Press release of the Inter-Parliamentary Union
Seoul, 14 April 1997
N°7

IPU CONFERENCE IN SEOUL ADOPTS MOTIONS ON WORLD SECURITY AND DEVELOPMENT

The 97th Inter-Parliamentary Conference finished its five-day meeting of MPs from around the world in Seoul on 14 April, by passing resolutions on ways to achieve a more secure world and real sustainable development, on preserving the status of Jerusalem, and on the emergency situations in Albania and Zaire.

The resolutions were all adopted by the representatives of member-parliaments of the Inter-Parliamentary Union (IPU), which organised the Seoul Conference held at the invitation of the Korean National Assembly. The Speaker of the National Assembly, H.E. Kim Soo Han, presided over the Conference which brought together 572 MPs from 117 countries.

The first resolution to be passed, without a vote, was entitled: "Co-operation for world and regional security and stability, as well as for respect for all forms of the sovereignty and independence of States." In it, the assembled parliamentarians:

• Expressed their "keen interest in efforts to ensure peace and stability on the Korean Peninsula", and "hope for further progress in the Four-Party Talks and the realization of multilateral dialogue between the parliaments of the countries concerned".
• Called on governments to "respect everyone's right to speak out on human rights issues in all parts of the world".
• Urged the United Nations to "actively co-operate and interact with the IPU in the interest of conflict settlement and preventive diplomacy".
• Appealed to all parliaments to "intensify parliamentary diplomacy in order to contribute to international and regional security and stability", "spare no effort to prevent armed conflicts by identifying and analyzing the causes", "secure contributions to humanitarian relief efforts in cases of emergency", "combat any ethnic, nationalistic or religious abuse by the State", "promote the development of democratisation and good governance", and "hold parliamentary debates on the issues raised in this resolution".
• Appealed to all countries to "ratify promptly the Chemical Weapons Convention".
• Recalled the IPU's resolution, at its last Conference in Beijing in September 1996, calling for a world-wide ban on anti-personnel mines.
• Stressed the "need for co-ordination in the setting-up of international forces for preventive deployment in crisis areas".
• Called on governments and parliaments to "facilitate recourse to eminent persons for diplomatic initiatives aimed at preventing and resolving conflicts".

The second resolution adopted by the Conference was entitled: "Measures required to change consumption and production patterns with a view to sustainable development." Also adopted without a vote, the resolution contained a Declaration from the world parliamentary community to be submitted to the UN General Assembly session in June this year devoted to evaluating progress since the Agenda 21 action plan which came out of the 1992 UN Conference in Rio on Environment and Development. In particular the resolution:

• Urged parliaments the world over to "bring pressure to bear on their governments to ensure that, as they participate in the June 1997 global evaluation of the Rio follow-up measures, they reaffirm the commitments undertaken in 1992, adopt decisions making it possible to reinforce action taken since then, and set concrete, measurable goals with precise deadlines".
• Urged that MPs be included in national delegations to the special UN session.

The Declaration, on "The Views of Parliaments on the Results and Further Implementation of Agenda 21", in particular:

• Called for a "re-thinking society" moving away rapidly from the thinking based on the idea that natural resources are free and may be utilised indefinitely.
• Urged governments and parliaments to "redouble their efforts to adopt and implement national and international policies which truly favour harmonization of lifestyles with the fundamental principles of sustainable development, without however lowering living standards and the quality of life".
• Called for the adoption at international level of "adequately co-ordinated measures to promote environmental consciousness in trade" to prevent trade in goods not produced using environmentally sound technologies, "without introducing non-tariff barriers to trade with developing countries", and for governments to conduct "awareness-building campaigns" in this area.
• Stressed the need for more "eco-efficiency" which makes it possible to maximize the productivity of energy and material inputs to reduce resource consumption and pollution.
• Called for a "clear internationally compatible consumer information system" on sustainable development issues.
• Stresses that it is "up to the industrialised countries to set the example" of production and consumption methods for sustainable development and "transfer their experience to developing countries".
• Urged that only "environmentally sound technologies and production processes" be transferred to developing countries.
• Discouraged the "transfer of nuclear waste to other countries, whose ability to dispose of them safely has not yet been verified internationally". (The issue of Taiwan's plans to transfer nuclear waste to North Korea was raised several times during the Conference.)
• Called on developed countries to "fulfil their pledge to contribute 0.7% of their GNP to Official Development Assistance by the by the year 2000".
• Recalled that "sustainable development can only be achieved by better economic and social policies and conditions, especially regarding the status of women", and called for the "introduction of gender-affirmative programmes to raise awareness in women so as to enable them to play a more active role in introducing the changes needed to eliminate consumption and production patterns which impede sustainable development".

The third resolution was entitled: "Safeguarding the status of the Holy City of Jerusalem and utilising all possible means likely to thwart manoeuvres which are prejudicial to its identity and gravely endanger security and the peace process in the area." It was adopted by the Conference without a vote, and reaffirmed the support of parliamentarians from around the world for the Middle East peace process. In particular, the resolution:

• Deplored the "increasing recourse to violence since the dangerous stalling of the peace process".
• Denounced the "Israeli settlement policy in the Palestinian territories, including East Jerusalem", and called on Israel to "refrain from all actions or measures, including settlement activities, which alter the facts on the ground, pre-empting the final status negotiations".
• Called on "all parties, and especially Israelis and Palestinians, to continue and speed up, in the interests of peace and security, their negotiations within the Middle East peace process on its agreed bases, and Israel in particular to implement within the prescribed time-limits the agreements concluded", and urgently appealed for "an end to acts of violence and terrorism, whatever their source".
• Called upon the Israeli government to "desist from confiscating the identity cards of the Palestinian citizens of Jerusalem and to revoke the policy that prevents them from repairing their homes or building new ones to meet their urgent housing needs".

The fourth resolution was a two-part motion to express the world parliaments' concern over the recent emergencies in Albania and Zaire. Entitled "International action to meet the emergency situation in Albania and in Zaire", the resolution was adopted without a vote.

On the humanitarian emergency in Albania, the Conference:

• Expressed its deep concern that the "humanitarian situation in Albania is so grave that international aid to the country is urgently needed to overcome the present emergency".
• Stressed that "such aid, in order to be effective, should be accompanied by measures aimed at promoting reconciliation, governance, and economic and financial rehabilitation".
• Supported efforts underway to set up a multilateral protection force under the OSCE and United Nations to "contribute to the creation of the security conditions needed to deliver aid and carry out more general assistance activities".
• Encouraged all governments and IPU member-parliaments to "continue to assist Albania by granting humanitarian, financial and economic aid, and to provide legal and administrative expertise".
• Called on the Albanian authorities to hold "free and fair elections throughout the country as soon as is feasible".

On the conflict in Zaire, the Conference:

• Expressed the "serious concern" of parliamentarians "over the continuing conflict in Zaire and its grave consequences in terms of human suffering, including reported massacres in the areas of conflict, and threats to regional stability".
• Appealed to the conflicting parties in Zaire to "implement" the UN peace plan, which provides for the cessation of hostilities, protection of refugees, and a settlement through dialogue.
• Appealed to the international community to "promote the implementation" of the peace plan by "lending greater and sustained support" to negotiations between the warring parties, "increasing assistance" to the refugee population and those refugee-receiving countries, refrain from supplying arms to the warring parties, and support efforts to hold free and fair elections "with a view to establishing a legitimate democratic government in Zaire".
• Urged "all countries to respect relevant international instruments prohibiting the recruitment, training, financing and deployment of mercenaries".

Before closing the Conference, Mr Kim Soo Han made a statement expressing the Conference's "whole-hearted solidarity" with the hostages still being held in the Japanese Ambassador's residence in Lima, Peru, condemning all such acts of terrorism and hoping for a prompt and peaceful outcome of the crisis.

Following is the text of his statement:

I would like to make a brief statement about one issue which has been raised directly with me by various members and has also been referred to by several speakers in the general debate: the problem of the hostages being held in the Japanese Ambassador's residence in Lima since 17 December last year.

I am certain that I speak for all of us in reiterating the IPU's strongest and unequivocal condemnation of all acts of terrorism, as well as our whole-hearted solidarity with the hostages - who include five of our fellow parliamentarians. We all hope for a prompt and peaceful outcome of this crisis.

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