Parliaments are instrumental in ensuring the implementation of the SDGs and therefore should be closely involved in the process. It was in this context that a self-assessment exercise on SDGs was carried out by the Malian National Assembly, using the IPU-UNDP toolkit, Parliaments and the Sustainable Development Goals. Mali is the first African country to undertake this exercise. The self-assessment was organized by the IPU and took place in Bamako, Mali, on 24 and 25 January 2018.
News in brief
The IPU Advisory Group on Health visited Rwanda to learn what the Parliament has been doing on reproductive health, to document good practices to share with the global parliamentary community and make recommendations to the Parliament on strengthening its work on reproductive health. The visit took place from 24 to 27 January 2018.
There should be more women in parliament: this was the consensus of a parliamentary conference organized by the IPU and the National Assembly in Cotonou, Benin, from 18 to 19 January 2018. Women’s representation in parliament has been traditionally low in Benin. The conference therefore reviewed way in which to boost the percentage in view of impending elections in April 2019.
IPU Secretary General Martin Chungong recently received the Ambassadors of Austria and Thailand at the Organization’s Headquarters. He has been actively reaching out to the diplomatic community in Geneva, considering the Permanent Missions in Geneva as a useful conduit between the IPU and parliaments back in the various capitals.
Today, 258 million people live outside their countries of birth. Managing migration to ensure benefits to both countries of origin and destination, as well as migrants themselves, is a formidable challenge. Responding to this, the United Nations is in the process of negotiating a Global Compact for safe, orderly and regular migration that will be formally adopted at a conference in Morocco in December. This year’s Parliamentary Hearing at the United Nations will contribute from a parliamentary perspective to the Global Compact.
IPU President Gabriela Cuevas Barron, IPU Secretary General Martin Chungong and former IPU President Saber Chowdhury were in Hanoi recently to attend the 26th session of the Asia-Pacific Parliamentary Forum, held from 18-20 January 2018.
IPU Secretary General Martin Chungong and former IPU President Saber Chowdhury were awarded the Friendship Order by Nguyen Thi Kim Ngan, Chairperson of the Viet Nam National Assembly in Hanoi on 19 January 2018.
The Committee on the Human Rights of Parliamentarians, which is holding its 155th session in Geneva from 25 to 28 January 2018, has 66 new cases before it, 64 % of which come from Asia. This is an unusually high number for the first session of the year.
A group of Bangladeshi parliamentarians travelled to four districts in the country to raise awareness about the problems associated with child marriage. The districts—Gaibandha, Naogaon, Satkhira and Sirajganj—have a high incidence of child, early, and forced marriage (CEFM).
IPU President Gabriela Cuevas Barron and IPU Secretary General Martin Chungong look back at the past year and at upcoming challenges in 2018.