Parliamentarians from around the world to convene in Bahrain for the 146th IPU Assembly
The 146th IPU Assembly will be held in Manama, Bahrain from 11 to 15 March 2023, hosted by the Parliament of Bahrain. Hundreds of parliamentarians from all over the world are expected to attend the deliberations on the overall theme of Promoting peaceful coexistence and inclusive societies: Fighting intolerance.
According to the 2022 Global Peace Index, published by the Institute for Economics and Peace, a global think tank, the world has reached its lowest point of peacefulness in the last 15 years. Online hate speech continues to sow division and is increasing against minorities, trust in government and the media is diminishing, religious freedoms are being curtailed, and religious discrimination, racism and xenophobia are rising.
However, parliaments, as guardians of the rule of law, citizenship, human rights and justice, are part of the solution. During the Assembly, the IPU will offer opportunities for exchanges on good practices to promote inclusion and support peaceful coexistence as a prerequisite of resilient, cohesive and democratic societies.
Some 110 parliaments, including delegations from countries in conflict situations, will attend. The IPU Task Force for the peaceful resolution of the war in Ukraine will meet high-level parliamentary delegations from both the Russian Federation and Ukraine to continue to explore options for a peaceful resolution of grievances, in strict observance of international law. The IPU Committee on Middle East Questions and the IPU Group of Facilitators on Cyprus will also meet to take stock of and propose measures to resolve the situation in those regions.
The IPU is expected to take one step closer to universality with its membership increasing to 179 Member Parliaments thanks to the readmission of Liberia. Liberia was one of the founding members of the IPU in 1889. Its membership had lapsed in 2011.
The Assembly will see the launch of a new IPU campaign, Parliaments for the Planet, designed to mobilize parliaments and parliamentarians to act on the climate emergency. The campaign will encourage parliaments and those who work in them to reduce their carbon footprints and become greener institutions. It will also support parliaments in their efforts to implement the Paris Agreement on climate through legislation, budgeting and scrutiny of government action.
The Assembly is also expected to adopt resolutions on Cybercrimes: The new risks to global security and Parliamentary efforts in achieving negative carbon balances of forests. All the IPU’s parliamentary bodies will meet, including its four thematic standing committees, the Forum of Women Parliaments, the Forum of Young Parliamentarians and the Committee on the Human Rights of Parliamentarians. The Assembly will be livestreamed on ipu.org/146
BGIPU is being represented at the 146th IPU Assembly in Manama by its Chair, Rt Hon Karen Bradley MP, Dan Carden MP, Gagan Mohindra MP, Bambos Charalambos MP, Baroness Hooper and Lord Rennard and, in addition to priority Assembly commitments, they will engage in up to a dozen bilateral discussions with counterparts.
Council of Representatives, Manama, Kingdom of Bahrain
