Press release of the Inter-Parliamentary Union
New York/Geneva, 21 October 1996
N° 58

Some 60 Members of Parliament from over 25 countries are holding a one-day meeting at UN headquarters in New York on 22 October, to review with senior United Nations officials current programmes and major initiatives being discussed at this year's UN General Assembly.

The meeting is organized by the Inter-Parliamentary Union (IPU), the world organization of parliaments, and the MPs are in New York to follow the work of the 51st session of the General Assembly.

The MPs will focus on the following topics during their closed-door meeting:

• Humanitarian challenges: landmines and the impact of conflicts on children (Speakers: Mr Yasushi Akashi, Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs, Mr Nigel Fisher, Chief, UNICEF Office of Emergency Programmes, Mr Peter Küng, Head of the ICRC delegation to the UN)
• Support by the United Nations to new or restored democracies (Speaker: Ms Rosario Green, Assistant UN Secretary-General and Special Adviser to Dr Boutros Boutros-Ghali)
• The challenge of UN reform: the Secretariat perspective (Speaker: Mr Joseph Connor, Under-Secretary-General for Administration and Management)

This meeting has added significance this year because of the Agreement on Co-operation between the United Nations and the Inter-Parliamentary Union that was signed on 24 July this year and which will be presented to the General Assembly on 25 October under its agenda item 29. The agreement was called for at the 50th General Assembly which noted that the IPU's activities complement and support the work of the United Nations, and that co-operation needs to be strengthened and given a proper framework, notably in the field of promoting representative democracy - one of the IPU's main current programmes.

The IPU has a membership of 135 national parliaments. At its conferences and meetings, MPs of all political leanings meet to discuss ways of advancing international co-operation on the main issues before the international community. The IPU's permanent programmes also include the promotion of women in parliament and defending the human rights of parliamentarians.