The IPU Committee on the Human Rights of Parliamentarians held its 107^th session during the 111^th Assembly. It examined 58 cases in 27 countries, including public cases concerning 126 parliamentarians in 17 countries (Belarus, Burundi, Cambodia, Colombia, Ecuador, Eritrea, Honduras, Indonesia, Malaysia, Mongolia, Myanmar, Pakistan, Israel/Palestine, Syrian Arab Republic, Rwanda, Turkey and Zimbabwe). The Committee’s public procedure enables Member Parliaments to take action in support of the Council’s resolutions on individual human rights cases, and to defend parliamentarians whose rights have been violated. The Committee’s experience has shown that such action may indeed contribute to a satisfactory settlement of cases.

IPU MISSION TO ZIMBABWE

In September 2002, the IPU Governing Council requested the Committee on the Human Rights of Parliamentarians to carry out an on-site mission to Harare to inquire about the situation of several opposition members of the Parliament of Zimbabwe. With the agreement of the authorities, the visit took place from 28 March to 2 April 2004. The Committee’s delegation, consisting of the Committee’s former President, Mr. Juan-Pablo Letelier, and the honorary IPU Secretary General, Mr. Pierre Cornillon, who were accompanied by Committee Secretary, Ms. Ingeborg Schwarz, met with the competent authorities and the parliamentarians concerned. The mission report and the delegation’s conclusions were endorsed by the Governing Council in September 2004. Copies of the full mission report may be obtained from the IPU Secretariat.

The mission found that allegations of politically motivated arrests, detention and prosecution were well-founded, and that MPs from the Movement for Democratic Change party (MDC) were indeed at continuous risk of arbitrary arrest and detention. The members of the mission were appalled at the high number of beatings, other ill-treatment and torture about which MPs had complained, and which had gone unpunished. However, they also noted that Parliament was a place where the majority and the opposition worked together. In its resolution on this case, the IPU Governing Council called on the Zimbabwe African National Union-Patriotic Front party (ZANU-PF) and the MDC to pursue a dialogue, and considered that for it to be meaningful, past injustices needed to be remedied, and everything must be done to avoid such injustices in the future.

INTERVIEW WITH MR. PETER ADJETEY, SPEAKER OF THE PARLIAMENT OF GHANA

"When Speakers are committed to defending human rights, it has an impact"

Mr. Peter Adjetey

Mr. Speaker, you are committed to defending the human rights of parliamentarians. Could you give us some examples of your action?
Peter Adjetey: It is our responsibility and duty, in response to the request we have received from the IPU Secretary General, to approach foreign governments with regard to the human rights of parliamentarians. This is especially true in cases where parliamentarians have been subjected to various criminal trials which are considered to be unfair. In those cases we have considered it necessary to submit sympathy protests to the government in question, so as to express our concern as members of the IPU and to raise points in favour of the affected members of parliament.

Q: Can you mention some cases?
P.A.: There was the case of Mr. Anwar Ibrahim in Malaysia.We had quite some correspondence on that matter. The Speaker of the Malaysian parliament took the view that we should know better than to approach him on such a matter. We wrote to tell him that from our knowledge of what parliaments all over the world do and what is the responsibility of Speakers, the Speaker is a very important official. Although he himself might not be able to pave the way for a person to be released, he certainly has the possibility of making a representation to the Head of the State or to press upon him the necessity to look at cases which in our view have not been fairly handled. Speakers certainly have the possibility of making such representations. We exchanged these letters, with copy to the IPU Secretary General, and we note that Mr. Anwar Ibrahim has been released now. Although one of the convictions has not been quashed, he is certainly a free man now.

Q: Would you invite your colleagues, Speakers of other countries, to do the same?
P.A.: I certainly would. If the action that we took was duplicated on a worldwide scale and every Speaker did the same thing, it would have a massive impact on the government concerned. When Speakers are committed to defending human rights, it certainly has an impact. I do not think there is anybody, any Head of State who can ignore the views of a large number of Speakers of parliaments worldwide. They cannot be lightly ignored.