Elections are often a fake front
The organization of elections in many countries is often a front for democracy, according to the IPU. From Belarus to Iraq, there is no shortage of examples of situations where genuinely democratic conditions are not met. "If there is not an active civil society, if minimum security cannot be guaranteed in a country, if there is no rule of law, the holding of elections is but a smoke screen", said Professor Guy Goodwin-Gill, at the presentation of his study on Free and Fair Elections, a 233-page volume published by the IPU.
Le Téléjournal en continu - TSR - ATS (Switzerland) 24 March 2006

Belarus needs to review elections: parliamentary chief
Authorities in Belarus need to review the conduct of last weekend's controversial elections which returned President Alexander Lukashenko to power, the head of the International Parliamentary Union said on Friday. "The facts are still being established. It's very hard for us to make a hard and fast judgement on the freeness and fairness of those elections," said Anders Johnsson, Secretary General of the grouping of 143 parliaments. "But I think enough has been reported in the media to cast a serious shadow of doubt on the freeness and fairness of the elections in Belarus". "Clearly the Belarussian authorities will have to revisit how they are organizing these elections and to see what should be changed," he told reporters. Belarus's Parliament is part of the IPU. Johnsson's comments came during the launch of a revised IPU manual on Free and Fair Elections, which lays out benchmarks that are often used by international monitors to assess elections. "It's an issue very much in the headlines today, whether we are thinking about the situations in Belarus, in Iraq, in the Middle East," said author Guy Goodwin-Gill, a professor at Oxford University.
Agence France Presse (AFP) - 24 March 2006

Women politicians "making gains"
A record number of women are serving in parliaments worldwide, but they only account for just over 16% of all MPs. Women have made progress in elections, but "true equality of status" is a long way off, says a report by the Inter-Parliamentary Union. IPU chief Anders Johnsson said women were "dramatically under-represented". Women fared best in Rwanda, Norway and Sweden, but there are no women MPs in nine countries, including Saudi Arabia and Kyrgyzstan. On average, women made up about 20% of the deputies elected in the 39 countries which held parliamentary elections last year, the IPU reports.
BBC News - 28 February 2006

Conference: Parliaments are essential to halt crisis
How to bolster donor support for parliaments in conflict states is the focus of an international conference which opened in Brussels Wednesday evening. "The parliaments play a tremendous important role in conflict prevention in countries in the world, in particular fragile states which face crisis", Belgian minister for development and cooperation, Armand De Decker, told a news briefing ahead of the inaugural session of the conference. About 80 parliamentarians, donors and experts from countries including Afghanistan, Iraq, Lebanon, and the Democratic Republic of Conco (RDC) are participating in the two-day event organized by the Belgian government and Parliament and the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), in association with the Inter- Parliamentary Union (IPU)."Parliaments, crisis prevention and recovery" is the theme of the onference. De Decker said that the role of parliaments is underestimated and called on the parliaments to promote good governance, sustainable development policies and parliamentary diplomacy.
IRNA (Islamic Republic of Iran News Agency) - 19 April 2006

Chinese version of UN Guide to Refugee Law launched in Beijing
The Chinese version of a handbook on refugee protection, A Guide to International Refugee Law, was launched in Beijing. Visiting UN High Commissioner for Refugees Antonio Guterres and Vice-Chairman of the Foreign Affairs Committee of Chinese National People's Congress (NPC) Lu Congmin attended the launching ceremony. The book, jointly compiled by the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNCHR) and the Inter- Parliamentary Union in 2001, aims at helping members of parliament and governmental officials to become more familiar with the general principles of international refugee law. The book has been translated into 34 languages, making it the most widely translated UNHCR publication.
Xinhua News Agency (China) - 22 March 2006

Three years of famine
Three years of drought, and consequently, famine, have placed virtually all the countries of the Horn of Africa in a precarious situation. Some 20 million nomads and herders in Ethiopia, Djibouti, Somalia, Kenya, Eritrea and Tanzania are on the verge of starvation after seeing their camels, goats and zebus die. The United Nations has appealed to wealthy countries to donate 350 million Euros to curb this imminent disaster. This amount can save only 8 million of the 20 million persons whose lives are in jeopardy…Anders Johnsson, Secretary General of the Inter-Parliamentary Union - with a membership of 143 parliaments from across the world - hascalled on its Members, from Geneva, to pressure their governments. "We are making an appeal for a humanitarian and a political gesture, because people are dying due to lack of aid", he said. On 5 May, the IPU will be holding its annual Assembly in Nairobi, Kenya, which some 1,500 delegates are expected to attend. In Kenya alone 5 million persons have been affected by the famine according to President Mwai Kibaki.
El Periódico (Spain) - 8 April 2006

Every 15 seconds, a girl suffers genital mutilation, says the IPU
To mark the fourth International Day of Zero Tolerance of Female Genital Mutilation, over 40,000 parliamentarians pledged to take political action in consultation with all …in society in order to inform the electorate about the damage caused by the indefensible practice of female excision, inflicted on a girl every 15 seconds, according to the President of the Inter-Parliamentary Union, Pier Ferdinando Casini.
La Jornada (Mexico) - 7 February 2006

Inter-Parliamentary Union committed against female mutilation
The Inter-Parliamentary Union expressed the commitment of its 40,000 members of parliament to combat female genital mutilation, which between 100 million and 140 million women have already endured. The Organization's President, Mr. Pier Ferdinando Casini, declared that parliamentarians across the world "are determined to take action along with traditional and religious leaders, government agencies and civil society organizations to do away with this practice as son as possible".
EFE (Spain) - 3 February 2006