![]() | INTER-PARLIAMENTARY UNION PLACE DU PETIT-SACONNEX 1211 GENEVA 19 |
Press release of the Inter-Parliamentary Union
The Inter-Parliamentary Council, the governing body of the Inter-Parliamentary Union (IPU), held its last session in Seoul on 15 April 1997. Meeting the morning after the close of the 97th Inter-Parliamentary Conference, it adopted a series of reports from the various IPU committees that had met in Seoul during the Conference. These concerned the human rights of parliamentarians, women parliamentarians, security and co-operation in the Mediterranean, and the situations in the Middle East and Cyprus.
The Council also decided to readmit the National Assembly
of Niger to the IPU, which brings the membership up to 138 national
parliaments. Niger was suspended in April 1996 following a coup
d'etat in the country, but legislative elections were held in
November 1996 which renewed the country's parliamentary system.
The Chairman of the IPU's Committee on the Human Rights of Parliamentarians, Senator Hugo Batalla (Uruguay), reported to the Council on public cases of 124 members or former members of parliament in 14 countries whose basic rights to freedom of speech and action have been violated because of arbitrary measures taken against them (Burundi, Colombia, Myanmar, Nigeria, Albania, Cambodia, Gambia, Guatemala, Honduras, Indonesia, Maldives, Togo, Tunisia and Turkey). But before commenting on the individual cases, Mr Batalla called for a minute of silence in memory of those parliamentarians assassinated "just for having carrying out their mandates as MPs". Mr Batalla was pleased to be able to announce that Mr Fatos Nana, former Prime Minister of Albania, in prison on charges of falsification of documents and embezzlement, was amnestied in March this year, and that the Committee was closing his case. Mr Batalla said the Committee was still "deeply preoccupied" by the death threats against Mr Sam Rainsy, a member of the Parliament of Cambodia and a prominent critic of the government, who had been stripped of his parliamentary seat and expelled from his party. The Committee was particularly concerned over the grenade attack during a party rally organised by Mr Rainsy that left several people dead and many wounded, Mr Batalla said. Mr Batalla said he was happy to announce the release of three parliamentarians from Gambia, whose cases had been before the Committee, stressing however the duty of the Gambian authorities to provide redress for what they have suffered. Another case, which had been before the IPU Committee, was that of Mr Saleem, member of the Parliament of Maldives, who was freed from prison in November 1996. Mr Batalla welcomed the "positive evolution" of this case. Mr Batalla also welcomed the fact that the authorities of Honduras had now identified the presumed assassins of Mr Salazar, Member of Congress, who was assassinated in 1988. "The Committee hopes that the judicial process will follow its normal course and end in the proper sentencing of those responsible," Mr Batalla told the Council. Mr Batalla drew special attention to two cases "of great gravity": Burundi and Myanmar. The case in Burundi concerns four MPs whose assassins have still gone unpunished, and of 27 other former members of the Parliament of Burundi who have been victims of assassination attempts, or been forced into hiding or exile. Mr Batalla said the Committee remained "deeply concerned" over the fact that the National Assembly was no longer functioning and that MPs were constantly under threat. (The IPU Council adopted a motion on 12 April calling for the restoration of constitutional order and the rule of law in Burundi and for the full and effective re-establishment of the parliamentary institution in the country, and strongly deploring the situation of the MPs - see press release Seoul, No 6.) Mr Batalla also told the Council that the Committee was "deeply preoccupied" that false charges might have been brought against these parliamentarians, namely Mr Leonce Ngendakumana, President of the National Assembly of Burundi, Mr Augustin Nzojibwami, Member of the National Assembly, and Mr Paul Munyembari, Vice-President of the National Assembly. All three are new cases for the Committee. Also serious, according to Mr Batalla, were the cases in Myanmar where the situation has "continued to deteriorate over the last few months". The Myanmar authorities have rejected the official request of the UN Special Rapporteur to investigate the human rights situation in the country, Mr Batalla said, have refused to allow an IPU fact-finding mission in the country, and there is no information from the authorities about the prison conditions of the MPs who were elected to parliament in 1990. The Committee "can only conclude from the persistent silence of the authorities", the Committee said in its report, "that allegations of human rights violations are well-founded, and that the authorities of the Union of Myanmar are guilty of manifest violations of human rights." Following is a summary of the other cases mentioned by Mr Batalla in his report to the Council:
Mrs KWON Young Ja, Member of the Korean National Assembly, reported to the Council on the results of the Meeting of Women Parliamentarians that had taken place on 9 April, and that she had chaired. She said that a "thorough debate" was held on the IPU's recent New Delhi specialized Conference on "Towards Partnership between Men and Women in Politics". "I was personally impressed as well as encouraged and provoked to further action by the number of concrete measures that were prompted by the New Delhi recommendations," Mrs Kwon said. "This gives us hope that world conferences such as this are not just talking shops: they produce ideas and suggest new avenues of action. In addition, many women stressed how much they enjoyed this first opportunity ever to be on equal number terms with men for a debate, the essence of which was: How can we change politics so as to render it more gender sensitive and hence more democratic?" She welcomed the adoption by the Council of the resolution prepared by the Meeting of Women Parliamentarians on follow-up to the New Delhi Conference (see press release Seoul, N° 2). She said that in the future the Meeting of Women Parliamentarians would discuss together follow-up to the Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action, the IPU's Plan of Action and Beijing Parliamentary Declaration, and the New Delhi recommendations. Mrs KWON said the meeting also discussed the problem of the sexual exploitation of children. "We feel that those engaged in the sexual exploitation of children should be stigmatized and ostracized. We feel that our legislations should be developed so as to ensure that all those engaged in the shameful trafficking of children or in sexual tourism may be tried and sentenced. We have to find ways to curb pedophilia, whatever perverse forms it takes."
Mrs KWON said the question of the impact of armed conflict
on women and children, including sexual abuses in this context,
would be the subject of the next Meeting of Women Parliamentarians,
in September, in Cairo.
The Council endorsed the recommendations of the IPU Committee to Monitor the Situation in Cyprus, which had met during the Seoul Conference and conducted hearings of the representatives of the two Cypriot communities and of the three Guarantor Powers (Greece, Turkey and the United Kingdom). Following are the report's principal conclusions:
"The UN Secretary-General's efforts should be supported
by all for the resumption and success of the direct talks between
the two Leaders," the Committee said in conclusion.
The Council endorsed the report of the Committee on Middle East Questions which had held separate hearings with representatives of the Arab (Jordan and Palestine) and Israeli delegations at the Seoul Conference. (The two sides had met together with the Committee at the previous Inter-Parliamentary Conference, in September 1996, but "they believed that separate appearances before the Committee would be more conducive to objectivity rather than confrontation" in the present political climate.) The Committee regretted, however, the continued absence of Lebanon and Syria at its meetings. "There was evident sadness and a certain despair and exasperation on both sides concerning what each side believed the other was doing to the peace process," the Committee said in its report. It noted the "serious regression in the peace process, with renewed mutual recriminations and repeated manifestations of violence and terrorism". The Committee said it "wondered how best to advise the protagonists to put the peace process back on course". It "cautioned Israel, however, against taking unilateral action at the time of delicate negotiations, which was bound to cause reaction with unpredictable effects". The Committee believed that "such preemptive actions affecting the status of the occupied territories and especially that of Jerusalem, were ill-advised and therefore detrimental to the peace process". The Committee "categorically condemned terrorism and violence in all their forms and whatever their origin, and urged both sides to exert utmost patience and forbearance so as to allow the peace process to go forward" and "reflect the world's ardent wish for its success".
The Committee welcomed the "positive" decision taken
earlier in the week by the Council concerning the IPU's wish to
"have as a member, as soon as possible, the legislative body
which represents the Palestinian people". It said this feeling
was "echoed by the Arab delegation".
The representatives of the parties to the IPU's process of security and co-operation in the Mediterranean held a meeting during the Seoul Conference to discuss the current status and prospects of security and co-operation in the Mediterranean as well as of the institutionalisation of the CSCM process. The Council took note of the report of the meeting which said there had been an "unprecedented profusion of international and national initiatives on the Mediterranean both by institutions and by civil society", following the IPU's pioneering Ist CSCM (Malaga, 1992) and its IInd CSCM (Valletta, 1995). "Pending the establishment of an autonomous Mediterranean inter-parliamentary institution, the Union is still the only international forum in which all Mediterraneans and the parties directly concerned work together on an equal footing, and since 1990 have regularly discussed all of their concerns," the report said.
The CSCM meeting also looked at preparation for the IPU's
IIIrd CSCM, in Tunis in 1999, and its first preparatory thematic
meeting to take place in Monte Carlo on 3-4 July 1997. The theme
of the meeting will be: Adjustment of national employment policies
and strengthening of international co-operation on such policies
in the Mediterranean, with a view to development which generates
jobs as a way of strengthening regional stability.
The Council approved two draft agreements of co-operation that the IPU will be signing, respectively, with the UN Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) and the UN Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO). Both agreements state that the strengthening of co-operative relations between the IPU and each UN body "will facilitate the effective exercise of their mutually complementary activities". The agreements expand upon the Agreement of Co-operation concluded between the United Nations and the IPU last July.
The Council also approved the text of a draft agreement between
the IPU and the UN Development Programme (UNDP), making the IPU
an executing agency for UNDP international development co-operation
activities concerning technical assistance to parliaments.
The 98th Inter-Parliamentary Conference will be held in Cairo, Egypt, from 11 to 15 September 1997. The Council chose the following two themes for the next Conference:
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