On Friday 19 June, BGIPU hosted a virtual parliamentary discussion on COVID-19: The Increased Risks and Vulnerabilities to Refugees and Migrant Populations with The British Red Cross (BRC) and Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF). The proceedings were chaired by BGIPU Executive Committee member, Chris Law MP, with panellists from both BRC and MSF. The event was […]
The IPU welcomes the latest actions by the Uzbek Parliament to implement international human rights standards at the national level. Following an IPU recommendation, Uzbek parliamentarians recently participated in a video meeting involving multiple international and Uzbek organizations to review the implementation of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, a multilateral treaty adopted […]
I led a cross party delegation to Jakarta Indonesia from August 16th-21st, the first by the APPG for Indonesia, which I chair. The delegation consisted of Conservative MPs, Chair of the British Group of the IPU, Rt Hon John Whittingdale and Stephen Metcalfe; and Labour MPs, Shadow Women and Equalities Secretary, Dawn Butler and Shadow […]
During 17 -20 September 2019, the Thailand All Party Parliamentary Group (APPG) visited Bangkok, Thailand, at the invitation of the Royal Thai Embassy. Roger Godsiff MP, Chair of the APPG, led a delegation of UK parliamentarians which included Sir Graham Brady MP, Sir David Amess MP, and Lord Astor of Hever. The visit was organised […]
Our visit to Vietnam comprised a cross-party group of four MPs and two Peers which travelled the length of the country from Hanoi in the north, to Danang onwards to Ho Chi Minh City in the south. As Vietnam’s economy continues to grow and creates increased prosperity, it will be incumbent upon the country’s many international partners like the UK to do their utmost to help Vietnam along a path of social and political change. This visit has hopefully ensured the friendship between our Parliaments has been truly deepened to assist that process.
Like many of my generation my knowledge of Vietnam is shaped by the harrowing images of the war in the 1970s. I wanted to know how Vietnam has moved on since that dreadful time and the extent to which it has managed to recreate and rebuild itself. I was also really curious to know about whether the communist system was managing to keep relevant and how, if at all, it seeks to promote its legitimacy and genuinely modernise the infrastructure and economy of the country. I reflect upon what I found during this recent BGIPU visit.
At an event arranged by the Chair of the APPG for Human Rights, Rt Hon Ann Clwyd MP, and attended by members of the APPG for Malaysia led by its Chair, Sir William Cash MP, the UK Parliament warmly welcomed the recent full pardon of Anwar Ibrahim, the former Deputy Prime Minister of Malaysia. In his comments to MPs and Peers, Mr Anwar recognised the important role parliamentarians had played in supporting his struggle for justice, particularly through the work of the IPU Committee on the Human Rights of Parliamentarians.
Three members of the All Party Parliamentary Group for Kazakhstan visited the country’s twenty-year-old capital city from Tuesday 29 May until Saturday 2 June. The delegation comprised Stephen Hepburn (MP for Jarrow, Labour), Lord Rogan (Cross Bencher) and the Chairman of the APPG for Kazakhstan, Bob Stewart (MP for Beckenham; Conservative). The principal aim of the visit was to learn about Kazakhstan and to meet various sections of society there – especially parliamentarians.
In a delegation visit to Nepal 6-12 May 2018 led by BGIPU Nigel Evans MP, UK MPs and Peers were impressed by the detemination of the people of Nepal after such hardship and misfortune to take positive and outward looking steps for its future. With its new political system in place and earthquake reconstruction efforts advancing, the delegation was given every expectation Nepal would be able to continue on a path to improving economic development and greater prosperity for all its people.
The Inter-Parliamentary Union (IPU) expressed serious concerns about the scale and type of alleged human rights violations of parliamentarians in Cambodia, the Maldives, Turkey and Venezuela with the effect of jeopardizing parliamentary democracy in these countries. Meeting at the IPU 138th Assembly, the Committee on the Human Rights of Parliamentarians took positions on cases of violations against 237 MPs in 8 countries.
