Italian politician and writer, President of the Genetic Rights Foundation in Rome, 2010

Democracy is only complete if elected representatives take part in decision-making. That's why a parliamentary assembly also needs to be created for international organizations. It needs to be vested with adequate powers and shouldn't be a mere talking shop.

Eva Högl, Member of the German Parliament, 2010

Today democracy has become the touchstone for legitimate governance at the local, provincial and national levels. Perhaps the international system's greatest anomaly in our age of globalization is that it is not yet organized along democratic lines. It is time for a global parliamentary assembly.

Andrew Strauss, Professor of Law at Widener University School of Law, United States, 2010

Globalization has transformed the relationship between the individual and the world community, and made necessary the need for practical measures to democratize global governance. A UN Parliamentary Assembly would be an important step in the right direction.

Lloyd Axworthy, Former Canadian Minister of Foreign Affairs, President of the University of Winnipeg, 2010

I can imagine that a democratic world parliament comes into being and that this world parliament tackles the problems which actually should already be handled today: Environmental pollution, the development of the economical and ecological conditions for living together, or the prevention of war. We need world laws today.

Uri Avnery, Israeli writer, former Member of Parliament and founder of the Gush Shalom peace movement, 2009

The trend of the globalization of public policy issues will continue and cannot be ignored. It is necessary to build democratic principles into global governance. The creation of a UN Parliamentary Assembly composed of national legislators could be part of the solution.

Mike Moore, Former Director-General of the World Trade Organization and former Prime Minister of New Zealand, 2009

The establishment of parliamentary assemblies in the Bretton Woods Institutions, the WTO, and the UN seems worth trying as a first and relatively modest building block of a democratization of global governance.

Anne Peters, Professor for International and Public Law at the University of Basel, 2009

So many of my current causes, projects and interventions in the Parliament of Canada have a single common denominator - the urgent need to transform the United Nations System, to make it more accountable and more responsive to the collective needs, and rights, of the world's citizens. A UN Parliamentary Assembly would be an important step in the right direction.

Roméo Dallaire, Canadian Senator, former force commander of the UN Assistance Mission for Rwanda, 2008

The Pan-African Parliament ... stresses the potential of a United Nations Parliamentary Assembly to increase the efficiency, transparency and democratic character of the United Nations and international co-operation; ... notes that in a first preliminary step [the assembly] could be composed of national parliamentarians, but that eventually it should be directly elected by universal adult suffrage.

Pan-African Parliament, From a resolution in support of a UN Parliamentary Assembly adopted by the Pan-African Parliament on October 24, 2007

We need to promote the democratization of globalization, before globalization destroys the foundations of national and international democracy. The establishment of a Parliamentary Assembly at the UN has become an indispensable step to achieve democratic control of globalization.

Boutros Boutros-Ghali, Former UN Secretary-General, 2007