Today, the Shura Council participated in the coordination meeting of the Gulf Parliamentary Group and the coordination meeting of the Arab Parliamentary Group, which were held on the sidelines of the 146th General Assembly of the Inter-Parliamentary Union, which will start its work tomorrow, Saturday, in the Bahraini capital, Manama.
The Shura Council delegation to the two meetings was headed by His Excellency Mr. Hassan bin Abdullah Al-Ghanim, Chairman of the Council. During the two meetings, the items of work of the 146th session of the General Assembly of the Inter-Parliamentary Union were reviewed, and the participants exchanged views on them, and stressed the coordination and unification of the Gulf and Arab positions in this regard. The two meetings also discussed the submission of the Shura Council, on behalf of the Arab Parliamentary Group, a request to include the issue of criminalizing defamation of religions as an emergency item on the agenda of the General Assembly under the title: "Criminalizing contempt for religions and violating places of worship and sanctities, spreading hatred among peoples, and calling for promoting the values of coexistence, tolerance, international peace and security". Members of the Gulf and Arab parliamentary groups stressed support for choosing this item, and joint efforts were made to urge the various parliamentary groups to vote for it. It was also agreed on the candidates of the Gulf and Arab groups for vacant positions in the permanent or sub-committees of the Inter-Parliamentary Union.
