The 63rd Commonwealth Parliamentary Conference (CPC), the largest annual gathering of the Commonwealth Parliamentarians Association (CPA), is set to take place in Dhaka from November 1-8 this year.
The CPA Bangladesh Branch and the Jatiya Sangsad (Bangladesh Parliament) would host the mega conference at Bangabandhu International Conference Centre (BICC) and Jatiya Sangsad Bhaban. The conference will elect the new chairperson of the parliamentary group for a three-year term.
Speaker of Jatiya Sangsad and Executive Chairperson of CPA Dr Shirin Sharmin Chaudhury will chair the conference. The theme of the 63rd CPC will be ‘Continuing to enhance the high standards of performance of parliamentarians’.
Talking to BSS, Shirin Sharmin Chaudhury said, “Preparations for holding the 63rd CPC are going on.”
She said that the government has undertaken necessary measures to ensure security of the conference. Bangladesh has proved its capacity earlier by holding the 136th Assembly of Inter-Parliamentary Union (IPU) in the capital successfully.
Dr Shirin said the 62nd CPC was held in London, the United Kingdom, where the group decided to hold the next conference in Dhaka 2017 with participation of its 52 member states.
According to CPA information, the annual flagship event will bring together over 500 parliamentarians, parliamentary staff and decision makers from across the Commonwealth .
With the ever increasing focus on greater scrutiny of parliamentarians and the overall public trust deficit in parliaments, the CPA’s annual conference offers the opportunity for members to benefit from professional development, supportive learning and the sharing of best practice with colleagues from Commonwealth Parliaments together with the participation of leading international organizations.
The conference programme would include two plenary sessions and eight workshops, with some workshops including presentations by experts from international organisations. A workshop will be selected by the host branch, one on a gender-related theme and one topic from the topics submitted by small branches.
Workshops will be held during the conference on a wide range of topics including the role of parliamentarians in building stronger ties within the Commonwealth; giving voice to the youth: mechanisms for ensuring effective participation of the youth in the governance process; how can CPA members work with their own governments in ensuring that the SDG goals have a proper gender lens, to ensure success in the areas of alleviating poverty and women’s empowerment; small jurisdictions and big problems: Logistics and infrastructure challenges.
