Parliamentarians

Partners

UNESCO has set up mechanisms to ensure continuous dialogue and collaboration with the parliamentarians of all Member States at international, regional and national levels.

At international level, a cooperation agreement was concluded with the Inter-Parliamentary Union (IPU) in 1997. In this agreement IPU commits its members to work for peace and security, cooperation among nations and universal respect for justice, human rights and fundamental freedoms, in accordance with the goals and principles proclaimed in UNESCO’s Constitution.

At regional level, cooperation agreements have been concluded between UNESCO and regional parliamentary associations: the Parlamento Latinoamericano (Parlatino-1994) and the Parliamentary Assembly of Francophonie (APF-2005). Relations have also been established on an ad hoc basis with the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe, the European Parliament, the African Parliamentary Union (APU), the Arab Inter-parliamentary Union (AIPU), and the Commonwealth Parliamentary Association (CPA). Regional forums have been set up around specific UNESCO programmes notably Education for all, Culture and Sciences.

In order to institutionalize interaction at national level, UNESCO and IPU have initiated a new mechanism of cooperation by the designation of Parliamentary Focal Points for UNESCO in national parliaments in 2003. The role of this institutional network is to establish a permanent link between the activities of the Parliaments of Member States and those of UNESCO at the national level. It will make it possible to establish links amongst the executive, the legislature and civil society and so facilitate UNESCO’s support for the formulation of national policy.

News: Database of Parliamentary Focal Points for UNESCO

To improve information flow and communication between the UNESCO Secretariat and its numerous partners, the Section of UNESCO Clubs and New Partnerships (parliamentarians and local governments) opened access via Internet to its database on its cooperation with parliamentarians.