Leonid Slutskiy
Leonid Eduardovich
, Chairman of the Committee on International Affairs, and Pedro Agramunt, PACE President in 2016–2017, member of the Spanish Senate, were moderators of this section.
Attempts to reform the UN are destructive
“It is necessary to preserve the multipolar world architecture that has developed in the world after World War II, with the leading role of the UN, which has proven to have no alternative,” stressed Leonid Slutskiy. He called attempts to reform the UN destructive and the unipolar world as ”a denial of the world experience that has accumulated over the last century.“
There is no democracy without parliamentarism
“Parliamentarism is the foundation, the canon of democracy. There is no democracy without parliamentarism, without parliamentarians,” said Pedro Agramunt.
Inter-parliamentary organizations, as well as this Forum, are of fundamental importance for the stability of the world.
It is necessary to work with the cause, and not with the consequences
“It is extremely important to find the reasons why in the modern world the original right of every nation to sovereignty and independence is violated,” said Deputy Chairwoman of the State Duma Irina Iarovaia
Irina Anatolievna
.
She also noted that speaking about such international problems as security threats, organized crime, illegal migration, it is necessary to look for their common causes.
“Very often, we do not study the common causes of these common threats that the world is facing nowadays. And because of this, working with each problem individually, we are trying to eliminate the consequences,” said the Deputy Chairwoman of the State Duma.
She also suggested the UN adopt a convention on information security.
“The information space today is also part of sovereignty but it is absolutely not covered by international law,” she said. “This is a dangerous tendency to destroy public creation and invade the policies of other states,” added Irina Iarovaia.
The external control system is used to achieve the desired political goals. “These are the same weapons of mass destruction, only more sophisticated,” said the Deputy Chairwoman of the State Duma.
Effectiveness of inter-parliamentary diplomacy
Anton Morozov
Anton Yurieviсh
, a member of the Committee on International Affairs, noted that Russia attaches great importance to the development of inter-parliamentary diplomacy, as traditional intergovernmental diplomacy is not always effective.
“Deputies and senators who have direct communication with their voters, who work in their regions and who interact with their fellow parliamentarians on a bilateral basis, are often able to work out more effective mechanisms for dealing with global challenges,” he said.
Strengthening inter-parliamentary ties
Faustin Boukoubi, Chairman of the National Assembly of the Gabonese Republic, noted that parliaments enjoy legitimacy, because the deputies are people's elected representatives, and it is important to preserve this legitimacy. It is important to take into account the interests of the people, “it is necessary that the population understands that their opinion is taken into account at the national level,” said Faustin Boukoubi.
“At the international level, the situation is almost the same,” he said. Intergovernmental organizations are not controlled by the population, “therefore, of course, we must strengthen the role of parliamentarians in such a way that decisions are made more reasonably,” said Faustin Boukoubi.
He also spoke in favor of preserving the sovereignty of each individual country, including in the era of digitalization.
“Peaceful coexistence is not an opportunity, it is a necessity”
Speaker of the Upper House of the Federal Parliament of Somalia Abdi Hashi Abdullahi said that many countries of the world produce weapons of mass destruction, ”and in this regard, the tension is growing.“
“We believe that we can change the world and prevent war, redirect money and increase food production in order to keep our planet alive,” he said.
“Peaceful coexistence is not an opportunity, it is a necessity,” said Abdi Hashi Abdullahi, therefore the issue of such coexistence should be dealt by everyone.
“I believe that there is the power of cooperation, the power of creation of regional or wider continental blocks. This will lead to a new future, where there will be peace, as well as welfare, and we will fight poverty,” said the Speaker of the Upper House of the Federal Parliament of Somalia.
Combating the proliferation of weapons
Adalbi Shkhagoshev
Adalby Lyulevich
, a member of the Committee on Security and Corruption Control, proposed the creation of a special unit within the structure of international organizations to combat the proliferation of weapons used by terrorists.
“As we know terrorists use different types of weapons to commit crimes, including the most modern ones. But the most massive is the use of IEDs, improvised explosive devices. Manufacturers of homemade bombs, sellers of such weapons should receive serious imprisonment sentences, up to life imprisonment. In PACE, the UN there should be special units involved in the fight against the terrorist threat, with weapons that the terrorists use,” he said.
Adalbi Shkhagoshev suggested his foreign colleagues to “think together about how to do this”.
The parliamentarian emphasized the importance of work on the unification of legislation of different countries aimed at combating the terrorist threat and international criminality. He stressed that the Russian Federation had accumulated vast experience in this matter.
“We urge to engage in these issues together,” he added.
The 2nd International Forum ”Development of Parliamentarism“ is held on the initiative of the State Duma on July 1–3. This year representatives of 132 states participate in the Forum.
About 800 foreign guests and delegations from 14 international parliamentary organizations take part in the events. 41 speakers representing the national parliaments participate in the Forum.
The Forum will also host the Russia-Africa parliamentary conference.
