Beyond the Hemicycle: Challenges of Global Parliamentarism
The International Day of Parliamentarism –established by the UN General Assembly in 2018 through resolution A/RES/72/278– is celebrated annually on 30 June, the date of the creation of the Inter-Parliamentary Union (IPU) in 1889, an organisation that brings together all national parliaments.
Parliaments are the cornerstone of democracy, one of the fundamental checks and balances of the rule of law, and the institutions that give voice to citizens, formulating legislation and policies for the benefit of society. Parliamentarianism is structured around constitutional mechanisms that promote collaboration and balance between the political powers of the state. Furthermore, as it is a more flexible system for navigating political crises, it is crucial because it does not disrupt democratic institutions when such a situation arises.
That is why establishing this day is particularly significant in the current situation, which is a critical moment for parliamentary democracy due to the fragmentation of parliaments in many countries, the crisis of confidence in political institutions by society, and the emergence of various movements that threaten parliamentarianism and democracy itself.
Among the various challenges facing this model, there is serious concern about the centralisation of power and the clear trends towards ‘de facto presidentialism’ evident in many countries, in a growing process of de-parliamentarisation and administrativisation of governments, where the executive powers use constitutional mechanisms of exception in order to govern, leaving legislatures as mere recipients and confirmers of government policies, thus leading to the disappearance of the control function as well as parliamentary legislative power, with the inevitable overcoming of the principle of separation of powers.
Another major challenge is to achieve gender equality in parliament. In this regard, the Inter-Parliamentary Union (IPU) has set this as one of its objectives for this year. It seeks to mobilise the global parliamentary community to accelerate progress towards gender equality in politics and society, given that progress in women’s representation in parliaments has stagnated in recent years and women’s rights are facing a worrying regression in various countries.
According to UN Women, globally only 27.2% of national parliamentary seats are held by women. Furthermore, only six countries in the world have 50% or more women in their lower houses or unicameral parliaments, and only 21 have reached or exceeded 40% – including nine in Europe, despite the fact that the proportion of women in the European Parliament has decreased in 2024 compared to the previous legislature for the first time in history, six in Latin America and the Caribbean, five in Africa, and one in Asia-Pacific. This confirms that, although women’s participation in politics has been increasing in recent decades, the effective achievement of equality in access to and retention of public office remains a distant goal and, in many countries, has even suffered serious setbacks.
In this regard, we believe that International Parliamentary Day represents a key moment to review the progress that different parliaments have made in achieving certain key objectives to become more representative and adapt to the times. At the same time, it is an opportunity to reflect on the fundamental role of parliaments in democracy and the need to strengthen their transparency, accountability and representativeness in a global context marked by challenges that undermine the foundations of the rule of law.
Federica Carnevale, FIBGAR contributor.
