Press release of the Inter-Parliamentary Union
Geneva, 11 June 1999
N° 79

The Honourable Ja'far Basaleh, Deputy Speaker of the House of Representatives of Yemen, visited the Inter-Parliamentary Union (IPU) Headquarters in Geneva today. He had a meeting with the President of the IPU Council, Mr Miguel Angel Martínez, and IPU Secretary General Mr Anders B. Johnsson. During his working visit, Mr Basaleh agreed with IPU authorities a programme of action for implementation of IPU assistance to the Parliament of Yemen. This assistance will be provided under sub-programme 6 of the National Programme for Governance Capacity and Institutional Reform of the Republic of Yemen which is being funded by the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP).

It will be recalled that this sub-programme was developed by the IPU following a needs assessment mission in December 1996. On 1 March 1999, the IPU and the Parliament of Yemen signed a three-year co-operation agreement in respect of this assistance. The agreement provides among other things for IPU advisory services to the Parliament of Yemen, including advice on constitutional issues, especially the streamlining of relations between the Executive and the Legislative, the organisation of seminars for parliamentarians and parliamentary staff as well as other training programmes for the latter. Training will focus on the role and working methods of Parliament and the improvement of the English-language skills of Members of Parliament and parliamentary staff.

During today's meeting, Mr Martínez and Mr Johnsson expressed full support for ongoing initiatives to strengthen the capacity of the Parliament of Yemen and promised to do everything in their power to ensure the success of co-operation between the IPU and the Parliament of Yemen in this field.

For his part, the Honourable Ja'far Basaleh reaffirmed his Parliament's commitment to pursue co-operation with the IPU as the lead agency responsible for providing technical assistance under governance sub-programme 6. "The IPU is the right body for the implementation of this programme, as it is the world organisation of parliaments", Mr Basaleh stated today.

The IPU is expected to field a consultancy mission to Sana'a in the coming weeks in order to lay the groundwork for the implementation of the co-operation agreement.

Contact Mr Martin Chungong, Officer-in-charge of the Programme for the Study and Promotion of Representative Institutions in Geneva: Tel. (41 22) 919 41 30, fax (41 22) 919 41 60 or 733 31 41, e-mail: mc@mail.ipu.org

The IPU also has a liaison office with the UN in New York:
tel. (1 212) 557.5880, fax (1 212) 557.3954, e-mail: ny-office@mail.ipu.org