The Inter-Parliamentary Union (IPU) has published new guidance urging lawmakers to act faster and more decisively against non-consensual intimate imagery (NCII), including sexualized deepfakes generated by artificial intelligence (AI), a phenomenon that disproportionately targets women and girls. Combating non-consensual intimate imagery: A parliamentary action guide warns that generative AI has made it easier, cheaper and faster […]
As Martin Chungong comes to the end of his 12 years as IPU Secretary General, he reflects on the iconic images that illustrate some of the defining moments of his tenure. Interview conducted by Thomas Fitzsimons, IPU Director of Communications. See also: 12 years at the helm: Martin Chungong, IPU Secretary General 2014-2026 – […]
Parliamentarians from the IPU’s Twelve Plus Group met in Warsaw last week to examine the risks and opportunities posed by artificial intelligence (AI) and social media for young people and human rights. The regional seminar Human Rights in the Digital Era. AI and Social Media: Opportunity or Threat for Youth? took place in Warsaw, Poland from 8 […]
Human Rights. Democratic freedoms. These are not abstract ideals – they are the foundations of everything parliaments exist to protect. Yet around the world, they are being pushed into the shadows. Parliamentarians are being silenced. Hard-won protections are being rolled back. The IPU’s new campaign Bring human rights into focus is a call to bring these […]
On 4 June BGIPU hosted in the Attlee Suite of the UK Parliament a meeting of the Alliance of Parliamentary Groups “For a Democratic Belarus”. The meeting brought together representatives of 9 national parliaments, the European Parliament and PACE, as well as speakers from the Belarusian democratic forces (Office of the President-elect of Belarus, Sviatlana […]
Following the success of the first IPU Global Conference of Women Parliamentarians in Mexico 2025, the Serbian Parliament hosted the second conference from 2-4 June this year. The theme of the conference was “Advancing parity: Breaking the barriers of gender stereotypes and negative social norms”. The conference brought together 193 parliamentarians (155 women MPs and […]
From 1 July 2026, for the first time in its 137-year history, the Secretariat of the Inter-Parliamentary Union will be managed by a woman. Anda Filip of Romania was elected the tenth Secretary General of the IPU at the 152nd IPU Assembly in Istanbul, becoming the first woman to hold the post since the Organization […]
More than a decade of quiet persistence, behind-the-scenes diplomacy and public campaigning by the IPU finally paid off in 2025 when former Iraqi MP Ahmed Al-Alwani was acquitted and released after 12 years behind bars on death row. As an MP, Al-Alwani was supposed to be protected by parliamentary immunity. But he was arrested in […]
Chad’s first elections in more than a decade marked the end of a three-year transitional period and paved the way for a return to parliamentary democracy. It was fitting that the elections came shortly after Haroun Kabadi – former Speaker of Chad’s National Assembly, Head of the National Transitional Council and now President of the […]
The Inter-Parliamentary Union (IPU) successfully concluded its 152nd Assembly, hosted by the Grand National Assembly of Türkiye in Istanbul from 15-19 April 2026. The “parliament of parliaments” drew over 1,500 delegates, including more than 720 parliamentarians from 126 countries. Women comprised 37% of lawmakers present. Some 13% of the parliamentarians attending were under 40. The high-level […]
