Geneva, Switzerland / 7-9 October 2013

Report on activities by Parliamentarians for Global Action (PGA) and the Parliamentary Forum on Small Arms and Light Weapons (PFSALW)

The Assembly

The 129th IPU Assembly was held 7-9 October, 2013, in Geneva.  The agenda had a strong disarmament focus with panel sessions on topics such as making the world nuclear-weapon free and safe from all weapons of mass destruction, the increasing concern on the proliferation of chemical weapons, especially in the aftermath of chemical weapon use in Syria as well as discussing the recently adopted Arms Trade Treaty (ATT) which covers a wide range of conventional weapons, including Small Arms and Light Weapons.

Over 1000 participants, including 600 MPs from 126 countries participated in the event. There was also a particularly large high-level participation as almost 40 Speakers of Parliament, from countries such as Australia, Canada, Germany, India, Iran, Kenya, Lebanon, Nigeria and Pakistan, formed part of the delegations.

Reception

On Monday 7th of October, after the first panel discussion  of the IPU Committee on UN Affairs session titled “Implications of and action on the recently adopted Arms Trade Treaty”, the PGA and PFSALW held a joint reception at the conference centre titled “Welcoming the Arms Trade Treaty: Challenges and Opportunities for Legislators”.

Welcome was given by the Secretary General of PGA, Ms Shazia Rafi, who introduced PGA explaining it is a network of over 1000 parliamentarians in 130 countries. Although today the organisation works with a wider range of global issues such as strengthening democracy, conflict prevention, international law, human rights and environment, it has its roots in the call for nuclear disarmament. They strive to build partnerships and cooperate with different actors including fellow parliamentary organisations such as the IPU and PFSALW.

The first speaker of the evening was the Speaker of the Parliament of El Salvador Hon. Sigfrido Reyes, member of PGA, who celebrated the recently adopted Arms Trade Treaty. Giving a perspective from Latin America, one of the regions in the word worst affected by armed violence he explained how the Treaty aims to regulate the trade in weapons and bring to an end the uncontrolled proliferation of arms.

He was followed by Hon. Betty Amongi, Member of Parliament of Uganda and Board Member of the Parliamentary Forum o SALW and also member of PGA. Hon. Amongi introduced the PFSALW as a network of 200 legislators from 70 countries in Africa, Latin America, Europe and the Middle East who are concerned about the proliferation of SALW. She highlighted the immense dangers of SALW, in Africa and worldwide, as the true weapons for mass destruction which are not only found in the state security forces but mainly in the hands of civilians, meaning that it is very easy for anyone to acquire arms and thus contributing to unsecure societies.

The last speaker was Hon. Adbus Shahid, MP and Chief Whip of Parliament of Bangladesh and member of PGA, who gave a perspective from Asia.

Over 70 people attended the reception, including:

• Hon. Sigfrido Reyes, Speaker of Parliament of El Salvador
• Hon. Sardar Ayaz Sadiq, Speaker of Parliament of Pakistan
• Hon. Adbus Shahid, MP Bangadesh
• Hon. Christiane Vianne, MP Belgium
• Hon. Tõnis Kõiv, MP Estonia
• Hon. Uta Zapf, MP Germany
• Hon. Syed Naveed Qamar, Pakistan
• Sen. Raza Rabbani, Pakistan
• Hon. Farzana Raja, MP, Pakistan
• Hon. André Misiekaba, MP Suriname
• Hon. Monica Green, MP Sweden
• Hon. Betty Amoni, MP Uganda
• Lord Frank Judd, House of Lords, UK
• Amb. Zamir Akram, Amb. of Pakistan to the UN, Geneva
• Ms. Anda Filip, Director, Member Parliaments & External Relations, IPU
• Mr. Martin Chungung, Deputy Secretary-General, IPU
• Mr. El Khattar, Executive Officer, Presidency, IPU
• Mr. Alyn Ware, Global Coordinator, Parliamentarians for Nuclear Non-Proliferation and Disarmament (PNND)
• Mr. Måns Hanssen, Geneva Centre for the Democratic Control of Armed Forces (DCAF).