Guiding Principles
The Parliamentarians Network will be guided by its mission to gear legislative mechanisms to direct political will and resources towards preventive action and human security.
The Parliamentarians Network will work to:
Build Capacity
- The realization of joint sessions of the Foreign Affairs, Defense, and Development Committees will improve policy coordination at the national level. Building national capacity and strengthening national commitments to conflict preventive activities will also facilitate a move towards improving international cooperation, including greater support for UN advances in this field.
- Collaborative experience-sharing visits by Parliamentarians Network members, together with like-minded regional bodies and civil society organizations in need of support, will help to strengthen regional cooperation in conflict-prone areas. The sharing of best practices by members from countries that have emerged from conflict will inform network parliamentarians of decisions and mechanisms that have led to the non-recurrence of violence.
- Network members will collaborate with regional parliamentarians networks to leverage their capacity, knowledge, and experience towards building national political will and resources for preventive action.
- Network members will lobby within their national parliaments to ensure proper resourcing support to civil society organizations and conflict prevention efforts in the field.
Strengthen International Cooperation
- The Network will cooperate with parliamentarians and parliaments in countries that have previously experienced conflict, who can share first-hand knowledge, best practices, and experiences on political negotiation, on conflict resolution, on reconciliation, on building successful power sharing, on cross-border cooperation, etc. Members of the Network will have the opportunity to participate in a biennial global summit on conflict and security convened by the Panel, bringing together the traditional security policy community and the peacebuilding community.
Influence legislation
Network Members will work within their respective parliaments to advocate for the adoption or enhancement of legislative mechanisms to prevent violent conflict, such as working to:
- ensure that national resources are committed to conflict prevention activities above and beyond development cooperation funds.
- ensure that governments are legally bound to report promptly to their respective parliaments in case of pending conflict, in particular genocide, ethnic cleansing, crimes against humanity, and war crimes.
- improve existing conflict prevention structures in national administrations.
Hold Governments accountable to report promptly on threats and challenges to peace and on their responses
To exercise their executive oversight role and hold governments accountable to report promptly to their respective parliaments for national commitments (or lack thereof) to the prevention of violent conflict both at home and abroad, network members will:
- raise timely questions on the House floor - in some cases, after being contacted by a peer member of the network - regarding rising tensions in conflict-afflicted countries. Such questioning will keep countries with good conflict capacity informed of tense situations in states that are at risk of falling into violent conflict, which is crucial to raising awareness at the national, and when necessary the international level, and towards building political will for effective preventive action.
- work to develop national policies that address systemic factors of tensions, such as, for example, advocating for the enhancement of international frameworks to regulate trade in resources that fuel conflict or lobbying for the adoption of national commitments to reduce the negative effects of climate change.
Produce and disseminate information
Network members will seek to increase awareness among decision makers, the media, and the public about the necessity for and the cost effectiveness of preventive diplomacy. This can be achieved through such activities as:
- creating a Parliamentarians Network public website, which will share public information on the Network’s activities and regular articles.
- publishing policy briefs containing recommendations that address practical considerations towards legislating conflict prevention activities at both the national and international levels, such as proposals for developing international norms and standards geared towards preventing violent conflict.
- producing handbooks that offer practical recommendations on improving conflict mediation, implementing international norms and standards of conflict prevention, and increasing the cross-committee cooperation of parliaments and the inter-department policy coordination of governments on preventing violent conflict. These handbooks could be published in cooperation with another organization that is experienced in producing practical guides for parliamentarians, such as the Inter-Parliamentary Union.
Institutionalize and mainstream conflict prevention.
Together, the proposed Parliamentarians Network “Guiding Principles” are action-oriented initiatives that will contribute to improving national legislation and policies towards effectively institutionalizing and mainstreaming preventive diplomacy.
