MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Falklands present at the centennial of the Commonwealth’s Parliamentary Conference

HRH The Princess Royal will open the conference at Westminster Hall

Legislative Assembly Member Dick Sawle will represent the Falkland Islands at the 57th Commonwealth Parliamentary Conference next week in London which on this occasion will have a very special significance: the founding centennial of the Commonwealth’s oldest organization.

Over 700 Commonwealth Parliamentarians and parliamentary officials from 170 different countries and Legislatures will meet over the coming week to discuss issues under the theme “Reinforcing democracy”.

The 57th annual Conference of the Commonwealth Parliamentary Association will be officially opened Monday in Westminster Hall by HRH The Princess Royal as the Association marks 100 years since its founding as the Empire Parliamentary Association at a July 1911 meeting at Westminster of British Parliamentarians and Members from five dominion Parliaments.

The Commonwealth Parliamentary Conference will be preceded by meetings of the Small Branches Conference, the CPA Executive Committee, the CPA Working Party and the Commonwealth Women Parliamentarians Steering Committee. During the plenary Conference, meetings of the Commonwealth Women Parliamentarians (CWP) and the Society of Clerks-at-the-Table in Commonwealth Parliaments will also take place.

The meetings will be hosted by the United Kingdom Parliament. The 2011 President, Rt Hon. John Bercow, MP, Speaker of the House of Commons, will preside over the Conference while the Lords Speaker, Rt Hon. Baroness Hayman, will preside over the CWP meeting as its 2011 President. The plenary and the Small Branches agendas are attached, and the CWP will discuss “Being an Effective Agent of Change: Prerequisites and Modus” as MPs pool experiences and ideas so their Assemblies adopt more effective laws and policies.

“Commonwealth Parliamentarians today all stand as equal partners with a shared commitment to the common goal of advancing parliamentary democracy through the development and sharing of best practices at this conference, the CPA’s other meetings and through our constant and now instant communications throughout every year,” said the Chairperson of the CPA Executive Committee, Hon. Dato’ Seri Mohd Shafie Apdal, MP, Malaysia’s Minister of Rural and Regional Development.
“Parliamentary democracy is all about evolving new processes to meet the challenge of change through engaging all our people in the development and implementation of solutions shared at CPA forums.”

Members will hear major assessments of global issues facing Parliamentarians by CPA Secretary-General Dr William F. Shija and Commonwealth Secretary-General H.E. Kamalesh Sharma.

Dr Shija said the London meetings will discuss how the CPA and its member Parliaments and Legislatures can expand their role in transforming the Commonwealth into an even more effective global champion of good governance and equitable development.

“The CPA and the wider Commonwealth are bound together by shared values and our commitment to working together to improve the lives of all people,” said Dr Shija.
“As the Commonwealth Parliamentary Association celebrates 100 years of parliamentary evolution, and as we seek to reinforce democracy, it will increasingly be necessary to formulate and implement policies that ensure the welfare of all. In this way, violence and conflict can be prevented or resolved and the vulnerable in our societies, such as the disabled, aged and minorities can be better served.”

The Commonwealth Parliamentary Association is composed of the Parliaments and Legislatures in 53 of the 54 Commonwealth nations and their overseas territories. It has a membership of more than 16,000 Members of national, state, provincial and territorial Assemblies. The only Commonwealth country not currently in the CPA is Brunei, which does not have an elected Parliament. The CPA Branch in Fiji Islands is in abeyance as the South Pacific country’s Parliament has been dissolved by the current military government.