PARLIAMENT AND DEMOCRACY - Inter-Parliamentary Union

158 I PARLIAMENT AND DEMOCRACY IN THE TWENTY-FIRST CENTURY
The Speakers of Parliaments chose their words carefully, making it very
clear that their parliaments neither laid claim to a negotiating mandate, nor
sought one. It remains the task of the Executive to negotiate in the international
arena. However, parliaments must be able to scrutinise those negotiations
by being kept fully informed as they unfold and by having an opportunity
to express to the Executive their political views.
In other words, for a parliament to exercise an effective role in international
affairs it must:
■ Have a clear legal basis for a parliamentary involvement;
■ Be informed sufficiently in advance of government policies and negotiating
positions together with accurate information about the policies and their
background;
■ Have the necessary organisation and resources to address the issues, including
sufficient expertise among the individual parliamentarians involved
through their work in specialised committees;
■ Have an opportunity to put questions to ministers and negotiators, and thus
be able to express its political (though not necessarily legally binding)
views to the government;
■ Be included as a matter of course in governmental delegations to international
organisations.
We will now seek to illustrate these points. We have chosen to do so in four
areas – human rights, gender equality, development and trade – it being understood
that the examples apply to many other areas.
Human rights
It is a truism that parliaments and their members are essential actors when
it comes to the promotion and protection of human rights: parliamentary activity
as a whole - legislating, adopting the budget and overseeing the executive
branch - covers the entire spectrum of political, civil, economic, social and
cultural rights and has thus an immediate impact on the enjoyment by the people
of their human rights. Parliaments are the guardians of human rights.
Nevertheless, parliaments are generally not directly involved in the drafting
and political decision-making processes underpinning international or
regional treaties. But this should not be a foregone conclusion and it is important
that parliamentarians avail themselves of the opportunity that exists to
inform themselves of the status of negotiations, put written and oral questions