The online workshop for fellows from across Southeast Asian Parliaments and the AIPA Secretariat was held in partnership with the Parliamentary Centre of Asia
Coordinated by the Parliamentary Centre for Asia based in Cambodia, the Programme on Parliamentary Diplomacy aims to strengthen the capacity of parliamentary staff and the ASEAN Inter-Parliamentary Assembly (AIPA) from across Southeast Asia in their work relating to parliamentary diplomacy. A total of thirty fellows from the Parliaments of Cambodia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, the Philippines, Thailand, and Vietnam, as well as the AIPA Secretariat are participating in this year’s programme, which took place in a blended learning format.
Since July 2021, the fellows have undertaken online courses on parliamentary diplomacy, technology, memoranda drafting, international law and resolution drafting. In particular, the Max Planck Foundation implemented the second session on international law and resolution drafting from 30 August to 3 September 2021 through live videoconferences, pre-recorded lectures, quizzes and written exercises, which provided the participants with an introduction to international law, including how to identify it and how it applies in the domestic context. The fellows considered international environmental law and specifically climate change as an area of focus on the Programme. Finally, they considered the resolutions, including the process of drafting them and their relationship with international law.
The international law session concluded with an interactive videoconference where the fellows applied the knowledge and diplomacy skills that they have gained to negotiate a draft resolution on climate change. The discussions between the fellows involved lively negotiations and resulted in a final draft text, which the participants then adopted after a vote. The negotiations were facilitated by the Foundation’s research staff and a representative from the PCAsia.
The Parliamentary Diplomacy Programme has been running since 2019, now under the guise of PCAsia and implemented with its partners, including the Foundation. The Programme is divided into three stages, including online and face-to-face blended learning and a simulation exercise, which will be concluded in October 2021.