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First woman President of the IPU Council
I N T E R V I E W
Mrs Najma Heptulla
President of the IPU Council
By Luisa Ballin
The Deputy Chairman of the Rajya Sabha (Upper House) of India, Mrs Najma Heptulla, was elected as President of the Council of the Inter-Parliamentary Union (IPU) on 16 October 1999, during the 102nd Inter-Parliamentary Conference in Berlin. This is the first time that a woman has held the highest office in the world organisation of parliaments created in 1889. "This is a clear reflection of the importance women have come to occupy in parliamentary life. It is also a recognition of the fact that to build a democratic society based on justice and freedom for all, equality of women and partnership between men and women are a fundamental necessity", declared Mrs Heptulla after her election.
Q: Now that you have been elected as the first ever woman President of the IPU Council, what are your main priorities?
N.H.: To see that democracy is strengthened and that the ideals of the IPU, such as human rights, humanitarian law, gender parity, partnership between men and women, equal distribution of economic resources among the peoples of this world, and peace and development, are upheld.
Q: While making your acceptance speech after your election, you mentioned that "democracy is a jealous mistress". Please elaborate.
N.H.: You have to put a little humour into everything! I was just drawing a parallel. Democracy requires regular monitoring in view of the evolution of society. It has to be more substantive and more representative to be an effective mode of governance. Democracy is not just a word. It is never perfect vis-à-vis people's aspirations and expectations. We have to put in extra effort and endeavour to make it more reflective. Democracy is not a stationary thing. It is movement. Like the water in a fountain it has to keep on moving. It should adjust according to the needs of the people it represents. If democracy is not taken care of, it will die. In the process it will kill the free spirit of society. We have to take care of democracy in order to protect it and for that we have to put in a lot of effort.
Q: What can be the role of parliamentarians in emergency situations like the ones in Kosovo, East Timor or Pakistan?
N.H.: Government representatives have their own responsibility and their position on various issues concerning world events, whether they are good events or bad events. They have to take their own decisions. In the case of turmoil, terrorism, ethnic cleansing, in the case of people getting killed, it is the responsibility of the representatives of the people to take note of it, and sometimes the people's opinion has to be focused on it. Sometimes the people do not know what to do and it is for the parliamentarians belonging to both minority and majority parties to sit together to solve the problems, especially those in the heart of Europe: in Bosnia or Kosovo, or the problems in East Timor or any other part of the world. It is for the people's representatives to see that the grievances of the people are taken care of.
Q: You are the first woman elected as President of the Council of the Inter-Parliamentary Union. Don't you feel that people expect more from a woman than from a man?
N.H.: I won't mind if they expect twice as much, because it will be my duty to try to uphold the principles and ideals of the IPU. In doing so, I will have the support of all those people who have elected me. It is a democracy. I will not issue any diktat to anybody. I will in fact draw the support of the people to the stands the IPU will take from time to time.
Q: Do you think you represent the situation of women in your country, where they are very much involved in politics yet face great difficulties?
N.H.: I see this in every country. Women all over the world, whether it is in the most advanced countries or the most backward, face almost the same problems. This came out of the Beijing Conference. They suffer discrimination. In the newer democracies, the position of women is much better because they have learned from the experiences of others. If you look at the democracies in Africa, the women have achieved much more much faster, because their leadership was more aware. In my country, we definitely had a real leader in Mrs Indira Gandhi, the late Prime Minister. She showed with her work what she was worth. In my country, like in other countries, there are women who are deprived of their rights and it is the duty of women like myself, who are privileged, to act as role models and to work for those who are under-privileged. In my country, a very silent revolution has taken place where we have empowered one million women in basic democracy, in the villages, in the districts, in the local bodies, because we do not believe that leadership should remain only at the top. We do believe that leadership will grow to the grassroots and want to see this: only then will radical change come as far as women's status is concerned.
Yemeni Parliamentarians discuss relationship between Parliament and Government
The IPU, in collaboration with the Parliament of Yemen, organised a seminar in Sana'a from 9-11 November 1999. This seminar, intended for Members of the Parliament of Yemen, focussed on the relationship between the Parliament and Government. The seminar was funded by the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) and aimed at enhancing Parliament's role in ensuring accountability and good governance in Yemen. The discussions were led by three experts with vast experience in parliamentary affairs: Mr Brahim Rachidi, Vice-President of the House of Representatives of the Parliament of Morocco; Mr Raila Odinga, Chairman of the National Development Party (a leading opposition party in Kenya); Mr Joseph Maingot, former Law Clerk and Parliamentary Counsel of the Canadian House of commons and Commissioner of the Law Reform Commission of Canada, as well as by a member of the IPU Secretariat, Mr Martin Chungong, Officer-in-Charge of the Programme for the Study and Promotion of Representative Institutions. See press release n° 84 on the IPU's web site (http://www.ipu.org).
The IPU and the Seattle Conference
During the 102nd Inter-Parliamentary Conference (held in Berlin from 10 to 16 October), the IPU examined the need to revise the current global financial and economic model. The 131 parliamentary delegations present in Berlin adopted a resolution which "urges Governments to make every effort to ensure that negotiations on the further liberalisation of trade, including trade in agriculture, at the Seattle Ministerial Conference of the World Trade Organization (WTO) are broad-based and produce substantial and realistic results". It further "calls on Governments to promote transparency and openness in the WTO and facilitate participation in the WTO negotiating process by appropriate bodies of the United Nations, the IPU and civil society institutions recognised by the United Nations".
Information Seminar for Parliamentary Secretaries
Secretaries of 14 national Parliaments participated in the Information Seminar on the Structure and Functioning of the IPU held from 8 to 13 November at the IPU's Headquarters in Geneva. This annual seminar aims at helping participants to become better acquainted with the work of the IPU so that they can assist their respective parliament and parliamentarians more effectively, notably during Inter-Parliamentary Meetings. The seminar, which was held in English this year, brought together Secretaries from the Parliaments of Botswana, Cambodia, Cape Verde, China, Denmark, India, Indonesia, Kenya, Mexico, Namibia, Nigeria, South Africa and Zambia.
POSTER OF THE IPU
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BRIGITTA GADIENT, Swiss MP
"To do their job effectively, parliaments and their members must be well informed. Three years ago, the IPU conducted a world survey on awareness-building and action by parliaments in three fields: what they know and what they are doing to guarantee respect for the rules of international humanitarian law (IHL), what they are doing to ensure the elimination of land mines and what they are doing to make sure that the treaty establishing the Rome Statute is ratified and the International Criminal Court is set up… This survey revealed that our assemblies were ill informed about IHL. There is no getting round the fact that many MPs have trouble distinguishing between human rights and international humanitarian law… This situation has led the competent IPU Committee, which works in close cooperation with the ICRC, to draft a practical handbook for MPs on respect for international humanitarian law… Yet this handbook is merely a tool. If it is to reach its goal, it must be backed up by political willpower".
XXVIIth International Conference of the Red Cross and Red Crescent - Geneva, 3 November 1999
KOFI ANNAN, UN Secretary-General
"The relationship between the IPU and the UN General Assembly is an ideal way to connect national parliaments to the United Nations and thus add a parliamentary dimension to the work of the United Nations. Parliamentarians play a unique role in helping the UN meet the challenges of today. You are the institutional bridge between the State and civil society. You are the link between the local and the global. You are among the vital partners needed to build peace in the broadest sense of the world".
UN-IPU meeting of MPs in the UN General Assembly, 29 October 1999
GERHARD SCHRÖDER, German Federal Chancellor
"Government without democratic participation is a model without a future", said Chancellor Gerhard Schröder at the 102nd Inter-Parliamentary Conference held in Berlin. He called on parliamentarians from all around the globe "to make their voices heard when ethnic groups are incited to hatred against each other or when minorities are oppressed and persecuted. The appropriate stance to take here is one of admonition and resistance". In this context, the Federal Chancellor praised the "way in which the IPU has stood up for MPs in all parts of the world who have been persecuted or imprisoned as a result of their political views".
102nd Inter-Parliamentary Conference, Berlin, 11 October 1999
CORNELIO SOMMARUGA, President of the ICRC
"The parliamentarians' role of monitoring the Executive is highly significant. Parliamentarians can and should do their utmost to ensure that the rules of international humanitarians law are respected both at home and abroad...Respecting and ensuring respect for international humanitarian law requires extensive political mobilisation based on both knowledge and a certain know-how. Parliamentarians not only oversee the Executive's action in applying the law but also have the capability and authority to transmit the rules of international humanitarian law to the population and to ensure that the competent institutions, the army and security forces, receive adequate instruction in them".
Inter-Parliamentary Conference, Berlin, 11 October 1999
MARY ROBINSON, UN High Commissioner for Human rights
"Parliaments and parliamentarians have a key role to play in championing human rights, both nationally and internationally. It is parliaments which are responsible for the ratification of international human rights treaties and conventions, for the development of domestic legislation in conformity with international human rights norms, and for the adoption of policies, programmes and strategies informed by a rights-based approach. More than that, parliamentarians can be a strong voice for those deprived of their human rights... As a world organisation of parliaments, the Inter-Parliamentary Union is an important - indeed unique - forum for parliamentary dialogue and work for peace and co-operation among people, for the promotion of democracy and for the defence and promotion of human rights and the protection of the rule of law. I am aware of, and applaud, the stands taken on human rights issues by the IPU over the years".
Inter-Parliamentary Conference, Berlin, 11 October 1999
Paris Forum postponed
The IPU and UNESCO have decided, in agreement with the United Nations Division for the Advancement of Women, to postpone the Forum on "Perspectives on Democracy: How Women Make a Difference" which was to be held at UNESCO Headquarters in Paris from 1 to 3 December 1999. Due to a variety of circumstances beyond the control of the co-organisers and owing to the constraints faced by many governments, parliaments and organisations at the end of this millennium to attend the Forum despite their keen interest in the theme, the event will be postponed to a later date, to be set on the occasion of the 103rd Inter-Parliamentary Conference in Amman (30 April - 6 May 2000). This decision has been taken in order to guarantee the expected worldwide tripartite participation and the political success of the event.
UNAIDS and IPU launch ground-breaking guide for legislators
A new handbook to help parliamentarians keep HIV/AIDS issues on the national agenda will be launched simultaneously on 24 November in the Houses of Parliament at Westminster, the Scottish Assembly in Edinburgh, the Welsh Assembly in Cardiff, and the Northern Ireland Assembly in Stormont. The Executive Director of the Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS, Dr Peter Piot, and the Secretary General of the Inter-Parliamentary Union, Mr Anders B. Johnsson, will speak on that occasion.
The "Handbook for Legislators on HIV/AIDS Law and Human Rights", prepared by the Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS) and the Inter-Parliamentary Union (IPU), is designed to help Parliaments promote HIV-related law and policy reform by providing them and their members with information on the critical role of law and human rights in responding to the epidemic.
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