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HOME PAGE -> LATEST NEWS -> NEWS ARCHIVES (SEPTEMBER-OCTOBER 2005)
News Archives
(September- October 2005)
Resolutions of the 113th IPU Assembly
31 October 2005. The resolutions adopted by 550 parliamentarians from 130 countries at the 113th IPU Assembly are now publicly available. The four resolutions deal with the need for impartial, accurate and verifiable information on armed conflicts and terrorism, migration and development, the interplay of parliament and civil society, as well as the role of parliaments in preventing and responding to natural disasters. The resolutions will be taken back by delegates to their national parliaments for debate and further action, and will also be brought to the attention of the relevant international organisations, including the United Nations. A complete set of reports, recommendations and decisions is published in the Results of the 113th Assembly and related meetings of the Inter-Parliamentary Union. [ Texts of Assembly resolutions ... ]
IPU joins international endorsement of International Election Observation
Declaration
27 October 2005. The IPU joined 21 international organizations in publicly endorsing the Declaration of Principles for International Election Observation and the Code of Conduct for International Election Observers in a ceremony at United Nations headquarters in New York on 27 October. The principles set out in the Declaration include the total impartiality of observer missions, and the need for comprehensive long-term observation, covering the pre-election, election day and post-election periods. At the ceremony, UN Secretary General Kofi Annan recalled that "the presence of international election observers - fielded always at the invitation of sovereign States - can make a big difference in ensuring that elections genuinely move the democratic process forward. Their mere presence can dissuade misconduct, ensure transparency, and inspire confidence in the process". He also noted that the Declaration should strengthen the role of the international community in supporting democratic elections around the world.
IPU Statement to the UN Security Council debate on Women, Peace and Security
27 October 2005. "Women must be full and equal participants in political processes", IPU Secretary General Anders B. Johnsson told members of the Security Council, in a statement on behalf of the IPU. Highlighting the "fundamental" role that parliaments play in peace and reconciliation processes and in the implementation of peace agreements, Mr. Johnsson argued that these processes can only be truly effective and efficient to the extent that both women and men participate in them. Though women only make up an average of 16 percent of the membership of parliaments, their presence in many post-conflict countries has shown a tendency to increase markedly after the conflict, when gender equality issues are given special consideration from the very beginning of the peace process. In Rwanda, for example, the proportion of women parliamentarians climbed from 17 percent before the conflict to 49 percent today. Noting the IPU's work in many post-conflict countries, Mr. Johnsson recalled the recent pledge by 150 Speakers of Parliament to support the United Nations and United Nations reform, and reiterated their invitation to make more frequent use of the political and technical expertise that the IPU together with its Member Parliaments can provide, particularly in areas relating to post-conflict institution building. [ Full text of the speech ... ]
New IPU-UNHCR handbook for parliamentarians on statelessness and nationality
27 October 2005. The handbook aims to raise awareness among parliamentarians of a problem which is, more often than not, absent from the national and international
agendas. The newly appointed UN High Commissioner for Refugees, Mr. Antonio Guterres, took part in the handbook's launch and ensuing panel discussion on the question of statelessness and nationality. In the discussion, participants stated that citizenship was the right to have rights, and reflected on the myriad ways in which people can become stateless, such as the dissolution of marriage, or the failure to register children at birth. They called on parliaments to address the issue by ratifying the two main
international conventions related to statelessness, and adopting legislation to resolve statelessness problems. [ Order or download the Handbook ... ]
Launch of the IPU-OHCHR Handbook on Human Rights for Parliamentarians
27 October 2005. On the occasion of the 113th IPU Assembly in Geneva, Ms. Mehr Khan Williams, Deputy United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights and Mr. Sergio
Páez, then IPU President, launched the Handbook on Human Rights for Parliamentarians. The Handbook is a joint publication of the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights and the IPU. It is aimed at enhancing the knowledge of parliamentarians about human rights and the international and regional human rights framework that has been put into place since 1945 to promote and to protect them, and thus to enhance parliament's action in favour of human rights. Calling the Handbook a "very significant and very timely" publication, Ms. Mehr Khan Williams underlined that parliamentarians are "in a historic position to be at the centre of efforts to put international human rights law into practice. [ Order or download the Handbook ... ]
Resolutions on five new, serious cases of violations of the human rights of parliamentarians adopted by the Governing Council at the 113th IPU Assembly
26 October 2005. The IPU's Committee on the Human Rights of Parliamentarians examined 59 complaints relating to violations of the rights of parliamentarians at its October session. At the Committee's recommendation, 26 resolutions were publicly adopted by the Governing Council of the IPU. These resolutions include five new cases, involving parliamentarians from Cambodia, Colombia, Singapore, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh, where Mr. Shah A.M.S. Kibria, a member of parliament of the opposition party Awami League, a former Finance Minister and Under-Secretary General of the United Nations, was killed in a grenade attack on 27 January 2005. Some parliamentary delegations, including Bangladesh and Singapore, took the floor to express their disagreement with the Committee's conclusions and recommendations. [ More ... ]
Mr. Pier Ferdinando Casini elected President of the IPU
20 October 2005. The Governing Council of the Inter-Parliamentary Union elected Mr. Pier Ferdinando Casini - the President of the Chamber of Deputies of Italy - President of the IPU. The final tally was 230 votes for Mr. Casini and 107 for the other candidate, Mr. Geert Versnick, member of the Belgian parliament. The new IPU President, who will succeed Chilean Senator Sergio Páez for a three-year mandate, was born in Bologna, Italy on 3 December 1955. He has been President of the Christian Democratic Party. Since his election in 2001 as President of the Italian Chamber of Deputies - the third highest office in the country - he has no longer 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, and was a Member of the European Parliament from 1994 to 2001.
IPU supports women's participation in upcoming elections in Bahrain
28 September 2005. In cooperation with the Supreme Council for Women of Bahrain and with the support of the British Embassy, the IPU organized a two-day training seminar on the roles and responsibilities of representatives for women candidates in the upcoming 2006 elections. Some 60 women candidates took part in the event, together with members of parliament and representatives of municipal councils. Lively exchanges with MPs and former members of parliament from Kenya, Morocco and the United Kingdom enabled Bahraini women to discuss concrete ways of carrying out an electoral campaign and the particular challenges women may face in this endeavour. In a surprise visit during the seminar, Her Majesty Shaikha Sabeeka bint Ibrahim al-Khalifa, Queen of Bahrain, expressed her support for women's efforts and encouraged them in their work.
IPU provides technical assistance to the parliament of Equatorial Guinea
28 September 2005. In the framework of the Programme of Assistance to the House of People's Representatives of Equatorial Guinea, funded by the European Commission and the Government of Equatorial Guinea, the Inter-Parliamentary Union is organizing the third in a series of capacity-building seminars for members of parliament and parliamentary staff. This seminar, which is being held from 28 to 30 September 2005, focuses on parliament's budgetary function.
Launch of the IPU-UNICEF Handbook on Child Protection in Hindi
27 September 2005. The Speaker of the Lok Sabha or the Lower House of the Indian Parliament, Mr. Somnath Chatterjee, released the Hindi version of "Child Protection - a Handbook for Parliamentarians" in the Parliament Library Building in New Delhi. The Handbook is a joint publication of the Inter-Parliamentary Union and UNICEF. Its Hindi version is aimed at equipping Indian parliamentarians with the knowledge of various aspects of child protection. On that occasion, the Lok Sabha Speaker said he would facilitate a smooth and early passage of a bill for creating a National Commission for the Protection of Child Rights and also form a Parliamentary Forum for children. The IPU/UNICEF Handbook on Child Protection was initially launched in English in 2004 at the IPU Assembly held in Mexico City and has since appeared in seven major languages. [ Order or download the Handbook ... ]
New Director-General of the World Trade Organization, Mr. Pascal Lamy,
addresses parliamentarians
22 September 2005. In one of his first public speaking engagements, Mr. Lamy met with members of the Steering Committee of the Parliamentary Conference on the WTO at the Headquarters of the Inter-Parliamentary Union. Mr. Lamy briefed them on the most salient issues in international trade, placing particular emphasis on what remains to be done towards the completion of the Doha Round. He stressed the need for frequent and technically solid discussions between parliamentarians and WTO negotiators in order to enhance transparency and accountability of the WTO. The Steering Committee finalized arrangements for the Hong Kong session of the Parliamentary Conference on the WTO, which will take place on 12 and 15 December 2005 in conjunction with the Sixth WTO Ministerial Conference. [ Full text of the speech ... ]
Seminar for Latin American Parliaments on Parliament and the budgetary process, including from a gender perspective
21 September 2005. The sixth seminar in the series on Parliament and the budgetary process, including from a gender perspective, is taking place in El Salvador. Organized jointly by IPU, the National Legislative Assembly of El Salvador and the United Nations Development Fund for Women (UNIFEM), the seminar aims to bring together parliamentarians and parliamentary staffers from the Latin American region to debate ways and mechanisms to strengthen their role in the budgetary process, through an exchange of experience and debate. Previous regional seminars have been held in Lebanon, Mali, the Philippines, Sri Lanka and Kenya. [ More ... ]
2005 World Summit calls for strengthened cooperation between the United Nations and parliaments
19 September 2005. The world's leaders, meeting at a High-level Plenary Meeting of the United Nations General Assembly, adopted on 16 September the 2005 World Summit Outcome, in which they agreed to take action on global challenges such as development, peacebuilding, human rights, democracy and the rule of law. Specific reference is made to parliaments in Article 171 of the Outcome document, whereby heads of State and government "call for strengthened cooperation between the United Nations and national and regional parliaments, in particular through the Inter-Parliamentary Union, with a view to furthering all aspects of the Millennium Declaration in all fields of the work of the United Nations and ensuring the effective implementation of United Nations reform." [ More on the World Summit ... ]
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