Established on June 21, 1974, AIPU is headquartered in Damascus. It is aimed to enhance the exchange between Arab Parliaments, to coordinate the activities of member parliaments in international and other arenas, to increase the exchange with other regional parliamentary unions and national parliamentary organizations, to coordinate the legislation of Arab states, to discuss the common problems the Arab world is facing and to promote the Arab national course internationally.

AIPU has 17 members (2000): Algeria, the UAE, Egypt, Palestine, Djibouti, Kuwait, Lebanon, Libya, Mauritania, Morocco, Sudan, Tunisia, Syria, Yemen, Iraq, Jordan, Oman. Somali's membership has been suspended due to its civil war and the dissolution of parliament.

The Chairmanl is Ben Salah (elected in Feb., 2000 for a term of two years, Algerian), Secretary-General is Noureddine Bouchekoudj (Moroccan).

Publications are: the Arab Parliament (2 a year, Arabic, English, French), Parliamentary Dialogue (quarterly, Arabic, English, French), and Information Bulletins (Arabic).

Organizations: 1. General Assembly. According to the regulation, the General Assembly convenes every two years. Every member national parliament sends a delegation to the General Assembly and the Speaker of the host country parliament serves the chairmanship. 2.Council. It comprises two representatives from every member parliament and is presided over in alphabetic order by speakers of member parliaments. The Council convenes once every year, and may, if necessary, hold extraordinary sessions. 3.General-Secretairat. It is led by the Secretary-General, who is elected by the Council every two years.

Up to February 2000, the Assembly had convened nine sessions. The first five are in Damascus (June 1974), Alger (March 1981), Baghdad (May 1983), Amman (March 1986), Abu Dhabi (June 1989). The seventh, eighth and ninth are in Cairo (May 1997), Nouakchott (June 1998) and Algiers (February 2000).

In March 1984, representatives from 27 Arab and African national parliaments participated in Tunis in the first African-Arab Parliamentary Dialogue and decided to hold one such dialogue in every two years.

By February 2000, the Council had held 35 sessions. In March 1998, the Council held the 31st session in Sanaa, Yemen. It called upon the consolidation of Arab unity and the refusal to Judaization of Jerusalem. It appealed for efforts by Arab countries in realizing Arab unity and for resolutions on sensitive issues in the Arab world.

In June 1998, the 8th General Assembly and the 32nd session of the Council convened in Nouakchott, Mauritania. 19 delegations from Arab national parliaments and organizations attended. The agenda focused on regional peace, regional situation, legislation coordination of Arab states, prevention of cultural invasion and consolidation of Arab unity. The final communique gave a prospective view on Arab nation's future.

In December 1998, the 33rd extraordinary assembly was convened in Amman, Jordan, and focused on the the US-Britain's military actions against Iraq and AIPU's positions.

June 27-29, 1999, the 34th session of the council was held in Damascus, Syria. Parliamentary representatives from 17Arab countries and Secretary General Maguid of the Arab League were present at the session. Kuwait and Saudi Arabia attended the meeting as observers.

February 19-22, 2000, the 9th General Assembly and the 35th session of the council were held in Algiers, Capital of Algeria. 280 parliamentarians from 21 countries including Algeria, (Somalia excluded), were present at the meetings. Among those were 17 speakers or their high representatives, which was a historical high in terms of the scale of the meetings. Attendants held discussions on how to give play to the role of the parlliaments in Arab countries and strengthen the unity of the Arab world. The General Assembly unanimously elected Speaker Ben Salah of the National Assembly of Algeria as the new chairman of AIPU and formally accepted Oman as the 17th member.

In 1985, China National People's Congress established contact with AIPU. In October, the union sent its General Secretary Boubaoui as the head of a delegation to make its first visit to China, and NPC's Deputy Chairman Geng Biao met the delegation. In February 1992, the union sent another delegation to China to exchange views with Chinese side on the suspected involvement of Libya in airplane bombing. NPC Deputy Chairman Peng Chong met the delegation, and NPC's standing committee member Fu Hao held talk with them.