Switzerland

With catastrophic climate change threatening to hit many parts of the world in just over a decade, 149 national parliaments have adopted an emergency resolution calling for decisive action. Concluding the 139th Assembly of the Inter-Parliamentary Union (IPU), the resolution, called Climate change – Let us not cross the line, follows the report published last week by the UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC). According to the IPCC report, limiting global warming to 1.5°C requires urgent and unprecedented changes in all aspects of society.

Over 1300 MPs and parliamentary staff from around the world will meet in Geneva for the 139th IPU Assembly from 14-18 October. Under the umbrella theme of science, technology and innovation, the Assembly will cover multiple subjects including fake news, sexism and harassment in parliaments, human rights, disarmament, counter-terrorism, the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), and migration.

On the occasion of the first International Day of Parliamentarism, 30 June 2018, Margareta Kiener Nellen, Member of the IPU Executive Committee and Swiss MP, talks about why parliaments have lost the confidence of the people and how they can

Although parliaments have a crucial role to play in building and sustaining peace, they are often missing from key UN debates and reports, said Mexican MP Laura Rojas, a member of the Bureau and former President of the IPU’s Committee on Peace and International Security. She was speaking at the Dialogue on Strategic Partnerships with the United Nations, as part of the High-Level Meeting (HLM) of the General Assembly on Peacebuilding and Sustaining Peace, which took place from 24 to 26 April 2018 in New York.