IPU appeals for dialogue in response to nationwide unrest in Myanmar

On 6 January 2021, the world watched in horror as a mob waged an outrageous assault on the US Capitol building. Congress was in session, performing the usually calm and orderly ritual of confirming the election results and certifying the

IPU President, Mr. Duarte Pacheco and IPU Secretary General, Mr. Martin Chungong met today a group of Myanmar parliamentarians elected in the general election of November 2020 but prevented from taking their seats in the new parliament following the military

Mr Duarte Pacheco, a Portuguese Member of Parliament since 1991, was elected to the IPU Presidency in an historic virtual vote in November, winning 56 per cent of the votes in the first round. In his first video interview for

An end-of-year message from IPU leadership. We should never take democracy for granted. Many of our parents and grandparents fought for it in the Second World War and in battles for independence from colonial rule. In the 1990s we celebrated

The Inter-Parliamentary Union (IPU) is gravely concerned about the continuing violence, intimidation and forced displacement of the Rohingya Muslim minority in Myanmar’s Rakhine State. Reports of documented widespread cruelty against Rohingya children, women and men and the ensuing massive exodus into neighbouring Bangladesh are very disconcerting. The IPU is particularly worried about the dire conditions in refugee camps in Bangladesh.

The IPU condemns, in the strongest possible terms, the military’s interference in the business of the Maldives parliament. The IPU Secretary General Martin Chungong and the IPU President Saber Chowdhury have called for calm and for the Parliament to be allowed to carry out its functions without intimidation.