IPU sets out progress as Human Rights Council focuses on parliamentary role

The world’s parliaments and their members play a critical and growing role in ensuring citizens’ rights are upheld, IPU Secretary General Martin Chungong has told a UN Human Rights Council discussion on parliaments’ role in the Council’s work.  Mr Chungong underscored the progress made since the Council started looking at the question of parliamentary engagement in 2013.  Increasingly, he said, parliaments around the globe were taking notice of the Council’s work and wanted to ensure its recommendations led to real impact. Mr Chungong made a series of recommendations which would enable the Council to take the work of parliaments into account more systematically, and explained how parliaments could contribute to the Council’s work.  IPU Programmes Director Kareen Jabre set out how cooperation between IPU, parliaments and the UN Committee on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women could serve as a template for better inclusion of parliaments in the Council’s work.  The event also showcased how the parliaments of Morocco, Ecuador and the Philippines have worked for human rights and embraced the Council’s Universal Periodic Review recommendations for their countries.