Author: Kwaku GhanaMPs

On Wednesday, October 12, 2022, the Speaker of Chamber of Deputies of Rwanda Rt. Hon Donatilla Mukabalisa was elected to preside over the 145th Inter Parliamentary Union (IPU) Assembly being held in Rwanda.

In her acceptance speech she noted that every parliament has to pass legislation to enact to contribute to the economic and social transformation of their respective societies and in the same vain Parliament of Rwanda remain committed to its mission of doing its bit towards ensuring that equality remain high on the agenda in Rwanda.

And this cannot be achieved if their parliaments do not work with other parliaments, and this Assembly would make it possible for the Rwanda Parliamentarians share best practices with other parliaments and also learn from them which would enable them continue to be a more resilient parliament. Again, turning to the theme for the general debate on gender sensitive parliament as drivers of change for a more resilient and peaceful world, “I consider that the theme is well timed.

Gender equality in our various societies should start from our parliaments, because this would serve as an inspiration for our society with more women in Parliament working with men. It is easier to overcome complex challenges of the contemporary world”. Rt. Hon Donatilla further noted that, what they set out for themselves to achieve can come through joint efforts and people in all layers of our society can have their voices heard and their concerns addressed.

She remain convinced that these Assembly would be unique, it is a pivotal opportunity for them to share experience on how to tackle barriers to gender equality in our parliaments and hope the Assembly would help them come up with actionable plans and realistic resolution of which their parliaments would become more gender sensitive, and inspire our societies; and quoted the President during the international women day 2022, “equality is a right and not a favor, we must to even more and better to ensure that the next generation of our daughters and granddaughters inherit their aspiration has no limit”, to buttress her point.

Kwaku Sakyi-Danso/Ghanamps.com/Rwanda/Kigali

Ghana’s Speaker of Parliament Rt. Hon Alban Kingsford Sumana Bagbin on Wednesday, October 12, 2022 received his counterpart from South Korea who called on him at his request (I mean South Korea Speaker) at the ongoing Inter Parliamentary Union Assembly meeting in Rwanda Kigali.  According to him the Republic of Korea has been the true friend of Ghana in the past forty-five years that both countries have had diplomatic relations.

And when he gets back to Ghana he is going to inaugurate the Ghana Korea Parliamentary Friendship Association; “we have a lot of private Korean firms in Ghana and Korea is a household name – Samsung, you can rest assured that we would be supportive of all efforts coming from your government”.

Speaker Bagbin, further emphasized on the need to work together, indicating that “we would be supportive of all initiative from your government; Korea has done well, they are a bit ahead of Ghana in everything particularly in the creation of a green smart cities. And now their ports and rails infrastructure, a Korea company constructed the tallest building in the world in Dubai and there is that confidence in them, he stated.

The Speaker revealed that he has been to Korea on several occasions. He has been to Korean as part of the business community that came to Korea, when he was the Water Resource and House Minister and had to come to Korea to do good business, and that visit enhanced his interest in Korea and had to get some of their books to read about the Korea miracle.

Kwaku Sakyi-Danso/Ghanamps.com/Rwanda/Kigali

Speaker of the South Korean National Assembly Rt. Hon Kim Jin-Pyo said Ghana remains its key partner in the West African sub-region and the diplomatic relations between both countries have lasted for the past forty-five years. According to him Ghana is a stable democracy in the West African sub-region and acknowledged the role president Nana Akuffo-Addo played as Chair of ECOWAS contributing to regional integration, stability and economic development.

He made those remarks during a meeting in Rwanda- Kigali when he called on the Speaker of Ghana’s Parliament Rt. Hon Alban Kingsford Sumana Bagbin on Wednesday, October 12, 2022 at his hotel. Other members of the Korean National Assembly that followed the Speaker are Kim Tae-nyeon member of the National Assembly, Jin Sun-mee member of the National Assembly and Yu Eui-dong member of the National Assembly.

Further in his remarks he pointed out that he understand his counterpart from Ghana is call the father of Ghana’s Parliament and has dedicated himself to the democracy of Ghana for the past thirty years and “I am happy with the efforts you have made to enhance the ties between Korea and Ghana”. “We have increased the size of our economic cooperation fund to Ghana and our inter parliamentary exchanges have increased; this meeting can serve as another impetus for facilitating for bilateral exchange between the two parliaments”, he said.

He further revealed that he has approved in recent times the Korea- Ghana Parliamentary friendship association, and hopes this would enhance the ties between the two parliaments, and he would encourage more Korean companies to invest in Ghana. Also, he disclosed that in the areas of automobile industry he hopes they can open a new assembling plant in Ghana and he hopes all goes well, “I will like to ask for your kind support, I am hoping we can expand relations in expanding cooperation in digitalization infrastructure development in ICT”

Again, they are happy to support Ghana as they provided speed boats in piracy fight on the Gulf of Guinea and ask for Ghana’s support in their bilateral cooperation’

Kwaku Sakyi-Danso/Ghanamps.com/Rwanda/Kigali

As to how the Inter Parliamentary Union (IPU) is address gender related issues which will not be just a talk shop, Secretary General Martin Chungong at a media briefing in Rwanda Kigali on Tuesday, October 11, 2022 said they don’t only preach gender equality but walk the talk. According to him IPU itself is gender sensitive and some thirty percent of the participants are going to be women,stating that this was not the case some time ago when it was less than twenty percent.

And attributed the progress made in this regard to the stringent measures that they have put in place that is statutory measures to ensure that delegations are gender balance and if you come to IPU without women in your delegation you forfeit part of your right as a member; you lose voting rights.

And this has helped drive on the numbers. You also assume that when we talk about gender equality every parliament has the capacity to implement gender equality that is not true; many country’s struggle to do that. That is why the IPU has a capacity building programs for parliament to encourage them and provide skills and knowledge on how to achieve gender sensitivity.

In addition, they have also learnt that in other to achieve gender equality you also need to address on women empowerment and emancipation and from statistics it has shown that women are not immune to violence. There are violence against women on the account of their political involvement, he said. That is why the IPU has in recent years played emphasis on mechanism to address robustly the phenomenal of violence against women and more importantly violence against women politicians which has the potential of discouraging women politicians involve in political life.

Another, problem is the lack of financial and economic empowerment of women. This is one area that the IPU is working on with other parliaments to see how laws can be put in place for women to enjoy greater economic and financial assistance. And like the Rwanda’s Speaker of Chambers of deputies, Rt. Hon Donatilla Mukabalisa said, when women have access to resources those resources are efficiently utilized to the benefit of society, he stated.

Kwaku Sakyi-Danso/Ghanamps.com

President Paul Kagame on Tuesday, October 11, 2022 opened the 145th Inter-Parliament Union (IPU) in Kigali calling on lawmakers to make a difference in achieving gender equality and ending genocide ideology through collaboration. Kagame said that though Rwanda has made progress in bridging the gender gap, gender inequality is a shared responsibility and men have a duty to speak up and not just be bystanders.

“All over the world, parliaments exist to protect the interest of citizens. This objective cannot be met without before and active participation of women in our parliament’s, especially in leadership positions,” Kagame said. President Kagame said that gender equality is better achieved when there is acknowledgement that it is a right for anyone everywhere and that women are the backbone of resilient and peaceful societies.
And in Rwanda, women played a critical role in the Liberation struggle, remain a fundamental part of transformation journey with the many participating in peacekeeping operations across the African continent. Currently, Rwanda is doing well on implementation of gender policies with women’s parliamentary representation now at 60% in the Chamber of Deputies and 39% in Senate and has made progress in women empowerment in leadership roles at the grassroots, education, business, sciences and ICT among others.

Kagame said that despite steady gains, inequality between women and men continues to be widespread and that setting quarters take us a step closer to equal representation but this does not address the full spectrum of inequalities in society at large. “One thing, however, is certain, the fight against gender inequality is a shared responsibility and men have a duty to speak up and not just be bystanders,” he stated adding that this is particularly important to combat the negative perceptions of some men who sustain the status quo.

Kagame lamented the fact that genocide denial under revisionism are fast becoming a growing threat to peace and security globally of which social media is partly responsible, but with the fact that hate speech and the misinformation have existed for a long time. To deal with this, he said that collaboration between parliaments is needed to deal with all of these challenges to criminalize all forms of dehumanization and racism worldwide.

On the topical issues selected for discussion at the IPU- Peace, Democracy and Cooperation; Kagame said these are very important and no individual country, no region and no part of this world that can claim to have it all, therefore, suggesting that it starts with walking on democracy, walking for peace. “If we don’t do it through cooperation, I don’t think we can achieve anything,” Kagame said noting that this because problems that affect peace are seen in some in some parts of Africa and across the world thus a need to work together.

“I think we need to work together more and more, and not have people who assume that they have it all and they can tell others what they should be doing. It doesn’t work like that. It’s not the reality of this world believe in all of us,” Kagame said.

Kwaku Sakyi-Danso/Ghanamps.com