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ISSUE N°19
NOVEMBER 2005

C O N T E N T S
OF THE ISSUE

white cube Editorial
white cube Interview with Pascal Lamy
white cube The 2nd Conference of Speakers of Parliaments
white cube Women in parliament
white cube Cooperation with the UN
white cube Israel - Palestine
white cube Human rights
white cube Technical cooperation update
white cube Parliamentary developments
white cube Read in the press

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The World of Parliaments
Editorial

THE NEW IPU PRESIDENT IS
MR. PIER FERDINANDO CASINI

MR. Pier Ferdinando Casini
On 19 October 2005, the Governing Council of the Inter-Parliamentary Union (IPU), gathered in Geneva for the 113th Assembly, elected Mr. Pier Ferdinando Casini, the President of the Italian Chamber of Deputies, as President of the IPU. The final tally was 230 votes for Mr. Casini and 107 for the other candidate,Mr. Geert Versnick, a member of the Chamber of Deputies of Belgium. The new IPU President will succeed Chilean Senator Sergio Páez for a three-year mandate.

Mr. Pier Ferdinando Casini was born in Bologna, Italy, on 3 December 1955. He has served as President of the Christian Democratic Party. Since his election in 2001 as President of the Chamber of Deputies - the third highest political office in the country - he has no longer been involved in the activities of his party. Mr. Casini has served on the Foreign Affairs and Defence Committee, and was Vice-President of the Commission of Inquiry on Terrorism in Italy. He was also a Member of the European Parliament, from 1994 to 2001.

 

A CALL FOR AN INTERNATIONAL DAY OF PARLIAMENTS

The Speaker of the Georgian Parliament, Mrs. Nino Burjanadze, put it very clearly: "The Second World Conference of Speakers of Parliaments was a capital event, and we should really strengthen the role of parliaments and democratic institutions all over the world in order to make them more fair, more democratic and more peaceful".

The time has come for parliaments and governments to step up the dialogue so as to establish a new dynamic, it being understood that democracy, security, development and human rights are intrinsically linked. But are governments ready to accept that parliaments play an active role in international affairs? "It depends on the parliaments and the parliamentarians" replies the Speaker of the Georgian Parliament, while acknowledging that "it is not very comfortable for governments to have strong parliaments, because parliaments naturally should criticize governments". WhileMrs. Burjanadze points out that constructive criticism can help governments to be more efficient and to avoid errors, she adds that if a government is afraid of a strong and fair parliament, "the country is in serious trouble". In New York, the Speakers of parliament who attended the Second World Conference of Speakers of Parliaments adopted a Declaration that sets out to remedy the democracy gap in international relations by bringing the force of parliamentary scrutiny into play on the international political scene. The declaration called for the best possible expertise available in parliamentary committees to be marshalled for this objective.

It also means providing greater visibility for parliaments, both nationally and internationally. One way of doing this would be to institute, at the IPU's initiative, an International Day of Parliaments, as set out in the Declaration adopted by the Speakers' Conference in New York. This annual event would allow legislators, citizens and the media throughout the world to concentrate their attention for a day on the activities of their respective parliaments, the second pillar of the State after the executive branch. Just as International Women's Day and World Press Freedom Day are high onthe media agenda, an International Parliaments Day could do much to further democracy in our world.

L.B.

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