A brief history of global citizens’ assemblies

Composite screenshots of a zoom call with lots of people waving

The concept of a permanent global citizens’ assembly has been evolving for over two decades as part of a “deliberative wave” that’s been building since the 1980s.

The first advocates began to make a case for a “deliberative global citizens’ assembly” in the late 2000s, arguing that such an assembly could help “remedy the democratic deficit, giving a voice to ordinary people”.

The start of the World Wide Views project in 2009 kick-started a period of prototyping of global citizen deliberation leading eventually to the first global citizens’ assembly in 2021.

In 2021, for the first time ever, 100 people were selected by civic lottery to be demographically representative of the global population by geography, age, gender, education, and views on climate change. They met to deliberate and share their recommendations on how humanity could address the climate and ecological crisis in a fair and effective way. Assembly members presented their findings in front of world leaders at COP26 and the initiative was lauded by the UN Secretary-General as a “practical way of demonstrating how we can accelerate action through solidarity and people power”.

With the 2021 global citizens’ assembly acting as “proof of concept”, support for a permanent global citizens’ assembly has continued to grow, giving rise to the Coalition for a Global Citizens’ Assembly.

“Last month, I launched Our Common Agenda, a roadmap to begin building our world and mending trust. The Global Citizens’ Assembly for COP26 is a practical way of showing how we can accelerate action through solidarity and people power.”

— António Guterres, Secretary-General of the United Nations

What is a citizens’ assembly?

In a citizens’ assembly, members of a population selected by a lottery come together to learn, deliberate and make recommendations on specific issues. The definition of “citizens” includes those who are stateless, for example, refugees, and “assemblies” incorporate existing deliberative processes from all traditions across the world.

There is significant evidence to show that citizens’ assemblies can produce policies commensurate with the challenges, much more effectively than politicians can alone. Whether on climate justice, reproductive rights, or the end of life, citizens’ assemblies around the world have demonstrated they can offer solutions to seemingly intractable problems.

By combining evidence-based learning and lived experience, they also offer an antidote to polarisation. They promote inclusion, activate citizens, and generate solidarity and understanding between socio-economic groups who tend to disagree.

Based on the learnings of the previous Global Assembly, a permanent Global Citizens’ Assembly is intended to restore trust in global governance processes, provide people with routes to action on the issues that affect them, and decentralise power.

"In 2021, a global citizens’ assembly on climate change was established for the first time. Building on this work, the world should convene a general global citizens’ assembly that operates independently from the United Nations but in a way that is mutually reinforcing. The assembly could deliberate on issues relating to the global commons, for example planetary boundaries, economic systems change and improved international governance." ~ p.25

Governing Our Planetary Emergency

By Citizen Governance Commission, 2023

"Drawing on lessons learned from the world’s citizen’s assembly for COP 26, establishing a permanent and well-designed Global Citizens’ Assembly integrated into the multilateral process—e.g., as a subsidiary body of the UNFCCC—could help to accelerate action, enhance decision-making quality, and increase legitimacy and inclusion.113 The selection of the citizens by a global civic lottery is known to contribute to awareness-raising among (sometimes disconnected) citizens, while ensuring innovative ways to democratize climate change deliberations." ~ p.37

Report of the 2021 Global Assembly on the Climate and Ecological Crisis

By Global Assembly Team, 2023 | Executive summary and full report.

Toward a Deliberative Global Citizens’ Assembly

By Dryzek, Bächtiger, and Milewicz, 2011.