 Mr. Raymond Forni
President of the French National Assembly
IPU could become "parliamentary arm" of UN
Q : In an era of globalisation, is policy still made in Parliament?
R.F. : Globalisation does not concern parliaments specifically; rather, it affects all national institutions alike, executive, parliamentary or judicial, as very few questions today are exclusively national. Yet even before the pace of globalisation began to pick up in recent years, France was grappling with this problem as part of the building of Europe, which it was involved in from the start and which has led it gradually to adjust the functioning of its institutions.
I myself am firmly convinced that the role and influence of parliaments are not going to recede when decisions are taken at an international level because the people, acting through their elected representatives, can and must be involved with creating legal standards and overseeing governments. The Nation remains the essential framework for democratic expression. Peoples exercise a choice in their own countries by voting in free elections. More than the sovereignty of States, sovereignty above all belongs to the people.
In addition, globalisation helps to awaken fresh understanding. The speed at which information spreads, its transparency and its proliferation all guarantee better knowledge of the economic, social or political changes taking place throughout the world. World political opinion now exists and is becoming more structured. It influences major decisions and generates its own form of status quo.
In a world that is becoming more unified, national parliaments cannot merely “rubber stamp” standards adopted within a supranational framework. As far as the building of Europe is concerned, this risk may be ruled out now that our assemblies intervene in the phase prior to the drafting of EU texts and now that the most important questions may be settled in public sittings, after close scrutiny by the Assembly’s delegation to the European Union.
Moreover, the European Union is a good example of the indispensable nature of the role of parliaments, because the founding treaties introduced a procedure providing for joint decision-making between the European Parliament and the Council with respect to all major common policies.
Q : How can we increase awareness of parliaments and their work?
R.F. : This is a major concern for our Assembly. Although individual MPs are always known to constituents for their work on the local level, citizens are still not sufficiently familiar with all facets of the day-to-day activities of Parliament.
We should bear in mind the fact that the influence exerted by parliaments does not derive solely from their power but also and above all from the values they embody, from the role they play in the drafting of legislation, from their capacity to sensitize and mobilize public opinion and from the trust generated by the steps they take to improve the people’s welfare.
Accordingly, we have simultaneously strengthened oversight of the Executive and beefed up Parliament’s systems for gathering information on societal problems of direct concern to citizens: the number of fact-finding committees and information missions dealing with such extremely diverse subjects as food security, safety at sea, money laundering, the state and management of prisons or business tribunals, problems relating to town and country planning and so forth has risen sharply.
We have also given higher priority to legislative texts sponsored by Parliament that focus on societal issues. To mention two recent examples, both the laws on relations in unmarried couples – what we call the Civil Solidarity Pact - and the ongoing debate on the legal system for passing on a family name to children originated in such bills.
Lastly, we have developed a modern and diversified communication policy. Each year, the National Children’s Parliament contributes to the civic education of future citizens. The organization of workshops on topical issues, the launching of a parliamentary TV channel and the development of our Internet site, where each and every one can follow the drafting of a law, consult records of public or committee debates, access minutes of hearings and information reports or contact an MP or a political group all serve to heighten awareness of the wide-ranging activities performed by Parliament.
Q : How can we strengthen the role of parliaments on the international scene?
R.F. : First of all, there is a need to work towards the establishment of international assemblies. The UN, WTO and the other international organizations must open up more to the people, to world public opinion, to international civil society. The cooperation agreement which the Union and the UN signed in 1986 was an extremely positive first step aimed at associating our parliaments with the United Nations. In the same spirit, the MPs present at the Seattle Conference adopted a resolution calling for the establishment of a WTO Parliamentary Assembly. I support these initiatives, which in my view are an essential step in the right direction.
Yet the international activities of national parliaments also require revamping. There is an urgent need for specialized bodies that regularly oversee major multilateral international negotiations, acquiring specific technical skills in the process. This is the case within the European Union, where all parliaments have set up specialized bodies for European affairs or commissioned members of existing bodies to follow the Union’s activities. We can institute more such bodies, for example on multilateral trade negotiations.
And since our planet is called on to “network”, why not link these specialized bodies up with each other? Bringing together MPs from different countries who have acquired such skills is an essential function of parliamentary diplomacy. It enables them to compare the way in which public opinion in each country assesses the negotiations and to compare their own appreciations. Little by little, this approach will give rise to a global vision of problems that have themselves become global.
Globalization upsets the patterns underlying our daily democratic life. In a way, everything is international now, and the international dimension affects policies implemented nationally. As a result, we must rethink the very notion of representative democracy. Because NGOs are often at the vanguard of civil society, because many of our citizens feel that policies today fail to represent their aspirations forcefully or truthfully enough, we must find new ways of representing civil society.
Q : Can parliaments act as relays or mediators between decision-makers and civil society, both nationally and internationally?
R.F. : This question comes as a bit of a surprise, because acting as mediators is in my view the minimum expression of the natural role of parliaments: ever since they came into being, parliaments have not contented themselves with merely being consulted; if only through popular consent to taxation (which is often their origin, historically speaking), they have also been associated with the decisions taken and have overseen their application.
Moreover, as we can see, international organizations are increasingly feeling the need to establish parliamentary bodies, deriving from national parliaments, alongside their ministerial ones, which emanate from governments. Up until the end of the 90s, only States were fully-fledged partners in international negotiations. Negotiators are now subject to manifold pressures, and it is not uncommon for them to hold fora attended by NGOs on the fringe of official discussions.
I myself am firmly convinced that major international decisions can no longer be taken without debate, preparation and a modicum of democratic practice. I believe that our parliaments must be associated with talks at a preliminary stage if they are subsequently to adopt the texts resulting from them.
Q : The IPU plans to give a parliamentary dimension to international cooperation. What means can it employ to achieve this goal and in what fields can the IPU become a key player?
R.F. : The determination of the French National Assembly to strengthen its activities in the field of international cooperation can only benefit from the IPU’s involvement and dynamism in the same area.
As I have already proposed, the Inter-Parliamentary Unioncould over the long run become a true Parliamentary Assembly of the United Nations, be consulted by the General Assembly, the Security Council and the Economic and Social Council and make proposals to those bodies. Moreover, the IPU, in its efforts to ensure that parliaments are represented in specialized UN agencies, could over time become the "parliamentary arm" of the UN. Here, it has gained credibility by showing that it could also help to achieve major international breakthroughs: among many other examples I could mention, it played a pioneering role in efforts to ban anti-personnel mines.
I would also like to pay a tribute to the many inter-parliamentary cooperation programmes run by the IPU, particularly in the furtherance of the rule of law. Indeed, there are many more parliamentary democracies today than a decade ago. The transition from dictatorship to democracy is not always easy. It is a moral obligation for the young democracies to make sure that the first elections are democratic and properly conducted; it is also in their interests to do so. Subsequently, the establishment of parliamentary institutions may also give rise to all sorts of difficulties – juridical, material or technical. An organization as old and deeply rooted as the IPU is in a position to provide the input required to ensure that young democracies function properly. This is precisely what it has done whenever such help has been sought from it, and our Assembly actively supports its efforts.
By focusing on fundamental rights in international relations, the IPU intends to move away from an overly restrictive conception of State prerogatives which sometimes limits national diplomatic activity and to ensure that the freedom of speech enjoyed by MPs serves the humanist values and democratic principles that are the very foundation of national parliaments.
The IPU is also at the heart of the major issues facing the international community, such as sustainable development, partnership for development, the fight against discrimination, gender equality, and others.
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BAHRAIN
On 14-15 February 2001, in a referendum, the first one since independence form Great Britain in 1971, an overwhelming majority (98.4 per cent) of Bahrain's voters approved the National Action Charter. This Charter institutes constitutional changes and economic and social reforms and provides for a partially elected parliament, a constitutional monarchy and an independent judiciary. Others significant reforms include voting rights for all citizens, men and women, above the age of 21, the right of women to run for office and the establishment of a body to investigate public complaints. The new Chart also establishes that all citizens are equal regardless of religion, sex or class.
The referendum was the culmination of a liberalisation process that the Emir Sheikh Hamad bin Issa -Khalifa launched after he came to power in 1999 following the death of his father.
The new Charter is expected to take effect by 2004.
CHAD
In February 2001, the Parliament approved by 92 votes and 28 abstentions a law postponing general elections by one year and thereby also extended the term of the Parliament for the same period until April 2002. The ruling Patriotic Salvation Movement justified the vote on the grounds of the lack of funds available for legislative elections in the current year. A presidential election is due to be held on 20 May and 1 July 2001.
COMOROS
In February 2001, a unity agreement signed by the political leaders of the three islands, Grande Comore, Mohéli and Anjouan, formally reinstated the Comoros as one federated entity after three years of conflict. In 1997, the islands of Anjouan and Mohéli declared their independence from Comoros and a subsequent attempt by the government to re-establish control over the rebellious islands by force failed.
Under the new agreement, the islands will adopt a new constitution which will go to a referendum by the end of June 2001. Grande Comore military ruler Colonel Azali Assoumani will head the transitional administration which will oversee the establishment of an electoral commission. The current regimes in Mohéli and Anjouan will remain in place until the referendum.
FIJI
On 1 March 2001, the Court of Appeal declared the military-backed interim government of Prime Minister Laisenia Qarase to be illegal. Mr Qarase was installed last year after the failed coup d'Etat in which Mr George Speight, an ethnic Fijian businessman had taken the nation's first ethnic Indian prime minister and several members of the Parliament hostage.
HAITI
On 3 March 2001, President Jean-Bertrand Aristide appointed a new Electoral Council. The previous electoral authority had been accused of rigging legislative elections in favour of Mr Aristide's party, the Lavalas Family. President Aristide said that the new Electoral Council would organize runoffs for 10 Senate seats that were won by candidates of his party, but gave no date for the voting. The main opposition parties boycotted the presidential election in November 2000, alleging that legislative elections in May 2000 had been rigged to give 10 Senate victories to Lavalas candidates. The new nine-member Electoral Council includes two Aristide supporters and no members of the 15-party opposition alliance
ISRAEL
On 7 March 2001, the Knesset adopted a new version of the Basic Law on Government, by a vote of 72 to 37 and three abstentions. The new law phases out direct election of the Prime Minister and restores the system that Israel had used until the 1996 elections, i.e. voters cast a ballot for one party and the Knesset seats are distributed proportionally to the votes. The previous law was widely blamed for the instability of the last two Israeli governments.
The new law also establishes that a no confidence motion against the government will need at least 61 votes in the Knesset (out of a total of 120) to pass, rather than a simple majority. Furthermore, in order to replace a government, the opposition will have to present an alternative government and prove it has the 61-seat majority needed to win confidence.
LESOTHO
Elections scheduled for May 2001 were postponed until early 2002. This postponement was due partly to a disagreement between the two chambers of the Parliament over the number of members in the National Assembly. While this House wanted a mix of 80 candidates elected by simple majority and 40 elected by proportional representation, the Senate preferred an 80-50 mix. The dissent ended when the Senate agreed that the National Assembly would consist of 120 members.
SIERRA LEONE
Parliament approved, by a unanimous vote, a bill postponing the presidential and legislative elections for six months. Under the Constitution, President Ahmad Tejan Kabbah's term of office should have ended on 28 March 2001, while that of the Parliament was due to expire on 1 April 2001. President Kabbah asked the Parliament to consider this extension, the maximum allowed by the Constitution, upon the recommendation of the National Electoral Commission, because the civil war and the continuing rebel control of a large proportion of the country made it impossible to hold another poll. The postponement was also motivated by the fact that the government was unable to meet the cost of the elections.
SINGAPORE
On 15 February 2001, the Political Donations Act (PDA) entered into force. It prevents foreign groups from interfering in domestic politics through donations to political associations and candidates in the presidential and parliamentary elections. Political parties and their candidates are prohibited from accepting donations from persons or bodies that are not permissible donors and anonymous donations are restricted. Permissible donors are defined as individuals who are Singapore citizens and are at least 21 years old, as well as Singapore-controlled companies that carry on business wholly or mainly in the country. The Act also imposes reporting requirements for donors who in any single year have made multiple donations with an aggregate value of 10,000 Singapore dollars or more to a political association.
YEMEN
On 20 February 2001, 73 % of Yemeni voters approved a constitutional amendment lengthening the terms of the President and members of Parliament from five to seven years and from four to six years respectively. This amendment also establishes a second chamber of Parliament, a Council, to be appointed by the President.
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As a new century begins and access to information becomes ever more vital to organisations throughout the world and to the public at large, the IPU has decided to launch a new publication. The publication - a quarterly review - will offer insights into the wide range of activities in which the Union is involved and highlights on parliamentary life. It will be available on the IPU Web site for those who like to surf the Net and on paper for those who prefer thumbing through a periodical at home, or on their travels.
In 2000, developing countries recorded larger increases in the proportion of women in national parliaments (e.g. + 10% in Peru, + 9.9% in Tajikistan, + 9.1% in Dominica, + 5.8% in Tanzania), than certain Western countries (e.g. in Canada, no change, + 0.7% in the United States). Worldwide, Croatia tops the list with a gain of 12.7%. Among the other European countries, Spain recorded an increase of 6.7% and elected Women presidents to both chambers of its parliament: a "first" in Europe and for the Western countries as a whole.