Category: General

Rt. Hon Sidie Mohammed Tunis on Friday, October 14, 2022 on the sideline of the ongoing 145^th Assembly meeting in Rwanda Kigali, held separate meetings with the Honorable Speaker of the Rwandan Parliament and Members of the EU Parliament Delegation.

“I thanked both distinguished personalities for the courtesies extended our delegation and presented a case for sustained partnership and collaboration”, said.

His meeting with the Speaker of the Rwanda Parliament Rt. Hon. Donatilla Mukabalisa, who also serves as Host Speaker and Chairperson of the IPU 145th Assembly, was very productive.

Rwanda has been at the top of the IPU’s monthly ranking of women in national parliament. Our discussion, therefore, focused around establishing partnerships and implementing similar model in the ECOWAS Parliament.

Furthermore, meeting with the EU Members of Parliament was very rewarding as we discussed the modalities of establishing a strong partnership between the two Regional Parliaments, in a bid to strengthen parliamentary diplomacy between the EU & ECOWAS.

I appreciate their very positive responses, which have provided additional boosts to our partnership drive in building stronger institutions. I also wish to congratulate Her Excellency Madam Speaker on her election as the chairperson of the Inter-Parliamentary Union (IPU) assembly, and thank her for accepting to honor our invitation to the forthcoming 2nd Ordinary Session of the ECOWAS Parliament in Abuja.

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Speaker of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) Parliament, Dr. Sidie Mohamed Tunis said it is the believe of the parliament that gender equality needs to be at the core of the parliament’s work to engender democratic societies with a just distribution of resources. According to him discrimination does not only harm individuals, communities, and countries but also hampers development and economic growth, hence, gender equality is a fundamental feature of a better world for everyone.

He made this remarks at the ongoing, 145th Assembly of the Inter Parliamentary Union ongoing in Rwanda- Kigali. It’s on the theme, “Gender Equality and Gender-sensitive Parliaments as Drivers of change for a more Resilient and peaceful world”. He pointed out that the topic is close and dear to his heart, because it holds in enabling a prosperous society. Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) provides us a roadmap to a better and more sustainable future for all, set the promotion of gender equality, the empowerment of women and girls and the defence of their economic, political, and social rights as the fifth priority for the world.

He further told the Assembly in his address that, ECOWAS, on its part has made a clear commitment to prioritise gender equality and women’s empowerment in the frameworks of the regional integration process. Moreover, the Supplementary Act on Equal Rights between Men and Women for Sustainable Development in the ECOWAS Region serves as a strong legal tool that can be used to champion women development. This instrument was adopted by the 47th Ordinary Session of the Authority of Heads of State and Government, held in Accra, Ghana, on the 19May 2015.

Furthermore, the election by direct universal suffrage of the Community’s Parliamentarians, which they are resolutely committed towards achieving in the next legislature, would make it possible to definitively implement the provision of the Supplementary Act on Enhancement of the Powers of the ECOWAS Parliament, which requires each Member State to ensure that at least 30% of its parliamentary delegation is composed of women.

Socially, women’s fundamental rights are still being overlooked. In many of our countries, women are still unable to exercise their freedom, including the right to live without the fear of violence, the right to education, the right to family planning, the right to own land and the right to choose their own destiny.
“With all the above in mind, it is obvious that we must now go beyond proclamations. It has become urgent to move from words to action”.

At the ECOWAS Parliament, he told the Assembly they are matching their words with action. The strengthening of ECOWAS Female Parliamentarians Association(ECOFEPA), to function as an independent parliamentary group is part of the resolve of the 5th Legislature which I head, to advance parity in the Parliament and give women more opportunities to expand and make more impact.

Presently, “we are pursuing 30 percent representation for women yet, we believe that it is not sufficient. Our hope is that soon, we would have 50 percent seats or more for women”, he said. Again, we must remain aware that it is our responsibility, as legislators and politicians, to promote and protect legal and policy frameworks that not only prevent and combat all forms of discrimination against women, but also promote their empowerment.

In addition, the exercise of Parliament’s oversight function is an important tool in monitoring the implementation of the legislative framework at the national level and in the application of regulatory provisions adopted at the regional level. “We are the guarantors of the implementation of these national and international legal instruments”, he stated.

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The Rt. Hon Speaker of Ghana’s Parliament Alban Kingsford Sumana Bagbin has said the much talked about peace, justice and sustainable development would continue to elude the world without gender equality. According to him all of us must act collectively to ensure that no one is left behind in any aspect of our lives as the legislature is the heart and the life blood of democracy and good governance.

“Parliament is the home of the governed – that is the people and its composition ought to be a true reflection, and a mirror of the people it represents. This means that all the people must be equally represented, heard and given equal opportunities. Gender sensitive parliament is not about equality in numbers alone but a healthy parity in all aspect and perspective of gender”.

The Rt. Hon Speaker made this remarks on Thursday, October 13, 2022 when he addressed the on-going 145th Assembly of the Inter Parliamentary Union in Rwanda Kigali. And to show case that Ghana is in tune with the theme for the Assembly, the delegation of Ghana has four female and four male. It’s on the theme, “Gender Equality and Gender-sensitive Parliaments as Drivers of change for a more Resilient and peaceful world”

Gender equality he indicated, has been and continues to be a fundamental developmental and sustainability imperative and not just a human right concern given the current demographics of more than fifty percept of the global population being females; the equal participation of women in whatever society does is an imperative.

And there is clear evidence of global effort to achieve gender equality at a snail pace, the call in this Assembly for them to cure epilepsy and to speed up the pace is the right call and Ghana fully supports it, Mr. Bagbin emphasised. The Speaker told the Assembly, women empowerment initiatives found expression in the 1992 constitution and has produced two women chief justices in a role and a first lady speaker, one of his predecessors of parliament.

And since 1993, legislation on women property and spousal rights, financial inclusion and leadership gained prominence in the government and parliament’s agenda and in daily national discuss and parliament is currently working on a number of legislations in this direction. The increase in the number of women in Parliament of that of 11 per cent to the current 14.5 per cent is part of the efforts. This is definitely not much progress and unacceptable.

Since women constitute majority of the world’s population their interest must find expression in whatever we do, this is a panacea to ensure a more resilient and peaceful world, the reverse produces bitter poor non develop world, “evidence in today’s world speaks volume for its”, he said.

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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.

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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.

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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’

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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.

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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.

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President of the Inter Parliamentary Union (IPU) has said its task force that has done some visitation since the Russia and Ukraine war broke out would meet Parliamentarians from both countries, trying to forge for solution to the crises at the 145th Assembly being held in Rwanda. According to him they are in Rwanda currently where there is global turbulent and instability, Rwanda has had its challenges but has come out very strong after a time of death and destruction.

“I was touched to visit the general site museum and the contribution of the parliament on reconciliation of Rwanda is an example of dialogue, often time when there is division they bring the country together and bring the national community together. We need to do same with the international community, we have a lot to learn from Rwanda today in Kigali”, he said at a press briefing on Tuesday, October 11, 2022 in Kigali after the opening of the Assembly.

As they have welcomed over one thousand delegates, nearly six hundred members of parliament, from one hundred countries, some eighty speakers and deputy speakers, the strong participation shows that the time for diplomacy for dialogue and networking for building bridges. “We also have delegations from countries who are at war and we are bringing them together around one table to talk and keep good communications open and do away with spirit of division, envisage from the IPU founding fathers. We are waiting to have a meeting with the Russian and Ukraine parliamentarians”.

On his part, the Secretary General, Martin Chungong emphasised the need for global parliamentarians to apply itself to the global conflict as this issue came up in their discussion with President Paul Kagame.“There are conflicts in Africa that they need to address, Ethiopia, Sudan, Somalia and West Africa. In the area of political instability IPU is a global organization and can forge ahead by providing global solutions and look into challenges faced by parliaments and see how collectively they can help address them, he added.

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Secretary General of the Inter Parliamentary Union (IPU) Martin Chungong at the opening of the 145th Assembly in Rwanda Kigali bemoaned the states of military take overs on the African continent and cited Burkina Faso which suffered its second military coup. According to him as a community of democrats, the IPU cannot condone any assumption of power by military force.

And further afield, the Sahel region is facing threats to its peace and security, becoming a hotspot for terrorism and organized crime, alongside numerous other challenges. The IPU’s Call of the Sahel initiative, which is aiming to attract new ideas and new supporters during this Assembly, is meant to be their response to this dire challenge. “I am sure we will all be keen to lend our support to this endeavor, needless to say, the tensions and conflicts simmering on the continent are undermining democratic institutions”.

He further pointed out in his address on Tuesday, October 11, 2022 that unstable and compromised democracies are holding back the socio-political and economic development of our societies. A coup d’état is never the appropriate response to instability or terrorism. The right of the people to freely express themselves through elections must be safeguarded above all else. Again, the parliamentary community has gathered in Kigali and they must apply themselves to addressing the devastating consequences on the global community of the COVID-19 pandemic and the war in Ukraine.

“We cannot afford to overlook or move the spotlight away from the many emerging crises in the part of the world where we are gathered today: Africa. I therefore launch a clarion call for all of us to put our best foot forward and strive to identify dynamic and innovative solutions to bring back lasting peace, discourage military responses to instability, and support sustainable development throughout Africa”.

Also parliamentarians must express solidarity with their colleagues in Africa working to preserve security and democracy, show their support for multilateral mechanisms striving for peace and harmony, give their backing to parliaments that have chosen the path of democracy and the rule of law, and ensure that parliaments across the continent always keep the best interests of their populations at heart.

As peace is the only solution and the time for peace is now, “I intend to propose that the IPU’s Governing Bodies consider forging a new partnership with the indigenous institutions on the African continent – the African Union and Pan-African Parliament, as well as the regional integration bodies such as ECOWAS, CEMAC, SADC among others – to identify pathways for addressing Africa’s chronic instability, which is seriously hampering democracy and by extension the well-being of the continent”.

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