The House of Delegates will be hosting the three-day meeting which will take place this Sunday, March 14 to March 16.
In the meeting, participating members of various parliaments representing Iran, Saudi Arabia, Sri Lanka, Indonesia and officials from the APA Secretariat will be joining their Olbiil Era Kelulau counterparts in the international forum.
APA has a 41-member country and 17 observer countries.
Opening ceremony is scheduled at 9 a.m., March 14, where resolutions that are expected to be deliberated in the meeting are topics on terrorism, health and social cultural issues at the multilateral level.
APA was born out of Association of Asian Parliaments for Peace (AAPP) in November, 2006, in Tehran. The establishment of the AAPP goes back to 1999 when a group of Asian parliamentarians decided to join forces toward promoting peace and human rights in Asia.
House Floor Leader Gibson Kanai represents the OEK in the APA as its Vice President and will serve as chairman of the committee.
The formal opening of the APA meeting will include addresses and reports by the APA Secretary General and election of officers for the Palau meeting.
Kanai recently represented Palau to the 4th session of the APA last December 07-10, 2009 in Bandung, Indonesia.
In the Indonesia session, according to Kanai members of APA were divided into committees, which in turn reviewed and discussed more than 10 draft resolutions inclusive of alleviation of poverty, combating corruption and terrorism, and promotion of peace.
Kanai said Palau, with estimated population of 20,000, is the least populated member of the APA.
The APA Charter and Tehran Declaration lay out a framework of cooperation among Asian countries for “Asian Integration” of which Palau and other Pacific countries are included.
The APA was established in 2006. It is a continuation of Association of Asian Parliamentary for Peace (AAPP), which was established in 1999.
The AAPP was established in Dhaka, Bangladesh, to promote unity toward the single purpose of peace and a concrete framework for regional cooperation to strengthen human rights protection and democracy. The AAPP was to cultivate strategies for the realization of peace and the right to development as well as social, cultural, and environmental rights of the peoples in Asia.
In a previous article , Kanai said Palau, despite its internal struggles, has managed to uphold many of the APA objectives, especially in regards to the promotion of peace.
Palau has, within its means, provided shelter for Myanmar refugees and just recently, the Ughurs.
