A delegation of the Pan-African Parliament (PAP) Secretariat, led by Mr. Vipya Harawa, Clerk of PAP, has wrapped up a three-day technical mission at the Parliament of Ghana. The delegation held a working session with the Secretariat of the Parliament of Ghana, led by Mr. Cyril Kwabena Oteng Nsiah, Clerk of Parliament.
The mission aimed at strengthening collaboration between the two institutions in providing administrative support for domestication and implementation of African Union (AU) treaties, decisions, policies and programmes, and for the continued participation of the Parliament of Ghana in the activities of the PAP.
The PAP delegation seized the opportunity to acknowledge Ghana’s proactiveness in the ratification of AU Legal Instruments, having ratified 13 of the 18 AU instruments related to the African Governance Architecture. Ghana is also one of the 13 AU member states that have ratified the Protocol to the constitutive act of the AU relating to the PAP, also known as the Malabo Protocol. The Malabo Protocol is intended to extend the powers of the PAP into a fully-fledged legislative organ. It requires a minimum of 28 countries to ratify it before it comes into force.
The working session between the two teams resulted in the adoption of a set of recommendations, which form an agreed collaborative framework, between the PAP Secretariat and the Secretariat of the Parliament of Ghana. The agreed framework will enable the two Secretariats to provide effective support to their respective Parliaments for domestication and implementation of AU decisions, policies and programs relating to human rights and governance.
In addition to technical sessions with administrative staff of the Ghana parliament, the Pan African Parliament Secretariat paid courtesy calls on Hon. Mohammed Mubarak Muntaka, Opposition Chief Minority Whip of the Ghana Parliament; Hon. Bryan Acheampong, Chairman of the Committee on Foreign Affairs of the Ghana Parliament; and Mme. Neematu Z. Adam, Deputy Director, Regional Integration Bureau, Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Ghana.
The technical mission to the Parliament of Ghana forms part of the process of establishing administrative frameworks with National Parliaments in Africa with the aim to fast-track the ratification, domestication and implementation of African Union (AU) legal instruments pertaining to human rights and democratic governance. The exercise was initiated in 2021 and is being implemented under the auspices of the African Governance Architecture (AGA) project.
AGA is inspired by the Constitutive Act of the AU that expresses the AU’s determination to ‘promote and protect human and people’s rights, consolidate democratic institutions and culture and ensure good governance and the rule of law’. It is a “platform for dialogue between the various stakeholders” who are mandated to promote good governance and strengthen democracy in Africa, in addition to translating the objectives of the legal and policy pronouncements in the AU Shared Values.
