{"id":34523,"date":"2024-04-06T11:42:45","date_gmt":"2024-04-06T09:42:45","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/english.cpnn-world.org\/?p=34523"},"modified":"2024-04-06T11:42:45","modified_gmt":"2024-04-06T09:42:45","slug":"mary-robinson-key-note-at-the-inter-parliamentary-unions-148th-assembly-april-6","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/english.cpnn-world.org\/?p=34523","title":{"rendered":"Mary Robinson key note at the Inter-Parliamentary Union’s 148th Assembly (April 6)"},"content":{"rendered":"
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. DEMOCRATIC PARTICIPATION .<\/p>\n

Text transcribed from video on You Tube<\/a><\/p>\n

Excellencies, distinguished delegates to the Inter-Parliamentary Union Assembly,\u00a0it’s an honour to address the general debate of your 148th Assembly. I’m speaking to you\u00a0\u00a0as Chair of The Elders, a group of independent global leaders founded by Nelson Mandela who\u00a0work for peace, human rights and a sustainable planet. I’m also speaking as a former UN High\u00a0Commissioner for Human Rights, a former President of my own country, Ireland and a former Senator.<\/p>\n

\"\"
\nVideo of speech<\/a><\/center><\/p>\n

I served for 20 years in the Upper House of the Irish Parliament and in all these roles\u00a0\u00a0and all throughout my career, I’ve appreciated the opportunity to engage with the IPU. Parliaments play an indispensable role in building bridges for peace and understanding and consensus\u00a0\u00a0on how to tackle shared challenges. This role is particularly valuable today\u00a0\u00a0in an era of increasing social polarisation and geopolitical tensions.<\/p>\n

The IPU plays a critical role as a forum where parliamentarians can come together,\u00a0\u00a0exchange experiences and discuss the challenges of the hour, something I learned from attending\u00a0\u00a0IPU events during my time in the Irish Senate in the 1970s and 80s and it has been a privilege\u00a0\u00a0to be invited to address the Assembly on a number of occasions since. Today I’m happy to hear\u00a0that the Assembly will also focus on multilateralism in this year when the world is\u00a0gathering at the upcoming Summit of the Future convened by the UN Secretary-General to chart a new\u00a0\u00a0pathway forward for international cooperation. It’s no exaggeration to say today that we are at\u00a0\u00a0a moment of crisis in multilateralism.<\/p>\n

(Article continued in the column on the right)<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

Questions related to this article:<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
\n

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Where in the world can we find good leadership today?<\/a><\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

How can parliamentarians promote a culture of peace?<\/a><\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

(Article continued from the column on the left) <\/p>\n

Our world faces existential threats that can only be tackled\u00a0collectively from the climate and nature crisis and pandemics to nuclear weapons and the risks\u00a0\u00a0of unregulated artificial intelligence. But at precisely the moment when cooperation is critical,\u00a0\u00a0geopolitical tensions and confrontations are rising and too much decision-making is governed\u00a0\u00a0by short-term self-interested calculations. While the COP28 summit in Dubai last December\u00a0\u00a0did make some progress producing the first text that directly recognized the need to move away\u00a0\u00a0from fossil fuels, we remain in a climate and nature emergency.<\/p>\n

Each month since June\u00a0\u00a0last year has seen a new temperature high and the pathway we are on is unsustainable.\u00a0Yet leaders are still not acting at the pace and scale required. We’re four years on from the\u00a0\u00a0onset of COVID-19, a global pandemic that cost the lives of millions and exacerbated inequality\u00a0\u00a0between and within nations.<\/p>\n

But we are struggling to form consensus on a pandemic accord that would\u00a0\u00a0help prevent and better prepare the world for future pandemics. 55 years after the treaty onthe non-proliferation of nuclear weapons, nuclear powers have not met their commitment to reduce\u00a0\u00a0their arsenals. Instead, the few remaining nuclear agreements mitigating catastrophic risk are\u00a0\u00a0expiring and we face a renewed nuclear arms race with some leaders openly threatening to use\u00a0\u00a0nuclear weapons in current conflicts.<\/p>\n

We see a proliferation of conflicts including Russia’s\u00a0war of aggression on Ukraine and Israel’s disproportionate response to the horrific\u00a0\u00a0October attacks by Hamas. The multilateral international peace and security architecture,\u00a0most notably the UN Security Council, appears completely ill-equipped to deal with these crises.\u00a0While conflicts elsewhere, from Myanmar to Sudan, are not getting the attention that they need.<\/p>\n

It’s\u00a0against this backdrop that The Elders are calling for long-view leadership to tackle existential\u00a0threats and to build a more resilient and equal society. Long-view leadership means showing the\u00a0determination to resolve intractable problems, not just manage them. The wisdom to make decisions\u00a0based on scientific evidence and reason and the humility to listen to all of those affected.<\/p>\n

– – – – – –<\/p>\n

If you wish to make a comment on this article, you may write to coordinator@cpnn-world.org with the title “Comment on (name of article)” and we will put your comment on line. Because of the flood of spam, we have discontinued the direct application of comments.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

. DEMOCRATIC PARTICIPATION . Text transcribed from video on You Tube Excellencies, distinguished delegates to the Inter-Parliamentary Union Assembly,\u00a0it’s an honour to address the general debate of your 148th Assembly. I’m speaking to you\u00a0\u00a0as Chair of The Elders, a group of independent global leaders founded by Nelson Mandela who\u00a0work for peace, human rights and a … Continue reading Mary Robinson key note at the Inter-Parliamentary Union’s 148th Assembly (April 6)<\/span> →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[19,15,76],"tags":[11],"class_list":["post-34523","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-democracy","category-information","category-global","tag-global"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/english.cpnn-world.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34523","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/english.cpnn-world.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/english.cpnn-world.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/english.cpnn-world.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/english.cpnn-world.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=34523"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/english.cpnn-world.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34523\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/english.cpnn-world.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=34523"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/english.cpnn-world.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=34523"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/english.cpnn-world.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=34523"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}