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 IPU President says democracy is only as strong as the political participation of citizens and this must be increased for world peace, social cohesion and development, says the Inter-Parliamentary Union (IPU). Marking the International Day of Democracy on 15 September, IPU is calling for a major stepping-up of efforts to involve the public more deeply in formal political processes and institutions, including parliaments. It is also urging parliaments to be more open and accessible to their citizens, and representative of society as a whole.
Following the successful outward visit to Kiev in February 2015, BGIPU hosted a delegation of Ukrainian parliamentarians, representing the different factions of the current coalition in the Ukrainian Rada, in Westminster during the week of 7th September 2015. The intensive but productive two day working programme included meetings with the Foreign Affairs and Defence Select Committees, FCO Minister Rt. Hon David Lidington MP, a Cross-Whitehall Roundtable and MOD officials.
BGIPU will be facilitating the participation of the Speaker of the House of Commons, Rt Hon John Bercow MP, and the Lord Speaker, the Rt Hon Baroness D’Souza CMG, at the 4th World Conference of Speakers of Parliament at the UN Headquarters in New York from 31 August to 2 September. The Conference, organized by IPU every five years and supported by the UN, will adopt a declaration which will feed into the UN SDGs Summit. The Lord Speaker will also participate in the 10th Meeting of Women Speakers of Parliament prior to the conference.
Parliamentary leaders from nearly 140 countries have pledged to do their utmost to reconnect people with democracy in an ambitious and far-reaching declaration adopted at the end of a three-day global summit in New York. More than 170 Speakers and Deputy Speakers acknowledged that extraordinary efforts would be needed to build a world that people want by turning the tide against the many challenges that undermine democracy, peace and development.
In conjunction with the FCO Leadership Week, BGIPU and the FCO held a joint briefing on the situation in North Africa and the Middle East on the 6th July. Chaired by FCO Minister Tobias Ellwood, who highlighted the UK’s strong involvement in region, Members had the opportunity to hear from a number of key Ambassadors to the region about the situation in their respective countries.
On 1 July, BGIPU hosted young MPs to discuss IPU initiatives to advance political engagement of youth and improve the representativeness of parliaments. Gavin Shuker MP and Chloe Smith MP, who represented the UK Parliament in consecutive IPU Global Conferences of Young Parliamentarians, reported back to parliamentary colleagues on the IPU’s work and international efforts to enhance networks and support for young parliamentarians worldwide. MPs agreed the UK Parliament should play an active role in support of the IPU’s work.
A Special General Meeting (SGM) on 30 June elected Nigel Evans MP as the new BGIPU Chair in the wake of the recent 2015 General Election in the UK. The SGM also elected new members to fill a number of other Executive Committee vacancies along with the nomination of Ian Liddell-Grainger MP to fill the UK vacancy on the IPU’s Executive Committee.
On 17 June 2015 BGIPU hosted a roundtable on Eastern European Security that brought together Members from both Houses, Ambassadors and Embassy representatives from relevant countries and academic experts. Chaired by Steve Pound MP, the event gave Members who had recently participated in BGIPU visits to the region (Armenia, Georgia, Poland and Ukraine) the opportunity to report back and highlight some of the outcomes and hear from Ambassadors about the current situation and priorities in their country.
From 8 to 12 June 2015 BGIPU staff member Anja Richter participated in a seminar at the IPU headquarters in the House of Parliaments in Geneva, together with Secretaries and Clerks from other parliaments’ IPU Groups, to learn more about the functioning of the IPU and its procedures, and to exchange ideas and knowledge with counterparts.
A major international conference of the world’s young MPs in Tokyo in late May has called for policies to end the alienation and radicalization of young people, including new education policies and employment quotas. About 190 young MPs attended the IPU Global Conference of Young MPs making a series of recommendations on addressing some of the biggest challenges facing the world’s 3.5 billion youth populations including unemployment, discrimination and conflict. Gavin Shuker MP represented the UK Parliament at the event.
