Theme: Political Empowerment

The Parliament of Vietnam will host the Ninth Global Conference of Young Parliamentarians

Vietnam to host the Ninth Global Conference of Young Parliamentarians

The 9th IPU Global Conference of Young MPs will kick off on 15 September in Hanoi, Vietnam.  Hundreds of Young MPs from around the world will meet to consider their roles in accelerating progress towards the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). The annual IPU Global Conference of Young Parliamentarians is a unique platform for young Members […]

A floating boat school in Bangladesh. Abir Abdullah / Climate Visuals Countdown

Preparing democracy for what’s to come: Committees of the Future

The COVID-19 pandemic. The war in Ukraine. The triple planetary crisis of climate change, pollution and biodiversity loss. Recent events – some that could have been foreseen, others that took the world by surprise – have revealed the fragility of the world’s existing governance structures. The rapid evolution of artificial intelligence is also likely to revolutionize the […]

Young MPs meet at the 146th IPU Assembly in Bahrain 2023

11 young MPs who are helping to rejuvenate parliaments worldwide

The IPU’s Forum of Young Parliamentarians is a unique global body created 10 years ago to boost youth participation in parliaments and to allow young lawmakers to network among their peers. The Forum is all the more important as, according to the latest IPU figures, only 2.8% of MPs around the world are aged 30 or under, compared with […]

IPU highlights record number of women MPs elected in Sierra Leone Parliament

Following recent elections, women lawmakers now account for 30.4% of the elected seats in the Sierra Leone Parliament, up from 14.5% in the previous election. The surge in women MPs is largely thanks to the Gender Equality and Women’s Empowerment Act, signed into law by President Julius Maada Bio a few months ago, which sets a 30% quota of […]

© STR/NurPhoto/NurPhoto via AFP

New handbook: Mobilizing parliaments to eliminate discrimination against women

Twenty years after the first edition, the IPU and the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) have published a new version of a handbook for parliamentarians on the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women and its Optional Protocol. What is the CEDAW Convention? More than four […]

Mr Tankoano, Rabbi HaCohen and Imam Barakat ©IPU

World MPs commit to stronger ties with religious leaders to promote peaceful coexistence

The first global Parliamentary Conference on Interfaith Dialogue: Working together for our common future is expected to conclude with a declaration that encourages interfaith dialogue and calls for all religions and beliefs to be treated equally. The Marrakesh Communiqué calls on parliamentarians to ensure that “all religions, beliefs and faith-based organizations are treated equally and without discrimination under the […]

Mr. Martin Chungong, IPU Secretary General and Mr. Dan Carden, member of Parliament of the United Kingdom and President of the IPU Forum of Young Parliamentarians.

Marking 2nd anniversary of its campaign, IPU holds Shout out to Youth Changemakers!

To mark the two-year anniversary of the I Say Yes to Youth in Parliament! campaign, the IPU organized an online event called Shout Out to Youth Changemakers on 24 May 2023. The gathering served as a platform for taking stock of progress in implementing transformative actions, sharing success stories, and galvanizing further action to rejuvenate parliaments. The event brought […]