Backgrounder: World Conference of Speakers of Parliament

The fourth World Conference of Speakers of Parliament is scheduled to take place from Aug. 31 to Sept. 2 at United Nations headquarters in New York to tackle global challenges to peace and sustainable development.

The World Conference of Speakers of Parliament is a unique forum for dialogue and cooperation among parliaments at the highest level. It is organized by the Inter-Parliamentary Union (IPU) every five years and supported by the UN.

The first such conference, the Conference of Presiding Officers of National Parliaments, was organized by the IPU in cooperation with the United Nations at the UN headquarters in New York in 2000.

It was held in conjunction with the Millennium Assembly with the aim of showing support for international cooperation and pushing forward reforms at the IPU for it to work more closely with the UN system and other major international organizations.

Parliamentary leaders from 142 countries took part in the first conference -- the largest gathering since the establishment of the IPU.

The second World Conference of Speakers of Parliaments was organized by the IPU and took place, again, at the UN headquarters in New York in 2005, coinciding with the 60th anniversary of the founding of the United Nations.

The second conference saw leaders of over 150 parliaments discuss multilateral cooperation and new challenges facing the world in the 21st century.

The third World Conference of Speakers of Parliament was held in Geneva in July 2010 and adopted a declaration on the need to secure global democratic accountability.

The IPU, established in 1889, is the focal point for worldwide parliamentary dialogue and works for peace and cooperation among peoples and for the firm establishment of representative democracy, according to the IPU website.

The IPU currently has 166 members and 10 associate members. It is financed by its members out of public funds and it is headquartered in Geneva, Switzerland. Endi