7 April 1947 - 36th Conference of the Inter-Parliamentary Union, held in Cairo. Photogravure by the Survey Department, Cairo.  Usage valid until 6th August 1947.

The idea of setting up an Arab Parliamentary Union was an old idea that came early to the minds of the Arab League founders. The first call to establish that union was issued in April 1947 during the 36th Conference of the Inter-Parliamentary Union in Cairo. That appeal was crystallized in the issuance of the Charter of that Union, whose first meeting was held in Cairo in December 1948.

The Union decided to hold each annual session in all Arab capitals (Egypt, Syria, Iraq, and Lebanon) that joined it. The Damascus session was fixed for mid-May 1948. Unfortunately, the session was cancelled due to the events of the military coup led by Hosni El-Zaa’im that occurred at that time.

Events in the Arab world prevented the conference from being held later and its agenda was frozen. That agenda included a number of important ideas and actions that involved forming a world parliamentary government which would gather the Arab Council wisdom in that context and recommend amending the Charter of the Arab League as well as organizing economic and financial matters, and standardizing constitutional, legislative and parliamentary terminologies.  Revival of the Arab Parliamentary Union was discussed again in the mid-1960s and early-1970s. A new charter was drafted on 21st June 1974.