Through its programme of activities, the BGIPU seeks to engage Parliamentarians in key global issues and works to expand awareness and understanding of foreign relations and the contribution to be made by the UK Parliament to consolidate parliamentary democracy worldwide.
Here you can read the reports of our activities, including our Outward Delegations, IPU conferences and events and inward visits to Westminster.
You can search for specific reports by using keywords, themes, categories or date using the fields on the right.
The Speaker of the Mexican Chamber of Deputies writes the appearance of COVID-19 has marked a global watershed, not only in health and economic terms, but also for the unprecedented challenges posed to the functioning of democratic institutions. During the pandemic months, questions about how to balance the extraordinary powers that governments require to tackle […]
The IPU has found most parliaments are continuing to function despite the global coronavirus pandemic (COVID-19). The IPU has released a video highlighting the many diverse ways in which the world’s parliaments are responding to COVID-19, including through passing emergency legislation to protect their populations, particularly the most vulnerable in society. Many are working to […]
Some 500 parliamentarians and parliamentary staff from over 80 countries participated in the first of a series of webinars co-organized by the IPU, the World Health Organization (WHO) and the United Nations Office for Disaster Risk Reduction (UNDRR) on . The webinar, Lessons from the COVID-19 pandemic: Parliamentary action to reduce risks, strengthen emergency preparedness […]
On International Day of Multilateralism on 24 April, information collected by the IPU shows that parliaments all over the world are working together in their responses to the COVID-19 pandemic. Through its campaign Parliaments in a time of pandemic, the IPU is helping to facilitate inter-parliamentary coordination and solidarity by collating and sharing examples of […]
Today – on 16 April 2020 – we were supposed to meet in Geneva at the opening of the regular 142nd Assembly of the Inter-Parliamentary Union. As you know, the Assembly has been postponed, as have practically all major multilateral meetings planned for this time. The human race faces a new global threat, the biggest […]
In the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic, many countries have taken sweeping steps – even declared states of emergency – to stop the spread of the virus and protect their populations. Most of these steps have important consequences for human rights. How can basic human rights standards guide country efforts to respond to the health […]
Women are on the frontline of the coronavirus pandemic. According to the OECD, 70 per cent of health workers are women. Women make up the majority of carers in the home and workers in grocery stores or pharmacies. The economic downturn will disproportionately affect women more than men. Women workers are also more likely than […]
Joint Statement The IPU is the global organization of national parliaments and empowers parliamentarians to promote peace, democracy and sustainable development. Working together within this institution, we strongly support the UN Secretary-General’s appeal for an immediate global ceasefire in view of the COVID-19 pandemic. The Coronavirus is a common enemy of all people in the […]
Opinion Piece by Helga Fogstad, Executive Director, Partnership for Maternal, Newborn and Child Health (PMNCH), and Martin Chungong, Board Member, PMNCH, and Secretary General of the IPU. On this World Health Day, occurring in the midst of the greatest pandemic the world has seen since the 1918 influenza, we are reminded of the centrality of […]
The IPU continues to be concerned about the fate of opposition MPs in detention in Venezuela particularly in Iight of the COVID-19 pandemic. According to the World Health Organization, people in prison and other confined places of detention, are more vulnerable to the coronavirus disease outbreak than the general population. The IPU renews its calls […]
