WFMC News for August 2022

March 31, 2023By Saba Q

Corey Levine Feature: 5 Part Series on Women in Afghanistan

Corey Levine recently released a 5 part series on her experience in Afghanistan. Since August 2021, the Taliban have retaken control of Afghanistan, rolling back 2 decades of progress, especially for women and children. In her first report, she details how the Taliban's regaining of power after 20 years has eroded women’s rights and freedoms. The previous Taliban regime prior to 2001, lacked any understanding of government management. In her second article, Corey details how the new Taliban understands how government works and has made certain steps to address corruption in state institutions.

However, she notes that they are “running an intolerant, theocratic police state” bent on fear and human rights abuses. Women have also been the target of attacks from various levels of government and institutions. Part three of her five-part series documents the story of 5 female MPs who were left behind during the capture of Kabul. In Levine’s fourth part of her series, she discusses how the resistance continues as leaders and organizations fight to preserve civil society in the face of diminishing civil liberties and human rights under Taliban rule. Her final part talks about how families attempt to restart their lives in Canada. She explores the experience of three women waiting for their new life in Canada to start. The reader learns about the uncertainty that comes with being an asylum seeker and Canada’s treatment of said asylum seekers. Her series from start to finish examines the struggle women continue to face under Taliban rule, but moreover, highlights the exceptional bravery and strength of those fighting for their human rights.

New book explores global solutions to global problems

By Keith McNeill

“So, perhaps now is the time to reopen discussions about adopting more democratic principles at the global level – everyone might one day vote in a world parliament.”

Those words appear on page 203 of the Kindle edition of “Breaking Boundaries,” a new book on the climate crisis and other related problems. It is one of several places where authors Johan Rockstrom and Owen Gaffney mention the United Nations. They also discuss policies that would work best in a more effective and democratic UN, although they do not make the implied connections with world federalism.

The policies include an international carbon tax (with much of the money going as social dividends to low-income households), a global wealth tax, prices on nitrogen, phosphorus, and water, a global transformation of agriculture, a radical overhaul of the global health system, geo-engineering, and longterm global planning.

READ FULL BOOK REVIEW HERE

In memory of Leonard Angel

This August, Dr. Leonard Angel, a long-time World Federalist passed away. Dr. Angel was a Director at the Institute for Ethics and Global Justice and a professor emeritus at Douglas College in the Department of Philosophy and Humanities. He wrote about the potential of a Global Parliamentary Assembly, a cause of profound importance to the World Federalist Movement, stating "(t)here are two main kinds of democratic deficit: despotism, and the lack of a suitable structure for input. There are many despotic states, but all citizens in the world face the second deficit since at the moment there is no democratic representation of citizens around the world."

Dr. Angel actively supported the Campaign for a United Nations Parliamentary Assembly, an initiative that aims to give citizens, not just countries, a direct voice at the UN. The UNPA campaign is a global network of parliamentarians and non-governmental organizations advocating for direct representation of citizens at the United Nations. The consultative parliamentary assembly is envisaged as a practical first step towards establishing a directly-elected world parliament with co-decision powers over the UN system. This initiative was endorsed by 826 members of national parliaments in at least 102 countries, including at least 74 MPs and Senators from Canada.

Leonard's Comment on Endorsing the UNPA:

People all around the world are working (officially, only since the end of April beginning of May 2007) for global citizen's voices in what would/will be called the United Nations Parliamentary Assembly. This would/will be one of the most important transformations the world has seen--a voice for each person in the world through people who are not controlled by any nation-state government. The plan is open to each citizen of the world to endorse. Please check it out, and, if you're agreeable to it, as I expect you will be, endorse it. Then you can say to your children/grandchildren/friends/friends' children or grandchildren etc in the many decades to come: "I supported its development when it was still a dream." It's being supported by Boutros Boutros-Ghali (former Secretary-General of the UN), Vaclav Havel (former President of Czechoslovakia), hundreds of parliamentarians around the world, etc. It's still a dream, but it's a vivid one, acted on by many Nobel Prize winners, etc.

To check it out, go to UNPA Campaign.org!