From New York to Nairobi: Strengthening Solidarity and Reimagining Democracy

The 80th session of the UN General Assembly (UNGA) with its theme of ‘Better together: 80 years and more for peace, development and human rights,’ provided opportunity to reiterate our demand to boldly reimagine the multilateral system to meet 21st century challenges. At a roundtable on Democracy and Multilateralism, convened by Club de Madrid and International IDEA, we highlighted the urgency of needing to shift from a flawed state-centric model of global governance to a people-centric model. We emphasized that meaningful reforms such as establishing a UN Parliamentary Assembly, a UN Citizens’ Initiative, and a UN Envoy for Civil Society are essential to move the UN closer to people.