The IPU hosted another round of high-level parliamentary talks between Armenia and Azerbaijan this week during the 151st IPU Assembly in Geneva, Switzerland. On 21 October 2025, IPU Secretary General Martin Chungong welcomed the Speaker of the Azgayin Zhoghov (National Assembly of Armenia), Mr. Alen Simonyan, and the Speaker of the Milli Mejlis (National Assembly […]
Opinion piece by Ms. Deborah O’Neill, member of the Senate of Australia It was a late night at a committee hearing in the Australian Senate on 15 February 2023 when a shocking truth came to light. In response to my question, the CEO of the Tax Practitioners Board revealed that a tax partner within the […]
Parliament House is not only the heart of Australia’s parliamentary democracy, it is also the most high-profile workplace in the country. So when accounts of sexual assault, harassment and bullying in the Parliament emerged in 2020, there was no doubt that changes needed to be made. The accounts led to a national conversation about workplace […]
The IPU is following with concern the unrest in Nepal, especially the attacks on Parliament. The IPU and the wider global parliamentary community call for calm and urge an immediate end to the violence, which has led to a tragic loss of lives. Attacks on public institutions and private property, including the recent targeting of […]
The IPU strongly condemns the apparent murder of Mr. Aung Soe Min, an elected Myanmar parliamentarian, who is reported to have died earlier this year after being tortured while in detention. According to the Committee Representing the Pyidaungsu Hluttaw (CRPH), a group of exiled legislators from the last Myanmar Parliament elected in 2020, Mr. Aung […]
On the sidelines of the 15th Summit of Women Speakers of Parliament and the Sixth World Conference of Speakers of Parliament held last week in Geneva, the Secretary General of the Inter-Parliamentary Union (IPU), Martin Chungong, signed a series of Memoranda of Understanding (MoUs) with the Parliaments of Zambia, Chad and Mongolia, reinforcing the IPU’s […]
Parliamentary leaders from some 120 countries gathered at the United Nations Office at Geneva for the Sixth World Conference of Speakers of Parliament, a summit convened every five years by the Inter-Parliamentary Union (IPU) in partnership with the United Nations (UN). The Conference, regarded as the world’s top parliamentary forum, was held from 29 to 31 July 2025. […]
A delegation to Mongolia consisting of myself, Rt Hon Baroness Northover, Tan Dhesi MP, Phil Brickell MP, James Wild MP, Lord Cromwell, Dominique Rees MBE (BGIPU Staff) and Joe Perry (BGIPU Staff) flew from London via Istanbul on Saturday 21st June, arriving in Ulaanbaatar at 07.20 on Sunday 22nd. After transferring to the hotel, the […]
The digital thermometer indicated 34 degrees in the ger (a traditional home typically used by nomadic Mongolian people) district in Ulanbattar on a hot summer’s day, a far cry from the -35 degree temperatures experienced in the winter. To keep warm in the coldest capital in the world many families – half of whom are […]
In a significant diplomatic gesture, President Shavkat Mirziyoyev of Uzbekistan presented the distinguished “Dustlik” (Order of Friendship) to Martin Chungong, IPU Secretary General, during the 150th IPU Assembly, held in Tashkent from 5 to 9 April 2025. The award, which is the highest to be awarded to a foreigner, recognizes Martin Chungong’s exceptional role in deepening […]
