End-of-year statement by President Duarte Pacheco and Secretary General Martin Chungong. 2021 bore witness to several assaults on democracy, starting with what many saw as one of its bastions – the US Congress. Then Myanmar suffered a bloody military coup which unravelled in an instant nearly a decade of democratic progress led by its elected […]
2021: A year when democracy came under attack. Discover the IPU’s end-of-year animation card highlighting its key events and activities in 2021.
Just over ten years ago, IPU Member Parliaments adopted a landmark resolution on youth participation to encourage the rejuvenation of parliaments. Since then, parliaments from around the world have made some limited progress in its implementation. However, the level of youth representation in parliament, as measured regularly by the IPU, remains low. Half the world’s population is […]
The IPU has recorded another all-time high number of parliamentarians suffering from alleged human rights violations according to its annual figures released on the eve of Human Rights Day. The data reveal that at least 673 parliamentarians from 44 countries are under threat, most of them in countries experiencing political instability. The 2021 numbers confirm a consistent increase since 2014 […]
At the 143rd IPU Assembly in Madrid, Spain, last week, Martin Chungong was unanimously re-elected for a third four-year term as Secretary General of the IPU. Martin Chungong is the eighth Secretary General of the IPU since its foundation in 1889. He was first elected in 2014. Of Cameroonian nationality, he is the first non-European and the first African […]
At the 143rd IPU Assembly in Madrid, Spain, parliamentarians from around the world have rallied around an emergency resolution to support equitable access to vaccines, particularly in the developing world. Against the backdrop of the emergence of the omicron variant and renewed border closures, IPU Member Parliaments unanimously backed the IPU African Group’s proposal: Harnessing global parliamentary […]
A new study by the IPU and the African Parliamentary Union (APU) launched on 23 November 2021 shows that sexism, harassment and violence against women are ubiquitous in parliaments across Africa. This is the second in a series of IPU regional studies, following a 2018 report on European parliaments. The African study reveals: . 80 per cent of […]
Lawmakers around the world have a new resource to help them address gender inequality with the publication of the new IPU and UN Women Handbook on gender-responsive law making. The handbook is timely as countries put in place COVID-19 recovery plans and work to rebuild more equitable and inclusive societies. It serves as a guide for […]
The 143rd IPU Assembly will be held in Madrid from 26 to 30 November 2021, hosted by the Parliament of Spain. Hundreds of IPU Members from all over the world will meet in person in the world’s largest gathering of parliamentarians. The Spanish authorities and the IPU have put in place robust and comprehensive health measures to […]
The financial strains caused by the COVID-19 pandemic risk derailing progress towards achieving the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) by 2030. To help mitigate this risk, the IPU has published a new tool for parliamentarians: Guidelines for parliamentarians on budgeting for the SDGs. From cracking down on tax loopholes to using national statistics to track progress, parliamentarians have a range […]
