world federalists

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"The state of peace among men living side by side is not a state of nature, which is rather a state of war, that is, if not always an outbreak of hostilities, yet a constant threat of them. So it has to be donated.”
Immanuel Kant

From August 17 to 23, 1947 gather in Montreux, a city on Lake Geneva, the 'world federalists' among the European federalists together with other world citizens for the founding congress of today World Federalist Movements.

A total of over 300 participants from 24 countries, representing a good 51 organizations, and other congress observers come to the 'Conference of the World Movement for World Federal Government'. Most delegates (Richard Mayne, John Pinder 1990: 60) come from the United Kingdom (73), France (65), the United States of America (44) and the Netherlands (32).

Max Habicht opened the congress, which only from Henry Usborne and then later from Jean Larmeroux and explains that it is the intention of the world federalists, through a yet to be created "World Federal Government", to finally convene a world parliament ("Parliament of Men"), in which the decision-making will take place by majority. He expresses the fear that the United Nations (UN), like the League of Nations before it, will not be able to secure the peace. Therefore, as the next and first step, a “World Federal Government” must be created. He concludes his opening speech with the following words:

"Federalists in all countries of the world will try to make a contribution to this political evolution. We are here in Montreux to coordinate our activities and to make them more effective.”
Max Habicht

Becomes the first President of the World Movement for World Federal Government John Boyd Orr chosen. Other congress participants who are still known today are VictorCollins, Norman Hart, Charles Haywood, Gordon Lang, Abbot Pierre, French priest, resistant at World War II, and founder of the Emmaus movement, with the goal of helping poor, homeless people and refugees, Edith Wills and Monica Wingate. Congress passes the 'Montreux Declaration' on August 23, 1947 and establishes its own youth movement, the World Student Federalists (Hart and Haywood).

The WFM consists today of the following three main organs, the Congress, the Council and an Executive Committee. It is based in New York. There are also program committees and an international secretariat. All sub-organizations of the World Federalists are represented in Congress. Your respective number of delegates is calculated by dividing the square root of the number of members by 100. The Congress elects the President, the Council (in part) and the Executive Committee for the period up to the next Congress.

The Council consists of 15 members elected by Congress (Elected Councilors), in addition each member organization that has between 30 and 500 members can appoint two Councilors (appointed Councilors) and the Council has the right to co-opt additional members (Co-opted Councilors). The Council meets once a year. The Council also elects the Executive Committee.

The World Federalist Movement is an international non-governmental organization with consultative status with the UN Economic and Social Council. Through lobbying, the WFM tries to manifest democracy, the rule of law, federalism and human rights as the foundation of the emerging international order and to influence global development processes through studies and grassroots activities on site. The WFM is also currently striving for a reform of the UN and a further development of international law.

In addition, since 1995 the WFM has been coordinating the 'Coalition for the International Criminal Court', an association of currently 2 non-governmental organizations in 500 countries worldwide, which, in cooperation with the 150 contracting states of the Rome Statute on July 121, 17, was involved in enforcing the International Criminal Court (ICC) was involved (The Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court, often just referred to as the “Rome Statute”, is the contractual basis of the ICC). The ICC started its work as a permanent international criminal court on July 1, 2002 in The Hague. It is an international organization in the sense of international law, but not part of the UN.

Another goal of the WFM is the establishment of a "parliamentary assembly" at the UN, and this as an intermediate step towards a future world parliament.

The WFM currently consists of more than 30 member organizations, with the UEF and the JEF also being independent members of the WFM; the United Kingdom's Federal Union and Italy's MFE deserve a special mention.

Over the past decades, the world federalists have continued with demands such as world citizenship, a world development agency that will raise all countries to European standards within 50 years, a disarmament agency and world police forces in which young people do voluntary service can, standards.

Volunteering at world association level is a misconception for most people, but its existence and work within it is more than justified, as the successes already achieved clearly attest. Since I myself have not yet had the pleasure of "breathing the air" at this level and also only know a few people who are involved there, I cannot make any further statements about our world association.

So it only remains for me to draw the following conclusion: on the one hand, there cannot be enough discussion efforts and levels, because the worst discussion group is still better than even the smallest armed conflict. And on the other hand, the tireless and honorary drudgery of hundreds of world federalists over the decades will ultimately have a positive effect, since their ideas and concepts slowly but surely flow into daily politics, just like a steady drip wears away the stone.

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