Parliament Speaker presents annual report of Georgian Permanent Delegation to IPU

As Papuashvili noted, one of the main topics discussed at the assembly was Russian aggression against Ukraine, where a resolution had been adopted condemning Russia’s illegal invasion of the Ukrainian territories. Photo via Parliament's press office

Agenda.ge, 22 Feb 2023 - 20:21, Tbilisi,Georgia

Georgian Parliament Speaker Shalva Papuashvili on Wednesday presented an annual report of the Permanent Delegation of the Georgian Parliament to the Inter-Parliamentary Union, the Parliament's press office said.

Papuashvili said the Georgian Parliament members, including the parliamentary majority and the opposition, had attended the IPU assembly in Rwanda’s capital city of Kigali on October 11-16 last year, along with 600 members of the legislative bodies from 125 countries, including 40 parliament speakers.

According to the Parliament Speaker, the existing threats to Georgia’s sovereignty and territorial integrity, as well as the policy of non-recognition of Georgia's Russian-occupied territories, were discussed with the representatives of 19 counties from four continents, including the delegations of Korea, Australia and the United Kingdom, as well as Rwanda, India, Chile, Jordan, etc.

It is important to use such assemblies to have direct contact with colleagues with whom, geographically, we [Georgia] may not have close communication'', Papuashvili added.

The Georgian delegation also met with the parliamentary delegation of Ukraine, led by Oleksandr Korniyenko, the First Deputy Speaker of the Ukrainian legislative body.

As Papuashvili noted, one of the main topics discussed at the assembly was Russian aggression against Ukraine, where a resolution had been adopted condemning Russia’s illegal invasion of the Ukrainian territories.

The Parliament Speaker said he had also reviewed the achievement of the Georgian Parliament in terms of gender equality at the assembly, as the gender-sensitive parliaments had been the main topic of the discussion.

The country has achieved “a lot” in this regard, including the ratification of the Convention on Preventing and Combating Violence Against Women and Domestic Violence [the Istanbul Convention] in 2017 and the adoption of the law on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination in 2014, he noted.

Papuashvili also said the Georgian delegation would attend the next assembly, which will be held in Bahrain’s capital Manama and will run between March 11-15.