PARLIAMENT AND DEMOCRACY - Inter-Parliamentary Union

174 I PARLIAMENT AND DEMOCRACY IN THE TWENTY-FIRST CENTURY
the Parliaments of the Portuguese-speaking countries, and helped
establish a political dialogue there in early 2003;
■ The Speakers of the Parliaments of the three Caucasian States –
Armenia, Azerbaijan and Georgia – met at the invitation of the
President of the French Senate to discuss the conflict in the
Nagorno-Karabakh region;
■ The Parliaments of Mali and Sierra Leone decided to institutionalize
encounters between parliamentarians of the subregion (including
parliamentarians from Liberia, Sierra Leone and Guinea);
three meetings have taken place so far;
■ The Parliament of Pakistan notes that exchanges of delegations with
the Parliament of India had the beneficial effect of reducing tension
between the two countries;
■ The Speakers of the Parliaments of Benin, Burkina Faso, Cameroon
and Mali recently met with the Speaker of the Parliament of Cote
d’Ivoire – first in Cotonou and later in Abidjan – and helped to
establish a political dialogue in that country;
■ The Speakers of the Parliaments of the Member Countries of
the Southern African Development Community have visited the
Democratic Republic of the Congo as a part of efforts to promote
peace and stability in the region;
■ The British-Irish Inter-Parliamentary Body, which, in addition to
representatives from the Parliaments of the United Kingdom and
of Ireland, consists of representatives from the Scottish Parliament,
the National Assembly for Wales, the Northern Ireland Assembly,
the Tynwald of the Isle of Man and the Assemblies of the States of
Guernsey and Jersey, has provided support to the peace process
in Northern Ireland;
■ The Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) has
recently developed initiatives addressing the conflicts in Chechnya,
Cyprus and Nagorno-Karabak;
■ The Italian Chamber of Deputies has a separate Committee for
Parliamentary Diplomacy, which is “responsible for harmonizing
the international activities of permanent committees and parliamentary
delegations to international assemblies as well as the activities
of bilateral cooperation groups and other organs of the Chamber.”