Arab Parliament

The Arab Parliament is an institution of Arab States. It was established at the Arab League Summit in Amman in 2001 under the auspices of the Secretary General. Currently (as of August 2012) is the Parliament still under construction, a provisional parliament was set up in the Cairo League Headquarters.

History

Since the 1950 's there were within the Arab League discussions about direct citizen participation, which the Covenant of the League of Arab States, however, did not provide. A first step in this direction was the establishment of the " Arab Inter-Parliamentary Union " ( AIPU ) 1977, whose job it was to control the political work of the various national parliaments. AIPU and Secretariat working in the following years to draft a parliament for the Arab League. At the summit the league in 2004 in Algiers to establish a " Arab Parliament " was adopted. The goal was to be a voice for the citizens of the Arab world, in addition to national governments. This could also be a total democratic in their decision-making processes the league. By 2007, the majority of the members agreed, the final decision on the implementation is currently still in the league council. A " transitional parliament " met for the first time on 27 December 2005, it will lay the foundations for a permanent Parliament. His mandate ends in December 2012. Currently, the Arab Parliament is therefore in a state between transition and permanent establishment.

Composition

Instantaneous Chairman of the Kuwaiti Ali Dekbas. He is elected for 3 years from the middle of the deputies. Currently it sits still in Cairo, but it should pull in the Syrian capital of Damascus once the local office is completed. Currently, it is unclear to what extent the local civil war and the provisional exclusion of Syria from the league makes this plan seem realistic. There are two annual sessions held in March and September, each lasting two months. The Parliament consists of a Steering Committee, which looks after the external affairs, a parliamentary office which is entrusted with administrative tasks and four committees of the various policy fields.

The system of citizen representation has not yet been implemented, but rather choose the 22 national parliaments each 4 delegates from their own ranks who participate in the meetings of the Arab Parliament; the total number of deputies is thus 88 The mandates of the local MPs therefore only end with the dissolution of the national parliaments or with a non remaining in the national parliament. Members of the AP should not be regarded as representatives of their national parliaments and their governments. They represent rather the " Arab nation " (the definition of this term is still unclear ) as a whole, so they can theoretically only follow their own conscience. Until now, this institution has taken an active role in Arab politics. Nevertheless, this seems currently to convert: Parliament exercised considerable criticism of the regime in Yemen and Syria. President al- Dekbas even called for the suspension of membership of both countries. These advances meant that mainly at the instigation of al - Dekbas currently Syria's membership in the Arab League is based.