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| 129th IPU Assembly is going to address nuclear disarmament. |
Making the world nuclear-weapon free and safe from all weapons of mass destruction will be among the many pressing global issues that MPs from across the world will tackle at the 129th IPU Assembly in Geneva between 7-9 October.
Nearly 1,200 participants, including nearly 600 MPs from 129 countries will examine what they can do on disarmament at a time of increasing concern on the proliferation of nuclear and chemical weapon prowess and in the aftermath of chemical weapon use in Syria. Their deliberations will inform an IPU resolution on a nuclear-free world in 2014.
“This is a serious opportunity for MPs and parliaments everywhere to provide visionary leadership on an issue that would lay the foundations to a more secure and peaceful world in the future. It would also help ensure the atrocities suffered when such weapons are used never happen again,” says IPU President Abdelwahad Radi.
In a particularly large high-level participation that includes nearly 45 Speakers of Parliament, including Australia, Canada, Germany, India, Iran, Kenya, Lebanon, Nigeria and Pakistan as well as a delegation from the Syrian parliament, the IPU Assembly will also put great emphasis on tackling humanitarian and human rights problems.
The growing internal displacement and the Syrian refugee crises will be highlighted during different sessions, including by UN High Commissioner for Refugees, António Guterres who will address the IPU membership on a regional crisis with worrying global implications. He will be joined by his UN counterpart on human rights, Navi Pillay, who will put the spotlight on human rights priorities around the world and parliament’s role in upholding such rights.
The human rights focus will continue by examining how parliaments can better protect children’s rights, including those of migrant children, as well as those of indigenous peoples and the disabled. IPU’s Committee on the Human Rights of Parliamentarians will also carry out more than 10 hearings with countries and individuals on specific cases it is following, with a number of resolutions expected to be adopted on the concluding day of the Assembly.
In another event-packed Assembly, IPU members will hold an emergency debate on an issue threatening democracy and peace. Proposals for the debate which would result in the adoption of a resolution include: IPU action to safeguard democracy in Haiti, the role of parliaments in addressing the deliberate destruction of the world’s cultural heritage, cyber warfare as a threat to global peace and security and Israeli settlements in Palestine hindering Middle East peace.
Delegations from Israel and Palestine will also meet through IPU’s Committee on Middle East Questions, which earlier this year carried out two missions to the region, in a bid to find parliamentary routes to progress on Middle East peace talks.
For full details on Assembly agenda, please go to: http://www.ipu.org/Conf-e/129agnd.htm
Journalists wanting accreditation to attend 129h IPU Assembly, please contact IPU Communications on the contact details below.
Picture Editors can access photos of the Assembly from:
www.ipu.org/129pics
Plenary sessions of the IPU Assembly will be webcast live on www.ipu.org
Take part in the Assembly debates or follow it on Twitter using #IPU129
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