Press release of the Inter-Parliamentary Union
Brussels, 15 April 1999
N° 5

Kosovo, the nuclear test ban, the problem of metropolitan areas and writing off the debt of heavily indebted poor countries were at the heart of the debates of the 101st Inter-Parliamentary Conference, held in Brussels from 10 to 15 April at the European Parliament and attended by 647 parliamentarians from 125 countries, including 132 women parliamentarians (more than 20%).

Expressing his views on the situation in Kosovo, the President of the Inter-Parliamentary Council, Mr Miguel Angel Martínez, said: "the men and women of our societies will not accept that massacres and genocides can occur with total impunity, or atrocities of the kind we call ethnic cleansing - cleansing which irremediably sullies its perpetrators. We can no longer accept such crimes, under the pretext that they have occurred in so-called sovereign States. There is no place at the close of this century for a sovereignty which serves as a bastion for such exactions, or subsequent immunity for those guilty of them. Nor is it any solution - at least, not in the medium term - for a State or group of States, individually or together, to intervene on their own account when they deem it appropriate or necessary. Which means that there is a void, for we can no longer accept a system where unpardonable acts are committed in front of an international community blocked by the veto of one country or another: our public opinions will no longer tolerate it. The International Criminal Court, for which the IPU has fought for years, constitutes a significant milestone on the right road. Two things are still needed: resolute support for its establishment, and for all States to accept its jurisdiction, particularly those that tend to demand of others that they respect human rights and the right of minorities".

Also echoing the concern expressed by MPs after the military putsch in Niger, during which the Head of State was assassinated and the country's institutions, including the National Assembly, were dissolved, the President of the 101st Inter-Parliamentary Conference, Mr. Raymond Langendries, speaking on behalf of the MPs in attendance, denounced and strongly condemned "this brutal blow to the efforts of the people of Niger to build a State based on the rule of law". He made an "urgent appeal to the military authorities of this country to do their utmost to restore democratic institutions as soon as possible, to enable the people of Niger to continue moving towards democracy and good governance".

The Brussels Conference urged "national parliaments and parliamentarians to use all the mechanisms of parliamentary diplomacy to promote peace and stability, to eliminate hotbeds of conflict and to work towards a speedy end to current conflicts, thereby reducing the risk of loss of human life, the obliteration of historical and cultural values, and the deterioration of the environment and the architectural heritage in urban centres".

"Mindful that cities are a driving force behind the overall economic and social progress of nations and that, as society has evolved, urbanisation has made it possible to improve the quality of life of a large proportion of the population by facilitating access to education, social services and health care for all citizens, especially children, as well as participation in cultural, political and religious life", the delegates, including 46 Speakers of Parliaments, urged national parliaments to ''promote full awareness of the positive role that cities play in the world as a source of social, economic, cultural and political development and, hence, of their importance to the sustainable overall development of human society".

Turning to women's role in and contribution to the life of large cities, the parliamentarians also emphasised that Parliaments should "take steps to increase the number of women involved in political decision-making and particularly in local government, whether as observers or as elected officials".

The 101st Inter-Parliamentary Conference also urged "all States which have not yet done so to sign and become parties to the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons (NPT)" and called for the '"renunciation of the use or threat of use of nuclear weapons". (The delegations of Belarus, China and Lebanon explained their votes and India rejected the resolution).

On the subject of writing off the government debt of heavily indebted poor countries (HIPCs), the 101st Inter-Parliamentary Conference called on '"creditor countries to commit themselves in principle to writing off the public debt of HIPCs in the shortest possible time". It also urged ''debtor countries to perform in accordance with good governance by introducing transparent and accountable mechanisms of control in order to ensure that the benefits of debt relief result in the socio-economic development of their peoples".

Finally, the parliamentarians recommended that "further debt relief should be achieved without jeopardising the economies of other nations or the stability of the world's financial markets".

Contacts: Mrs Luisa Ballin, IPU Information Officer in Brussels: Tel. (322) 28-44351, fax (322) 28-41579, e-mail: ipac773@skypro.be; Mr Patrick Peremans, Press attaché of the Belgian Senate. Tel: (322) 501 73 37 or 0477 797901, e-mail pp@senate.be