The 125th Inter-Parliamentary Union (IPU) Assembly and related meetings wrapped up in Bern city, Switzerland, on Oct. 19.
AVietnamese delegation led by Tran Van Hang, Head of the NationalAssembly’s Committee for External Relations joined almost 1,500delegates from 135 countries to attend the 188th and 189th session ofthe 125th IPU Governing Council and related meetings of the assembly.
Theassembly agreed with the proposal of the Secretariat on IPU’s basicactivities in 2012 focusing on promoting parliamentary democracy, peace,security and sustainable development, coordination in coping withclimate change, gender equality and coordination with the UN.
Italso adopted the 2012-2017 IPU development strategy with three strategicvisions for better parliaments and stronger democracies, enhancingparliaments’ involvement in international activities and raising theIPU’s role as an effective parliamentary cooperation mechanism.
Theassembly also debated three subject items for the next IPU assembly,namely promoting and practising good governance as a means of advancingpeace and security: drawing lessons from recent events in the MiddleEast and North Africa, redistribution of power, not just wealth and therole of parliaments in addressing key challenges to securing the healthof women and children.
The assembly adopted a resolution on anemergency item proposed by Namibia on coordination among IPU members tohelp Somalia’s famine-stricken people.
It elected an additionalseven positions to the IPU Executive Committee and Speaker of theMoroccan House of Representatives Abdelwahad Radi as IPU President forthe 2011-2014 term.
On the sidelines of the assembly, theVietnamese delegation met with the IPU President and Secretary Generaland the delegations of Laos, Cambodia, Cuba, China, Indonesia, Morocco,Japan, the Republic of Korea and other IPU members.
The 126th IPU Assembly is scheduled to be held in Kampala, Uganda./.