VIEW FROM THE ACTING SECRETARY-GENERAL & DIRECTOR OF FINANCE AND ADMINISTRATION
parliamentarian’s citizenship. Many international and Commonwealth organisations are working to help protect these rights and ensure that parliamentarians have the right to represent their electorates in a free and fair manner.4
Parliamentary privilege is an example of a fundamental right of parliamentarians that allows members to speak freely in parliament during debates and proceedings without fear of legal action, although members are often bound by conventions surrounding the language that they use or the implication that someone is not telling the truth. The development of democratic institutions and the provision of free and fair elections is a right that has been challenged in many countries around the world and we must ensure that this essential right is protected for all. This also extends to ensuring that institutions at all levels are free of corruption and that citizens can be secure in the integrity of their elected representatives. One of the recommendations from the 60th
Commonwealth
Parliamentary Conference held in Cameroon in October 2014 was that “Codes of conduct only improve trust in Parliamentarians if the public see that they are upheld, and that Parliamentarians represent all their constituents equally.”5
There are huge challenges that all parliamentarians face in the protection and continued promotion of our rights in the 21st century and we need to engage with our citizens to ensure that their rights are acted upon and understood. The international treaties and conventions stretching right back to Magna Carta provide us with the basis for the rights of all democratic societies and it is our responsibility to protect these rights for future generations. Parliamentarians across the Commonwealth are called upon to renew their action on the issues explored here and to actively engage in the protection and promotion of our rights.
References: 1
2 The Rt Hon David Cameron MP, 15 June 2015. Article by Alexander Lock at the British Library website: http://www.
bl.uk/magna-carta/articles/magna-carta-in-the-20th-century 3
4
Parliamentarians established in 1976. 5
60th October 2014.
Commonwealth Charter:
http://thecommonwealth.org/our-charter. An example includes the IPU Committee on the Human Rights of
Commonwealth Parliamentary Conference Concluding Statement,
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