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HOME PAGE -> LATEST NEWS -> NEWS ARCHIVES (JUNE -OCTOBER 2010)
News Archives
(June - October 2010)
 Africa MPs debate HIV and social protection for children
22 October 2010. Parliamentarians have been meeting in Namibia to debate HIV and social protection for children, pledging to pass laws, policies and regulations that meet the needs and uphold the rights of children; ensure financial protection for households and children affected by HIV, including through cash and other social transfers; and promote access of children to affordable quality services, including health, education and other social protection programs. More than fifty members of parliament and staff from 13 Southern and Eastern African countries gathered in Windhoek for two and half days to share experiences on the role of parliaments in providing social protection for children affected by HIV and AIDS. They called for urgent action in sub-Saharan Africa where half the population survives on less than $1.25 per day, some 14 million children have lost one or both parents to AIDS, and millions more have experienced deepening poverty, forfeited their education, and suffered discrimination due to HIV. Members of parliament can help make Millennium Development Goal 6 on HIV and AIDS a reality for children. The parliamentarians in Windhoek also acknowledged that decisions respond best to the needs of children if they themselves contribute to them. Child Parliaments, like the one that exists in Namibia, are valuable initiatives. The MPs also agreed that parliaments from the region should intensify cooperation and exchange of experiences to make future activities on the question of social protection for children affected by HIV a success. [ More on the event in Namibia ... ] |
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IPU President Gurirab about events in Ecuador
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1 October 2010. After Ecuador's President Rafael Correa had been held captive for several hours in an uprising by dissafected members of the police force, the IPU President Dr. Theo-Ben Gurirab voiced his condemnation of the events. "The Inter-Parliamentary Union rejects the threat to constitutional order in Ecuador from disaffected police, and condemns the attack on President Correa and his abduction yesterday. The IPU reiterates its support for and defence of parliament - the building block of any sound democracy" said President Gurirab, who is in Geneva for the 123rd Assembly of the IPU. |
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Parliamentary defence and security committees in West Africa ready to bolster their contribution to security in the region
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22 September 2010. At the invitation of the Senegalese National Assembly, members of such committees met in Dakar on 21 and 22 September at a seminar which the IPU and the Geneva Centre for the Democratic Control of Armed Forces organized with the support of the ECOWAS Parliament. Participants suggested the creation of a consultation and cooperation mechanism among national parliamentary defence and security committees in West Africa. They also expressed support for a better link between them and the ECOWAS Parliament. Participants felt that it was necessary to better understand the contribution of individual parliaments in West Africa to the security agenda. The proposed comparative study on existing security legislation across West Africa and on the functioning and work of national parliamentary defence and security committees should promote such better understanding. |
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MDG Summit features a strong parliamentary presence
21 September 2010. With only five years left before the expiration of the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), a United Nations Summit was held in New York, to review progress and setbacks in meeting the MDGs. Parliamentarians from many countries joined their high-level national delegations to this important event. They came together at a side event hosted today by IPU and the UN Millennium Campaign and which focused on Mobilizing parliamentary support for MDG policies and plans. The meeting featured the launch of an Analytical Study of Parliamentary Mechanisms for the MDGs, which examines the pros and cons of various institutional approaches to strengthen parliamentary oversight of the MDGs. The results of an IPU survey entitled MPs Speak Out: a glimpse into parliamentarians perspectives on the MDGs were also introduced at the event. The previous day, IPU Secretary-General Anders Johnsson delivered a statement to the Summit relating the central messages of the 3rd World Conference of Speakers of Parliament (July 2010), where the MDGs were also on the agenda. Legislators participated and engaged in discussions throughout the proceedings of the MDG Summit, including in the formal interactive round table session on Addressing the special needs of the most vulnerable. The MDG Summit Outcome Document, adopted by consensus on 22 September, acknowledges the particular role and responsibility of parliaments and parliamentarians in meeting the MDGs by the target date of 2015. [ More on the parliamentary event in New York ... ] |
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Examining new challenges to international trade
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16 September 2010. This year's edition of the annual WTO Public Forum – a must-see event for all those who are interested in the multifaceted work of the World Trade Organization - was focused on the topic of Forces shaping world trade. Among some 1500 participants registered for the Forum, there were many members of parliament from all over the world. Attracted by the traditionally rich programme of the Forum, which comprised over 40 different events, parliamentarians made sure not to miss the panel discussion that was organized specifically for them by the IPU and the European Parliament. The room at the WTO headquarters, where the parliamentary panel took place, was fully packed. Clearly, the subject - Can the existing multilateral trading system cope with the emerging challenges? - left nobody indifferent, and the two hours allocated to the discussion were not enough. Some of the unused debate energy was thereafter channeled to the Steering Committee of the Parliamentary Conference on the WTO, which met immediately after the panel. The Committee was briefed on the state of play in the Doha Round talks by the WTO Director-General, Mr. Pascal Lamy. Extremely busy during the Public Forum, the Director-General nonetheless spent full one hour with the legislators, providing detailed – and articulate - answers to their questions and observations. [ More on the Panel and the WTO Forum ... ] |
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IPU President hails new Israeli-Palestinian talks
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3 September 2010. As the Prime minister of Israel and the President of the Palestinian Authority returned to their homes after direct talks in Washington DC, the IPU President welcomed resumption of Israeli-Palestinian peace talks and called on both sides to do their utmost to maintain the momentum for negotiation. "It is dialogue, and dialogue alone, that will resolve this conflict" said Dr. Gurirab. "I am alarmed by the dangers posed by extremists on both sides of the divide" he added "and I call upon all parties to show the fullest restraint while these delicate talks proceed". The IPU had always worked to bring Palestinian and Israeli legislators to the table, on the basis of a two-State solution, he said. "Both parties have a duty to their peoples to start building peace, to break the cycle of recrimination and condemnation, and let reason and mutual respect prevail" added the IPU President. |
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IPU President condemns killings in Somalia
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24 August 2010. Reacting to the deaths of a number of MPs in a hotel raid in Mogadishu today, IPU President Theo-Ben Gurirab made the following statement:
"I wish to express my revulsion at today's suicide attack in Mogadishu that lead to the deaths of several parliamentarians. Acts of terror do not solve problems, and I condemn the fact that shells are being fired into residential areas and causing the loss of dozens of innocent lives. As President of the IPU I call on the parties to the conflict in Somalia to resolve their differences through negotiation and dialogue."
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How to enhance implementation of CEDAW and end violence against women in the Arab world
4 August 2010. Women and men members of Arab parliaments met at UN House in Beirut from 27 to 29 July 2010 to discuss this question. The event was organized with the support of the IPU, the Lebanese Parliament, UN-ESCWA and UNDP. Participants identified some of the parliamentary actions required to enhance implementation in the region: withdrawing reservations to the CEDAW, adopting special temporary measures, banishing stereotypes and changing mentality, and removing discriminatory provisions from legislation. In the words of one of them, "It is a long process which benefits from being sustained and as comprehensive as possible". It requires reforming the legislative framework, reviewing discriminatory provisions in existing legislation and drafting new laws. It also requires sensitization and inter-parliamentary diplomacy at the regional level. Legislating on violence against women was seen as one of the most pressing priorities as only one country in the region has passed a law on it. Of particular interest was the issue of violence against women in situations of conflict that affects the entire region. Legislation should criminalize acts of violence against women in all settings and include measures to prevent violence, assist victims and rehabilitate perpetrators. It should call for national action plans, training and sensitization and provide for budget allocations. To help raise awareness of violence against women and trigger appropriate legislative responses, the participants agreed to launch a regional parliamentary campaign as a component of the IPU's parliamentary campaign Parliaments take action on violence against women. The regional meeting was followed by a day of discussions with Lebanese parliamentarians and civil society representatives on the bill on domestic violence currently before the Lebanese Parliament. [ For me information on VAW ... ]
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Parliamentarians meet during AIDS Conference in Vienna
20 July 2010. Members of parliament and staff from 47 countries gathered today in Vienna in a meeting held by the IPU and the Parliament of Austria during the XVIII International AIDS Conference. They discussed the impact of criminal law on public health activities, with a special focus on testing and HIV virus transmission modes (sexual, intravenous and vertical). A keynote statement was delivered by Manfred Nowak, UN Special Rapporteur on Torture. Members of parliament agreed that laws exclusively criminalizing the transmission of HIV constitute a violation of the right not to be discriminated against, further stigmatize persons living with HIV and create a false sense of security. Instead of criminalizing HIV transmission, parliaments should examine and audit the laws that already exist and that are or can be applied in the context of HIV. Members of parliament agreed that interventions to prevent transmission from mother to child are the most cost-effective way to remove one mode of HIV transmission. They endorsed the international community call to eliminate vertical transmission of the HIV virus by 2015 and pledged to support this as a goal in their countries. [ More on the parliamentary meeting in Vienna ... ]
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Bern initiative for global parliamentary action on maternal and child health
17 July 2010. Every minute of every day, one woman dies and 30 women suffer long-lasting injury or illness from preventable pregnancy-related causes and complications - including unsafe abortion and, in addition, 17 children die from preventable causes. Most of these deaths can be prevented through good policies, laws and adequate funding to promote and protect the health and well-being of women and children, said the 23 Women Speakers of Parliament who met in Bern, at the invitation of the IPU and the Swiss Parliament. They committed - through a declaration - to do their part in changing this state of affairs, working in partnership with men and women members of parliament "to make the achievement of MDGs 4 and 5 a high priority on the agenda of our parliaments". To this end, they propose to take concrete measures such as advocating the development or strengthening of gender-equitable national health action plans and ensure that the three components that all health systems need to support maternal and newborn health are addressed: family planning, skilled care during delivery, and emergency care. They also recommend enacting legislation with the objective of ensuring a national legislative framework that is aligned with international treaties and that does not discriminate against women and girls, in order to ensure effective access to care regardless of means, and protect women from all forms of gender-based violence and children from abuse, violence and neglect. [ Text of the outcome document ... ]
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6th Meeting of Women Speakers of Parliament in Bern
15 July 2010. Twenty-three Women Speakers of Parliament met today in Bern at the invitation of the Swiss Parliament. Their talks centred on women as the driving force behind the formal and informal economy, the need for recognition of their immense potential, and how the current economic crisis can be brought under control once all sexual discrimination has been eliminated. "The IPU has understood our message", said Ms. Pascale Bruderer Wyss, Speaker of the Swiss National Council, welcoming her colleagues from 25 countries from all the regions of the world. Women's rights will serve as a basis for the discussions of the two-day meeting, with a special emphasis on women's and children health. The theme was echoed by the IPU President, Dr. Theo-Ben Gurirab, who is also President of the National Assembly of Namibia. "With only five years left until the 2015 deadline to achieve the Millennium Development Goals, you are joining - and making us all join - the strong international commitments to women's and children's health", said the IPU President. [ More on the Meeting of Women Speakers of Parliament ... ]
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IPU-UNDP Memorandum of Understanding signed
1 July 2010. IPU Secretary-General Anders Johnsson and UNDP Administrator Helen Clark signed today a new and expanded Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) between the two organizations. The MoU provides for enhanced cooperation and joint activities in a variety of areas. These include: capacity building for parliaments to better exercise their oversight and legislative role, particularly with respect to aid effectiveness, economic governance and poverty reduction; developing standards, benchmarks and good practices for democratic parliaments; supporting parliamentary engagement in the implementation of UN Treaties and Conventions; promoting the empowerment of women in society, particularly by facilitating their integration in politics and elected office; and enhancing the role of parliaments in peace and reconciliation processes. [ More on cooperation with the UN ... ]
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Supporting the WTO Doha Round
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25 June 2010. International trade is the engine of development and can play a crucial role in the global economic recovery. Substantive progress in the Doha Round of WTO negotiations would send a strong positive signal to the entire world economy, stated the members of the Steering Committee of the Parliamentary Conference on the WTO at the end of its two-day session in the IPU Headquarters in Geneva. Driven by the synergies of the IPU and the European Parliament, the Conference is a de facto parliamentary dimension of the WTO. The agenda of the just-concluded session included such items as WTO Aid-for-Trade campaign, the successful settlement of the WTO banana dispute, and preparations for the WTO Public Forum 2010. Using the occasion of the G20 Summit in Toronto, the Steering Committee called on WTO Members to show resolve and do their utmost to find the necessary "extra quantum" in the Doha Round negotiations. [ Statement by the Steering Committee ... ]
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World e-Parliament Report 2010 released
14 June 2010. The World e-Parliament Report 2010 paints a mixed picture. On one hand, globally there has been an increase in the level of use of ICT in parliament compared to the benchmark established in the first World e-Parliament Report in 2008. A greater number of parliaments and members are trying to use technology more effectively to engage with citizens. There is also some indication that citizens are responding positively to the availability of ICT-supported methods of communicating with parliament and its members. On the other hand, the gap between the most technologically advanced parliaments and the others appears to be growing. Responses to a survey of the world's parliaments indicate that around 20% of parliamentarians are still not provided with a personal computer. More than 30% are not offered any kind of ICT training by their parliament. Inter-parliamentary cooperation is increasing, but much more collaboration is needed to close the gap between parliaments. [ Download the report ... ]
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IPU President issues statement on Israel's raid on aid ships for Gaza
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1 June 2010. The President of the IPU, Dr. Theo-Ben Gurirab, has expressed his deep concern at the news of Israel's military attack in international waters on a humanitarian flotilla headed to the Gaza Strip. "I condemn this violence", said the President. "I welcome yesterday's United Nations Security Council Presidential Statement. A full explanation should be given for this disproportionate use of force, resulting in the killing and wounding of so many people attempting to bring much needed aid to the people of Gaza who have been enduring a blockade for more than three years. All those on board the aid ships, which included several members of parliament, must be accounted for by the Israeli authorities". The IPU President reiterated his grave concern for the humanitarian situation in Gaza and called for the regular flow of goods, including humanitarian assistance, into the territory. He also underscored the importance of restraint and the need to reach a prompt negotiated two-State solution to the conflict.
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