BEIJING, Sept. 2 -- Over the last decade, the IPU has been working closely with the United Nations to enhance the parliamentary dimension of international cooperation.

    A key event in this new partnership took place in August 2000, when the IPU organized the Conference of Presiding Officers of National Parliaments at the United Nations Headquarters in New York, just a few days prior to the Millennium Summit of Heads of State and Government.

    The Conference, organised with the full support of the United Nations, concluded with a Declaration entitled The Parliamentary Vision For International Cooperation at the Dawn of the Third Millennium. With this Declaration, the Presiding Officers of the world’s parliaments committed themselves and their institutions to join forces with the United Nations to help address the tremendous challenges facing the world community: the achievement of international peace and security, democracy, respect for human rights, sustainable development and social progress.

    For their part, the Heads of State and of Government gathering at their 2000 Summit issued a Millennium Declaration in which they called inter alia on the United Nations to work with national parliaments, through the IPU, in the pursuit of peace and security, economic and social development, international law and human rights, and democracy and gender issues.

    In recognition of the important contribution that parliaments have made and will continue to make to the work of the United Nations - both by providing direct input and by helping implement global commitments, translating them into national legislation and policies - in November 2002 the United Nations General Assembly adopted a resolution granting observer status to the IPU. In the same spirit, a resolution on cooperation between the United Nations and the IPU allowed for circulation of official IPU documents in the General Assembly. This arrangement allows the IPU to make a more direct political contribution to the United Nations through the many resolutions and declarations adopted at IPU Assemblies and specialised meetings.

    Since then, the IPU has been working to bring the voice of parliaments to the United Nations General Assembly and its subsidiary bodies. The IPU holds regular Parliamentary Hearings at the United Nations, as well as other specialised gatherings on the occasion of United Nations regular meetings and ad hoc international conferences. The IPU will hold a Second World Conference of Speakers of Parliament in September 2005 at the United Nations Headquarters to follow up on the first Speakers Conference, held in 2000. The Conference will evaluate the work of the parliamentary community to help advance the Millennium Development Goals and other key objectives of the United Nations. It will also serve as an opportunity to help further define and structure the working relationship between parliaments and the United Nations in years to come.

    In addition to the political contribution that the IPU makes to the United Nations through its statements and resolutions, the two organisations work closely together to advance specific issues through many joint activities, publications and meetings. In addition to the United Nations proper, the IPU cooperates with a growing body of United Nations specialised agencies and programmes to focus more effectively on a number of critical subject areas. These include democracy and human rights, women's issues, child protection, HIV/AIDS, trade and sustainable development.

(Source: www.ipu.org)