General Assembly General Assembly

Statement by Hon'ble Speaker of Lok Sabha Smt Sumitra Mahajan, at the Second meeting of the Preparatory Committee of the Fourth World Conference of Speakers of Parliaments held in New York, on 18 November 2014

 

Subject: Intervention for suggesting the theme for the Fourth World Conference of Speakers of Parliament to be held in 2015.

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Mr. Chairman and Fellow Speakers:

Thank you very much for giving me the opportunity to share my thoughts about theme of the Fourth World Conference of Speakers of Parliament to be held in 2015

 

I intend to suggest the theme entitled Democratic Governance and Sustainable Development: Role of Parliaments.

 

We have already shared our suggested theme along the explanatory memorandum with the IPU.

 

The United Nations Rio+20 Conference 2012 on Sustainable Development had not elaborated specific goals but stated that the sustainable development goals (SDGs) should be limited in number, aspirational and easy to communicate.

 

The goals should address in a balanced way all three dimensions of sustainable development and be coherent with and integrated into the UN development agenda beyond 2015.

 

Also, good governance and democratic governance have long been recognized by all of us as the enablers of development and they are not something new.

 

Now, the Governance - related goals are being seriously considered. Parliamentary inputs into the Post-2015 Development Agenda will also come from the Outcome Declaration of the 132nd IPU Assembly to be held in Hanoi(Vietnam) during March-April 2015 where member Parliaments will engage in a general debate on Parliaments and the Post-2015 Sustainable Development Goals.The Fourth World Conference of Speakers of Parliament, to be held next year, would provide an opportunity to galvanize political will for the new global agenda.

In this context, it will be appropriate for the Fourth World Conference of Speakers of Parliament to stress on linking democratic governance with sustainable development and to define the role of Parliaments in helping to achieve the goals that may come into shape in the Post-2015 Development Agenda. Stressing the linkages between the two is in keeping with the avowed objectives of the IPU. The United Nations General Assembly also encourages bringing Parliaments into the mainstream of decision-making processes. Sustained efforts in this direction have resulted in more and more parliamentary inputs into the global agenda and multilateral agreements. Closer cooperation between the UN and IPU, envisaged to be enhanced through a new cooperation agreement to be adopted, will also help to mainstream the United Nations agenda through IPU and its member Parliaments.

 

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