The first Ordinary Session of the sixth Parliament of the Pan-African Parliament (PAP) has opened in Midrand, South Africa with consultations to revise and refine the current Rules of Procedure as the Parliament rolls out plans to rebrand.
The first Ordinary Session of the sixth Parliament and its related meetings are held under the African Union theme for 2022, “Building resilience in nutrition on the African continent: Accelerate the human capital, social and economic development.”
Today’s programme provided for meetings of Regional Caucuses, namely Central, Eastern, Northern, Southern and Western to consider and make proposals for amendments to the Rules of Procedure.
While officially opening the meetings, the President of the PAP, H.E Hon. Chief Fortune Charumbira directed the PAP’s caucuses to engender proposals with a view to helping address gaps and making the PAP more effective in the delivery of its mandate. The President reminded members of the continental Parliament that the Rules of Procedure are central to the normal functioning of a Parliament as they aid the organisation of its work. It is important to amend, review and update the Rules of Procedure to ensure they are reflective of the evolution and changing needs of PAP.
"The new roadmap needs to guide us and ensure a more effective execution of the mandate of PAP," said President Charumbira in his opening address.
"I urge all members to impart and share their input and suggestions during this process. In this way, the PAP will play a significant role and become the Big Brother of parliaments in Africa. Each Regional Caucus representing the five regions of Africa needs to go through all 94 rules, reflect on them, intrepid them and if necessary, amend them, or even devise new rules, if necessary,” H.E. Hon. Chief Charumbira added.
Initially adopted on 21 September 2004, the PAP rules were last amended on 10 October 2011.
H.E Hon. Charumbira also expressed hope that the proposed amendments will strengthen the Permanent Committees and their work.
“We want to make our committees stronger through these amendments. For Example, we will be unbundling some committees such as Trade in view of the creation of the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA),” he added.
After the morning sitting in the Chamber, members dispersed to their respective regional groups to discuss and address amendments. Some of the points raised by the caucuses include the process of nominating members, the procedure of electing new members, status, tenure, and mandate of members, leave of absence and procedure of committees. The amendments will be brought before the main Parliament body in the Plenary session tomorrow afternoon.
The meetings come after the PAP Bureau recently jointly met with the Bureaus of the Permanent Committees and Regional Caucuses, Women’s Caucus and Youth Caucus where H.E Hon. Charumbira challenged African legislators to “transform the lives of African citizenry, to achieve a better life for our women and youth, and to ensure that Africa progresses and is better for future generations.
-Ends-
