¡¡MANILA, April 8 (Xinhuanet) -- The Inter-Parliamentary Union (IPU)Friday called on the international community and national governments and legislatures to strengthen cooperation in the fight against AIDS and natural disasters.

    The IPU also appealed to developed countries to reduce the debts of developing countries to help the latter realize the UN-endorsed Millennium Development Goals (MDG), and expressed supportto the establishment of an international mechanism to punish war crimes, crimes against humanity, genocide and acts of terrorism.

    In one of the four draft resolutions adopted by the 112th conference of IPU which drew to a close here Friday, more than 1,300 parliamentarians from 116 of IPU's 144 member countries expressed grave concerns over the increasing number of people infected with HIV/AIDS, especially among women and children.

    The parliamentarians called upon parliaments and governments toensure that their laws, policies and practices respect human rights in the context of HIV/AIDS, in particular the rights to education, work, privacy, protection and access to care, treatmentand social services, according to the adopted draft resolution entitled "The Role of Parliaments in Advocating and Enforcing Observance of Human Rights in the Strategies for the Prevention, Management and Treatment of the HIV/AIDS Pandemic".

    In their resolution concerning war crimes and crimes against humanity, the parliamentarians said that in today's world, many regions and whole societies are brutally affected by the persistence of war crimes, crimes against humanity, genocide and terrorism.

    The resolution strongly recommended that through the inter-parliamentary activities of IPU members, efforts be combined and experiences shared in order to develop the necessary mechanisms topursue the objectives of implementing and enforcing the international agreements to punish and prevent war crimes, crimes against humanity, genocide and terrorism.

    On natural disasters, the parliamentarians said that natural catastrophes like tsunami and earthquake are a "transnational threat to all people and socially vulnerable poor people in developing nations .. are frequently the ones who suffer great damage".

    The parliamentarians called on the international community to "renew its determination to prevent disasters where possible and tominimize the impact of unavoidable natural disasters by making maximum use of lessons learned in the past in order to prepare fornew disasters".

    In the resolution concerning establishing innovative international financing and trading mechanisms to address the problem of debt and achieve the Millennium Development Goals, the parliamentarians appealed to developed countries to demand that their governments fulfill their commitments to allocate 0.7 percent of their gross domestic product for overseas debts alleviation.

    They also called on developing countries to make sure that their governments mobilize the resources required for development,combat corruption, continue institutional reform, adopt the economic and social policies appropriate to stimulate growth, establish national strategies which place the MDGs at the center of their policies. Enditem