Parliament speaker leaves Istanbul to Geneva for IPU conference

Kuwaiti National Assembly (parliament) Speaker Marzouq Al-Ghanim said that the 129th IPU Assembly in Geneva, to which he is going today, was poised to address the issue of eradication of weapons of mass destruction, among other vital ones. This issue takes added significance in view of the notion that the Syrian regime recently used such weapons in its war with the opposition, the Speaker said in a press statement before his departure here to Switzerland. Among the topics on the table at the Geneva conference, he said, would be how to sustain development in an environment of global fiscal and trade uncertainties, and the role parliaments should take in protecting the rights of children, particularly in war devastated situations or in places where children are exploited by employers who give jobs to underage children. Conferees will also likely tackle issues of war and peace in many parts of the world including the Arab region, and will take up the subject of the plights of immigrants and of the monitoring abilities of political parties over parliaments, said Al-Ghanim. Furthermore, he said that there would be a number of meetings on the sidelines of the conference for Gulf, Arab, and Islamic groups that are members of the OIC or Arab Parliamentary Union, whose president is Al-Ghanim