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We empower parliaments and parliamentarians to promote peace,
democracy and sustainable development.
With a rising number of authoritarian and repressive regimes, attacks on parliaments and electoral dissatisfaction with traditional political parties around the world, it seems that democracy has never been more fragile. But is it really in crisis? Can democracy rebound and still deliver for the people? Register now for the IPU's virtual panel on 15 September, International Day of Democracy.
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The world’s top legislators gathered in Vienna, Austria this week for the first major in-person international parliamentary meeting in over 18 months. The Fifth World Conference of Speakers of Parliament brought together close to 100 Speakers from some 115 national parliaments and the heads of over a dozen regional and other parliamentary organizations.
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Legislators from around the world met in Vienna, Austria on 9 September for the First Global Parliamentary Summit on Counter-Terrorism, co-organized by the IPU in partnership with the UN.
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Parliamentarians are uniquely positioned to take mitigating action on climate change through legislation, national budgets and government scrutiny. Discover all the IPU resources that are available.
Read moreHalf the world’s population is under 30 and yet only 2.6% of MPs globally represent this age group. The IPU has identified the six ways to change this.
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MPs can sometimes be subject to human rights violations, ranging from arbitrary detention and exclusion from public life to even kidnapping and murder in the worst cases. The IPU has been defending MPs in danger for the past 40 years through its Committee on the Human Rights of Parliamentarians. The map below shows the latest alleged violations of ...
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Events
An IPU virtual panel on Democracy Day 2021
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Publication
The World e-Parliament Report 2020 documents the experiences, innovations and lessons learned in making sure parliaments continued to function during the COVID-19 pandemic. The report is based on data from 116 parliaments and focus groups involving 49 parliaments. Part one of the Report ...
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News and Stories
As part of the IPU series called 'A conversation with...', we interview parliamentarians from all over the world to find out who they represent and what motivates them. In this edition, we discover Samuel Cogolati, MP from Belgium.
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Events
The Inter-Parliamentary Union and the House of Representatives of the Republic of Indonesia are organizing the First Global Parliamentary Meeting on Achieving the SDGs.
Read moreDiscover our online Impact Report here
We help strengthen parliaments to make them more effective and representative.
We work to increase women’s representation in parliament and empower women MPs.
We defend the human rights of parliamentarians and help them uphold the rights of all.
We help parliaments fight terrorism, cyber warfare and the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction.
We create the global space for parliamentary diplomacy, dialogue and networking.
We encourage youth participation in parliaments and empower young MPs.
We support parliaments in implementing the SDGs with a particular focus on health and climate change.
We bring a parliamentary dimension to United Nations processes to ensure international commitments become national realities.
