On Tuesday 17 October, during the 115th Assembly of the Inter-Parliamentary Union, a panel discussion will be held from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. on the IPU's Committee on the Human Rights of Parliamentarians to commemorate its thirty years of work, at the Centre international de Conferences de Genève (CICG).

"The Committee on the Human Rights of Parliamentarians is one of the IPU's most important features. The Committee, which also has close ties with the United Nations, must be strengthened. The battle for ensuring respect for the rights of persecuted members of parliament should be waged not only in Geneva, but also by parliaments in all the capitals of the world", said IPU President, Mr. Pier Ferdinando Casini.

"I want to express my heartfelt gratitude to the IPU and salute the struggle for freedom it waged alongside us during all these years of suffering", said Mr. Alpha Condé, former presidential candidate of Guinea, who will be one of the panellists on Tuesday.

The other panellists will includeMr. Hipólito Solari Yrigoyen (a former "case" seizedby the Committee who later went on to become its President, and currently Vice-President of the United Nations Human Rights Committee); Mr. Franklin Drilon (former President of the Senate of the Philippines and current President of the Committee on the Human Rights of Parliamentarians); Canadian Senator Sharon Carstairs (Vice-President of the Committee); Mrs. Ann Clwyd (Majority Leader in the United Kingdom House of Commons); and M. Pierre Cornillon (IPU Honorary Secretary General).

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The IPU Committee on the Human Rights of Parliamentarians was established in 1976. It meets in camera four times a year to ensure that the human rights of the world's parliamentary community - composed of more than 40'000 members - are respected. It has contributed to the settlement of over 500 cases in 104 countries since itsestablishment. Established in 1889 and with its Headquarters in Geneva, Switzerland, the IPU, the oldest multilateral political organisation, currently brings together 146 affiliated parliaments and seven regional assemblies as associate members. The world organisation of parliaments has an Office in New York, which acts as its Permanent Observer at the United Nations.
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Contact for additional information or interviews:

Mrs. Luisa Ballin, IPU Information Officer 5, ch. du Pommier, CH - 1218 Le Grand-Saconnex / Geneva Phone: +41 22 919 41 16 Fax: +41 22 919 41 60 E-mail: lb@mail.ipu.org or cbl@mail.ipu.org Mrs. Ingeborg Schwarz, Manager of the Human Rights Programme 5, ch. du Pommier, CH - 1218 Le Grand-Saconnex / Geneva Phone: +41 22 919 41 42 E-mail: is@mail.ipu.org Mr. Rogier Huizenga, Programme Officer Phone: +41 22 919 41 24 E-mail: rh@mail.ipu.org