IPU Inter-Parliamentary Union [to 2 April 2016]
http://www.ipu.org/english/news.htm

.
31 MARCH 2016
Central and East European Parliaments follow up on SDGs
MPs from Central and East European Parliaments will continue work on defining opportunities and challenges they and their parliaments face in implementing the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) when they meet in Romania next month. The gathering on 18-19 April follows on from a similar sub-regional meeting in June 2015 at which parliamentary action on a number of key areas, including addressing environmental risk and climate change, was called upon. Participating parliaments will report on what action they have taken on the SDGs since the 2015 meeting.
This year’s event will lay emphasis on SDG 16, which highlights the importance of effective institutions, including parliaments, in implementing all 17 goals through coherent policies that capture and build on synergies. Key issues such as effective governance, citizen engagement on the SDGs, inclusive political participation, as well as ways to tackle the risk to environmental security by reducing disaster risk and switching to green energy, will also be addressed…

New name for IPU women MPs’ group
31 MARCH 2016
IPU’s Meeting of Women Parliamentarians, which for more than 30 years has been a unique opportunity for women MPs globally to meet in person and provide input into international decision-making, has a new name – the Forum of Women Parliamentarians. Its organizing body, the Co-ordinating Committee of Women Parliamentarians will now be known as the Bureau of Women Parliamentarians. The changes were agreed by MPs attending the 134th IPU Assembly in Lusaka and were aimed at better communicating the remit and functioning of the group…

World MPs discuss boosting women in politics
31 MARCH 2016
MPs from across the world called for a paradigm shift in attitudes to women’s participation in political processes within parliaments, political parties and society. The call came at the 134th IPU Assembly in Lusaka last week during a session on women’s freedom to participate in politics and how genuine partnership with men can contribute to this. The debate, organized by IPU’s Committee on Democracy and Human Rights, explored the current obstacles to women’s participation, including discriminatory stereotypes, patriarchal culture and party concerns about whether seats are “winnable” with women candidates…