20 October 2014
131st IPU Assembly Debates Gender Equality, Climate Change and Water Management
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The 131st Assembly of the Inter-Parliamentary Union (IPU) addressed a number of sustainable development issues, including gender equality and disaster risk management, climate change, and water management.

The Assembly, along with related meetings, gathered more than 700 Members of Parliament (MPs) from 141 countries.

Ipu16 October 2014: The 131st Assembly of the Inter-Parliamentary Union (IPU) addressed a number of sustainable development issues, including gender equality and disaster risk management, climate change, and water management. The Assembly, along with related meetings, gathered more than 700 Members of Parliament (MPs) from 141 countries.

On 16 October, the general debate of the Assembly took place on the topic of ‘Achieving Gender Equality, Ending Violence against Women.’ Among the issues discussed were: priority areas of focus and action; sustained implementation of laws and policies; role of MPs as opinion-shapers; innovative partnerships; and successful strategies to affect change, and related obstacles. As an outcome of the debate, IPU Members pledged to make gender equality a reality within a generation.

Speaking during the debate, Margareta Wahlström, Special Representative of the UN Secretary-General for Disaster Risk Reduction, urged IPU to support deeper engagement of women in disaster risk management, noting that while progress had been made under the Hyogo Framework for Action 2005-2015 (HFA), more needed to be done. She also called on MPs to ensure high-level participation in the Third UN World Conference on Disaster Risk Reduction, to be held in Sendai, Japan, in March 2015.

On climate change, the IPU Standing Committee on Sustainable Development, Finance and Trade, meeting from 12-15 October, worked on an outcome document that will constitute the parliamentary contribution to the 20th session of the Conference of the Parties (COP 20) to the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) to be held in December 2014 in Lima, Peru. The draft outcome document, inter alia: expressed support for the process to reach a post-2015 climate agreement in Paris, France in 2015; stressed the importance of a balance between mitigation and adaptation, and the financing and technology transfer needs of developing countries; and recognized the key role of national legislation in providing credibility and effectiveness for the 2015 agreement. A revised version of the draft will be available on the IPU website.

On water management, the same committee organized an interactive debate on the topic of ‘Shaping a New System of Water Governance: Promoting Parliamentary Action on Water.’ Other issues addressed during the Assembly included: resource mobilization to tackle Ebola; the situation in the Middle East; and drug policy coherence. The Assembly also elected Saber Chowdhury (Bangladesh) as the IPU President for the next three-year period.

The 131st Assembly of the IPU convened from 12-16 October in Geneva, Switzerland. [IPU Press Release on Gender Equality] [IPU Press Release on IPU President] [UNISDR Press Conference] [131st IPU Assembly Website and Documents] [IISD RS Story on 13oth IPU Assembly]


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