Press release of the Inter-Parliamentary Union
Ouagadougou, 14 September2001
N° 7

The some 600 MPs (including 141 women) from 112 countries attending at the 106th Inter-Parliamentary Conference of Ouagadougou (Burkina Faso) adopted four resolutions. One of them "urges the pharmaceutical industry to reduce the prices of medicines, above all in the developing countries, to waive its monopoly on production and marketing, and to participate directly in the financing of measures to combat AIDS and contribute to the funding of research, especially into the development of vaccines".

In a resolution entitled Urgent action to combat HIV/AIDS and other pandemics which seriously endanger public health, and economic, social and political development and even threaten the survival of many nations, the 106th Conference "calls on all parliamentarians to intensify their efforts to establish effective nationanational and international AIDS policies and programmes which are specifically tailored to the needs of the various target groups, and take account of gender issues and cultural and religious sensitivities".

It also calls on "States, pharmaceutical companies and the scientific community to give greater priority to researching the diseases which are prevalent in developing countries, in particular HIV/AIDS" and urges "governments to put human rights above trade rights".

The MPs present in Ouagadougou also call for special attention to be given to the prevention of HIV, particularly with regard to mother-to-child transmission and for victims of rape.

In a resolution entitled Protecting and caring for children, the driving force of future society, the 106th Conference urges the international community to take immediate action to lift embargoes and other sanctions which have negatively affected children in different parts of the world and, drawing on a panel discussion on excision which took place during the Conference, calls on parliaments and governments to end the violation of the girl child by female genital mutilation.

It also recommends that States help the family and local community in guaranteeing the rights of children to development, protection and education and to take appropriate measures to prevent, combat and eliminate all forms of discrimination against children on the basis of race, colour, sex, language, religion, national, ethnic or social origin, descent, economic status, disability and other potentially vulnerable situations (migrant, refugee and internally displaced children).

The delegates also stress the need to take "the necessary measures, including legal reforms, to ensure the full and equal enjoyment by the girl child of all human rights and fundamental freedoms" and "to take effective actions against violations, such as sexual abuse and female genital mutilation, and to develop programme and policies for the girl child that place her on an equal footing with the boy child".

With regard to children’s health, they urge States to ensure that particular emphasis is placed on the prevention of HIV infection in children, to provide support and rehabilitation to infected children and their families as well as orphans, and to protect them from all forms of discrimination.

The Conference "calls on all States to recognise the right to education on the basis of equal opportunity by making basic education compulsory and ensuring that all children, regardless of gender, have access to free basic education", and "to take all appropriate and effective measures to protect children from torture, attack, displacement and other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment, and all forms of violence, including physical, mental and sexual abuse, to investigate, prosecute and submit cases of torture and other forms of violence against children".

The delegates call on States to "translate into concrete action their commitment to the progressive and effective elimination of child labour that is likely to be hazardous, interfere with the child's education or be harmful to the child's health". They urge States to take all appropriate measures to ensure that persons who have not attained the age of 18 years are not recruited into their armed forces, and that members of the armed forces and armed groups who have not attained the age of 18 years do not take a direct part in hostilities.

The Conference also took a stand on a resolution entitled Contribution of parliaments to dealing with the continuing tragic situation in the occupied Arab territories, to the provision of international observers and monitors, and to the protection of the Arab Palestinian people, especially unarmed civilians. It "demands of the Government of Israel and of the Palestinian Authority that they reaffirm their resolve to respect the existing agreements, to unconditionally and immediately enforce the cessation of all violent acts, thereby renewing their co-operation in security matters, to avail themselves more of means which aim at restoring the confidence between the two peoples, thus establishing a period of significant pacification, and to return to a constructive dialogue, which comprises the substantial questions, by means of bilateral negotiations".

The delegates call on "Israel to withdraw its military forces from the area immediately surrounding Palestinian cities and villages, to freeze all settlement activities; to refrain from attacking civilians and installations, and to lift its siege of the Palestinian territories". They call on "the Palestinian Authority to implement efficient methods to avoid terrorist activities on the territory under its jurisdiction". The delegates call for "the dispatching of international observers and monitors to the occupied Palestinian territories to ensure respect for international humanitarian law and to end violence in these territories" and call on "Israel, the occupying power, to withdraw from the recently occupied Palestinian national institutions, including Beit Al-Sharq (Orient House), and to stop all plans to isolate the Arab city of Jerusalem".

Finally, the 106th Conference "calls for the resumption of negotiations in order to achieve a comprehensive and lasting peace by ending the Israeli occupation, establishing an independent Palestinian State with its capital in Jerusalem and solving the Palestinian refugee question equitably".

The Conference "condemns with the utmost energy the terrorist attacks perpetrated against the United States of America on 11 September 2001" and "calls on all States to develop or strengthen their co-operation with a view to preventing and stamping out terrorist activities throughout the world".

Established in 1889 and with its Headquarters in Geneva, the IPU, the oldest multilateral organisation, currently has 142 affiliated national parliaments and five regional assemblies as associate members. The organisation of the world's parliaments also has a Liaison Office with the United Nations in New York.