Inter-Parliamentary Union

Acronym: IPU

Established: 1889

Address: Chem. du Pommier 5, 1218 Le Grand-Saconnex, Switzerland

Stakeholder group: International and regional organisation

The IPU is the global organisation of national parliaments. It was founded more than 130 years ago as the world’s first multilateral political organisation, encouraging cooperation and dialogue between all nations. Today, the IPU comprises 181 national Member Parliaments and 15 regional parliamentary bodies. It promotes democracy and helps parliaments develop into stronger, younger, greener, more gender-balanced, and more innovative institutions. It also defends the human rights of parliamentarians through a dedicated committee made up of MPs from around the world.

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Digital activities

The IPU’s digital activities mainly focus on the promotion of the use of information and communication technologies (ICTs) in parliaments, including AI. To this end, it has established a Centre for Innovation in Parliament, which undertakes research on the impact of digital technologies on parliaments, publishes the landmark World e-Parliament Report, hosts the biannual World e-Parliament Conference and coordinates a network of parliamentary hubs on innovation in parliaments.

The IPU has also recently developed new tools and resources on AI to help parliaments become stronger and more effective, as well as to share good practice from around the world when it comes to AI policy.

Digital policy issues

Capacity development

In line with its objective of building strong and democratic parliaments, the IPU assists parliaments in building their capacity to use ICTs effectively, both in parliamentary proceedings and in communication with citizens. The IPU has also been mandated by its member parliaments to carry on capacity development programmes for parliamentary bodies tasked to oversee the observance of the right to privacy and individual freedoms in the digital environment.

The IPU also encourages parliaments to make use of ICTs as essential tools in their legislative activities. To this aim, the IPU launched the Centre for Innovation in Parliament (CIP) in 2018 to provide a platform for parliaments to develop and share good practices in digital transformation strategies, as well as practical methods for capacity building. The IPU holds the World e-Parliament Conference, a biannual forum that addresses, from both the policy and technical perspectives, how ICTs can help improve representation, law-making, and oversight. It also publishes the annual World E-Parliament Report.

As of August 2023, eight regional and thematic parliamentary hubs are operating under the Centre for Innovation in Parliament, covering IT governance, open data and transparency, Hispanophone countries, Eastern Africa, Southern Africa, the Caribbean, and the Pacific. Each hub is coordinated by a national parliament and brings together parliaments to work on subjects of common interest, such as remote working methods during COVID-19.

In 2023, the IPU published a Guide to digital transformation in parliaments, in partnership with the Association of Secretaries General of Parliament.

The CIP has seen significant growth in participation, increasing from 27% of parliaments in 2020 to 45% in 2024. An additional 32% of parliaments have expressed interest in future participation. The CIP is working in partnership with the Association of Secretaries General of Parliaments and collaborating with the EU and the International Institute for Democracy and Electoral Assistance (International IDEA) as part of ‘INTER PARES–Parliaments in Partnership, the EU’s Global Project to Strengthen the Capacity of Parliaments’.

The IPU has established the Parliamentary Data Science Hub within the CIP, which is working on creating guidelines for AI governance in parliaments. The Hub has published a collection called ‘Use cases for AI in parliaments’ to help parliaments plan, develop, and measure AI implementation. These resources are licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International license.

The IPU published the World e-Parliament Report 2024, which surveyed 115 parliaments or chambers in 86 countries and supranational parliaments. The 2024 report introduced the new IPU Digital Maturity Index as a benchmarking tool that ranks parliaments across six key areas. The report identifies a persistent digital divide among parliaments, with a country’s income level being the most significant predictor of digital maturity. According to the report, 68% of parliaments now have multi-year digital strategies (up from previous years), and public engagement remains a weak spot in digital maturity for many parliaments.

Sustainable development

The IPU works to raise awareness about the sustainable development goals (SDGs) among parliaments, and provides them with a platform to assist them in taking action and sharing experiences and good practices in achieving the SDGs.

Privacy and data protection

The IPU’s October 2024 Resolution on AI and Democracy emphasises the critical relationship between democratic institutions and emerging AI technologies. Drawing on diverse parliamentary perspectives, the resolution acknowledges the need for responsive regulation that balances innovation with fundamental democratic values and human rights considerations.

The Resolution guides IPU’s work on strengthening parliaments’ capacity in AI governance. Through targeted initiatives, the IPU equips legislative bodies with essential tools and knowledge to effectively shape AI policy frameworks. Emphasising parliament’s crucial oversight role, the IPU helps legislative bodies to effectively balance innovation with ethical considerations, data protection, and human rights safeguards.

Freedom of expression

The IPU Committee on Democracy and Human Rights works, among others, on promoting the protection of freedom of expression in the digital era and the use of social media as an effective tool to promote democracy. In 2015, the IPU adopted a resolution on ‘Democracy in the digital era and the threat to privacy and individual freedoms’, which encourages parliaments to remove all legal limitations on freedom of expression and the flow of information, and urges them to enable the protection of information in cyberspace, so as to safeguard the privacy and individual freedom of citizens.

In 2023, the Committee decided to prepare a resolution titled ‘The impact of artificial intelligence on democracy, human rights and the rule of law’, for adoption in October 2024. Preparation of the resolution is accompanied by capacity development activities for parliamentarians on AI.
It offers virtual training sessions for parliamentarians. Its IPU Parline database is an open data platform on national parliaments, which includes data on the age of people in parliament, as well as a monthly ranking of women in national parliaments.

Artificial intelligence

The IPU has recently published two new resources to help parliaments unlock the benefits of AI to enhance their efficiency, effectiveness, and productivity while mitigating the risks of this rapidly evolving technology.

The Guidelines for AI in parliaments offer a comprehensive framework for parliaments to understand and implement AI responsibly and effectively.

They provide practical guidance on the importance of a strategic approach, strong governance, ethical considerations, and risk management. The Guidelines underscore the importance of using AI to augment and enhance human capability rather than replace it, especially in democratic deliberation and decision-making.

The Guidelines cover several key areas, including the potential role of AI in parliaments, the related risks and challenges, suggested governance structures and AI strategy, ethical principles and risk management, training and capacity development, and how to manage a portfolio of AI projects across parliament.

Key recommendations include:

Start with small pilot projects to build experience.
Focus on use cases with clear benefits and manageable risks.
Ensure robust human oversight of AI systems.
Prioritise transparency and accountability.
Invest in data and AI literacy across the organisation.
Engage with diverse stakeholders throughout the process.

The Guidelines are complemented by a series of Use cases for AI in parliaments, which offer potential roadmaps for parliamentary AI adoption.

A ‘use case’ describes how a system should work. It is used to plan, develop and measure implementation. Use cases translate the abstract potential of AI into practical applications for parliamentary operations.

The IPU is also tracking parliamentary actions on AI policy by documenting a range of initiatives on AI taking place in national parliaments, including legislative reviews, reports, resolutions, inquiries, working groups, and policy discussions.

Parliamentary actions have so far been observed in 26 countries. Information is sourced from parliaments and updated every month.

For more information about IPU’s work on AI, visit www.ipu.org/AI or contact [email protected].