Participation of Mr. Ramazan CAN, PABSEC Vice-President and Head of the PABSEC Turkish Delegation and Mr. Fuat Kuçukaydin, PABSEC Deputy Secretary General, in the 138th Assembly of the Inter-Parliamentary Union (IPU) Geneva, 24-28 March 2018
Upon the invitation of the Inter-Parliamentary Union (IPU), the PABSEC Delegation, composed of Mr. Ramazan CAN, PABSEC Vice-President and Head of the PABSEC Turkish Delegation, and Mr. Fuat Kuçukaydin, PABSEC Deputy Secretary General, participated in the 138th Assembly of the IPU, which took place in Geneva, Switzerland, during 24-28 March 2018.
Ms. Gabriela Cuevas Barron, President of the Inter-Parliamentary Union addressed the participants at the Opening ceremony.
The meeting was attended by 750 parliamentarians from 137 countries, including 65 Speakers of the Parliaments. Mr. Ismail Kahraman, Speaker of the Grand National Assembly of Turkey and Mr. Ara Babloyan, President of the National Assembly of the Republic of Armenia were among the speakers from the BSEC Member States who addressed the gathering.
The IPU statutory bodies, including the Governing Council, Standing Committees, Committees on the Human Rights of Parliamentarians and on Middle East Questions, as well as the Forum of Women Parliamentarians and the Forum of Young MPs, and the Association of Secretaries General of Parliaments (ASGP) convened on this occasion. The IPU Assembly also ran two workshops defining concrete parliamentary actions on the refugee protection and comprehensive refugee responses.
The theme: “Strengthening the global regime for migrants and refugees: the need for evidence-based policy solutions” was designated as the core subject of the meeting. Parliamentarians seek to identify and agree upon parliamentary inputs to the UN-led reforms on the rights and protection of migrants and refugees. The participants also discussed sustaining peace as a vehicle for achieving sustainable development, tackling women’s underrepresentation in politics, engaging the private sector in the development of renewable energy, and building sustainable and resilient societies. During the five-day Assembly, IPU members adopted the Resolution on “Sustaining peace as a vehicle for achieving sustainable development” and Resolution on “Engaging the private sector in implementing the SDGs, especially on renewable energy” as well as the Reports of the Standing Committees.
The members of the Assembly condemned the discrimination and abuse of refugees and migrants at the conclusion of the138th Inter-Parliamentary Union Assembly. In this regard, it was adopted the Declaration which emphasized the critical role of parliaments in transforming the aspirations of the two Global Compacts – one on migrants and the other on refugees - into national laws.