Some 600 parliamentarians from more than 120 countries - among them 28 Speakers of Parliament - attending the 120th Assembly of the Inter-Parliamentary Union (IPU) in Addis Ababa (Ethiopia) today called for swift and effective action to advance towards a nuclear weapon-free world.
The Assembly adopted four resolutions. In the first, on the role of parliaments in advancing nuclear non-proliferation and disarmament, and securing the entry into force of the comprehensive nuclear-test-ban treaty (CTBT), it expresses concern at the threat to international peace and security represented by the existence worldwide of some 26,000 nuclear weapons. It calls on all nuclear-armed States to make deeper, faster and irreversible cuts in their stockpiles of all types of nuclear and other weapons and urges all States to redouble their efforts to prevent the proliferation of such weapons.
The resolution stresses the vital importance of having States sign and ratify the CTBT, without delay and without conditions, to that it will enter into force at the earliest possible time. It recommends that States with ballistic missile capacity that have not acceded to the Hague Code of Conduct do so quickly, and encourages parliaments to monitor national implementation of all arms control, non-proliferation and disarmament treaties and United Nations resolutions and to engage their constituents on nuclear issues.
Lastly, the resolution urges International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) Member States or parties to a safeguards agreement to lend strong and constant support to the IAEA so that it can honour its safeguards obligations and therefore to provide the IAEA with all the information it requests.
Strong support for post-Kyoto deal on climate change
The Assembly also adopted a resolution on climate change, sustainable development models, and renewable energies, urging governments to work strenuously for a new post-Kyoto deal on climate change in Copenhagen at the end of the year. The resolution sketches a variety of measures that policymakers can take to limit to 2°C the average rise in temperatures since the pre-industrialized period. While expressing support for the G8 goal of a minimum 5-per cent reduction in global greenhouse emissions by 2050, the resolution also encourages large emitters to draw up their own - and possibly more ambitious - reduction plans.
Central to this strategy is a full-fledged expansion in the share of renewable energies as part of the total energy mix, especially in industrialized countries. Wind power, biomass and biogas, photovoltaics and solar energy, hydroelectricity and geothermal energy are considered the renewables of choice.
The resolution calls for greater investment in research and development of these technologies, as well as for more support for their transfer to developing countries. Large-scale plants and small-scale “appropriate technologies”, including plants to transform waste into energy, should be made available to developing countries. To facilitate the transition to renewables, countries should develop ways to price the true environmental cost of fossil fuels.
The resolution gives only tepid support to nuclear energy and cautions countries that go down that road to give careful consideration to factors such as the finite nature of uranium, the risk of serious harm to both people and the environment, and the still intractable problem of waste disposal. It expresses cautious support for biofuels, conditional on finding more efficient production methods that do not reduce the availability of staples and other foods. Similarly, carbon capture and storage did not receive a blank check as a means of reducing greenhouse gas reductions.
Energy efficiency is also critical to reducing CO2 emissions, and more investment will be needed to improve auto emissions, retrofit buildings, develop more energy efficient appliances and expand public transport. The resolution makes a number of other recommendations, calling for more environment-friendly agricultural technology, including organic agriculture, to both reduce emissions and combat biodiversity loss. Deforestation, which accounts for roughly 25 per cent of global emissions, is also addressed.
Freedom of expression and right to information
The Assembly adopted a third resolution, on freedom of expression and the right to information. It encourages those parliaments that have not already done so to enact freedom of information legislation at the earliest opportunity, to pass laws that ensure respect for intellectual pluralism and to adopt the legislative measures needed to criminalize the dissemination or transmission of child pornography through any medium.
The resolution condemns the restrictions, violence and assassination suffered by legislators. It urged parliaments to take legislative action to protect journalists and other opinion shapers in exercising the right to freedom of expression.
While recognizing that freedom of expression and access to information may need to be restricted in the event of a war or serious public security threat, the resolution stresses that such restrictions ought to be strictly limited in scope and duration. It expresses concern that the concentration of media ownership will ultimately marginalize the right to express unconventional views and invites parliaments to pass laws guaranteeing media plurality, which is essential to freedom of expression, and to combat arbitrary sanctions by the State on the media, press agencies and correspondents.
Lastly, the resolution calls on parliaments to ensure that education is compulsory, free and equally available to boys and girls until at least age 16 and adult literacy and mastery of new information and communication technology become widespread.
Economic and financial crisis
In a fourth and final resolution, on the role of parliaments in mitigating the social and political impact of the international economic and financial crisis on the most vulnerable sectors of the global community, especially in Africa, the Assembly calls for all parliaments to take urgent action to address the global economic crisis, which they will discuss at the forthcoming IPU Parliamentary Conference on the Global Economic Crisis (7 and 8 May 2009). It reaffirms its full support for the June 2009 United Nations General Assembly high-level conference on the international financial and economic crisis and its impact on development.
The resolution urges the world’s parliaments and governments to give priority to the eradication of poverty and social injustice and its root causes in Africa and other developing countries and to explore ways to mitigate the social, political and economic effects of the global financial crisis, particularly on developing nations. It also calls on parliaments to ensure effective governance of financial systems, including regulatory measures, in order to avoid future financial crisis and provide accountability.
The resolution ends by urging the governments of developed nations to take appropriate responsibility for helping to remedy the negative effects on developing countries of the global financial crisis.
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