Press release of the Inter-Parliamentary Union
Moscow, 8 September 1998
N° 6

"You are the genuine expression of your people and the embodiment of their values and their traditions, their strengths and sometimes their sorrows, but also their aspirations", said the outgoing Secretary General Mr Pierre Cornillon on Tuesday, addressing the 100th Inter-Parliamentary Conference, meeting at the Kremlin.

Mr Pierre Cornillon thus concluded a carreer of nearly 35 years in the service of the IPU (12 of them as Secretary General) where he worked alongside 15 Presidents of the Inter-Parliamentary Council.

Mr Miguel Angel Martínez, President of the Inter-Parliamentary Council, had just recalled that as Secretary General Mr Cornillon had been "the pilot and engineer of the IPU". Speaking on behalf of all members of the organisation, he expressed their appreciation for Mr Cornillon's exceptional contribution to the development of the Inter-Parliamentary Union, the strengthening of international co-operation and the prestige and growth of parliamentary institutions in the world and to the cause of democracy and human rights. "I wish to make a point of solemnly expressing our gratitude for all that we owe to Mr Pierre Cornillon", he concluded.

"When I joined the Union, it maintained no real co-operative links with the other international organisations", Mr Cornillon went on. "It has made up the lost ground and opened up to the concerns of the rest of the world, taking to heart the problems and expectations of developing countries". Mr Cornillon spoke of organisation's progress and achievements, such as the programme for support to parliaments, the East-West rapprochement process, the development of co-operation in the Mediterranean, as well as the programmes for the protection of the human rights of parliamentarians and for the advancement of women in politics, both launched in 1975.

"In three decades, (the IPU) has asserted itself as the World Organisation of Parliaments and has gained recognition as an inter-state institution acting on an equal footing with the intergovernmental institutions", Mr Cornillon said, and as evidence of the Union's status cited the Conference of Speakers and Presidents of Parliaments to be held at United Nations Headquarters in New York in October and the new Headquarters which the IPU plans to build in Geneva.

"I hope that in enhancing their role parliaments will be aiming to make their World Organisation the spearhead of democracy in the broadest sense, meaning justice", he concluded.

As a mark of gratitude and esteem, the 100th Conference conferred on Mr Cornillon the title of Honorary Secretary General of the Inter-Parliamentary Union.

FOR MORE INFORMATION, contact in Moscow:

• IPU Press Officer: Yves Bellégo, tel. (70 95) 910 18 19/910 19 21/910 19 94 fax (70 95) 910 14 68/910 19 22
• Russian Press Officer: Guennadi Dyakonov, Deputy Director, Information Service of the Parliament, Moscow, tel. (70 95) 292 33 66; fax (70 95) 292 94 64