National Assembly (NA) Speaker, Nosiviwe Mapisa-Nqakula, has commended the Inter-Parliamentary Union (IPU) for continuing to raise the bar in strengthening parliamentary diplomacy and coordinating the world’s parliamentarians to work together for a resilient, safer and better world.
Mapisa-Nqakula made the remarks as the Inter-Parliamentary Union (IPU) wrapped up its five-day General Assembly, with a series of reports adopted and resolutions taken on how to take forward a range of strategic IPU projects, including its interventions in the war in Ukraine, through its Task Force.
The Speaker led the South African multi-party parliamentary delegation to the 145th IPU General Assembly in Kigali, Rwanda, from 11 to 15 October 2022.
The assembly reaffirmed the continued interventions of its eight-member Task Force, which was established to use parliamentary diplomacy to seek a peaceful resolution of the Russia-Ukraine conflict.
Mapisa-Nqakula said both parties to the conflict could learn a lot from the 145th IPU Assembly host country, Rwanda.
The report of the Task Force, which was set up after the adoption of a resolution at the 144th IPU Assembly in March 2022, was presented and adopted. Mapisa-Nqakula is among the members of the Task Force.
The assembly commended the commitment of the Parliaments of both Ukraine and Russia to participate in the ongoing negotiations facilitated by the IPU through its Task Force.
The Task Force had a series of bilateral meetings with Parliamentarians of both Ukraine and Russia separately during its physical visits to Ukraine and Russia, as well as on the sidelines of the 145th Assembly in Kigali.
“There remains light at the end of the tunnel, with a possibility of a tripartite meeting, where the legislatures of the two warring countries could directly meet to advance a peaceful resolution of the war in Ukraine, in keeping with the Charter of the United Nations, territorial integrity and international law,” Mapisa-Nqakula said.
She encouraged both Parliaments to facilitate the Task Force’s engagement to achieve its mission, and also expressed satisfaction with the IPU’s strategic emphasis on helping to build gender sensitive and more inclusive Parliaments across the world, including youth representation and participation.
The conference theme focused on women representation and gender sensitive parliaments, with individual national legislatures, including South Africa, accounting on progress made in improving women representation, as well as programmes aimed at empowering women and women parliamentarians to perform optimally at the apex of parliamentary processes and decision-making.
Mapisa-Nqakula commended Rwanda for its pioneering and inspiring work in many areas, including its cleanliness and world-leading women representation in Parliament.
The meeting endorsed the proposal to establish 14 IPU regional offices to enhance its execution capacity and coordination, which will work closely with various geo-political groupings, starting with two pilot offices.
The South African multi-party parliamentary delegation participated in and made significant contributions to a series of debates that took place in various standing committees, including Peace and International Security, Sustainable Development, Finance and Trade, Democracy and Human Rights, United Nations Affairs as well as the Association of Secretaries General of Parliaments.
Yes To Youth In Parliament pledge
Mapisa-Nqakula also joined Speakers, who signed a pledge to endorse the “Yes To Youth In Parliament” campaign.
She said the IPU campaign — “I Say Yes To Youth in Parliament” — must be embraced by all the members of the IPU and should ensure that it finds traction across the world as a vibrant movement to mainstream young people’s meaningful participation in parliaments.
Source: South African Government News Agency