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 […]
Following a successful visit by Lithuanian parliamentarians to the UK parliament last year, a BGIPU delegation visited Lithuania from 23rd to 27th September. The delegation was led by BGIPU and Lithuania APPG Chair, Rt Hon John Whittingdale OBE MP (Conservative), who was joined by Daniel Kawczynski MP (Conservative), Baroness Barker (Liberal Democrat), Rt Hon Lord […]
By Gabriela Cuevas, President of the IPU, on the occasion of International Day of Democracy on 15 September 2019 Declarations of democracy’s demise are perhaps premature. All across the world, people are expressing their will for democratic institutions that protect human dignity. Recent elections in the US, Mexico and various countries of the European Union […]
Globally, threats to journalists are the highest they have been in ten years. Following a landmark FCO conference over summer, the UK Parliament hosted an International Parliamentary Seminar on Media Freedom under the auspices of the BGIPU from 9-11 September 2019. The Chair of the British Group of the IPU, Rt Hon John Whittingdale MP, hosted members of parliament from across the world along with relevant experts to explore parliamentary perspectives on Defending Media Freedom.
Young parliamentarians meeting in Asunción, Paraguay, have called for the pursuit of happiness and well-being to be explicitly integrated into public policy. In the outcome statement, the young MPs asserted that a country’s success could not be gauged merely by measuring its economic growth. Factors such as equality, education levels and emotional fulfilment were just […]
From 2-6 September 2019, in partnership with the Chair of the APPG for Lebanon, Rt Hon John Hayes MP, BGIPU hosted a delegation of three parliamentarians from Lebanon. The delegation was led by Mr Yassine Jaber MP as chair of the British-Lebanese Friendship Croup and Chair of the Lebanese Foreign Affairs Committee. He was joined […]
On 12 August, International Youth Day, the IPU celebrated young parliamentarians and youth participation in political life. According to the most recent IPU report on youth participation, the global proportion of MPs under 30 increased from 1.9 per cent in 2016 to 2.2 per cent in 2018. Despite this small uptick, when compared with the half of the world’s population that is under 30, the data reveals a sizeable deficit in the political representation of youth worldwide.
The IPU brought together more than 140 parliamentarians from 50 parliaments to review progress towards the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) at the annual High-level Political Forum at the United Nations in New York this week. The main theme of the 2019 session, held under the aegis of the Economic and Social Council, was “Empowering people and ensuring inclusiveness and equality”.
Parliaments have a key role to play in implementing the SDGs. They can drive sustainable development by translating the SDGs into laws, monitoring implementation of those laws, adopting national budgets, and ensuring that their governments are accountable for progress towards achieving the SDGs by 2030. New IPU data paints a mixed picture of the role of parliaments in implementing the SDGs indicating scope for parliaments to go much further in terms of oversight.
On 30 June, International Day of Parliamentarism, the IPU celebrated its 130th anniversary in a ‘Quintet’ consisting of the Presidents of the most recent and future IPU Assemblies, the Speakers of Russia, Qatar and Serbia who joined IPU President, Gabriela Cuevas-Barron and IPU Secretary General, Mr. Martin Chungong at the IPU’s Geneva Headquarters. The Speakers and IPU leadership discussed the ongoing relevance of the founding values and principles of the IPU 130 years on, results achieved at the previous Assemblies, and actions ahead.
