PLACE DU PETIT-SACONNEX
1211 GENEVA 19 SWITZERLAND
| INTER-PARLIAMENTARY UNION PLACE DU PETIT-SACONNEX 1211 GENEVA 19 SWITZERLAND |
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Press release of the Inter-Parliamentary Union
President Boris Yeltsin will open at the Kremlin on 7 September, the 100th Inter-Parliamentary Conference, which will bring together representatives of national parliaments from around the world. Organised by the Geneva-based Inter-Parliamentary Union (IPU), the world organisation of parliaments, and held at the invitation of the Russian Parliament, the Conference will focus on promoting human rights in the year of the 50th anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights as well as on the management, use and preservation of water. An unprecedented event, the 100th Conference of the Inter-Parliamentary Union will gather more than 700 parliamentarians from around the world, as well as nearly 90 Speakers and Deputy Speakers of Parliament. The five-day Conference will end on 11 September, with the adoption of resolutions expressing the opinion of parliamentarians from the 137 national member-parliaments of the IPU on the topics under discussion. It is the first time that an IPU Conference will have been held in the Russian Federation. The Inaugural Ceremony will start on Monday 7 September, at 11.30 a.m., in the Congress Palace of the Kremlin, in the presence of H.E. Boris Yeltsin, President of the Republic of the Russian Federation. Other speakers at the ceremony will be the President of the Inter-Parliamentary Council (IPU governing body), Mr Miguel Angel Martínez (MP, Spain); the Chairman of the State Duma, Mr Guennadi N. Seleznev; the Chairman of the Council of the Federation, Mr Yegor S. Stroyev; and the Special Representative of the UN Secretary-General, Mr Vladimir Petrovsky (Director-General of the United Nations Office in Geneva), who will deliver Mr Kofi Annan's message to the Conference. The first main topic of discussion will be: "Strong action by national parliaments in the year of the 50th anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights to ensure the promotion and protection of all human rights in the 21st century". This will allow MPs to reflect upon how best to protect human rights in the future and ensure that the upcoming century will be one in which all human rights are effectively enjoyed by peoples throughout the world. The second topic will be: "Water: the means required to preserve, manage and make the best use of this essential resource for sustainable development". Parliamentarians will be able to debate the current decrease in world water resources and see what can be done to minimise its effects on sustainable development and ward off water-related conflicts. The Russian Foreign Minister, Mr Eugeni M. Primakov, will address the Conference later in the week, on Thursday 10 September, during its general debate on the political, economic and social situation in the world. A supplementary item - a third main topic of discussion - will be chosen on the opening day of the Conference, from proposals forwarded by different member-parliaments. The proposals deal with the illicit trafficking of drugs and organised crime (proposed by the Group of Latin American countries); lifting sanctions on Iraq, Libya and Sudan (by Iraq); support for Lebanon to implement UN Security Council resolution 425 of March 1978, dealing with Southern Lebanon (by Lebanon); adherence to international treaties on nuclear non-proliferation (United Kingdom); revitalisation of the Middle East peace process (Egypt on behalf of the Arab Inter-Parliamentary Groups); total elimination of nuclear weapons (Iran); comprehensively banning nuclear testing (Denmark); establishment of hi-tech industrial zones in developing countries (Israel); action to protest the recent nuclear tests in South Asia (Japan); and a new international order (Venezuela). Various IPU committees will also meet during the week of the Conference, dealing with subjects such as the defence of the human rights of parliamentarians (tackling the cases of MPs under threat in countries around the world); Security and Co-operation in the Mediterranean (CSCM); the situation in Cyprus; Middle East questions; Gender Partnership (to ensure that the interests of both parts of the population are taken equally into account in all IPU activities); and promotion of International Humanitarian Law.
Fostering contacts and the exchange of ideas among parliamentarians
and considering questions of international interest are a key
part of the IPU's work. The Moscow Conference will be an opportunity
for MPs to engage in this kind of parliamentary diplomacy
that in the past has led to key successes on difficult bilateral
issues.
Women MPs will meet on the eve of the Conference, on Sunday 6 September, also at the Kremlin, starting at 9.30 a.m. They will discuss in particular the theme of Women's Human Rights. Mrs Tatiana Yaryguina, Member of the State Duma, will chair the meeting at which some 100 women MPs are expected to attend. The Meeting of Women Parliamentarians will also look at progress on the IPU's world enquiry on "Women's political experience and their contribution to the democratic process"; the state of preparations for the joint UNESCO-IPU meeting (in December 1999, in Paris) on "Perspectives on Democracy: Do Women make a Difference?"; the evaluation of national follow-up to the IPU's Plan of Action to correct present imbalances in the participation of men and women in political life; and follow-up to the debates in the previous IPU Conference, in Windhoek in April, on "Women in the informal economic sector and their access to micro-credits". According to the IPU's 1997 Declaration on Democracy, "The achievement of democracy presupposes a genuine partnership between men and women in the conduct of the affairs of society in which they work in equality and complementarity, drawing mutual enrichment from their differences".
FOR MORE INFORMATION, contact in Moscow:
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