Press release of the Inter-Parliamentary Union
Ouagadougou, 14 September2001
N° 8

The 106th Conference of the Inter-Parliamentary Union (IPU), which was held from 9 to 14 September 2001 in Ouaga 2000 Conference Centre in Ouagadougou (Burkina Faso), resumed its work tonight with the last session of the Council of the Inter-Parliamentary Union, the governing body of the world organisation of parliaments. The next IPU statutory Conference will be held in Marrakech from 17 to 23 March 2002. The items on the agenda will be:

• The role of parliaments in developing public policy in an era of globalisation, multilateral institutions and international trade agreements ;
• Ten years after Rio: global degradation of the environment and parliamentary support for the Kyoto Protocol.

The Council took note of the reports of the IPU specialised committees and plenary bodies: Committee on Security and Co-operation in the Mediterranean (CSCM), Committee on the Human Rights of Parliamentarians, Committee for Sustainable Development, Committee on Middle East Questions, Committee to Promote Respect for International Humanitarian Law; Group of Facilitators for Cyprus and Gender Partnership Group.

Mr Y. Tavernier (France) and Mr I. Ostash (Ukraine) were elected to the IPU Executive Committee by 144 votes and 92 votes, respectively.

Mr Anders B. Johnsson (Sweden) has been re-elected as IPU Secretary General for a four-year mandate (1 July 2002 – 30 June 2006).

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.