As South Africa commemorates Women’s Day, Kwanele Foundation, a South African based Non-Governmental Organisation (NGO) advocating and standing against Gender-Based Violence and Femicide, has hailed the Pan-African Parliament (PAP) and its President, Hon. Chief Fortune Charumbira for honouring the pledge to protect women and girls, and promote their rights.
In May this year, Kwanele Foundation marched to the Pan-African Parliament Headquarters in Midrand to hand over a Memorandum calling for the Parliament’s intervention to eradicate the scourge of Gender-Based Violence (GBV) in Africa.
The Memorandum included a call for the Pan-African Parliament to convene a Pan-African Gender-Based Violence Summit among other demands. The Activists further urged the Continental Parliament to play a more active role in addressing GBV matters in general.
The Foundation’s CEO Silhe Sibisi has expressed satisfaction with the Pan-African Parliament’s response to the calls. She has paid tribute to the President of the institution for enabling robust, transparent and candid engagements between the Kwanele Foundation and Officials of the Pan-African Parliament on how to concretely tackle GBV in line with the appeal contained in the Foundation’s Memorandum.
“ The engagements with the Pan-African Parliament have been fruitful. The Parliament has engaged in good faith and their commitment to protecting women and girls is palpable. We look forward to the signing of a Memorandum of Understanding which will pave the way for a stronger collaboration on GBV issues. We are grateful to the President of the Pan-African Parliament for heeding our call,” said Sibisi.
In line with the Pan-African Parliament’s commitment, Hon. Chief Fortune Charumbira had invited Kwanele Foundation to take part in the consultations on the Draft Model Law on Gender Equality and Equity, led by the Committee on Gender, with Southern African civil society organisations. The engagement was held in Lusaka, Zambia last month. GBV and femicide are earmarked as critical elements to be included in the Law.
Today, 9 August marks Women’s Day in South Africa, host to the Pan-African Parliament. The day commemorates the anniversary of the great women's march of 1956, where women marched to the Union Buildings, the seat of South Africa’s presidency, to protest against carrying passbooks.
As a reminder, every year, the Pan-African Parliament hosts a Women’s Conference to serve as a platform for the development of policies related to women’s rights. During this time, participants discuss progress made towards the implementation of gender-focused programmes, such as the Sustainable Development Goals, and other policies and activities undertaken by the African Union. The Pan-African Parliament has also created the Women’s Caucus to provide oversight of the Parliament’s work on women’s rights and gender equality. It actively promotes state ratification and implementation of the Protocol to the African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights on Women’s Rights in Africa (“Maputo Protocol”), which includes provisions on tackling gender-based violence.
In addition to the Annual Conference and work of the Women’s Caucus, the Pan-African Parliament also organises workshops and other meetings to focus on VAW-related issues that concern the region. For example, the Pan-African Parliament has organised several seminars on eliminating Female Genital Mutilation (FGM) – which resulted in the PAP’s overall commitment to ending FGM and various recommendations to the African Union to ensure states move towards fulfilling this commitment.
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