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On Thursday 4 May 2000 the Scottish Parliament approved motion S1M-789 which established a Scottish Parliament Branch of the Commonwealth Parliamentary Association.

The management of the affairs of the Branch are vested in an Executive Committee. Under the Branch Rules the Executive Committee consists of a President and two Vice Presidents (ex-officio), and 4 Members elected annually by the Members of the Branch. All Members of the Scottish Parliament are automatically Members of the Branch.

About the Commonwealth Parliamentary Association

The Commonwealth Parliamentary Association (CPA) is an association of parliamentarians from the varions national, state, regional or territorial parliaments/legislatures of the member countries of the Commonwealth of Nations ("the Commonwealth") who, irrespective of gender, race, religion or culture, are united by community of interest, respect for the rule of law and individual rights and freedoms, and by pursuit of the positive ideals of parliamentary democracy. Although closly associated, the CPA is a seperate organisation from the Commonwealth, with its own seperate institutions and secretariat.

The CPA is currently comprised of 169 branches in national, state, regional and territorial parliaments from across the 53 Commonwealth countries and currently has a total membership of around 16,000 parliamentarians. The supreme governing body of the Association is the CPA General Assembly, which comprises of 400 members. The General Assembly meets annually in a different Commonwealth country. The 53rd Annual Conference of the CPA General Assembly took place from the 18th to 30th of September 2007 in New Delhi, India. The 54th Annual Conference of the CPA General Assembly will take place in autumn 2008 in Kuala Lumpur in Malaysia.

The CPA is supported a dedicated secretariat headquartered at Westminster House in Milbank in London and headed by a Secretary-General, who is the Chief Executive Officer of the Association. The current Secretary-General is Dr William F Shija. Dr Shija was appointed by the 52nd Conference of the CPA General Assembly (meeting in Abuja, Nigeria) on 9 September 2006 and took up his five year post as the 6th Secretary-General of the CPA on 1 January 2007. Dr Shija is former Member of the Tanzanian Parliament and has perviously served in several ministerial posts in the Government of Tanzania.

The CPA was founded in 1911 as the Empire Parliamentary Association and its affairs were initially administered by the United Kingdom Branch (UK Parliament). The original member branches were the Parliament's of Australia, Canada, Newfoundland, New Zealand, South Africa and the United Kingdom. Evolving in parallel with the development of the Commonwealth, in 1948 the Association adopted its present name, changed its rules to enable all member branches to participate in its governence and established a separate permanent secretariat to manage its affairs.

Today's resurgence of parliamentary democracy is evident in the growth of the CPA. In the 1990s, nearly 30 new parliaments and legislatures joined (or in some cases rejoined) the CPA. These included the parliament's of Cameroon; Fiji; the Maldives; Mozambique; Nigeria; Seychelles; South Africa and its provinces; Uganda, and Zanzibar in Tanzania and well as newly devolved parliaments/assemblies in Canada, India and the United Kingdom. Pakistan and its provinces, which were suspended from the CPA in 1999 following a military coup, were readmitted in September 2004 after fresh parliamentary elections.

In 1989 the CPA amended its constitution to establish the constitutional posts of Patron and Vice-Patron of the Association. Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II, as the Head of the Commonwealth, consented to become the Patron of the CPA. The Vice-Patron is normally the Head of State or Government of the branch hosting the coming plenary conference of the CPA General Assembly.

For 2008, H.M. Mizan Zainal Abidin, the Yang di-Pertuan Agong (Elected King) of Malaysia , is Vice-Patron of the CPA.

More information about the Commonwealth Parliamentary Association is available on its website at www.cpahq.org