Activities: IPU Activities & Conferences

Over 200 parliamentarians from around the world committed to taking urgent action on climate change in Glasgow, United Kingdom at the UN Climate Change Conference, COP26.

COP26 Parliamentary Meeting says to world leaders “Waiting is not an option.”

Over 200 parliamentarians from around the world committed to taking urgent action on climate change in Glasgow, United Kingdom at the UN Climate Change Conference, COP26. The parliamentarians were gathered in Glasgow at a parliamentary meeting co-organized by the IPU and the British Group of the IPU. In their final adopted outcome document, the MPs […]

Logo re-purposed from Rome Pre-COP Meeting with huge thanks to our colleagues at Italian Parliament especially Stefano Bruno and the IPU's Thomas Fitzsimons

Parliamentary Meeting at the 26th UN Climate Change Conference (COP26)

PRESS RELEASE – The IPU is co-organising the COP26 Parliamentary Meeting in Glasgow on 7 November 2021 with the British Group of the IPU (BGIPU). The IPU has long supported the engagement of parliaments in annual COP meetings through the organisation of parliamentary meetings. All Member Parliaments of the organisation have been invited to attend and there […]

The IPU is co-organizing a Pre-COP26 Parliamentary Meeting in Rome on 8-9 October 2021 with the Italian Parliament, as part of a series of pre-COP26 events hosted by Italy.

This is how parliaments have taken legislative action against climate change

At the Fifth World Conference of Speakers of Parliament, Ms. Xiye Bastida, an 18-year-old climate activist from Mexico, had a message for the parliamentarians present: “The climate crisis is generational injustice. And you have the power to develop smart, just and holistic legislation.” This was a call for all parliamentarians to act, and to act now, […]

The Pre-COP Parliamentary Meeting in Rome is targeted at parliamentarians affiliated with climate and environment-related committees is taking place at the Palazzo Montecitorio in Rome.

Pre-COP26 Parliamentary Meeting sees IPU members convene in Rome

The IPU is co-organizing a Pre-COP26 Parliamentary Meeting in Rome, Italy on 8-9 October 2021 with the Italian Parliament as part of a series of pre-COP26 events hosted by Italy, followed by the Parliamentary Meeting at COP26 in Glasgow, co-organized with the British Group of the IPU on 7 November 2021.  The Pre-COP Parliamentary Meeting […]

Fishing under photovoltaic panels. He Huawen / Imaginechina via AFP

IPU and Indonesia host first global parliamentary meeting on achieving the SDGs

Some 70 parliaments representing all the regions of the world attended the First Global Parliamentary Meeting on Achieving the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), Turning the challenges of the COVID-19 pandemic into opportunities for parliaments to achieve the SDGs this week. The IPU and the House of Representatives of Indonesia organized the three-day virtual event from 28-30 […]

©Austrian Parliament

Gargling, hazmat & pictograms: Organizing an in-person conference in COVID times

The first major international in-person event held by the IPU in 18 months, the Fifth World Conference of Speakers of Parliament, took place in early September in Vienna, Austria. The event’s success in bringing 900 people safely together from all four corners of the world was a result of extensive planning and close coordination between the IPU, […]

The virtual discussion, moderated by Ravi Agrawal, Editor in Chief of Foreign Policy magazine, included Jan-Werner Mueller, the Roger Williams Straus Professor of Social Sciences at Princeton University, Hélène Landemore, professor of Political Science at Yale University, and Martin Chungong, the IPU Secretary General.

Is democracy really in crisis?: A virtual discussion on International Day of Democracy

In honour of the International Day of Democracy, on September 15 the IPU held a virtual discussion on the theme ‘Is democracy really in crisis?’ It is a timely question, given a rising number of authoritarian and repressive regimes, attacks on parliaments and a backlash against traditional political parties and processes around the world. In […]

IPU President, Duarte Pacheco said “Over the past year, we have seen how governments have used the pandemic as a pretext to roll back human rights and weaken democracy.

World Conference of Speakers adopts declaration for more effective global solidarity

The world’s top legislators gathered in Vienna, Austria this week for the first major in-person international parliamentary meeting in over 18 months. The Fifth World Conference of Speakers of Parliament brought together close to 100 Speakers from some 115 national parliaments and the heads of over a dozen regional and other parliamentary organizations. Afghanistan, climate change and […]

Over 110 Speakers of Parliament from around the world are expected to come to Vienna for the first physical large-scale inter-parliamentary meeting since the beginning of the COVID pandemic.

World Conference of Speakers of Parliament to meet in person in Vienna on 7-8 September

The Fifth World Conference of Speakers of Parliament, the world’s largest gathering of the highest level of parliamentary representation, will take place in Vienna, Austria on 7-8 September. Organized jointly by the IPU and the Austrian Parliament, in cooperation with the United Nations, this in-person segment of the conference follows a virtual session held in August 2020. […]

All parliaments have a presiding officer with similar responsibilities to those of the original Speaker. However, they may be called President of Parliament, or President pro tempore. And in many cases the position is partisan, with the Speaker playing an important part in advancing the political platform they represent.

Seven important things you may not know about Speakers of Parliament

The office of Speaker is an ancient one, with its beginnings going back to the origins of the British Parliament. The Speaker role is an essential feature of the parliamentary system, and of all the Westminster parliamentary traditions, the Speakership has proved to be one of the most durable. The first Speaker There is historical […]