June 30 is International Day of Parliamentarism

The International Day of Parliamentarianism is celebrated annually on June 30. The holiday was declared on May 22, 2018 by the UN General Assembly on the initiative of the Inter-Parliamentary Assembly of the CIS Member Nations and the Inter-Parliamentary Union.
On June 30, 1889, the first international conference of the Inter-Parliamentary Union, the largest and oldest association of parliamentarians in the world, was held in Paris, France, and this date became the starting point in the history of international parliamentarianism.
Currently the Inter-Parliamentary Union consists of 178 member parliaments, with 14 international parliamentary organizations (including the IPA CIS) having the status of IPU associate members.
The vast majority of the members belong to one of the six geopolitical groups operating within the IPU: African, Arab, Asia-Pacific, Latin American and Caribbean, Twelve Plus (Western and Central Europe, other states with predominantly Western positions) and Eurasia Group.
The supreme body of the Inter-Parliamentary Union is the biannual Assembly. Usually more than 1200 delegates take part in the Assemblies.
As you may recall, the Russian Federation has twice hosted sessions of the Inter-Parliamentary Union: the 100th Assembly was held in Moscow in September 1998 and the 137th Assembly was held at the Taurida Palace in St Petersburg, the IPA CIS headquarters, in October 2017. In the history of the Inter-Parliamentary Union, the IPU session in St Petersburg holds the record for the number of participating parliaments (160), delegates (2,690), parliamentarians (856) and speakers of parliament (87).
“This is a celebration of all parliamentarians of the world, of public forces: all those who daily uphold the rights and freedoms of citizens, strengthen the democratic foundations of global development, promote constructive cooperation for progress and prosperity of all,” said Valentina Matvienko, Chairwoman of the IPA CIS Council, Speaker of the Federation Council of the Federal Assembly of the Russian Federation, in her address on the International Day of Parliamentarianism.