This morning at the Kigali Convention Center, President Kagame opens the 145th Assembly of the Inter-Parliamentary Union (IPU) convening over 1,000 delegates including over 60 speakers and deputy speakers of Parliaments from across the globe.
Themed “Gender equality and gender-sensitive parliaments as drivers of change for a more resilient and peaceful world,” the Assembly will facilitate exchanges on good practices to make parliaments more gender-sensitive and encourage them to pledge and implement transformative changes.
In 2008, the Rwandan Parliament’s Chamber of Deputies was the first elected national parliament with more women than men. With the proportion of women Members of Parliament standing at 61.25% today, well above the current global average of 26.4%, Rwanda has been at the top of IPU’s monthly rankings of women in national parliaments for over a decade.
Rwanda also has a relatively young Parliament, with half of its Members of Parliament, Chamber of Deputies under 45 years of age, well above the global average of 29.85%.
The 145th IPU Assembly will also consider what parliamentary action to take on international migration and how to stop human-trafficking and human rights abuses. Other topics include environmental degradation and its effects on the proliferation of terrorism; the impact of war and atrocity on civilian populations; war and climate change as triggers of global food insecurity; and the situation of the human rights of parliamentarians.
IPU is the global organization of national parliaments. It began in 1889 as a small group of parliamentarians, dedicated to promoting peace through parliamentary diplomacy and dialogue, and has since grown into a global organization of national parliaments. It has 178 Parliaments as Members and 14 Associate Members. (End).