147th IPU Assembly
Luanda, Angola
23–27 October 2023

Luanda Declaration
Parliamentary action for peace, justice
and strong institutions (SDG 16)
Endorsed by the 147th IPU Assembly
(Luanda, 27 October 2023)
The buck stops with us. This is the overarching message that we, parliamentarians participating in the
147th IPU Assembly in Luanda, retain from our General Debate on Parliamentary action for peace,
justice and strong institutions, corresponding to Goal 16 of the global Sustainable Development Goals
(SDG 16), also known as the “governance goal”.
Our discussion highlighted the critical role of good governance as a societal good in its own right and as
a means to the attainment of all the Sustainable Development Goals that were adopted in 2015. Good
governance is the glue that binds people to each other and to their institutions, nurturing solidarity, civic
engagement and political citizenship. At the same time, as defined under SDG 16, good governance
enables sound policymaking and direct accountability to the people, without which we will not succeed in
our shared struggles against poverty, inequality, conflict and environmental degradation, including the
climate emergency, that are being experienced in every corner of the world.
We have taken stock of the many governance issues highlighted in SDG 16 that need immediate
attention according to United Nations reports but also, and more importantly, of our experience in our
own countries, where popular disaffection with the institutions of government – and with politics in
general – is becoming ever more palpable.
As representatives of the people, we are keenly aware of our responsibility to address this state of
affairs. We end this Assembly fully aware that SDG 16, more than any other SDG, relates to parliament
as the key institution of governance in every country. Having the power to enact laws, adopt budgets and
oversee the executive, we are uniquely positioned to make government work better at all levels –
national, sub-national and local – and to restore the conditions for peaceful coexistence that support
sustainable development and democracy in all their dimensions.
Topping the list of governance issues that we must tackle most urgently is the need to strengthen trust
and ensure the more active participation of citizens in institutions at all levels, beginning with our own
parliaments, where women and youth, as well as the poor and other disadvantaged groups, must be
more equitably represented.
We believe that inclusion and representation are essential to building legitimacy and transparency, as the
keys to more effective accountability. By opening up institutions to people from all walks of life and
without discrimination, we can strengthen the people’s trust in their institutions, provide public services
that deliver and develop policies that leave no one behind. With regard specifically to the key issue of fair
representation of the various groups and political forces in parliaments, we will strive to review and
reform as needed our electoral systems in the light of the IPU Declaration on Criteria for Free and Fair
Elections, as well as other international standards.

#IPU147

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The new Indicators for Democratic Parliaments, developed by the IPU in collaboration with the
United Nations and other partner organizations, provide an important tool to help us assess and
strengthen our parliaments according to the principles set out in the SDGs, such as effectiveness,
accountability, transparency and participation. We welcome the publication of these Indicators,
which will help to guide the development of our institutions. We will do our utmost to turn these
principles into action and to report back on progress made.
Among the various possible solutions to make parliaments more inclusive, we will consider
measures to promote ambitious and well-designed quotas aiming at gender parity and equitable
representation of all groups, as well as aligning the minimum age of eligibility for public office with
the voting age. We will endeavour to review our own policies and processes, with the aim of
ensuring that leadership positions are equally shared between men and women within our
institutions and build a culture of inclusiveness and non-discrimination in line with the IPU Plan of
Action for Gender-sensitive Parliaments.
The rule of law, the idea that no one is above the law, that all people are equal under the law, and
that everyone has the right to be protected by the law, must lie at the core of our action to
strengthen governance.
With this fundamental principle in mind, we will aim to curb corruption so that public resources are
not diverted for personal gain and policies are not tailored to particular interests at the expense of
the common good. Along these same lines, we will endeavour to free government and relevant
regulatory bodies from the “corporate capture” that is a frequent cause of distortion in policy
outcomes. Inspired by recent global initiatives to combat illicit financial and arms flows, we will
strive to tighten the rules and close the loopholes that enable these most nefarious forms of
corruption. We support national audit institutions for their valuable role in ensuring transparency
and accountability through independent verification of public spending and related government
processes.
With regard to the justice system, we will aim to strengthen the impartiality of the courts, speed up
trial times, extend legal aid and other facilities to improve access for the most vulnerable, expand
the availability of less onerous processes such as arbitration and mediation, and ensure fairness in
sentencing.
By extension, we will aspire to establish or strengthen independent national human rights
institutions as essential tools for the promotion and protection of all human rights. We will seek to
work closely with these institutions to implement their recommendations and to harmonize national
legislation with international norms. In the context of this year’s 75th anniversary of the Universal
Declaration of Human Rights, we pledge to revitalize our actions to promote and protect human
rights. We will strive to uphold the right of all legitimately constituted civil society organizations to
make their voices heard on behalf of the groups they represent. We will also examine measures to
strengthen the regulatory frameworks that govern the right to information so that, except for the
most sensitive national security reasons, government-held information can be made available to
the public on request and in a timely fashion.
There can be no peace without justice. As conflicts within and between countries continue to
become alarmingly more frequent and severe, undermining development gains, we will seek to
address the root causes of conflict that can often be found in economic inequality and
discrimination against entire groups, due to gender, racial, ethnic, religious or cultural differences.
We will also aim to invest more in human security – defined as the provision of food, health care,
environmental security and other such contributors to human well-being – as the main path towards
peace and development.
We reaffirm most strongly our belief in the rule of law, at both the national and international level,
as the foundation of conflict prevention and resolution, as well as in dialogue and diplomacy as the
only way towards lasting peace. We call on parties in all armed conflicts to abide by the 1949
Geneva Conventions and their Additional Protocols with no exceptions. We encourage more
frequent use of the International Court of Justice and other international judicial institutions as key
tools to resolve disputes between countries peacefully.

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We cannot ignore the fact that our Assembly here in Angola has taken place against the backdrop
of a rapidly escalating crisis in the Middle East. We express grave concern about the humanitarian
consequences of the crisis and we implore the international community to take definitive action to
ensure the unimpeded passage of humanitarian relief into Gaza without delay. Above all, the
hostilities in this region must cease and negotiations must resume towards a sustainable two-State
solution, with Israel and Palestine living side by side in peace and security.
Recognizing that most armed conflicts and related mediation efforts tend to be male-dominated, we
will support more robust involvement of women and youth in peace processes. We will strive to
take all necessary measures to prevent and combat all forms of violence against women,
especially women in politics, as well as against minority and marginalized groups, and provide
assistance to survivors.
A key measure of good governance is the quality of the civil service and of the public sector in
general, which provide the most immediate interface between government and the people. We
recognize the need for deep reforms of public administrations so that they are adequately staffed
through fair and transparent recruitment processes as well as equipped with the most modern tools
to provide quality service to the public. Most importantly, we will seek to ensure more direct
citizens’ input into public sector reforms and into the administration of public services, including
health care, education and environmental preservation, so as to more effectively meet the needs of
the people.
The success of all our reforms will depend most critically on the mobilization of financial and human
resources. We are committed to reversing the tide of underinvestment in the institutions and
processes that lie at the core of SDG 16. In particular, a more coordinated effort must be made to
collect data on gender, age, income and other criteria that are key to identifying those most at risk
of being left behind. Relatively modest as a share of national budgets, the implementation cost of
SDG 16 will pay high dividends in terms of producing positive social cohesion, peace, and
development outcomes across the board. In this connection, we call on countries to review their
development cooperation policies so that due emphasis is given to investments and capacity
building in recipient countries’ governance sectors.
In view of the major global assessment of SDG 16 expected at the United Nations High-Level
Political Forum on Sustainable Development in 2024, we will aim to conduct a thorough review of
our national plans for SDG 16 and of the public sector in general, including through parliamentary
hearings, special parliamentary commissions and other such initiatives. We encourage the IPU to
collect and disseminate the findings from this exercise, and to highlight the good practices that may
help mobilize further parliamentary action.
We are deeply grateful to our host, the National Assembly of Angola, as well as the Angolan
authorities and the Angolan people in general, for providing us with this valuable opportunity to
come together as a global parliamentary community. We look forward to taking this Declaration
back to our parliaments and to playing our part in ensuring its effective implementation.