Miriam Mannak
18 March 2008
Cape Town — The link between global warming and poverty, and the effects of poverty on women, will be among the topics put in the spotlight during the 118th assembly of the Inter-Parliamentary Union (IPU), which takes place next month in the South African port city of Cape Town.
The annual conference, being held this year under the theme 'Pushing back the frontiers of poverty', will draw delegates from 140 national parliaments around the world: in all, about a thousand legislators are expected at the Apr. 13-18 meeting.
The IPU is an umbrella organisation for parliaments worldwide. Set up in 1889, it works in part to encourage communication between legislatures, strengthen their operations, and promote human rights.
"During the assembly, which was held in Indonesia last year, special attention will be given to the impact of global warming on poverty, peace building and reconciliation, and poverty in relation to maternal and child health," said the speaker of South Africa's National Assembly, Baleka Mbete.
She made the comments Tuesday at the South African parliament in Cape Town, where the 118th assembly was officially launched.
The assembly will also give attention to the role of women in politics, and ensure that women delegates have an opportunity to raise matters of importance to them.
"It is important for women to be given time to talk about the issues that affect them and what the implications are of these issues. Since the IPU was established in 1889, women have fought for this," said Mbete.
Additionally, the IPU will launch its annual gender equality survey concerning women in politics.
According to Gwendoline Lindiwe Mahlangu-Nkabinde, deputy speaker of the South African National Assembly, the past years have seen progress on this front. "There was a time where delegations participating in the annual IPU assembly did not send any women. Times have changed now, thanks to the efforts of parliaments worldwide."
In fact, the IPU even advises participating countries to send women to the assembly: those which don't face the possibility of having their total number of delegates cut (delegations usually comprise eight to ten members). "That means that a country's power to put issues across is being reduced as well," said Mahlangu-Nkabinde.
The conference will further deal with human trafficking, xenophobia, and difficulties faced by migrant workers, amongst other social and economic problems -- said Mbete.
Various high ranking political figures have confirmed they will attend the IPU assembly, including South African President Thabo Mbeki and United Nations Deputy Secretary-General Asha-Rose Migiro.
Graça Machel, a leading children's rights activist and the wife of former South African leader Nelson Mandela, will also be present, as well as Nobel Peace Prize winner David Trimble.
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It's all a parody. Our parliament, impoverished of mind and spirit and integrity, tackling the nation's material poverty problem... which they've been doing for over a decade... and yet poverty is worsening, and quickly. Problems with Eskom and petrol-costs will further entrench poverty, where it has not been before... In the main our parliament and ruling party politicking seems to be driven by collective cover-ups of each others' wrongdoings and hidden agendas (to put it mildly) and the international conferences and policy documents and references to 'ubuntu' are just more window-dressing. More well-connected people will get richer from this conference and its spin-offs, some outspoken people or organisations will be derided... and poverty, crime, abuse, corruption and daily hardships and confusion with or about our government will continue unaffected... Why don't we host an international conference on Crime and Corruption in Governments?
Could Graca Machal use this opportunity, as a Children's Rights Activist, to corner Mbeki to ask him why the Department of Social Development violates children's rights ..... why they spend so much money on litigation .. why they continually lose supreme court cases on issues of children's rights !! How can SA be hosting this conference for international delegates when we need to be sweeping our own doorstep clean?? It is a disgrace to entertain international delegates, give them a load of nonsense about how well we are handling things when the reality is a completely different story for the majority of the people. The officials who are attending this conference should spend a little time trying to pacify a child who has been abused, abandoned and raped ... who has endured unspeakable horrors ... and then, take the same road as Joe citizen and try to get some help for that child from the very people who have been put in positions to protect them. How sad that power corrupts the soul and hardens the heart!