Parliamentary Development in Asia and the Pacific

Parliaments Role in Conflict Prevention and Post Conflict Recovery in Asia-Pacific

Parliaments are well situated – as the peoples' representatives – to manage social crisis, prevent violent conflict and bring about lasting peace. In many democratic societies, we are generally unaware of parliaments' contributions unless they fail. Parliamentary debate, agreements between political parties, interaction between parliament and constituents, informal exchanges among parliamentarians, and compromises on resource allocation, all contribute to keeping the peace. Strong parliaments thus have vital contributions to make to peace building and democratization.

Unfortunately, in many countries, and particularly conflict prone countries, parliaments have insufficient capacity to meet these multiple challenges. After conflict, however, parliaments are weak in relation to the executive branch, armed groups and other non-state actors. Building enduring peace and democracy requires timely and dedicated support to parliaments’ development. Support democratic elections as a means of reducing conflict and establishing lasting peace and democratic development represents only one aspect of the democratic process. It is vital for electoral assistance to be backed by investments in long-term democratic development, including parliamentary development, if human development gains are to be achieved, and to avoid the risk of public disillusionment with the democratic process.

UNDP has embarked on an initiative to highlight the importance of representative institutions in conflict and post-conflict situations. UNDP, in partnership with the Inter-Parliamentary Union, began to examine the entry points for supporting parliaments prior to, during and following conflict. A year-long research process has shown that parliaments are often marginalized by peace building endeavors, usually to the detriment of democratization. At the same time, parliaments, MPs and parliamentary forums have, in many situations, played a crucial role in conflict prevention and resolution.

The initiative began with a series of almost 30 country-level case studies globally, the purpose of which was to:

• record and explain the roles that parliaments can play in the context of crisis and conflict;
• document the obstacles that prevent parliaments from playing positive roles in conflict prevention, resolution and recovery; and
• produce core findings and recommendations to support a set of Guidelines for the international community on enhancing parliaments' roles in peace building and crisis prevention.

Case studies for Asia-Pacific region were prepared on Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Cambodia, Indonesia, Philippines, Sri Lanka, Thailand and Timor-Leste. A Regional Roundtable Meeting was held in Negombo, Sri Lanka on 9-10 June, 2005.

• Final Report
• Regional Workshop Meeting Report
• Afghanistan
• Bangladesh
• Cambodia
• Indonesia
• Philippines
• Sri Lanka
• Thailand
• Timor-Leste

The global study group meeting on Strengthening the Role of Parliaments in Conflict and Post-conflict Situations was held in Geneva, Switzerland on 20-22 July 2005. Read more...

The International Conference on Parliaments, Crisis Prevention and Recovery was recently held in Brussels, Belgium on 19-21 April 2006. Read more...