Cuba To Participate in InterParliamentary Conference in Austria

The event, organized by the Inter-Parliamentary Union (IPU) and the legislature of the European country, in close cooperation with the United Nations, will also be attended by deputies Yolanda Ferrer Gómez and Rolando González-Patricio, head and deputy head of the International Relations Committee of the Cuban Parliament, respectively; and Luis Velázquez Pérez, president of the Cuban Academy of Sciences.

The Antillean delegation includes Jesús Rafael Mora González, an official of the International Relations Commission and administrative secretary of the Cuban Group in the IPU, and Loipa Sánchez Lorenzo, Cuban ambassador to Austria, Slovenia and Croatia, and permanent representative to the United Nations agencies based in Vienna.

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The general theme of the Conference will be "Parliaments mobilized for a more effective multilateralism that brings peace and sustainable development to peoples and the planet" and will include a general debate in an interactive format and five-panel discussions.

According to the Inter-Parliamentary Union, more than 110 presiding officers from legislative bodies worldwide are expected to speak at this event, which is held every five years to strengthen the parliamentary dimension of global governance.

This will be the world's largest gathering of the highest level of parliamentary representation. The September 2021 face-to-face segment of the conference follows on from a virtual session held in August 2020.

"Cuba will participate in Fifth World Conference of Speakers of Parliament, to be held September 7-8 in Vienna, Austria."

The Fifth World Conference of Speakers of Parliament is preceded by the Thirteenth Women Speakers of Parliament Summit on September 6. It will be followed by the First Global Parliamentary Meeting on Counter-Terrorism on September 9.

More than 110 Speakers of Parliament from around the world are expected to come to Vienna for the first large-scale inter-parliamentary meeting to physically take place since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Austrian authorities have implemented robust and comprehensive health measures to ensure a safe conference, including mandatory COVID-19 testing for access to the conference venue, limits on the number of delegates, social distancing and mandatory face masks.

Representatives of legislative bodies will focus on priorities requiring urgent international parliamentary action, including the global response to the pandemic and post-COVID-19 recovery, the climate emergency, combating misinformation, youth participation in politics and gender equality.