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THE GLOBAL PARLIAMENTARY CONGRESS THE FUTURE OF THE WORLD builds on the initiative of the World Summit of the Committees of the Future, convened in Helsinki on 12–13 October 2022, to strengthen parliamentary anticipatory governance. The Congress, organized by the Committee for the Future of the Republic of Lithuania, will take place in the Buildings of the Seimas of the Republic of Lithuania on 12–13 May 2023.
The purpose of the Congress is to take a look at what is on the horizon in the near, medium-term and distant future, which is relevant for the parliaments around the world, and share some outstanding examples of anticipatory governance.
CONTENT OF THE CONGRESS
The Congress is structured around three thematic topics.
The first is focused on the current global geopolitical tensions and their most acute manifestation, namely, Russia’s unprovoked aggression against Ukraine. The underlying assumption here is that a universally acceptable future of the world is simply impossible unless the respect for the international law as the sole principle of resolving inter-state conflicts is restored in the nearest future.
The second thematic topic deals with parliamentary democracy and the means to implement it. The participants are invited to reflect on the global challenges to democratic governance and consider ways to renew its foundations.
The third thematic topic addresses the long-term challenges facing the future of the world in connection with sustainable development, technological change and global demographic and social processes. It is high time we reviewed the general guidelines for the world’s future, which were set out in the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development of the United Nations. The Congress calls on parliaments to actively engage in the review of the Agenda that will take place at the United Nations Summit of the Future in 2024, pointing out that the heads of state and government must obtain the approval of their respective parliaments for their positions at the Summit.
The Congress in Vilnius will be opened by Gitanas Nausėda, President of the Republic of Lithuania, and Viktorija Čmilytė-Nielsen, Speaker of the Seimas of the Republic of Lithuania. Duarte Pacheco, President of the Inter-Parliamentary Union has also been invited to deliver his welcome address. The opening session of the Congress will be moderated by the Chairman of the Committee for the Future of the Republic of Lithuania, Prof. Raimundas Lopata.
The three plenary sessions will feature keynote speeches and panel discussions with the participation of politicians and high-level experts representing national parliaments and international parliamentary organisations.
On the second day of the event, the Congress will break into three parallel sessions to exchange practices on the implementation of anticipatory governance, focusing on national, regional and global futures foresight, transfer of sustainable development policies as the political cycles change, engagement of citizens in futures governance, and delivering on the principle of responsibility towards future generations.
The programme also features a roundtable of heads of delegations to present the situation on anticipatory governance in individual countries and express opinions on the outcome of the Congress.
The Congress, organized by the Committee for the Future of the Republic of Lithuania, is expected to close with the adoption of a joint statement calling on the world’s parliaments to continue and deepen the discussions on the parliamentary responsibility for the future of the world.
