A/HRC/40/65 underlined parliaments’ role in translating international commitments into national law. They encouraged parliaments to be involved in the universal periodic review and other international human rights mechanisms. Participants also acknowledged that parliaments and parliamentary organizations played a critical role in realizing the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. The power of parliaments to take a preventive and proactive approach to human rights issues was mentioned, as was the need for parliaments to review proposed legislation for compliance with human rights standards, and the need for engagement on human rights issues to be undertaken by all parliamentarians, regardless of their political parties. Participants also discussed the role of ombudspersons in overseeing human rights protection, data protection, and the functioning of courts and public bodies, and in highlighting ambiguities in legislation, examining complaints, and evaluating legislative shortcomings. 15. Speaking about upholding the rights of parliamentarians, and the risks faced by parliamentarians, participants stated that parliamentarians must be free to do their work without, inter alia, threats, harassment and violence. The media and civil society should defend parliamentarians. Other participants recognized that parliamentarians were not above the law. Some participants urged parliaments and governments to consider civil society as a real partner. The need for human rights training of the executive and parliaments was repeatedly emphasized. The provision of resources, information, training and support was highlighted as an essential element to strengthen the capacity of parliaments. Similarly, participants spoke of the need for interparliamentary cooperation in order to share best practices and offer support. Participants spoke about developing knowledge of human rights among all parliamentarians. The role of parliamentarians in performing effective oversight and ensuring good governance, taking into account a human rights-based approach, was underlined. As such, oversight over budgetary allocations was emphasized, as parliamentarians should ensure that government budgetary processes considered human rights, and took a gender-responsive approach. 16. Participants emphasized the importance of ensuring that parliaments were diverse and fully representative, including through addressing the imbalance between male and female parliamentarians, in some cases through the use of quotas. Parliaments should reflect the views of all in society. Gender equality was referred to as key in all governing institutions and parliaments. Participants spoke of the value of establishing a women’s parliamentary network for mutual support. The importance of young people serving as parliamentarians was also emphasized. 17. The critical role of parliamentary human rights committees was emphasized. Participants said that parliaments should have committees and subcommittees focusing on human rights, and that parliaments should build a culture of human rights so that it became part of the general parliamentary discourse. Participants considered that national mechanisms for implementation, reporting and follow-up were useful to facilitate the implementation of recommendations of international human rights mechanisms. 18. Responding to some of the questions regarding human rights training for parliamentarians, panellists said that all parliaments should provide human rights capacitybuilding for parliamentarians. They also suggested that parliaments should develop closer links with civil society. Panellists spoke of the importance of having broad political participation and diverse parliaments with parliamentarians coming from across the population that they represented. B. Recommendations 19. States should build parliaments’ capacity to ensure that legislation complies with international human rights obligations. This includes providing parliamentarians with sufficient information when legislation is being scrutinized, including in the form of human rights and rule-of-law impact assessments when possible. 20. States should address the challenges parliaments face in fulfilling their functions, and therefore in promoting human rights, democracy and the rule of law, by making available sufficient human and technical resources and human rights 6