When I took on the chairmanship of the APPG for Armenia a couple of years ago I was promised that it was a relatively inactive group, and the workload would be minimal. Within months, neighbouring Azerbaijan had invaded the disputed Armenian territory of Nagorno-Karabakh and military incursions are ongoing; claims and counter-claims about human rights […]
On 30 March, BGIPU hosted an African Ambassador Roundtable which was chaired by the Chair of BGIPU, Harriett Baldwin MP. Members received briefings from HE Sanni Aoudou, Ambassador of Gabon; HE Teferi Melesse Desta, Ambassador of Ethiopia; and Mr Tojonirina Ramarolahy, Chargé d’Affaire to Madagascar. The well attended meeting was an important opportunity for UK […]
On 27 March, IPU President, Duarte Pacheco addressed the Ninth Plenary Session of the International Parliament for Tolerance and Peace, hosted by the Federal National Council of the United Arab Emirates. With the backdrop of war in Ukraine, the President recalled the IPU’s foundational values of dialogue and political cooperation as a means of resolving […]
To help draw lessons from the COVID-19 pandemic and be better prepared for the next health crisis, the IPU and the World Health Organization (WHO) have jointly published Strengthening health security preparedness: The International Health Regulations (2005). This is the 34th handbook for parliamentarians published by the IPU. The handbook is designed to be an essential […]
Hosted by the Indonesian Parliament, the 144th IPU Assembly brought together some 110 national parliaments on the theme ‘Getting to zero: Mobilizing parliaments to act on climate change’. In one of the first major in-person events in the region since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, the IPU and the Indonesian Parliament were able to convene hundreds […]
The 144th IPU Assembly, meeting in Nusa Dua, Indonesia, has condemned “the ongoing Russian use of force against Ukraine as a violation of the Charter of the United Nations, including the principle of sovereignty and territorial integrity.” This is according to a resolution on an emergency item placed on the agenda of the Assembly for the […]
The 144th IPU Assembly will be held in Nusa Dua from 20 to 24 March 2022, hosted by the Parliament of Indonesia. Hundreds of parliamentarians from all over the world will meet in person on the theme of Getting to zero: Mobilizing parliaments to act on climate change. The climate emergency is affecting every region of the world and […]
On Wednesday 16th March, BGIPU hosted an in-person roundtable with Ambassadors from across Asia. The meeting was attended by a wide range of UK parliamentarians from various committees and APPGs, and was chaired by BGIPU Vice-Chair, Rt Hon John Whittingdale OBE MP. The Ambassadors of Japan, Indonesia, Vietnam and Uzbekistan all spoke to UK parliamentarians […]
Quotas are critical in ensuring greater representation of women, according to the latest IPU Women in Parliament report. The numbers are clear. In 2021, countries with some form of gender quotas elected 31.9 per cent women on average to their lower/single house, while those without quotas elected 19.5 per cent women cumulatively. Among upper houses, 29.1 […]
The global proportion of women parliamentarians has increased by 0.6 percentage points to reach 26.1 per cent according to the IPU’s latest Women in Parliament in 2021 report. This is in line with progress seen in the past two years. The increase can be largely attributed to the critical role played by well-designed quotas. In the 48 countries that […]
