The Global Assembly is a global

citizens' assembly A citizens' assembly (also known as citizens' jury or citizens' panel or people's jury or policy jury or citizens' initiative review or consensus conference or citizens' convention) is a body formed from randomly selected citizens to deliberat ...

consisting of one hundred persons from around the world chosen by

sortition In governance, sortition (also known as selection by lottery, selection by lot, allotment, demarchy, stochocracy, aleatoric democracy, democratic lottery, and lottocracy) is the selection of political officials as a random sample from a large ...

to discuss issues facing the world as a whole, starting with

climate change In common usage, climate change describes global warming—the ongoing increase in global average temperature—and its effects on Earth's climate system. Climate change in a broader sense also includes previous long-term changes to ...

. It is a joint initiative of several bodies including the Danish Board of Technology, and the Centre for Deliberative Democracy and Global Governance at the

University of Canberra The University of Canberra (UC) is a public research university with its main campus located in Bruce, Canberra, Australian Capital Territory. The campus is within walking distance of Westfield Belconnen, and from Canberra's Civic Centre. U ...

and has multiple funders including the Scottish Government and the European Climate Foundation and is supported by the

United Nations The United Nations (UN) is an intergovernmental organization whose stated purposes are to maintain international peace and security, develop friendly relations among nations, achieve international cooperation, and be a centre for harmoni ...

. On 30 October 2021, the Assembly produced the first statement that has any claim to democratically represent the voice of humanity in the form of an interim statement.

History

Under the influence of

Jürgen Habermas Jürgen Habermas (, ; ; born 18 June 1929) is a German social theorist in the tradition of critical theory and pragmatism. His work addresses communicative rationality and the public sphere. Associated with the Frankfurt School, Habermas's wo ...

, political science began to focus on how communities and populations develop a common will through communication in the public sphere resulting in the development of

deliberative democracy Deliberative democracy or discursive democracy is a form of democracy in which deliberation is central to decision-making. It adopts elements of both consensus decision-making and majority rule. Deliberative democracy differs from traditional ...

. The concept of a citizens' assembly was first developed in the form of a

deliberative poll A deliberative opinion poll, sometimes called a deliberative poll, is a form of opinion poll that incorporates the principles of deliberative democracy. Professor James S. Fishkin of Stanford University first described the concept in 1988. The typ ...

by James Fishkin in 1988, intended to model the conclusions a community would make if it were able to meet together and engage in informed deliberation on the issues. In 2011,

John Dryzek John S. Dryzek (born 23 June 1953) is a Centenary Professor at the Centre for Deliberative Democracy and Global Governance at the University of Canberra's Institute for Governance and Policy Analysis. Education Dryzek has a B.A. (Honours) in ...

and others proposed that global citizens' assemblies should be convened to discuss questions of international diplomacy as an effective and relatively cheap democratic exercise to identify the will of the global population.

The First Global Assembly

The First Global Assembly was timed to coincide with

COP26 The 2021 United Nations Climate Change Conference, more commonly referred to as COP26, was the 26th United Nations Climate Change conference, held at the SEC Centre in Glasgow, Scotland, United Kingdom, from 31 October to 13 November 2021. The ...

Glasgow Glasgow ( ; sco, Glesca or ; gd, Glaschu ) is the most populous city in Scotland and the fourth-most populous city in the United Kingdom, as well as being the 27th largest city by population in Europe. In 2020, it had an estimated popu ...

in October–November 2021. The Assembly consisted of one hundred people from one hundred locations around the world selected by sortition to be representative of the world's population. The Assembly was selected from lists of people identified at these locations by local community organisations, to provide a representative sample of the global population. The Assembly was to answer the question "How can humanity address the

climate Climate is the long-term weather pattern in an area, typically averaged over 30 years. More rigorously, it is the mean and variability of meteorological variables over a time spanning from months to millions of years. Some of the meteorologi ...

and

ecological crisis An ecological or environmental crises occurs when changes to the environment of a species or population destabilizes its continued survival. Some of the important causes include: * Degradation of an abiotic ecological factor (for example, incr ...

in a fair and effective way?", and was informed by scientists about the causes and effects of climate change and ecological crisis. On 30 October 2021, the Assembly produced an interim statement and it made a final Declaration on 18 December 2021. The Declaration endorses the

Paris Agreement The Paris Agreement (french: Accord de Paris), often referred to as the Paris Accords or the Paris Climate Accords, is an international treaty on climate change. Adopted in 2015, the agreement covers climate change mitigation, adaptation, and ...

and the

Universal Declaration of Human Rights The Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR) is an international document adopted by the United Nations General Assembly that enshrines the rights and freedoms of all human beings. Drafted by a UN committee chaired by Eleanor Roosevelt ...

, and calls for the recognition of the human right to a clean environment and the international crime of

ecocide Ecocide is human impact on the environment causing mass destruction to that environment. Ten nations have codified ecocide as a crime. Activities that might constitute ecocide in these nations include substantially damaging or destroying ecos ...

. It also endorses participatory approaches to the climate crisis and calls for a fair and just energy transition.

Future

The Global Assembly intends to continue to convene and to expand participation to ten million persons from around the world by 2030.

External links

Official Website

References

{{reflist Climate change and society Climate assemblies

History

The First Global Assembly

Future

See also

External links

References