As the COVID-19 pandemic shuts or slows down vast swathes of global activity, how are parliaments facilitating the implementation of the emergency health measures recommended by the World Health Organization (WHO)? What impact is physical distancing and confinement having on the way parliaments function? How can parliaments debate, pass legislation and scrutinize the actions of […]
Watch the two short IPU videos on SDG 5 “Gender Equality”. The first looks at how you can take concrete actions to ensure women’s full and effective participation and equal opportunities for leadership, particularly in parliaments. The second short video for parliamentarians on UN Sustainable Development Goal 5 also celebrates Women’s History Month. This year […]
Release from the IPU Secretariat On 17 and 18 February, the IPU and the United Nations, represented by the President of the General Assembly, convened some 200 parliamentarians from over 60 countries, as well as diplomats, representatives from civil society, and experts for the IPU Annual Parliamentary Hearing at the United Nations in New York. […]
The IPU Committee on the Human Rights of Parliamentarians has released new evidence of human rights violations against 509 parliamentarians from 39 countries, a significant increase compared with the 468 cases that were recorded in October 2019. Most of the cases involve governments putting pressure on MPs from opposition parties. In its latest decisions, the […]
In a recent survey of IPU Member Parliaments by the IPU Secretariat, 31 per cent of respondents confirmed that new legislation had been put in place as a direct result of IPU assemblies, programmes, initiatives and resolutions. Of the sample, 75 per cent also said that they had taken concrete actions following IPU meetings. All […]
An Opinion piece published on the Devex.com Parliaments make a concrete difference in people’s everyday lives. That includes everything from establishing the conditions to create jobs to safeguarding freedom of speech to increasing budget allocations for health workers in rural areas. They are at the heart of inclusive decision-making — without their effective involvement policies […]
In the last few days, the IPU has reported it has received an alarmingly high number of new complaints of alleged human rights violations against Venezuelan parliamentarians. The IPU Committee on Human Rights of Parliamentarians will examine these complaints, as well as other cases of reported abuse against MPs, in its next session in Geneva starting […]
An end-of-year message from IPU leadership.We should never take democracy for granted. Many of our parents and grandparents fought for it in the Second World War and in battles for independence from colonial rule. In the 1990s we celebrated the collapse of authoritarian rule and the birth of new parliaments in various parts of the […]
News in Brief from IPU Secretariat, Geneva Parliamentarians from around the world were in Geneva this week for the first edition of the Global Refugee Forum organized by UNHCR, the UN Refugee Agency. The parliamentarians brought the parliamentary voice to this global gathering to take stock of the Global Compact on Refugees, the new framework […]
Press Release from IPU Headquarters, Geneva In the lead-up to Human Rights Day on 10 December, the IPU has announced its yearly figures of alleged human rights violations against members of parliament in 2019. The IPU Committee on the Human Rights of Parliamentarians, a unique mechanism that defends the rights of MPs worldwide, investigated the […]
