Parliamentary Delegation to attend Conferences in Trinidad and Tobago

A parliamentary delegation led by the Hon. Anthony Abela and comprising the Hon. Joe Cilia and the Hon. Mario Galea, will be attending the 45th Annual Commonwealth Parliamentary Conference and the 19th Commonwealth Parliamentary Conference for Small Countries, to be held in Trinidad and Tobago, between the 14th and 23rd September 1999.

The theme of the 45th Commonwealth Parliamentary Conference, which will be officially opened by H.E. Mr Arthur N R Robinson, President of Trinidad and Tobago, is "Responsibility, accountability and transparency: enhancing good governance by improving democratic standards in international and domestic decision-making".

More than 300 parliamentarians representing more than 140 Commonwealth Parliaments and Legislatures will exchange ideas on aspects of the practice of parliamentary democracy, to seek ways to make domestic institutions function more effectively and to make international decision-making more responsive to the views of the representatives of the people. The meeting will be hosted by the Parliament of Trinidad and Tobago and will be chaired by Hon Hector McClean, Speaker of the Trinidad and Tobago House of Representatives and the current President of the Commonwealth Parliamentary Association.

Among the issues to be discussed at the plenary conference are: the globalisation of justice; the role of the Commonwealth in international security issues; debt relief; human rights and parliamentary input into trade agreements.

The conference is expected to welcome Nigeria back into the Commonwealth parliamentary community as a delegation will be attending from the new National Assembly, which took office following the country's May transition from over 15 years of military rule.

Malta, together with some other 30 countries from the Commonwealth's smallest jurisdictions, will also be represented at the 19th Commonwealth Parliamentary Conference of Members from Small Countries. This conference will discuss political and parliamentary issues affecting nations, states, provinces and territories with populations of up to 400,000 people. Delegates will discuss the future of parliamentary democracy, empowering local populations, job training and the vulnerability of small states to international pressure.

The Secretary-General of the Commonwealth, H.E. Chief Emeka Anyaoku, will address conference participants on the state of the Commonwealth in advance of the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting, to be held in Durban, South Africa, in November. Parliamentarians will have an opportunity to question him on the performance of the Commonwealth at the intergovernmental level.

During the conference, the Association's General Assembly will elect a new Chairman of its Executive Committee to succeed the Hon. Billie Miller, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs and Foreign Trade in Barbados, whose three-year term concludes in Trinidad. The Hon. Miller is the first woman to have chaired the CPA's managerial body.