Dear colleagues,
apologies for cross-posting.
Please allow me to draw your attention to one of our initiatives, which you may find interesting – see www.refugeecommittee.org.
Our aim is to create an international committee of refugees (the ICR), a directly elected, democratically accountable, representative body for internally displaced persons, refugees and people living in exile. Since the ICR would not only be elected by, but also be made up of internally displaced persons, refugees and people living in exile, it would be both a legitimate and an authentic voice, able to represent displaced persons worldwide.
Should you like the idea, it would be very nice if you would sign and promote our petition - http://goo.gl/jzZ3nu.
Also, please take a look at our growing number of working groups at www.refugeecommittee.org/collaborate. One of the groups I am currently promoting actively is our Democratic Governance and Political Leadership working group – see https://goo.gl/teZfaH.
Whilst the proposed ICR is not conceived as an experiment (we do think of it as a practical way of improving the lives of refugees), there is clearly an ‘experimental’ dimension to this. After all, this sort of thing has never been attempted before – partially because it took the refugee crisis to trigger the thought, but partially also, because notions of democracy and ‘demos’ are traditionally linked intrinsically (to citizenship, as well as) to notions of state- and/or nationhood. Indeed, many theorists and practitioners argue quite rightly that democracies, as currently conceived, are state- dependent, and hence the very notion of a ‘stateless democracy’ may well be problematic, if not flawed.
The Democratic Governance and Political Leadership working group will explore these arguments rigorously and scholarly to establish the theoretical basis and conceptual framework for the constitution that would need to be drawn up, should it be decided to press ahead with the establishment of this new institution.
It would be great if you would join this debate/group and maybe recommend a few scholars/researchers (who are not on this list) who might like to join as well.
Any questions please get in touch! It would be very nice to hear from you.
With my best wishes for 2016,
Nico.
www.democracyschool.com
fb /democracyschool.community
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