From August 27th to 31st, 2007, the 25th Congress of the World Federalist Movement was held in Geneva at the site of the World Meteorological Organiza...

From August 27^th to 31^st, 2007, the 25^th Congress of the World Federalist Movement was held in Geneva at the site of the World Meteorological Organization. The Congress was attended by 160 delegates and observers from 20 countries (Argentina, Belgium, Cameroon, Canada, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Japan, Great Britain, India, Iran, Italy, Madagascar, Mexico, Norway, New Zealand, the Netherlands, United States, Switzerland).

The Congress, after the meeting of the outgoing Executive Committee, started the discussion on the reform of its statutes, and then went on with its sessions in four commissions, a public meeting in the United Nations building in the afternoon of August 28th, and the commemoration of the WFM's 60th anniversary held in Montreux in the afternoon of August 30th at the Grand Hotel Suisse Majestic, where the Movement was founded in 1947. For this occasion, many messages of greetings have arrived, among which those by Kofi Annan, Hans Blix, Mercedes Bresso, Jo Leinen, Federico Mayor (former UNESCO President).

As to the reform of the statutes, the Congress decided not to support the proposal of abolishing the Congress and replacing it with meetings of the Council, nor to support the change of the Executive into a body only composed of five top managers and officers of the International Secretariat, thus spoiling the WFM's democratic nature. The proposal was withdrawn, and so a Congress will continue to be held every four (or at the most five) years, and a Council meeting every year. Instead of one President, there will be two Co-Presidents. The Congress works were held in plenary sessions, and were later continued in four commissions dealing with the following issues:
1. Justice and rule of law at the international level, and human rights
2. Peace, human security and conflict prevention
3. UN reform and global governance, and federalism at the regional and world level
4. Global environmental and economic governance, management of global commons and the effects of economic and social globalization.

The Congress confirmed the WFM commitment in the campaigns for the ratification of the Treaty establishing the International Criminal Court, that has attained the number of 105 states, and for assigning to the UN the "Responsibility to Protect" (i.e. humanitarian intervention for) populations threatened by genocide.

The commission on the environmental and economic governance approved several resolutions proposed by Italian federalists: Alfonso Iozzo and Antonio Mosconi presented a resolution "for a new Bretton Woods and for a new economic world order", proposing a world currency unit as a first step towards a world currency; Roberto Palea proposed the creation of a World Agency for the Environment, to be devised on the institutional model of the European Coal and Steel Community, endowed with real powers and financial autonomy based on the revenues from a Carbon Tax to be levied in the industrialized countries. On the same issue Peter Luff presented a resolution for the creation of a Community for the Global Climate, initially set up by a group of willing States. All these resolutions have been unanimously approved by the Congress.

The commission on UN Reform saw the greatest participation and is also the one where two diverging positions about the Security Council reform have clashed: Lucio Levi's proposal of its transformation into a Council of the Great Regions of the world, and Joseph Schwartzberg's one of a regional representation based on a weighted vote according to a formula taking into account, beside the states' population and representation, also their economic contribution to the UN. This latter proposal, supported by the American and Canadian delegates, roused to negative reactions many other French, Italian and Argentine delegates, who consider the economic criterion as a coming back to an out-of-date principle: that of the voting right based on income. In the final document the Congress approved a compromise resolution, which includes the proposal of a regional reform of the Council and the weighted vote, without mentioning, however, any criterion for determining the weighted vote.

Among the other proposals, that by Domenico Moro, director of the Spinelli Institute, to open the Ventotene Seminar to young world federalists has been well received, as well as that by Fernando Iglesias to provide a simultaneous translation in order not to damage those who do not fully master the English language, and that by many youngsters to drastically reduce the Congress' expensive registration fee.

During the Congress, an organization meeting was held for the Campaign for a UN Parliamentary Assembly, coordinated by Andreas Bummel, of the Committee for a Democratic UN, which has been launched at the world level this year.

The seminar at the Palais des Nations was for many one of the best symposiums on the status of the UN and the quest for democratic global governance that WFM has organized. The impact of human rights law, and especially the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court, on the evolution of international law into world law was eloquently presented. The continuing division between the 'development' and 'peace and security' sectors of the UN, also present in WFM since its founding, were poignantly raised at the symposium.

The last part of the Congress was devoted to electing the members of the new bodies and to admitting three new associations as associated members: Planetafilia (Mexico), Democracia Global (Argentina) and Sapiens Movement (New Zealand). Some of the members elected in the Council are: James Arputharaj, Keith Best, Jean Francis Billion, Edward Chobanian, Tony Fleming, Toshio Kozai, Lucio Levi, Peter Luff, Rebecca Luff, Ton Macel, Francisco Plancarte, Barbara Walker, Fergus Watt and Lucy Webster, while Fernando Iglesias, Peter Davidse, Takahiro Katsumi, Jean-Paul Pougala and Mahmoud Shariar Sharei have been co-opted. The Council has been tasked to elect the two Co-Presidents. The new Executive Committee elected by the Congress is composed of: President, the Canadian Senator Lois Wilson, who remains in office until the next Council; Treasurer, Edward Chobanian; President of the Council, James Christie, assisted by Lucy Webster and Mitsuo Miyake; President of the Executive Committee, Keith Best; President of the Statutes Committee, Tony Fleming; elected members are Lucio Levi, Bente Nielsen and James Arputharaj. Bill Pace remains the Executive Director, with two permanent offices and several hired employees in New York and The Hague.

In conclusion, there is to remark the WFM division in two movements: one "top-down", based in New York, headed by Bill Pace, who was the most active promoter for the creation of the International Criminal Court, and one "bottom-up", comprising the individual national organizations that pursue objectives not supported, as it would be necessary, by the center: like the campaign for the UN Parliamentary Assembly, or the campaign for the control of small arms trading. The objective of the newly elected Council will be precisely that of trying to unify those two modes ("top-down" and "bottom-up") so as to transform the WFM into a movement with a greater participation, less elitist and open to the aspirations of the global civil society for a world where democracy, human rights and social justice will prevail. Lucio Levi's proposals to hold political debates before Council meetings, with speakers chosen among the members of WFM organizations, and to change the agenda of the Council and Executive Committee meetings so that political resolutions could be discussed and approved, go in such a direction.