The Parliamentary Assembly of the Mediterranean (PAM) was among the major stakeholders who participated at the World Humanitarian Summit held in Istanbul, Turkey, on 23-24 May 2016.
PAM was represented by the President, H.E. Sen. Lhou Lmarbouh (Morocco) and the Permanent Observer to the United Nations and other International Organisations in Geneva, H.E. Ambassador Gerhard Putman-Cramer.
The event convened some 9000 participants from 173 member states, including 55 Heads of State and Government, hundreds from the private sector and thousands from civil society and NGOs.
President Lmarbouh addressed the Sessions on “Global Health” and on “Civil-Military Coordination”.
In his statement at the Global Health Session, President Lmarbou focuses on the role of parliamentary diplomacy in the context of health crises. “For a health crisis rarely comes alone. It arises often from economic, social, political or environmental issues”, Sen. Lmarbouh said.
The PAM President added that the world desperately needs reform and that a highly unbalanced world in the health sector is neither stable nor secure “and the Mediterranean region often pays the price”.
Moreover, it is undeniable that any health crisis is a consequence of human activity. This is why PAM encourages parliamentarians to mobilize national governments, international institutions and civil society to implement long-term objectives by integrating a strong moral dimension, true social values and ensuring the implementation of the relevant resolutions of the UN Security Council.
“We parliamentarians have a duty to protect people. We must, together, leverage our experience and scientific knowledge to control as much as possible the evolution of the situation, recognize the warning signs and determine when to intervene and what to do”, the PAM President concluded.
At the Civil-Military Coordination Session, Sen. Lmarbouh underscored that the Parliamentary Assembly of the Mediterranean welcomes and supports the initiative to develop Common Humanitarian Civil-Military Coordination standards. “We have to consider how we can create a global, effective, and inclusive community of humanitarians and their partners that together respond to the challenges of today and tomorrow, by establishing dedicated civil-military coordination platforms for information sharing and civil-military interaction in support of huma
nitarian emergency operations” he added.
PAM largely shares the ambition to make better and more efficient the work carried out by all international, regional and local stakeholders. “Our parliamentary organization is ready to play this role, and assist you in
carrying out your mandate, and we would be happy to work with you to identify these measures where legislators can be of help in both their national capacity, and through a collective action such as their role in PAM”, the PAM Preside
nt said in in closing remarks.
Ambassador Putman-Cramer chaired the Session on “Quality Response by Certified International Teams”. In a brief statement he highlighted the need to do more and better to help people who are caught up in emergencies. “We need to work towards a global humanitarian architecture that is more inclusive, effective, and one that can be linked successfully with other systems, including the military, regional organizations, and others”, Am
b. Putman Cramer concluded.
The PAM delegation attended also the launch of the Network for Empowered Aid Response (NEAR), the Sessions on “Planning for the Future”, “Volunteers”, “The Establishment of a Common Data-Centre”, “Humanitarian Principles”, “Independent Reporting in Crisis Situations”, “Transforming Humanitarian Action with/for Young People”, and “Connecting Business”. The delegation was also present at the meeting of the UN Secretary-General with the Regional Steering Groups.
The World Humanitarian Summit highlighted the challenges that the international community is facing, and the nature and scale of the changes required in order for these to be address. A new and coherent approach is necessary: one that is based on addressing root causes, increasing political diplomacy for prevention and conflict resolution, and bringing humanitarian, development and peace-building efforts effectively together.
Important commitments were made at the event to prevent and end conflict, to uphold the norms that safeguard humanity, to “leave no one behind” in the quest for sustainable development for all, to go beyond delivering aid (and end the existing need for aid) and to invest in those needing assistance with new, more adequate/predictable financing.
The Summit, while indeed a landmark event, is in fact a point of departure. In the words of the UN’s Deputy Secretary-General, Jan Eliasson, “we have defined the vision, identified the objectives; now we have to take the required actions”, thus effectively transforming the lives of the more than 130 million most vulnerable people on our planet.