Press release of the Inter-Parliamentary Union
Seoul, 10 April 1997
N°3

THREE NEW PARLIAMENTS JOIN IPU

The number of national parliaments, members of the Inter-Parliamentary Union (IPU), the world organisation of parliaments, rose today to the record level of 138, with the admission of three new parliaments - Cambodia, Georgia and Tajikistan.

These new IPU members were admitted during the opening session of the Inter-Parliamentary Council, the governing body of the IPU, which met in the main hall of the Korean National Assembly building just before the start of the 97th Inter-Parliamentary Conference.

The President of the IPU Council, Dr Ahmed Fathy Sorour, noted that representatives of three non-member parliaments - Fiji, Lesotho and Ukraine - were observing the current IPU Conference session, and expressed the hope that, as a result, they would take a decision to join the IPU at its next Conference, in Cairo, in September.

The Council also discussed a report by the Executive Committee which had examined a communication from the Palestine National Council asking for full membership in the IPU (currently, the PNC has IPU observer status). At its previous session in Beijing, in September 1996, the Executive Committee had studied documents from the PNC and had decided that: "the situation at this stage and as set out in the documents does not allow it to consider the communication admissible as a request for affiliation to the Union under the Statutes and Rules of the IPU."

At its meeting in Seoul, the IPU Executive Committee had reviewed a new letter from the PNC speaker. The report of the Executive Committee stated that "the information provided by the Palestine National Council does not, at this stage, lead the Executive Committee to change the conclusion it had reached at its last session concerning the status of Palestine in the IPU".

The Council voted by a show of hands to reject the Executive Committee's advice on this matter (48 to 36, with 16 abstentions), and then voted to hold an extraordinary Council session to decide on the PNC's request for admission (83 to 25, with one abstention). This extraordinary session will take place on 12 April.

Following is the new current list of 138 IPU member-parliaments, including the three regional parliamentary assemblies that are associate members:

Albania, Algeria, Andorra, Angola, Argentina, Armenia, Australia, Austria, Azerbaijan, Bangladesh, Belarus, Belgium, Benin, Bolivia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Botswana, Brazil, Bulgaria, Burkina Faso, Cambodia, Cameroon, Canada, Cape Verde, Central African Republic, Chile, China, Colombia, Comoros, Congo, Costa Rica, Côte d'Ivoire, Croatia, Cuba, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Democratic People's Republic of Korea, Denmark, Djibouti, Ecuador, Egypt, El Salvador, Estonia, Ethiopia, Finland, France, Gabon, Georgia, Germany, Ghana, Greece, Guatemala, Guinea, Hungary, Iceland, India, Indonesia, Iran (Islamic Republic of), Iraq, Ireland, Israel, Italy, Jamaica, Japan, Jordan, Kazakhstan , Kenya, Kuwait, Kyrgyzstan, Lao People's Democratic Republic, Latvia, Lebanon, Libyan Arab Jamahiriya, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malawi, Malaysia, Mali, Malta, Marshall Islands, Mauritania, Mauritius, Mexico, Moldova, Monaco, Mongolia, Morocco, Mozambique, Namibia, Nepal, Netherlands, New Zealand, Nicaragua, Norway, Pakistan, Panama, Papua New Guinea, Paraguay, Peru, Philippines, Poland, Portugal, Republic of Korea, Romania, Russian Federation, Rwanda, San Marino, Senegal, Singapore, Slovakia, Slovenia, South Africa, Spain, Sri Lanka, Sudan, Suriname, Sweden, Switzerland, Syrian Arab Republic, Tajikistan, Thailand, The former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, Togo, Tunisia, Turkey, Uganda, United Arab Emirates, United Kingdom, United Republic of Tanzania, United States of America, Uruguay, Uzbekistan, Venezuela, Viet Nam, Yemen, Yugoslavia, Zaire, Zambia, Zimbabwe

Associate Members: Andean Parliament, Latin American Parliament, Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe

FOR MORE INFORMATION, contact in Seoul:

• IPU Press Officer: Robin Newmann, tel: (822) 788-3573; fax 788-3285
• Korean Press Officer: KIM Yong-Koo, Public Relations Officer, National Assembly, tel: 788-3689; fax 788-3284