670 parliamentarians from 131 different countries gathered to discuss and debate how to improve and increase the representation of young people and women. Regrettably, it was impossible to avoid the issue of terror during the session.

While almost half of the world’s population is under the age of 30, fewer than 2% of the world’s parliamentarians belong in the same age group.

In fact, Norway, Sweden, Finland and Ecuador are the only countries in the world where those under the age of 35 make up more than 10% of the total number of Members of Parliament. Anette Trettebergstuen took to the floor to talk about what has been done in Norway. She pointed out how important the role of the political parties’ youth organizations is in the training and recruitment of future politicians.

“It’s not enough to arrange the occasional large conference at which young people are allowed to take the floor. It’s much more important to integrate young people into day-to-day political life,” Anette Trettebergstuen said in her speech. She talked about the Norwegian initiative to set up a youth council, and underlined how essential it is to provide training and experience in political work for young people, including those who are not yet old enough to vote.

“But none of this will help unless we as established politicians change the way we speak and the way we talk to the voters. We have to communicate better and reach out to young people. There’s no point in waiting for them to come to us,” said Ms Trettebergstuen, to enthusiastic applause.

Terror

Naturally the terrorist atrocities in Brussels came as a huge shock to all the parliamentarians gathered in Lusaka. A minute’s silence was held to pay respect to the victims, and the Belgian delegation accepted condolences from all corners of the globe. A united IPU passed a comprehensive anti-terrorism resolution which underscored the growing need to step up efforts in international anti-terror co-operation. The resolution contains 28 action points that cover such initiatives as measures against foreign terrorist fighters, radicalization, terrorist propaganda websites and the funding of terrorist acts.

Member states have also been urged to work even harder to prevent radicalization by fighting poverty, discrimination, marginalization and unemployment through education, dialogue and co-determination for young people.

Equality

Gunvor Eldegard (Labour Party) took part for the first time in her capacity as a member of the IPU’s Executive Committee. This committee operates as the IPU’s board, overseeing the administration of the IPU and providing advice to the Governing Council. Ms Eldegard soon made her mark as an advocate of increasing the proportion of women in the committee. She was elected as the chair of the Gender Partnership Group sub-committee, which consists of two women and two men and is responsible for proposing initiatives to improve the gender balance in the IPU.

The Norwegian Delegation to the IPU in Lusaka comprised Kenneth Svendsen (Progress Party, head of delegation), Gunvor Eldegard (Labour Party), Anette Trettebergstuen (Labour Party), Sigurd Hille (Conservative Party) and Hege Haukeland Liadal (Labour Party).