New Report: Global Citizens' Assemblies Should Be Embedded in the UN System

A joint report from Democracy International and Democracy Without Borders argues that the UN General Assembly should use Article 22 of the UN Charter to create a permanent framework for Global Citizens' Assemblies — giving randomly selected citizens a formal role in shaping international policy.

The idea of Global Citizens' Assemblies — randomly selected people from around the world deliberating on pressing global challenges — has moved from thought experiment to active institutional proposal. A new joint report from Democracy International and Democracy Without Borders sets out concrete pathways for embedding GCAs in the United Nations system.

The proposal uses Article 22 of the UN Charter, which allows the General Assembly to establish subsidiary bodies. The report recommends a permanent framework coordinated by a common secretariat, allowing any UN body to convene its own ad hoc citizens' assembly as needed — on climate, AI, health crises, or governance reform itself. The model combines a core assembly sitting for extended periods with ongoing community-level assemblies feeding up into it.

The evidence base for this matters: research published in the European Journal of Political Research drawing on 15 countries finds strong public support for deliberative citizens' assemblies selected through sortition. When people have time, information, and structured space for reasoned discussion, polarisation declines and preferences converge toward the common good.