UNITED NATIONS

• Parliamentary Caucus on the occasion of the United Nations High-Level Meeting on HIV/AIDS (New York, 1 June). The participants in this meeting nominated members for an IPU Advisory Group on HIV/AIDS that would provide the momentum for future IPU policy in responding to the pandemic. A first meeting of this group will take place in Geneva on 18 and 19 September.

• Parliamentary Panel on Governance in the Least Developed Countries (New York, 15 September).

• Preparations under way for the Annual Parliamentary Hearing at the United Nations (New York, 13-14 November). The theme of this year's hearing will be "Conflict Prevention and Peace-Building: Reinforcing the Key Role of the United Nations".

• Close cooperation with the UN Department for Political Affairs in preparing the 2006 Report of the UN Secretary-General on Cooperation between the United Nations and the IPU.

• Consultations on and preparations for future meetings in cooperation with the UN on the following subjects: New or Restored Democracies (International Conference in Doha, November 2006); Reinventing Government (World Forum in Vienna, July 2007).

• Official statements delivered before the General Assembly or its subsidiary bodies on the following topics: revitalization of the General Assembly, fight against HIV/AIDS, small arms and light weapons, review of progress on the Brussels Programme of Action for the Least Developed Countries.

• Circulation of resolutions from the 114th IPU Assembly to the General Assembly, in all six official languages of the United Nations (texts available on both the UN and IPU websites).

• Discussions under way with the President of the General Assembly and Co-chairs of the Working Group on Revitalization of the General Assembly (ambassadors of Latvia and Yemen) on a possible parliamentary contribution to that process.

• Mission of a high-level delegation of parliamentarians to the United Nations headquarters in New York for talks with Permanent Representatives of Member States and United Nations officials on the subject of United Nations reform (26-27 June). The report of the mission was sent to IPU Members on 10 July.

UN Democracy Fund

• Negotiations have begun on an Agreement of Cooperation between IPU and UNDEF, with a view to developing a comprehensive partnership among the two organizations in the promotion of democracy worldwide.

• Two project proposals submitted by the IPU (role of parliaments in implementing UN human rights treaties, and support for women parliamentarians in Burundi) have been awarded grants by UNDEF worth over 500,000 USD and are expected to be implemented over the next two years.

Peace-Building Commission (PBC)

• Initial consultations were held with the Chairman and Vice-Chairperson (ambassadors of Angola and El Salvador) of the PBC Organizational Committee. As a result, IPU has been invited to attend and contribute to the first PBC country-specific session on Burundi (12-13 October)

UNDESA

• Joint project with UNDESA and the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights, to produce a handbook for parliamentarians on the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (due to be adopted by the United Nations General Assembly later this year).

• Global Centre for Information and Communication Technologies in Parliaments. First meeting of technical representatives of members of the Board, Geneva, 18 May 2006. Multi-stakeholder meeting on Parliaments and the Information Society, as part of the Consultation Meetings on Action Lines C1 and C7 of the World Summit on the Information Society, Geneva, 18 May 2006. Presentation of the Global Centre to the World Library and Information Congress, 21 August 2006.

UNDAW (UN Division for the Advancement of Women)

• One-day information seminar entitled "Implementing the Convention on the Elimination of all Forms of Discrimination Against Women: the Role of Parliaments and their Members". (Geneva, 19 October 2006).

• Preparatory meetings for the IPU-UNDAW parliamentary conference to be held on the occasion of the 51st session of the United Nations Commission on the Status of Women (CSW).

Office of the UN High Representative for the Least Developed Countries

• Supported the UN mid-term review process for the Brussels Programme of Action for the Least Developed Countries by inviting national parliaments’ participation in the national reporting exercise in view of the high-level meeting of the General Assembly (September 2006).

• The IPU is a consultant in the review of a major UN study on Governance in the Least Developed Countries, as well as a participant in a UN team of field experts on governance-related questions.

UNDP

• Cooperation in the context of projects of assistance to the parliaments of Afghanistan, Algeria, Iraq, Niger, Pakistan, Uruguay and Viet Nam.

• IPU and UNDP jointly organized an international conference on parliaments, crisis prevention and recovery in Brussels. Guidelines for assistance to parliaments in conflict situations were formally adopted at the conference.

• IPU is a member of the UNDP democratic governance practice network.

UNESCO

• Work in progress on a handbook on education for all for the use of parliaments, state legislators and National Commissions for UNESCO. The handbook will explain in a concrete and practical manner what parliaments can do in terms of policy and planning, financing and budget, legislation, governance, monitoring and evaluation in order to contribute towards achieving the Education for All goals endorsed by the international community at the 2000 Dakar Framework for Action.

UNICEF

• Participation in and contribution to the launch of the United Nations Secretary-General's Report on Violence against Children.

UNITAR

• Further to the joint programme inaugurated in April 2005 to strengthen the capacities of parliaments to interpret and implement international environmental agreements, a second workshop for African parliaments was held in Yaoundé, Cameroon in June 2006.

Human Rights Council

• Statement delivered by the Secretary General at the opening session of the Human Rights Council.

UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR)

• Production of three new versions of the Handbook for Parliamentarians on Nationality and Statelessness.

UNV

• The Secretary General addressed the Governing Board of United Nations Volunteers to inform it of the cooperation extended to UNV by the IPU.

World Trade Organization (WTO)

• In preparation for the annual session of the Parliamentary Conference on the WTO (Geneva, 1 and 2 December 2006), the Steering Committee of the Conference met twice at IPU Headquarters (22 23 June and 14-15 September).

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Note: you can download a complete electronic version of the brochure "Results of the 115th Assembly and related meetings of the Inter-Parliamentary Union" in PDF format (file size approximately 493K). This version requires Adobe Acrobat Reader, which you can download free of charge.

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