Reducing violent conflict has become a key concern in the post-Cold War era. In the search for national actors that can play a key role in preventing or mitigating violent conflict, and restore governance and durable peace, the international „peacebuilding‟ agenda in the past 15 years has mostly focused on the executive branch of government (seeking to promote „good governance‟) and on „civil society‟ (seen as a set of national actors than can provide some counter-balance to the executive). A fairly persistent blind spot for international -but possibly also for national actors has been parliaments. One reason for this may be that it was simply subsumed under „government‟, another that in various countries parliaments have not been very independent and effective. Recently however it seems parliaments have been rediscovered, or simply „discovered‟. The current atmosphere then is one of enthusiasm about the much stronger role they can play in preventing and ending the violent conflict, in poverty reduction, promoting democratic culture and durable peace.