The Shura Council Speaker, H E Ahmed bin Abdullah bin Zaid Al Mahmoud, addressing a press conference on the preparations of the 140th Assembly of the IPU, yesterday. Pic: Salim Matramkot/The Peninsula
Doha: With the participation of over 2,000 representatives including parliamentarians, UN partners and experts from 160 countries including a blockading country, the 140th Assembly of the Inter-Parliamentary Union (IPU) will open in Doha on April 6 in the presence of Amir H H Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani.
Under the theme of ‘education for peace’, the Assembly will be organised by the Shura Council at Sheraton Convention Center. The details about the Assembly were given by the Shura Council Speaker, H E Ahmed bin Abdullah bin Zaid Al Mahmoud, at a press conference held here yesterday to announce that Qatar is going to host the Assembly from April 6 to 10.
The Speaker also opened yesterday the media centre of 140th Assembly and launched ‘ShuraQatar’ to update the followers on social networking sites about the news of the Assembly.
“The meeting of Assembly in Qatar will focus on enhancing education to ensure peace, security and sovereignty of the states because they are essential for the development,” said Al Mahmoud.
He said panellists will discuss that how the parliaments can contribute in supporting the education all over the world as there are many countries which need support to boost the education sector to achieve the development.
“The plenary sittings of the Assembly and its Standing Committees, as well as the meetings of the IPU Governing Council, the Executive Committee, the Forum of Women Parliament, the Committee on Human Rights of Parliamentarians and the meetings of the Association of Secretaries General of the Parliaments (ASGP) will also be held at Sheraton Convention Center,” said Al Mahmoud.
He said that there will be four main committees of the Assembly — internal peace and security; democracy; sustainable development of trade and economy and UN. “So far we have received confirmation of 2,271 participants including 80 speakers of parliaments from over 160, however, the confirmation process of the participation is still going on,” said Al Mahmoud. He said that a confirmation of the participation was received from Egypt, a blockading country.
Regarding topics of discussions, he said there will be big discussions among the groups of geopolitics for example Arab group; Islamic group; American group, Asian group, Latin America group and European group.
“Every group will meet and suggest the specific topics of discussions. We Arabs discussed in previous sessions of international parliaments. A topic of discussion could be suggested from our side for international support to Palestine, Jerusalem and Golan Heights,” said Al Mahmoud. He said that there will be voting for choosing the best topics of discussion.
