TNAG-2363-FCO40-3434-Visits-by-MPs-from-the-UK-to-Hong-Kong-1992 — Page 70

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United Kingdom Mission to the United Nations 845 Third Avenue New York NY 10022

J W Watt Esq

UND

FCO

LONDON

PUGO117

ECE

3 991

TRY

Your reference

Our reference

Date

31 January 1991

2.

Der James,

INTER-PARLIAMENTARY UNION (IPU): RELATIONS WITH THE UNITED NATIONS

1.

Please refer to your letter of 13 November asking for our thoughts on the question of observer status at the United Nations for the Inter-Parliamentary Union (IPU). We were grateful for your suggestion that we should reply only after the General Assembly was over: but since then I am afraid that other more immediate matters have kept intervening.

2.

As you will know, the IPU already has close ties with United Nations as a Category I observer. With representatives from 110 of the 145 national parliaments it can claim wide, if not universal, membership. Its present status at the UN gives it the right to be represented at ECOSOC and its Commissions, to submit documents and to make statements. We understand that the IPU has similar arrangements with UNESCO, UNCTAD and

The IPU has also been successful in obtaining special treatment at certain Conferences convened by the UN such as the special session of the General Assembly devoted to Disarmament in 1982. Similar steps are being taken to obtain similar status at the UN Conference on Environment and Development in 1992.

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