The Inter-Parliamentary Union (IPU; French: L'Union Interparlementaire (UIP)) is an international organization established in 1889 by William Randal Cremer (United Kingdom) and Frédéric Passy (France). It was the first permanent forum for political multilateral negotiations. Initially, the organization was for individual parliamentarians, but has since transformed into an international organization of the parliaments of sovereign states. The national parliaments of 162 countries are members of the IPU, and 10 regional parliamentary assemblies are associate members. The IPU has permanent observer status at the United Nations.
Read more about Inter-Parliamentary Union: History, Conferences, Amendments To The Statutes, The IPU and The United Nations
Famous quotes containing the word union:
“The rage for road building is beneficent for America, where vast distance is so main a consideration in our domestic politics and trade, inasmuch as the great political promise of the invention is to hold the Union staunch, whose days already seem numbered by the mere inconvenience of transporting representatives, judges and officers across such tedious distances of land and water.”
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)