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By Jelena Pia-Comella,

Deputy Executive Director, WFM-IGP

The WFM-IGP Congress taking place from July 9 to July 13 will bring together world federalists from around the world to consider both the internal dimensions of its work as well as its external, public-facing campaigns and policies. The Congress agenda will include the following:

• Updates from major campaigns, such as the United Nations Parliamentary Assembly campaign, the mobilization to create a Latin American and Caribbean Criminal Court for Transnational Organized Crime (the COPLA campaign); the initiative for a UN reform summit in 2020; and also the major international coalitions hosted by the WFM Secretariat, the Coalition for the International Criminal Court and the International Coalition for the Responsibility to Protect.

• Policy discussions at Congress will not only update the organization’s existing policy statements but also consider new “emerging issues in global governance.” WFM is a peace organization based on the rule of law, human rights, international justice and accountability. But these norms and principles must adapt to a world where war and insecurity are increasingly driven by artificial intelligence, autonomous weapons, and a new methods of information manipulation that affect the integrity of politics as well as markets, nationally and internationally.

• A proposal at this Congress would (if adopted) bring about a reorganization of the governance bodies for the organization – effectively combining what formerly was known as the “Council’ and the “Congress” into one harmonized body; and

• Congress will elect new leadership, the directors and officers who will run these revamped decision-making bodies. Additionally, Congress will initiate new “Transnational Working Groups,” which will allow federalists in different parts of the world to collaborate on thematic and issue-specific policy and campaigning work.

A priority at this Congress will be WFM membership reengagement. The organization will take stock of its member and associated organizations, and review strategies for reengaging the current membership on campaigns as well as an outreach strategy to youth activists, women’s groups and CSOs from the Global South.