Nicholas Hagger’s address to a conference in Djakarta, Indonesia on Tuesday 10 December 2019

All humankind’s human rights guaranteed in a partly-federal World State

The tenth of December 2019 is both Human Rights Day and the 70th anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, which the UN General Assembly adopted on 10 December 1948. All round the world there will be many paeans of praise for the Declaration, which asserts in Article 1 that “all human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights”. I want to focus on the best way to guarantee the human rights of all world citizens through a World State that will one day replace the UN General Assembly with a World Parliamentary Assembly.

In 2009 I brought out The New Philosophy of Universalism, and in 2010 The World Government, which looks back to Plato’s Republic and sets out an ideal democratic World State. I sent a copy to the UN General-Secretary, Ban Ki-moon, but did not get the response I was looking for. Recognising that the day when the UN General Assembly shuts itself down in favour of a democratic World State is still a long way off, perhaps a generation away, I joined forces with Igor Kondrashin and chaired the World Philosophical Foundation’s Constitutional Convention in Athens in 2015 and on 7 October 2015 brought in the Universal State of the Earth (the USE) as an interim institution. This depends on recruiting paid-up members, and will clearly not have the same influence as a World State that can replace the UN General Assembly with an elected World Parliamentary Assembly.

Since then I have focused on the concept of a World State in my book World State (2018), the first book to investigate all possible coming World States. There was tremendous interest in a World State following the atomic bombs of 1945, and Truman, Einstein, Churchill, Eisenhower, Gandhi, Russell, J.F. Kennedy and Gorbachev all called for a democratic World State. My World State is a partly-federal, supranational, democratically-elected body which has a World Parliamentary Assembly and an Upper House, a Senate, and has sufficient consensual power to abolish war, enforce disarmament, combat famine, disease and poverty, and solve the world’s financial and environmental problems. There would be 850 Representatives in the World Parliamentary Assembly. I set out their constituencies and show in great detail how a United Federation of the World could replace the UN and guarantee all human rights.

In 2018 I also brought out World State’s companion volume, World Constitution, a Constitution for the United Federation of the World in 145 articles.

These two volumes can be placed before the UN General Assembly this week. I have sent them to UN Secretary-General António Guterres, but for whatever reason there has not been a reply. I have heard that many publications sent to him are handled by others, and I do appreciate that I am asking him to shut down the UN and replace it with a new institution, which may not be exactly popular among those receiving high salaries. Bank Ki-moon sent me an email wishing me well when I received the Gusi Peace Prize in 2016, and saying he wished he could attend to see me receive it – suggesting that behind the scenes the leadership of the UN actually are interested in the concept of a democratic World State that will supersede it.

I want to get across the concept of a World State in a rigorous presentation that the UN General Assembly can consider, so they can agree to take the world forward by adopting it. The UN has failed to prevent 162 wars since 1945 and has failed to prevent the 72 wars currently being fought round the world. These are listed in the Appendices of World State, and something better than the UN needs to be found, although the UN will quite understandably be reluctant to abolish itself and replace itself with another body. If the UN were to accept the United States of the Earth, fine, but it may struggle to accept the USE as it at present has no democratic structures and its membership is relatively scanty – hence my World State and World Constitution, which can be considered by a critical UN General Assembly on the look-out for democratic representation and structures.

So that’s where we are. The United States of the Earth is better than nothing, which is why I brought it in, but the UN General Assembly will want a body they can have confidence in, which preserves the UN structures and approach but works better, so there are no wars and all human rights are observed. If any of you in Indonesia can set up a meeting between UN Secretary-General Guterres and me so I can talk him through my two ‘concept’ books and make him fully aware of all the issues, then I will be delighted to attend such a meeting.

I am sorry I cannot be with you on Human Rights Day 2019. I hope the day goes well and that you in Indonesia can mark Human Rights Day with a call for a World State to bring in a universal era in which all human rights will be honoured everywhere, which means no wars, enforced disarmament, combating famine, disease and poverty, and solving the world’s financial and environmental problems, the seven goals of a partly-federal World State in which all nation-states will retain their internal independence – my vision of a united world.

Nicholas Hagger