Parliamentarians across the world in 2015 continued to face too many dangers that prevented or hampered their work, representing a real and on-going threat to democracy that needed to be addressed. In its release "Violations of the human rights of MPs – 2015", IPU has found that the number of MPs with alleged violations of their human rights has increased overall for the second year in a row.

MPs can be subject to a range of abuses and types of violence. They include death, intimidation and torture, but the main violations are arbitrary arrest and detention, lack of fair trial, violation of the right to freedom of expression or assembly, and the unlawful loss of parliamentary mandate.