On
the 19th of May, as a delegate for the Canadian Group of the
Inter-Parliamentary Union (IPU), the Honourable Dennis Dawson travelled
to New York to attend the 86th plenary meeting of the sixty-eight
session of the United Nations General Assembly.
He
was the only Canadian parliamentarian delegate at this conference but met with
the IPU secretariat and other delegates of the General Assembly meeting. The
United Nations office of foreign affairs was there and participated in
sponsoring the resolution. The main objective was lobbying for wide ranging
support to resolution 68/272: Interaction between the United Nations,
national parliaments and the Inter-Parliamentary Union.
The
aim of the resolution was to encourage both parties to work closely in various
fields, in particular, peace and security, economic and social development,
international law and human rights and gender issues. It also aimed to mobilize
parliamentary action towards the achievement of the Millennium Development
Goals by the target date of 2015, as well as to bring a parliamentary
contribution to the design of the next generation of global development goals.
After many interventions the resolution was adopted unanimously. It reaffirms
the commitment of national parliaments and the Inter-Parliamentary Union to
support the work of the United Nations and continue the efforts to bridge the
democracy gap in international relations.
This
report provides an overview of the IPU-UN parliamentary hearing.
2.Background
The
IPU is the international organization of parliaments of sovereign states. It
was established in 1889, is “the focal point for world-wide parliamentary
dialogue,” and “works for peace and co-operation among peoples and for the firm
establishment of representative democracy.” The IPU “supports the efforts of
and works in close co-operation with the United Nations, whose objectives it
shares.”
In
addition to this meeting, the IPU’s annual parliamentary hearing bring
parliamentarians to the UN headquarters in New York “for an interactive
discussion with high-ranking UN officials, representatives of [UN] Member
States and experts drawn from think tanks and civil society organizations.”As a joint event of
the IPU and UN, the hearings reflect a commitment by the UN to hear the views
of parliamentarians with regards to urgent issues facing policy-makers and
legislators around the world and on the key issues on the UN agenda.
This
resolution
Recalled
its previous 2010 resolution deciding “to pursue a more systematic engagement
with the Inter-Parliamentary Union in organizing and integrating a
parliamentary component of and contribution to major United Nations
deliberative processes and the review of international commitments”;
and
Called
for “the annual parliamentary hearing at the United Nations to be more closely
linked to major United Nations processes, including the preparation of global
conferences, so as to help to inform such deliberations from a parliamentary
perspective.”
The
conclusions of the hearing are circulated to the wider UN community as well as
to all national parliaments.
3.Programme
of the Parliamentary Hearing
The
main theme of the hearing that took place in New York on the 19 of May 2014
was: Interaction between the United Nations, national parliaments and the
Inter-Parliamentary Union. The meeting with the delegates started at 10
a.m. and rose at 11.25 a.m.
The
full programme, which includes details on the themes and case studies explored
during the hearing, and the complete list of panellists, may be found online.
Respectfully submitted,
Sen. Salma Ataullahjan, Chair, Canadian Group of the
Inter-Parliamentary Union (IPU)