IPU calls for greater protection for MPs in Somalia following another assassination

At the 140 th IPU Assembly in Doha, Qatar, the global parliamentary community strongly condemned human rights violations against MPs worldwide. At the Assembly, the IPU Committee on the Human Rights of Parliamentarians, the only international body with an exclusive remit to support MPs in danger, recommended action in the cases of 187 parliamentarians in a dozen countries whose human rights have been violated.

At the 139 th Inter-Parliamentary Union (IPU) Assembly, the global parliamentary community expressed serious concerns about MP human rights violations worldwide including cases in Cambodia, Venezuela, Turkey, and Uganda. However, there was also good news from Malaysia and the Maldives.At the Assembly, the IPU Committee on the Human Rights of Parliamentarians, the only international body with an exclusive remit to support persecuted MPs, met for its 157 th session. The committee meets three times a year to hear both complainants and the parliamentary authorities. Based on these hearings and other information, the committee takes position and its decisions are adopted by the IPU’s Governing Council. At this sitting, the committee took position on human rights violations of 295 MPs in 13 countries.

Nearly 750 MPs worldwide condemned the discrimination and abuse of refugees and migrants at the conclusion of the 138 th Inter-Parliamentary Union (IPU) Assembly in Geneva. The Assembly Declaration emphasized the critical role of parliaments in transforming the aspirations of the two Global Compacts – one on migrants and the other on refugees - into national laws.

The Inter-Parliamentary Union (IPU) has expressed deep concern about the increasing repression and escalation of human rights violations against opposition MPs in Cambodia, Venezuela, Turkey and the Maldives on the closing day of the 137 th IPU Assembly in St. Petersburg, Russian Federation. The IPU has called for fact-finding missions by the IPU Committee on the Human Rights of Parliamentarians to be sent to the four countries in the very near future.

The global parliamentary community has called for urgent international action to save millions of people from famine and drought in parts of Africa and Yemen. In an emergency item adopted today at the 136 th Assembly of the Inter-Parliamentary Union (IPU), the Organization’s Members committed to pressuring their governments to fund humanitarian relief operations to avert this crisis.

The Inter-Parliamentary Union (IPU) is extremely concerned about the spreading famine in Africa. Famine has been declared in parts of South Sudan, affecting over 100,000 people. The United Nations has warned that it is likely to spread to Yemen, Somalia and Nigeria.