The WTO kept in check

Even though WTO decisions are indeed taken by consensus, in practice the votes of the US and the EU carry more weight than the votes of India and Nicaragua. Although national parliaments are in fact called to ratify trade agreements, with the exception of the US Congress, they have little means of influencing negotiations. Hence the idea of reinforcing the oversight of national parliaments over the debates in the WTO. In early June, 315 MPs from all over the world adopted a statement to this effect at a meeting of the Inter-Parliamentary Union. This question is also on the agenda in Berne.

IPU committed to fighting AIDS and pprotecting children

The 106th Conference of the Inter-Parliamentary Union adopted on Friday in Burkina Faso a series of resolutions on HIV/AIDS control and the protection of children. The MPs in attendance adopted a resolution calling on States to combat torture and violence against children, child labour, sexual exploitation of and trafficking in children, and the use of children in armed conflicts.

For UNICEF's Regional Director for West and Central Africa, Rima Salah, "it is a comprehensive resolution which, if applied, will change the situation of children in the world". ... The Conference has published a contribution of parliaments to the settlement of the situation in the occupied Arab territories and adopted a resolution condemning the recent terrorist attacks against the United States of America.

IPU ccalls on International Community to lift all embargoes

The 106th Conference of the Inter-Parliamentary Union (IPU) ended Saturday in Ouagadougou with an appeal to the international community to lift all "embargoes and other sanctions in the world" which hit children hardest. The IPU "strongly" urged the international community "immediately to take the necessary steps to lift the embargoes and other sanctions which have harmful effects on children in the different parts of the world"…. At the close of the Conference, which brought together 141 national parliaments, including 39 African parliaments, a report prepared for submission to the UN was approved.

Parliamentary powwow in Ouaga

… Chaired, as is customary, by the Speaker of the host Parliament, in this instance, Mr. Mélégué Traoré, the 106th IPU Conference also condemned "these monstrous acts [the events which took place in the US], in keeping with [its] mission to promote the ideals of peace and security of the Inter-Parliamentary Union". This resolution was published before the three other resolutions, traditionally adopted at the final plenary sitting, which, among other things, called on "States, pharmaceutical laboratories and the scientific community to give priority to research on diseases prevalent in the developing countries, in particular HIV/AIDS", and urged governments to "give priority to human rights over commercial interests"…