By P. Soma Palan*
COLOMBO, Sri Lanka | 7 July 2025 (IDN) — The current world situation poses an existential crisis for the Planet Earth. The Israel and Palestine war has expanded into a three-nation war with Iran’s entry and Air strikes on Israel, and Israel’s counterattacks. The further escalation and enlargement of this war poses the possibility of intensifying it into a world war, with dire consequences to the destruction of the Planet Earth, with the deployment of nuclear warheads.
The national leaders of these countries seem to think that the Planet Earth is their national property, which they can destroy, at their will and fancy, in the name of religious bigotry and absolutism and claiming monopoly of their respective Gods. They are afflicted with lunacy and fanaticism. These Egoistic leaders did not create the Planet Earth nor do they have the proprietary right to destroy it at their will and decimate humanity.
The fate of the Planet’s entire humanity and its existential continuity cannot be left to the caprice of a few insane nations. It is in this world context and peril that the time has come for the creation of a World Parliament, consisting of representatives from all countries, to govern the Planet Earth. It is not my view that the World Parliament should be formed immediately as a means to solve the Israeli-Palestinian dispute. It is merely a proposal for the future safety of Planet Earth.
In the future, the World Parliament will be the voice of humanity worldwide, exerting pressure and calling upon warring nations to observe a ceasefire. Disputes will be resolved through debate and discussion in the World Parliament, rather than through war. I am not a scholar or an expert in Political Science. I am an ordinary citizen interested in a better world order and a more effective government. I am presenting a conceptual idea for a World Parliament to govern the Planet Earth, which requires further development by expert international political scientists.
The whole territorial entity called Earth, consist of multiple Nation States with defined boundaries and jurisdictions, each governing their respective territory based on the axiom of territorial integrity and sovereignty, for the economic, social, and cultural development of their countries with the narrow parochial National interests of their countries overriding the common interests of the Planet Earth.
Almost all countries have standing Armies and arsenals of lethal weapons, even Nuclear Missiles, to defend their territory against aggression by any other country. It is believed that the greater the military might of a country, the greater the deterrence against aggression. The fashionable phrase ‘Nuclear Deterrence’ is the only and inevitable way to achieve World peace, while keeping Armies in readiness for war. However, this suggests that we still carry a trace of tribalism, resorting to violence to settle our disputes, which is an insult to human intelligence amid the highest standard of civilisation humanity has ever reached. Wars and civilisations are mutually contradictory.
The sterility of the United Nations Organisation
It may be argued that we already have an International Forum in the UNO. Therefore, why duplicate another under a different nomenclature, World Parliament? The difference between the UNO and the World Parliament is patently clear. The UNO is a by-product of the aftermath of the end of the Second World War. A creation of the Allied European Powers, dominated by its core members of the Security Council, which hold veto powers. It is not involved in governing the world.
It is a General Assembly of 193 Member Nations, and foremost a deliberative organisation. It is essentially a talking shop. Its fundamental purpose was to prevent a recurrence of War and ensure world peace and harmony. But it has failed in its avowed objective. The world is ablaze with limited wars between nations, either directly or by proxies, causing destruction, human deaths, suffering and displacement of people. For example, currently, there are wars between Ukraine and Russia and between Israel and Palestine, and more recently, the war between Pakistan and India.
The UNO is only a passive onlooker, as its Security Council members are involved in the wars either directly or as proxies. The UNO has failed to make meaningful progress in solving and ending these conflagrations. However, UNO’s allied Agencies such as the United Nations Human Rights Council (UNHRC), FAO- Food& Agriculture Organization, the ILO-International Labour Organisation, and the WHO- World Health Organisation have done palpable work on the world stage, including the World Bank and the IMF- International Monetary Fund.
In the event of the formation of the World Parliament, the UNO must be dissolved and superseded, replaced by the World Parliament, while its affiliated Agencies, referred to above, remain as integral Agencies.
The World Parliament would be composed of representatives of its member nations proportionate to their demographic status. It is to be headed by a President of the World Parliament and a Secretary General who will chair as the Speaker of the General Assembly. It would be analogous to or a replica of a democratic nation’s parliament. All nations, regardless of their form of government, can delegate their representatives to the World Parliament.
The World Parliament should be an ongoing forum that meets regularly and periodically to discuss, debate, and deliberate on matters of international concern, excluding the internal governance of Nation-States. World Parliament could diffuse and preempt any warlike situations between nations by discussion and negotiation. Like any National Parliament, World Parliament can be empowered to exercise Legislative, Executive and Judicial powers relating to matters of a global dimension. It can legislate and enact laws, enforce these laws, and exercise judicial power to prosecute Nation-States for violating international laws in the International Court of Justice.
All disputes and conflicts between nations should be discussed, and a settlement arrived at by negotiation at the World Parliament by a Treaty between the disputants, guaranteed by it. In the event of a failure in settlement, the dispute be referred to the International Court of Justice for adjudication. The verdict of the International Court would be final and conclusive.
The field of Governance of the World Parliament
The areas of Governance include such global concerns as disputes and conflicts between nations, the Oceans and International Navigation, global disasters such as earthquakes and tsunamis, space, Atmospheric Pollution, Climate Change, and transnational diseases like the coronavirus.
A Constitution for the World
The functioning of the World Parliament requires a written Constitution, which must be framed by a team of International Legal Experts in Constitutional Law, respecting its Structure, Organs of Government, Procedures, and Processes of government, as well as the details of its functioning. It is outside the scope of my competence to formulate further information about a World Constitution, except only to provide the basic idea for a World Parliament to govern the Global Earth.
The Constitution should outlaw war and make it illegal. Resorting to wars to settle disputes between nations is not an option. The World Parliament should enact legislation to make wars between nations, in any form or scale, a crime. If wars are illegal, logically, it is contradictory to retain all instruments of war.
Total demilitarisation and disarmament
Nations with standing Armies and lethal weapons are often the root cause of disputes and conflicts between nations, ultimately leading to wars. If there are no Armies and weapons with nations, wars will end, and there will be eternal peace and harmony in the Planet Earth. It is as simple as that. The classification of nations on military might will cease, and all nations will be on equal par, except in terms of economy, size and demography.
Accordingly, total disarmament of nations is necessary. This means the demilitarisation of all standing Armies composed of military, naval, and air forces, as well as the dismantling of all military hardware, infrastructure, and arms manufacturing facilities. When the military threat of offence is removed, the need for military defence is superfluous. Furthermore, mighty nations engaging in the manufacture and sale of armaments as a business will cease. Nations deceitfully inciting international disputes, turning into armed conflicts by devious methods to boost the sale of weapons, will end.
Furthermore, terrorism in any manifestation to secure political ends will also die a natural death. When sources of firearms are abolished, the crime rate in countries will drop. Nations shall have a Police Force only for the maintenance of Internal Law and Order, without firearms. Only Batten, Tear Gas, and Water Cannons are used to control mob violence, protests and civil disobedience.
The primary purpose of a military and its arsenal of weapons is to wage war. The abolition of military forces and total disarmament, production of military hardware, is the only way to ensure the certainty of permanent world peace and harmony for all nations and prevent the destruction of the planet by a nuclear holocaust, which is bound to happen at any point in time in the future. If there are no armies and weapons, there will be no wars.
This thesis is so simple yet defies human intelligence. All nations can coexist and live in peace. Human intelligence and ingenuity could resolve all differences and disputes by discussion and negotiation if we believe that our world is a civilised one. The notion that wars can resolve disputes is repugnant to a civilised world. Just imagine if all citizens of a country had the legal right to have a gun to protect themselves against others, what a chaotic world of violence and murder it would be. So are nations armed with weapons.
The desire to expand and dominate the world is the root cause and rationale for holding onto armies and weapons. The critics would derisively dismiss my proposition for total demilitarisation and total disarmament as impractical and unrealistic under the present world order. In other words, they are saying that the present world order is immutable and no nation with military might will agree to total demilitarisation and disarmament.
If all nations agree, either unanimously or by majority vote in the World Parliament, Armies can be abolished, and complete disarmament can be achieved. The notion that the existing world order is immutable and cannot be changed is viewed as apologetic and an acceptance of the defective world order; adjusting to and living with it is considered pragmatic and realistic, according to critics.
*The writer is a staunch advocate for a radical new World Order based on spiritual Universalism — instead of militarism and armament — aimed at saving humanity and Planet Earth from destruction. He has been influenced by spiritual masters such as Swami Vivekananda, Jiddu Krishnamurti, and Sadguru, among others. He can be reached at: sahapalan@gmail.com [IDN-InDepthNews]
Image source: Democracy without Borders
