PRESIDENT RICARDO LAGOS TO OPEN 108th INTER-PARLIAMENTARY CONFERENCE IN SANTIAGO DE CHILE
At the invitation of the Chilean Parliament, the Inter-Parliamentary Union (IPU) will hold its 108th statutory Conference and related meetings from Sunday, 6 April to Saturday, 12 April 2003, at the Centro de Convenciones Diego Portales in Santiago de Chile. The inaugural ceremony will take place on Sunday, 6 April at 7 p.m. in the presence of the President of the Republic of Chile, Mr. Ricardo Lagos, the President of the IPU Council, Chilean Senator Sergio Páez, the President of the Chilean Senate, Mr. Andrés Zaldívar, the IPU Secretary General, Mr. Anders B. Johnsson (Sweden), and the President of the Chamber of Deputies, to be elected mid March.
Mr. José Antonio Ocampo, Executive Secretary of the Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean will deliver a message on behalf of the UN Secretary General, Mr. Kofi Annan.
As of today, 32 Speakers of parliament have confirmed their attendance : those of Angola, Argentina, Australia, Bangladesh, Belarus, Botswana, Cambodia, Cameroon, Cape Verde, Congo, Croatia, El Salvador, Germany, Ghana, Greece, Iraq, Ireland, Israel, Kyrgyzstan, Latvia, Liechtenstein, Mali, Mongolia, Namibia, Nigeria, Sao Tome & Principe, Sri Lanka, Thailand (Speakers of both chambers), Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, Vietnam and Zambia.
The representatives of IPU's 144 member parliaments and 5 associated regional parliamentary assemblies will examine more particularly "Parliaments’ role in strengthening democratic institution and human development in a fragmented world", as well as "International cooperation for the prevention and management of transborder natural disasters and their impact on the regions concerned". The Conference will also take up a supplementary item, to be chosen in Santiago on Monday, 7 April.
The statutory Meeting of Women Parliamentarians will take place on Sunday, 6 April at 9.30 a.m., with Mrs. Isabel Allende, representing the host Parliament, in the chair.
The 108th Conference in Santiago will also give the delegations in attendance an opportunity to hold bilateral meetings and examine conflicts in several parts of the world. The IPU Committee on Middle East Questions and the Group of Facilitators for Cyprus will meet on this occasion.
The IPU's Committee on the Human Rights of Parliamentarians, chaired by Mr. Mahinda Samarasinghe, MP, Minister of Employment and Labour and Chief Government Whip of Sri Lanka, will continue to examine the many cases of violations of the human rights of MPs including public cases in the following countries : Belarus, Burundi, Cambodia, Colombia, Ecuador, Gambia, Honduras, Indonesia, Madagascar, Malaysia, Mongolia, Myanmar, Pakistan, Rwanda, Turkey and Zimbabwe.
A panel on "Trafficking in children", open to the press, is scheduled for Wednesday 9 April, from 10.30 a.m. to 1 p.m.
Press conferences (dates to be confirmed) are also planned, on the occasion of the launch of a handbook for MPs jointly prepared by the IPU and the UN on the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women and its Optional Protocol and for the presentation of the handbook published jointly by the IPU and the Geneva Centre for the Democratic Control of Armed Forces (DCAF), on Parliamentary Oversight of the Security Sector.
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Established in 1889 and with its Headquarters in Geneva, the IPU, the oldest multilateral organisation, currently has 144 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.
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| Contacts: |
Mrs. Luisa Ballin, IPU Information Officer
5, ch. du Pommier, CH - 1218 Le Grand-Saconnex / Geneva
Tel. +4122 919 41 16/27
Fax: +4122 919 41 60, 919 41 97
E-mail: lb@mail.ipu.org or
cbl@mail.ipu.org |
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