Pan-African Parliament Hansard Report, Third Session of the Third Parliament
Monday, 21 October, 2013
THE PRESIDENT:Please, be seated.COMMUNICATION FROM THE CHAIRTHE PRESIDENT:On behalf of the Bureau of the Pan African Parliament and Members of this Parliament, I warmly welcome you to the Third Ordinary Session of the Third Parliament of the Pan African Parliament. May I use this opportunity to express our profound appreciation for the support that has been given to the growth and development of this Continental Parliamentary Institution in our effort to effectively execute the mandate based on the vision of the founding fathers of tour Continental Association.Your Excellencies, Honourable Colleagues, I begin this address on a rather sad note because, since our last session in May, the Pan African Parliament has lost three of its Members. In this connection, permit me to formally announce to you, the sad and untimely death of the former President of the Pan African Parliament, the Rt. Honourable Moussa Idriss Ndele following a road traffic accident that occurred on 19th May, 2013. By his death, Africa has lost one of its faithful sons who, throughout his political career, was an exceptional Parliamentarian and a great defender of democracy and human rights on the continent.The late Hon. Moussa Idriss Ndele was a very rare and patient man, a gentleman who was as upright in character as he was in physical stature. He provided transparent and accountable leadership by example and approached Africa’s political challenges with unbridled resilience and an unwavering commitment to continental unity and solidarity. I was privileged and honoured to serve as the First Vice-President under his leadership. During his tenure, he was instrumental in strengthening the institutional integrity of this Parliament, restoring and improving our relationship with other organs of the African Union. He championed the transformation of the PAP and advocated that the PAP be endowed with legislative powers in clearly-defined domains. We shall miss him.On another sad note, Honourable Colleagues, let me also announce the death of Honourable Mohamed Abdoulkader Mohamed from the Republic of Djibouti and Honourable Ishelang Masisi from the Republic of Botswana who also passed away during this period. They were all very distinguished Parliamentarians who, in various ways, contributed their fair share to the work of this Parliament. Also, during the same period, one of our staff, Mr Ahmed El Dieb, lost his spouse.No doubt, the members of the PAP and their various families will miss them very dearly. However, we are comforted by the knowledge of the fact that they lived lives worthy of emulation and have left their footprints in the sands of time.May I therefore request that we rise and observe a moment of silence in their memory.May their souls rest in perfect peace.You Excellencies, Honourable Colleagues, our agenda for this Third Ordinary Session of the Third Parliament of the Pan African Parliament has debates on topical issues of relevance to the African Continent. However, as representatives of the people and the voices of the voiceless millions of Africans, we must not fail to bemoan the appalling terrorist incident we witnessed at the West Gate Mall in Nairobi, Kenya, which resulted in the massacre of innocent and helpless citizens in cold blood. This is absolutely unacceptable, condemnable and unAfrican, This incident brings to the fore, the imperative of peace and security in our continent and the need for us to collectively fight against all forms of terrorism, be they by Al-Qaeda, Al Shabab or Boko Haram.Your Excellencies, Honourable Colleagues, recent events on our continent have reinforced our position that we must find home-grown solutions to Africa’s problems. Our resolve at the Pan African Parliament to fight against impunity, promote human rights and democracy, the rule of law and good governance on the continent remains unshakeable.In the light of recent developments at the International Criminal Court we, once again, reiterate our call on our leaders to urgently expand the mandate of the African Court on Human and Peoples Rights and grant it with the resources and criminal jurisdiction to try international crimes such as genocide, crimes against humanity and war crimes.Indeed, it is time for us in Africa to begin to build institutions that have the capacity and mandate to effectively support the African governance architecture. African Institutions such as African Development Bank should be strengthened to hold, at least, 10 per cent of the foreign reserves of member States to enhance the development of our financial market and the availability of resources within our continent for the development.We also urge our leaders to approve the proposed amendments to the protocol establishing the Pan African Parliament, to endow it with legislative functions in clearly-defined domains and empower it to meet its mandate to be a clear and loud voice for the voiceless millions of our citizens who continue to wallow in abject poverty, hunger, disease and illiteracy.Honourable Colleagues, we regret the recent sad and tragic boat incident in Lampedusa Island, Italy, which resulted in the loss of life of over 300 African migrants and this brings to the fore the need to urgently address the youth unemployment crisis on our continent. We, therefore, urge our member States, in line with the decision of the African Union, to promote appropriate policies towards lasting peace, stability, democratic governance and sustainable economic growth that would create youth employment opportunities for the millions of unemployed youths on our continent.We bemoan the slow pace of our continental integration and the low level of intra-Africa trade that has remained a missed development opportunity to create wealth on our continent, which would have reduced the need for our youths to risk their lives in search of greener pastures outside the continent. At the same time, we call on our European neighbours to establish a clear and favourable policy for legal migration of Africans in the light of Europe’s historical role in the underdevelopment of Africa through the years of slavery, colonialism, neocolonialism and the current Economic Partnership Agreements that are imbalanced.Honourable Colleagues, the deterioration of the political situation in the Central African Republic necessitated our sending of a fact-finding mission to that country and we must all work together to ensure the restoration of peace and stability to this nation.We congratulate the people of Mali on the restoration of democratic order to that country and we remain grateful to our member States and the international community who contributed troops and resources in the fight against terrorism. I have also, on your behalf, sent our warm felicitations to the newly-elected President of the Republic of Mali who, until his election, was a member of the Pan African Parliament, His Excellency President Boubacar Keita Ibrahim.It is on a happy note that, today, the Pan African Parliament has produced two sitting Presidents on our continent and history will bear us witness that this institution, as it approaches its 10th year anniversary in March, 2014, has made giant strides.As we prepare to celebrate our 10th anniversary, it will be a time to celebrate our numerous achievements and also a time for deep reflections on the future of our continental Parliament. It will also be a time for us to deliberate on the impediments that have been in our way to our struggle to deliver on our mandate and how we can rise above these challenges and meaningfully impact on the people of the continent whom we represent. These are foods for thought for us as we prepare for our 10th anniversary.Honourable Colleagues, this October Session promises to be very fruitful, based on the issues in the programme for deliberation. At the opening session, we shall be honoured with the esteemed presence of many highly-distinguished dignitaries, and most especially our special Guest of Honour, the Prime Minister of the Republic of Togo, His Excellency, kwesi Séléagodji Ahoomey-Zunu On this happy note, Honourable Colleagues, let me once again welcome you to this august Assembly and solicit for your usual support and co-operation to ensure that our deliberations are done with the best interest of the people of Africa at heart.I hereby declare open, the Third Ordinary Session of the Third Pan African Parliament.I thank you and God bless you all.Hon. Members, in accordance with Rule 9 of the Rules of Procedure of our parliament, we shall now swear-in the new Members. I, therefore, call on the Clerk of Parliament to, please, invite members for swearing.The following Hon. Members took the Oath of Solemn Declaration, signed it and took their seats:1)Hon. Juliana - KANTENGWA [Rwanda]2)Hon. Jeanne d’Arc NYINAWASE - [Rwanda]3)Hon. Fidel Rwigamba - [Rwanda]4)Hon. Abdulaziz Abdulahi MOHAME - [Somalia]5)Hon. Sareeda Abdalla MOHAMED - [ Somalia]Hon. Abdisamad Mohamud HASSAN - [ Somalia]6)Hon. Chief Fortune Zephania Charumbira - [Zimbabwe]7)Hon. Musaman Olutu Oscar – [Democratic Republic of Congo]8)Hon. Kabila Jennet – [Democratic Republic of Congo]9)Hon. Mayembe Patrick – [Democratic Republic of Congo]10)Hon. Pascoal – [Democratic Republic of Congo]THE CLERK:That is the end of the list, Mr. President.THE PRESIDENT:I invite the following distinguished guests into the Chambe:1)Prof. Chris Goodman MS, CEO, Virgin Health Bank QSTP-LLC;2)Hon. Albert Pahimi Padacke, the Deputy President of teh regional parliament of CEMAC;3)Hon. Aliou KEBE, Member of Parliament of the National Assembly of Senegal;4)H.E. Hon. Ahmed Al Jarwan, President of the Arab Parliament;5)Hon. Madam Trazere Olibe Celestine Kone, Deputy Speaker of the National Assembly of Cote d’Ivoire;6)H.E. Hon. Manasseh Magok Rundial, Speaker of the National Assembly of South Sudan;7)H.E. Hon. Ekwee Ethuro, Speaker of the Senate of the Republic Kenya; and8)H.E. Ebrahim Ismail Ebrahim, the Deputy Minister of International Relations of the Republic of South Africa.Your Excellencies, Hon. Members, due to some commitments of one of our guest speakers, I will change the order of presentations and, therefore, now invite H.E. Hon. Ebrahim Ismail Ebrahim, the Deputy Minister of International Relations of the Republic of South Africa to deliver his message.GOODWILL MESSAGESPROFESSOR CHRIS GOODMAN [CEO VIRGIN HEALTH BANK QSTP-LLC]:Thank you, your Excellency President Amadi, Honourable Members of the Pan African Parliament, distinguished gentlemen and ladies for inviting me to speak before you today. I am here to briefly introduce you to Virgin Health Bank, to the stem cells and the exploration of establishing a national programme designed to benefit the African community, those in Africa as well as abroad.Stem cells are the mother cells that have the potential to become any type of cell in your body. They are presently used to treat many diseases in a curative fashion among those leukemias and haemoglobinopathies such as sickle cell disease. In clinical trials, they are looking at using stem cells to treat cardiac disease as well as diabetes and stroke among just a few. Virgin Health Bank was established in 2007 by a partnership between Sir Richard Bronson of Virgin and Sir Christopher Adens. In 2009, Her Highness Shakamoza from Qatar invited Virgin Health Bank to relocate its operations to Qatar. Qatar Foundation has recently now taken ownership of Virgin Health Bank and we are a wholly owned company of Qatar Foundation in partnership with Sir Richard Bronson of the Virgin Corporation. Sir Richard Bronson has pledged that any profits that we make be returned to the development of stem cell technologies to benefit the world. Our mission is to provide ethical, transparent, quality cold blood banking services; to empower parents, families, clinicians and midwives to make informed decisions on cold blood banking; to generate and deliver educational material to families and health care professionals; to educate clinicians and midwives in deliverance of high quality services; to engage with governments and ministries of health; and to engage with hospitals and the academic arena.We are in conversation or advanced talks right now with establishing national programmes elsewhere.These national programmes are designed to be donor programmes where the collection of the stem cell product will be based on community-informed consent. These donated units can then be used to treat local populations that require stem cell transplants as well as members of those populations abroad. In addition to that, units will be generated that will be of research quality. They are not able to be used for clinical utility. These research units can be used in turn to further advancement of sciences within those communities to generate intellectual property and can also be sold. The idea is that within a five-year period a programme like this could be self sustaining based on the clinical units that it acquires. Virgin Health Bank has three external business units. One is a private banking programme designed to be where families will privately bank their stem cells and retain ownership of those stem cells. The second is a donation programme, where these units are donated to the benefit of the community and the third is in our research programmes. Virgin Health Bank, as a company, does not do research, but we do partner with reputable institutions to help them with their research. We have a strong partnership with Cambridge University. Through our partnership we are able to use research acquired stem cells that can then be used to enhance cellular therapy objectives as well as the creation of new laboratory tests that are more robust, introduce new technology and new processes to the health care profession and then be able to translate what we discover on a research fund into clinical trials that can be used to treat people in hospitals.We offer stem cells services such as bone marrow processing and storage, cold blood, cold tissue, placenta and fat tissue. We are also able to offer transplantable tissues services such as heart valves, cornea, sperm, egg, blood vessels, plasma, bone and graftable bone. So, these are items that we have available to us that we would like to explore in the creation of a national programme to benefit Africa, its community, its health care sector and its members abroad.Thank you.HON. ALBERT PAHIMI PADACKE, [VICE- PRÉSIDENT DU PARLEMENT RÉGIONAL DE LA CEMAC]:Honorable Président du Parlement panafricain,Honorables députés,Mesdames et Messieurs, en vos rangs et qualités,C’est avec un immense plaisir que je prends la parole dans cet hémicycle panafricain, un lieu de communion des peuples où se forge la démocratie africaine.Permettez-moi de saluer le peuple sud-africain et ce beau pays, berceau d’un des dignes fils de notre continent, lui-même berceau de l’humanité – j’ai citéNelson MANDELA – dont les souffrances sont celles de tout un continent à qui l’homme a rendu honneur et dignité.(Applaudissement)Honorable Président, Au nom du Président Vincent MAVOUNGOUBOUYOU, Président du Parlement de la Communauté économique et monétaire de l’Afrique centrale (CEMAC), retenu à Malabo par des contraintes liées à la tenue de la session budgétaire de notre parlement sous-régionale, je voudrais, en cette circonstance solennelle, vous exprimer la reconnaissance et la gratitude du Parlement communautaire de l’Afrique centrale, non seulement pour l’invitation à lui adressée, mais également pour toutes les attentions dont bénéficie la délégation qui m’accompagne et moi-même.Honorable Président,Honorables députés du Parlement panafricain,Au mois de juillet dernier, sur invitation de votre Parlement, une délégation de notre Institution participait à une réunion, ici à Midrand, sur le thème « Panafricanisme et reconnaissance africaine: le rôle des parlements africains ».Au cours de cette cérémonie, de cette rencontre, j’allais dire, il a été entre autres questions de réchauffement des relations entre les parlements nationaux, sous-régionaux et le Parlement panafricain.Notre présence ici, aujourd’hui, illustre bien l’engagement du Parlement de la CEMAC à contribuer aux côtés de votre Parlement que nous considérons, à juste titre, comme l’Institution faîtière des parlements africains, à la construction démocratique de l’intégration de notre continent que ses peuples appellent de tous leurs vœux.Pour notre part, le Parlement de la CEMAC est quotidiennement interpellé par les peuples de l’Afrique centrale, en pleine conscience, qu’il n’y a d’avenir meilleur que dans une Afrique unie, démocratique et respectueuse des droits humains.Je mesure bien avec gravité et considération, l’immensité de la tâche et la longueur du temps que requiert une telle trajectoire.Dans ce cadre, les difficultés que traverse aujourd’hui le peuple centrafricain constituent autant de défis sur le chemin de notre continent vers l’espérance.Honorable Président,En cette occasion, je souhaite plein succès à vos travaux, tout en vous assurant que vous pouvez compter sur le Parlement de la CEMAC dans cette longue, difficile mais exaltante œuvre d’édification africaine.Vive l’Afrique,Vive le Parlement panafricain,Vive la CEMAC, Je vous remercie.(Applaudissement).HON. ALIOU KÉBÉ [REPRÉSENTANT DU PRÉSIDENT DE L’ASSEMBLÉE NATIONALE DU SÉNÉGAL]:Monsieur le Président du Parlement panafricain, Mesdames, Messieurs les membres du Bureau du Parlement,Chers collègues,Le Président de l’Assemblée nationale du Sénégal que j’ai le plaisir de représenter, ici aujourd’hui, est empêché; est empêché pour trois raisons que vous comprendrez aisément.D’abord, c’est seulement ce 11 octobre que le Bureau de l’Assemblée nationale du Sénégal a été installé. Il y a eu donc une élection et il a rempilé pour devenir encore Président de l’Assemblée nationale du Sénégal.(Applaudissements)Ensuite, le Premier ministre qui a été nommé, qui est une femme au Sénégal, doit faire sa Déclaration de politique générale ce 28 octobre, une autre raison qui l’empêche d’être là avec nous.(Applaudissements)La troisième, c’est que le gouvernement du Sénégal vient juste de déposer le texte de loi de finances devant l’Assemblée nationale qui doit examiner et voter le budget 2014 du Sénégal.Alors, ces trois éléments justifient son empêchement, mais il serait très heureux et très honoré d’être là parmi nous pour nous manifester la solidarité et l’engagement du Sénégal dans le processus de l’unité africaine.Cette auguste Assemblée qui est la manifestation de la volonté des différentes nations pour une Afrique unie, le Sénégal s’y est engagé et le Sénégal y est bien sûr.Cette Assemblée qui est la manifestation et la volonté des différentes nations membres pour une Afrique unie, une Afrique de paix, une Afrique de démocratie, mais aussi une Afrique de développement et une Afrique qui doit occuper sa place dans l’économie mondiale, dans le concert des grandes nations du monde.Le Président Moustapha NIASS, Président de l’Assemblée nationale, Président du Parlement sénégalais qui n’est que l’Assemblée nationale, m’a demandé de transmettre ses salutations les plus fraternelles à cette auguste Assemblée et à toute l’Afrique.Je vous remercie.(Applaudissements)H.E. AHMED AL JARWAN [PRESIDENT OF THE ARAB PARLIAMENT:بسم الله الرحمن الرحيممعالي السيد بيتر أمادو ، رئيس البرلمان الأفريقيالسيدات والسادة أعضاء البرلمان الإفريقي المحترمون السلام عليكمرحمة الله وبركاته ،،،إنه لمن دواعي سروري أن أكون بينكم اليوم وأن أشكر فخامة الرئيسالبرلمان الأفريقي ، وأشكره على توجيهي لي لمخاطبة اجتماع جمعيتكم الموقر ، وأنقل لكم جميعًا تحيات الشعب العربي وزملائي.اعضاء البرلمان العربى وتمنياتهم الوفيرة لكم ان تدفع فى دور العملالدورة التشريعية للدور البرلماني الحالي للبرلمان الأفريقي.الأخوات والإخوة الأعزاء ، جئت إليكم اليوم على أمل ذلكندفع علاقات التعاون بين البرلمان الأفريقي والبرلمان العربي إلى الأمامإلى الأمام ليكون على قدم المساواة والتعبير عن الروابط والمصالحوالأهداف المشتركة بين شعوبنا ، وما يؤتمن على تحقيقها ، في إطارالعمل الأفريقي العربي المشترك في السنوات القادمة من حيث المبادئ والقيمالأهداف بيننا مشتركة ومتشابهة في السعي لتعزيز التضامنالتكامل والوحدة بين دولنا وبين مؤسسات العمل المشتركعلى رأسهم الاتحاد الأفريقي وجامعة الدول العربيةالديمقراطية والحكم الرشيد واحترام حقوق الإنسان وحرياتهالمبادئ الأساسية والسلام والأمن والاستقرار والتنمية المستدامة الشاملةلضمان معايير أفضل لشعوبنا العربية والأفريقية والعلاقات فيما بينهابين البرلمانين وأمنية يقتضيها واقع التفاعل والترابط الحضارياجتماعية وثقافية تضرب في أعماق التاريخ ويفرضها الواقعإن مجتمعي ثلثي الشعب العربي من قارة إفريقيا ومبانيهاالمصالح المشتركة في الدول العربية بين البرلمانينفي ظل عالم تهيمن عليه تحديات كبيرة وستزداد المكاسبللجميع في عملية التكتل الاقتصادي والتكامل في العمل المشتركعلى الصعيد الدولي ، ربما لم يكن إنشاء البرلمان مصادفةالبرلمان الأفريقي والعربي مارس 2004 و 2005على التوالي كمكونين رئيسيين يعبران عن الإرادة الشعبية في كل منيجب على الاتحاد الأفريقي وجامعة الدول العربية ، ونحن كبرلمانيين ، أن نبذل قصارى جهدناإن الهدف من ما يمكننا القيام به هو تحقيق مطالب الشعوب نحو تحقيق حياة أفضلالسيد الرئيس ، السيدات والسادة ، أنتم تعلمون أن البرلمان الأفريقيتلعب الدول العربية والعربية دوراً هاماً في تعزيز التعاون المشترك في إطار إستراتيجية الشراكة الأفريقية العربية 2011-2016 وخطةالخاصة التي وافقت عليها القمة العربية الأفريقية الثانية فيمشيت في أكتوبر 2010 وأعتقد أن هذا الدور يجب أن يتجسد في آلية مشتركة من أجل تقديم الرؤيةالبرلماني وما هو على جدول أعمال القمم الحوارالأفريقي العربي ومتابعة التقدم في مجالات العملمشترك كبداية ، أعتقد أنه من الضروري عقد اجتماع مشترك رفيع المستوىالمستوى بين وفدين من البرلمان العربي والبرلمان الأفريقي من قبلتعقد القمة العربية الافريقية السادسة في الكويت الشهر المقبلتشرين الثاني / نوفمبر لتقديم رؤية برلمانية مشتركة فيما يتعلق بالقضايا التي يتم الاعتقاد بهامجالات الحوار والتعاون عديدة ومتنوعة وفي مقدمتهاالتفاعل الإيجابي مع المشاكل الاقتصادية والاجتماعية الملحةخاصة في الدول الأفريقية أو الدول العربية الأقل نموا ، ويشرفني أنندعوكم من على هذا المنبر للمشاركة في مؤتمر البرلمان العربيومن المقرر عقده في فبراير المقبل لدعم البناء والاستثمار في الدولالدول الأقل نموا والتي تعني من خلال الدول العربية الأفريقية وهي جيبوتي - الصومال وجزر القمرالسيد الرئيس ، السيدات والسادة النواب المحترمون ، أود أن أختتم كلمتيوكلمتي هي أن أجدد شكري لفخامة الرئيس ، السيد أمادو ، على اهتمامه بالدعمالتنسيق والتعاون مع البرلمان العربي إن وجدإن مذكرة التفاهم الحالية بين البرلمانين هي مجرد البدايةيفرض إطار عملية الشراكة الحاجة إلى تطوير العلاقة بيننا وأنا أسجل من أجلكشكري الشخصي وإعجابي بمسار البرلمان الأفريقي ، مع دعميالبرلمان العربي مليء بالجهود المبذولة لتعزيز سلطاته التشريعيةمراجعة وتعديل البروتوكول المعمول به كما هو مطلوبإليه من أجل تحقيق العمل المنوط به في أعمال الإنجاز الأفريقيكما يسعدني أن أستقبل معالي رئيس مجلس النوابوقد ألقى السيد أمادو ، نهاية الشهر الجاري ، كلمة بمناسبة افتتاح الدورالجلسة الثانية في الفصل التشريعي الأول للبرلمان العربي بالقاهرة.وأخيراً أحييكم جميعاً وأشكركم وأراكم قريباً بإذن الله والسلام عليكمورحمة حS.E. HON. TRAZÉRÉ OLIBÉ CÉLESTINE KONÉ [VICE-PRÉSIDENTE DE L’ASSEMBLÉE NATIONALE DE CÔTE D’IVOIRE]:Excellence Monsieur le Président de la République d’Afrique du Sud,Monsieur le Premier ministre, représentant Son Excellence le Président de la République du Togo,Mesdames et Messieurs les membres du gouvernement sud-africain,Très Honorable Président du Parlement panafricain,Honorables membres du Parlement panafricain,Chers collègues,Excellences Mesdames et Messieurs les membres du Corps diplomatique,Distingués invités,Mesdames et Messieurs,Je voudrais, au nom de Son Excellence Soro Kigbafori Guillaume, Président de l’Assemblée nationale de Côte d’Ivoire, que j’ai l’honneur de représenter au nom du peuple ivoirien, et plus particulièrement au nom de la délégation ivoirienne, ici présente, vous adresser mes sincères remerciements pour l’occasion que vous nous donnez de prendre part à cette troisième session ordinaire de la troisième législature du Parlement panafricain.Qu’il me soit permis d’adresser mes remerciements, dans un premier temps, au Président de la République d’Afrique du Sud, Son Excellence Jacob Zuma, au gouvernement et au peuple sud-africain, qui accueillent régulièrement leurs frères et sœurs de l’Afrique entière, et qui ne ménagent aucun effort pour rendre leur séjour agréable. Soyez-en honorés.Excellence Monsieur le Président,Les parlementaires ivoiriens se souviennent que c’est ici, en terre sud-africaine, qu’un accord décisif a été signé en 2005 pour éteindre le feu qui était en train de consumer le fondement de la fraternité et de la cohésion sociale dans notre pays.Je voudrais ensuite remercier Son Excellence Faure Gnassingbé, Président de la République du Togo, invité spécial de cette cérémonie d’ouverture.Je voudrais, enfin, adresser mes remerciements au Président du Parlement panafricain, le Très Honorable Bethel NNAEMEKA Amadi, qui a adressé au Président de l’Assemblée nationale de Côte d’Ivoire une invitation à prendre part à la présente cérémonie d’ouverture.C’est avec une immense joie que le Président a reçu cette invitation. Cependant, des contraintes de dernière minute l’ont obligé à se faire représenter. Aussi, me charge-t-il de vous transmettre personnellement ses sincères salutations.Le Parlement ivoirien serait honoré de pouvoir vous accueillir très prochainement à l’une de ses session.Monsieur le Président,Chers collègues parlementaires,Mesdames et Messieurs,C’est avec un réel plaisir que je prends part, pour la première fois, à une cérémonie d’ouverture de vos travaux. Et pourtant, nous sommes fort heureusement édifiés quant à la hauteur et à l’intensité des débats menés par nos pairs africains, honorables membres de cette auguste Assemblée, et ce, grâce aux rapports des députés ivoiriens, membres du Parlement panafricain.Nous avons ainsi connaissance de votre préoccupation constante pour les questions qui touchent au bien-être des populations d’Afrique, telles que les questions de la récurrence des conflits, de la bonne gouvernance, de la gestion des ressources naturelles, des questions relatives à l’environnement, au développement durable, pour ne citer que celles-là.Nous savons, grâce à vos collègues ivoiriens, que vous menez une réflexion poussée, et faites de très bonnes propositions pour la résolution de ces problèmes.Aussi, est-ce avec beaucoup de fierté, que nous, parlementaires ivoiriens, apprécions hautement tous les efforts consentis pour sortir du rôle consultatif temporairement dévolu au Parlement panafricain.Cette fierté est d’autant plus grande, qu’en dépit de toutes les restrictions liées à ce rôle consultatif, vous continuez à lutter pour porter plus haut le flambeau du panafricanisme qui vous a été transmis par vos illustres prédécesseurs. Soyez-en sincèrement félicités et remerciés.(Applaudissements)Vous devez continuer à faire vos recommandations et à prendre des résolutions, en vue de conférer à cette haute instance continentale, plus de pouvoirs.Monsieur le Président,Chers collègues parlementaires,Mesdames et Messieurs,C’est sur ces mots d’espoir et d’espérance que je voudrais, au nom du peuple ivoirien et du Président de l’Assemblée nationale de Côte d’Ivoire, adresser mes vifs encouragements au Parlement panafricain, qui a révélé et qui continue de révéler au monde, d’illustres personnalités capables d’impulser la démocratie, la bonne gouvernance, le développement durable et l’émergence de nos pays, synonyme de réduction de la pauvreté.Vive le Parlement p anafricain et que Dieu bénisse toujours l’Afrique.Je vous remercie.(Applaudissements).HIS EXCELLENCY HONOURABLE MANASSEH MAGOK RUNDIAL [SPEAKER OF THE NATIONAL ASSEMBLY OF SOUTHSUDAN]:Right Honourable Bethel N. Amadi, President of the Pan African Parliament, Honourable Speakers of the African Parliaments, Honourable Deputies of the Bureau of the Pan African Parliament, Hon. Members, ladies and gentlemen.On behalf of the South Sudan National Legislative Assembly and on behalf of my delegation, please allow me to commence my brief remarks to this esteemed Third Ordinary Session of the Third Legislature of the Pan African Parliament by extending to you the warm greetings of the Excellency General Salva Kiir Mayardit, the President of the Republic of South Sudan and the entire people of the South Sudan on this momentous occasion.We hope that this gathering will represent yet another giant step in our collective journey to evolve strong Pan African governance institutions and the quest for greater continental integration.Mr. President, Honourable Speakers, Honourable Members, my presence among you affords me the opportunity to acquaint you, generally, with the progress that the Republic of South Sudan has made thus far over the twoyear period that has elapsed since its independence.We have accorded top priority to peace-building as a necessary prerequisite to governance and service delivery, and impressive results have been achieved in the area of peace-building and consolidation in terms of both our relations with the Republic of Sudan as well as fostering internal peace and reconciliation processes with opponents of the Government.South Sudan runs a decentralised Presidential system of government with a national executive and Bicameral Legislature in an addition to ten states, each with its own constitution that provides for a state executive and a state legislature.Our policy of decentralisation, which is a top priority issue, aims to take towns to the villages and move decision-making powers closer to the grassroots.South Sudan National Legislative Assembly is carrying out its obligation in accordance with the constitutional mandate to enact laws, approve the Budget and oversee the performance of the Executive Branch of the Government. The general powers of Parliament are primarily derived from the Constitution and the popular will and consensus of our citizens.Due to the fact that we are a new State that is barely two years old, the Republic of South Sudan has been so pre-occupied with the domestic task of consolidating the State institutions that we have been not been able to ratify the Protocol of the Pan African Parliament.However, I wish to take this opportunity to assure you that we are now seeking to ratify the Protocol of the PAP and name five Members, three men and two women, to the organisation.Mr. President, Honourable Speakers, among the key responsibilities, the Government of the Republic of South Sudan, has decided the following:1)Maintenance of peace and security;2)Promotion of good governance through strengthening the rule of law, accountability, transparency, fairness, fostering responsible and responsive democratic multi-party system of rule;3)Institution of socio economic development and promotion of the welfare of our citizens who have just emerged from centuries of political marginalisation and neglect;4)Combating corruption in order to safe guard public assets and the public interest; and5)Finally, the integration of the returnees.Mr President Sir, Honourable Speakers, despite all our efforts, we are still constrained by a number of difficulties such as the level of economic infrastructure; insecurity along our yet-to-be demarcated border with our neighbour, the Republic of Sudan; relatively weak human capacity; deprivation of South Sudan’s IDPs from the Republic of Sudan; unresolved dispute with Sudan and, in particular, those details holding up the conduct of the Referendum.Mr. President, Honourable Speakers, as I have already alluded to, there are a number of issues in which we are yet to reach agreement with the Republic of Sudan. I have mentioned, again, the other outstanding issue relating to the disputed areas along our borders. However, we remain optimistic that all these matters will eventually be resolved through dialogue and negotiations as well as other peaceful means.We have been encouraged by the efforts of His Excellency Salva Kiir Mayardit and his Sudanese counterpart, President Omar Hassan Ahmad Al-Bashir. The visit of President Kiir to Khartoum, last August, has given a big boost to efforts aimed at resolving outstanding issues and the implementation of concluded agreements.Mr. President Sir, Honourable Speakers, in conclusion, my delegation avails itself of this opportunity to thank the Pan African Parliament for inviting the South Sudan National Legislative Assembly to the Third Ordinary Session of the Third Legislature of the Pan African Parliament. We are also profoundly grateful for the warm reception and hospitality accorded to us.Last, but not least, I wish, during this occasion, to register our heartfelt condolences and sympathy to the people and government of Kenya and, indeed, all those who have lost their loved ones during the recent tragic terrorist attack on West Gate Mall in Nairobi Kenya. South Sudan condemns in the strongest possible terms, that criminal and barbaric massacre in the course of which many innocent people were either killed or injured. It is our hope that those who masterminded this crime will be apprehended and brought to justice and that we will all collaborate to make terrorists a thing of the past.Thank you for listening.ApplauseHIS EXCELLENCY HONOURABLE EKWEE ETHURO [SPEAKER OF THE SENATE OF THE REPUBLIC KENYA]:Mr President, the Vice-Presidents, my colleagues, the Speakers of the National Legislatures and regional legislatures present here, distinguished members of the Pan African Parliament, distinguished guests, members of the Bureau, ladies and gentlemen. I feel very honoured and privileged today to join this distinguished assembly on this auspicious occasion of the Third Ordinary Session of the Third Legislature of the Pan African Parliament, which commences today and ends on Friday, 1st November, 2013, at the seat of PAP in Midrand which is in the heart of the rainbow nation of the Republic of South Africa.On my own behalf and on behalf of the Senate of the Republic of Kenya and the extension the entire membership of Parliament of Kenya which now has two Houses, those of the Senate and the National Assembly, I wish to convey to the President of the Pan Africa Parliament the Honourable Bethel Amadi, the Vice-Presidents, the entire Bureau and the distinguished Members our sincere gratitude for sending this invitation to the Senate Speaker to deliver a goodwill message to this Assembly. In addition, I am humbled by your kind gesture of bestowing such honour to me in my formative period in office as the first Speaker of the Republic of Kenya under the new Constitution, 2010.We are, therefore, a baby when compared to most established Parliaments as the latest House of Parliament on the continent. We came into existence on the 3rd of March, 2013 when we had the general elections. The Senators and I were elected into office on the 28th of March this year. Therefore, Mr President, we consider this invitation extended to us and to the other Speakers of the National Legislatures as, perhaps, a recognition of the role that National Parliaments play as partners in our continuous struggle to establish a united, democratic and prosperous Africa, and that in being so, constant engagement is not only necessary but most welcome.Before I proceed, Mr President and distinguished Members, I want to thank you for your statement on the two issues of terrorism and the ICC, and, indeed, your call of believing in African solutions to African problems. I also want to apologise, most sincerely, for failure on the part of Kenya, to bring our members to the PAP. When I saw many other Members being sworn in, including my good friend, Juliana from Rwanda, it occurred to me that we are doing a great disservice to the Pan African Parliament. We have done our part as one House and the names are before the other House. This is the small price we must pay for democracy in a Bicameral Parliament but we hope to be done with the matter and our Members should be able to join this august Assembly.Distinguished members at the Pan African Parliament, the mandate and objectives of our Parliament pertaining to the protocol to the Constitutive Act of the African Union are diverse. It covers the implementation of policies, human rights and democracy, good governance and accountability, intergration, peace, security and stability. It covers prosperity, co-operation, development, solidarity and common destiny and finally to facilitate co-operation amongst the regional economic communities and their Parliamentary fora. It appears, therefore, to me that from the very beginning our mandate is very cognisant of the fact that there are matters that can best be dealt at the continental level for the good of our people.We must also appreciate that to a significant measure, the executive arms of our governments have very dominant roles in addressing issues that affect the continent and yet, we, as parliamentarians, as the people’s representatives who have been elected directly by the people who, in the case of Kenya and many of our Parliaments here, exercise people’s sovereign power, have not done enough to make our voice known. It, therefore, follows that the Pan African Parliament, in collaboration with the national and regional Parliaments, should proactively provide oversight on the Executive as this is our core and legitimate mandate and responsibility to ensure democratic governance in Africa for the better welfare of the African citizenry.Mr President and Members, this Third Ordinary Session is convening at a very critical time in the history of our great continent. It is time for reflection, taking stock of the gains and losses, and strategising to position our continent in the second half of the 21st century. We are also convening at a time when the prospects of Africa are brighter than ever before. Seven out of ten fast growing economies are found in our continent, including our own Republic of South Africa. Oil and gas exploration is extremely exciting in the East African region.While the excitement is there, the questions still beg answers. What happened to the dreams of the founding fathers of the continent such as Kwame Nkrumah, Julius Nyerere and our own Jomo Kenyatta, to mention but a few, of Pan Africanism, political liberation to be followed by the economic liberation? Are the poor in Africa not more than the prosperous? And in even the few prosperous nations, the inequality is very high. Democracy is being threatened all over Africa with botched elections, dictatorships and undemocratic tendencies of changing leadership. How come our countries and presidents are failing consistently to claim the trophy? How come we are good at missing development targets and goals, including the latest one of the millennium development goals (MDGs) to the extent that we are talking about the MDG post-2015 development agenda? Is it not true that we are trading more with others than within Africa? How effective, then, are the regional economic communities? Is it not that terrorism is still a problem within our borders? Mr President, I am just posing these questions to the august Assembly because I know solutions will be found here. Mr Mbeki, at the 50th anniversary of the Organisation of African Unity (OAU), said as much. He said that we need honest answers.I want to submit to this august Assembly that when the madness of an entire continent disturbs a few minds like ours, it is not enough to say that the Assembly is mad, to paraphrase Francis Mbugua in his novel Peter in the City. These are not my own concerns, these are your concerns. These are the concerns of the African people, shared by many in this room and outside this room. They are concerns expressed by you, Mr President, in your address to the Pan African Parliament on the occasion of the annual Conference of Speakers of African Parliaments in August this year on the theme; the Role of Parliaments in the past fifty years and the next fifty years.These negative African narratives and troubling questions challenge, if not undermine, the role of democratic institutions such as our Parliaments in achieving high quality living standards and sustainable development for our people. As you may be aware, we have adopted a new constitution in Kenya in our own attempt to try to configure how we can realise this rebirth and at the centre of this, is the role of the Senate. At this point the history of the republic, the Senate, in particular - I need to mention this because it is a new House - and Parliament, in general, constitute the very component or fulcrum of the new Kenya Project in its construction and as part of our building team.The new constitution, therefore, gives us architectural contours to use and the framework to build our nation and the drawings of this project are outlined in the constitution. Its main pillars are supremacy of the constitution above everybody else, sovereignty of the people, presidential system, bicameral system, elaborate basic rights which are borrowed extensively from some of our neighbouring countries, and there is a clear-cut doctrine of the separation of powers between the national and the devolved units of government and, of course, all these are supported by an independent and robust judiciary.In going forward, some of the infrastructural projects that our country has embarked on cannot only be done by our country without the support of other countries, especially the neighbours such as Uganda, Ethiopia, South Sudan and Rwanda, not to mention the standard railway connecting Mombasa to Rwanda via Uganda.Mr President and distinguished Members of this Assembly, it is my humble submission that our efforts in the national Parliaments may not only achieve the desired outcomes with the maximum efficiencies and cost effectiveness without the necessary linkages with the regional legislatures as well as the Pan African Parliament considering the economic inter-connectivity and the natural resources that abound in our continent. The daunting task before us, as political leaders, is to always rise and focus on meeting the challenges of creating and sustaining stable nations because we must never forget that we live in a highly dynamic and unstable global environment where what happens in one region affects the other, and when, in fact, as early as 1963, Kwame Nkrumah boasted that the salvation of Africa is in unity. Towards this end, PAP should creatively intervene to define Africa’s role together with National Parliaments for the next century.Mr. President, Honourable Members, I assure you that the Senate of the Republic of Kenya and, by extension, the Parliament of Kenya will continue to partner with you and the regional committees towards the realisation of the integration process of Africa.In conclusion, may I once again wish you all the best in your endeavours to create a united, prosperous continent. I also want to thank you for inviting us to partner with you in this most noble goal. Mr.President and Distinguished Members of the Assembly, we the Kenyans promise to be part of the solutions and participate fully in your future activities until we liberate Africa.Thank you.ApplauseTHE CLERK:Thank you, Honourable President. Ihave the following announcements to make regarding meetings that will take place this afternoon of caucuses of the regions:Western African Caucus, half past two - they are all at half past two – in Room No. 1;Eastern Caucus in Room No. 2;Southern Caucus in Room No. 3;Central Caucus in Room No.4; andNorthern Caucus in Room 5.Thank you.MR PRESIDENT:Thank you very much. Honourable Members, we will now invite our special guest to join me in the lounge. I will now suspend business to allow the Bureau to meet our Guest of Honour who is arriving. Tea and coffee are being served in the lobby. We will have a tenminute coffee break. I will resume here by 11:30 a.m.I thank you.THE PRESIDENT:Your Excellency, the Prime Minister of the Republic of Togo, Kwesi Ahome Zono, honourable Ministers of Justice of the Republic of Togo, His Excellency Christian Eninam Trinua, Director of Cabinet, Minister Mr Pierre, Your Excellency the Speaker of the Senate of the Republic of Kenya, Your Excellency the Speaker of the National Assembly of South Sudan, Your Excellencies, my colleagues, members of the Bureau of the Pan African Parliament, the Honourable Deputy Speaker of the National Assembly of Cote de Voire, Honourable President of the Arab Parliament, His Excellency Honourable Ahmed Ajawan, Deputy President of the Regional Parliament of SEMAC, members of the Diplomatic corps here present, Professor Chris Goodman, CEO of Virgin Health Bank, the Honourable Ali UKebe, Member of Parliament of the National Assembly of Senegal, my distinguished honourable Colleagues, members of the Pan African Parliament, staff and Secretariat at the Pan African Parliament, distinguished invited guests, ladies and gentlemen.Let me, on behalf of the members of the Pan African Parliament, specially welcome His Excellency the Prime Minister of the Republic of Togo, the Honourable Kwesi Ahoomey-Zuno.Your Excellency, I am highly delighted and honoured to welcome you to the Third Ordinary Session of the Third Parliament of the Pan African Parliament. Your esteemed presence at this opening ceremony here today, even at very short notice, despite your very busy schedule, is usually associated with your highly exalted office as Prime Minister of the Republic of Togo, eloquently demonstrates your humility, your regard for the legislature and legislative institutions and your belief that the Pan African Parliament is an important organ in our continent.Ladies and gentlemen, I have the honour to present to you a brief profile of His Excellency the Prime Minister of the Republic of Togo, Honourable Kwesi Seleagodji Ahoomey-Zunu. He is a Human Rights Lawyer and an astute politician.He was born on 4th December, 1958, and holds a law degree in International Relations. He also holds two degrees in Higher Education of Public Law and Town Planning. He has worked for several years in the Government of the Republic of Togo. He worked first as Administrative Secretary of the National Commission on Human Rights and, later, as Member of the National Commission on Human Rights as well as Member of the National Assembly of Togo from 1993 to 2005.He was a member of the National Electoral Commission and, later, Chairman of the same commission between 2006 and 2007. He became Minister of Town Planning and Territorial Administration and, later Secretary-General at the Presidency before he became Minister of Trade and Promotion of Private Sector.His Excellency was appointed as Prime Minister on19th July, 2012, following the resignation of then Prime Minister, Gilbert Humbo. He took office on 23rd July, 2012. Following the July, 2013, parliamentary elections in which the ruling party for the republic, the UNIR, won a large majority of seats in Parliament, Hon. Ahoomey Zunu was reappointed as Prime Minister.Once again, Your Excellency, on behalf of the Bureau and Members of the Pan African Parliament, I welcome you and your entourage and thank you for accepting to grace our occasion.Please, extend our warm regards and felicitations to the people of Togo in general and most especially to His Excellency President Farah Esu Zume Nasimbe, President of the Republic of Togo, a great son of Africa who has continued to provide unflinching support for the transformation of the Pan African Parliament to a legislative body.Your Excellency, let me, at this point, on behalf of the Members of the Pan African Parliament, specially invite you to address this House. Your Excellency.S.E.M. KWESI SÉLÉAGODJI AHOOMEY- ZUNU [PREMIER MINISTRE DE LA RÉPUBLIQUE DU TOGO]:Monsieur le Président du Parlement panafricain,Mesdames et Messieurs les membres du Parlement panafricain,Distingués invités,Mesdames et Messieurs,Le Président de la République togolaise, Son Excellence Monsieur Faure Essozimna GNASSINGBE qui a accueilli très favorablement et avec plaisir votre invitation, avait prévu de longue date d’honorer de sa présence effective, l’ouverture de la troisième session ordinaire de la troisième législature du Parlement panafricain. Malheureusement, des obligations de dernière minute, liées à ses hautes charges d’État, l’ont contraint à surseoir à son déplacement de Midrand.C’est pourquoi, il m’a fait l’insigne honneur de le représenter à cette cérémonie, afin de livrer à votre auguste Assemblée, son message de circonstance.Voici, donc, in extenso, le message du Président de la République togolaise.« Monsieur le Président du Parlement panafricain,Mesdames et Messieurs les membres du Parlement panafricain,Distingués invités,Mesdames et Messieurs,Permettez-moi, avant toute chose, d’exprimer toute ma gratitude au Président du Parlement panafricain, Son Excellence Monsieur Bethel Amadi, qui m’a fait l’insigne honneur de me convier à prendre la parole devant votre auguste Assemblée, en cette occasion solennelle.Je tiens, donc, à renouveler au Président Bethel Amadi et aux membres de son Bureau tout mon soutien, ainsi que celui de l’ensemble du peuple togolais, pour les actions engagées, avec détermination, depuis plus d’un an, afin que le Parlement panafricain puisse prendre progressivement toute sa place dans le paysage institutionnel africain.Je voudrais également mettre à profit mon passage en Afrique du Sud, à l’occasion de la rentrée solennelle du Parlement panafricain, pour rendre, au nom du peuple togolais, un hommage spécial à Nelson Mandela, notre héros à tous. Ce digne fils du continent a su imprimer, pour toujours, sa marque à la marche du monde, en menant ici même, en Afrique du Sud, un combat juste, un combat émancipateur pour toute l’Afrique, un combat dont la noblesse est désormais une source d’inspiration pour toute l’humanité.Par une singulière coïncidence, l’histoire a voulu que votre auguste Assemblée, où siègent les représentants des peuples de notre continent, voie le jour dix ans exactement après l’élection du héros de la lutte contre l’apartheid à la tête de l’Afrique du Sud. Cette élection a marqué le début d’une ère nouvelle pour ce grand pays, mais aussi pour tout notre continent.Depuis ce triomphe, la lutte pour la liberté, pour l’égalité entre les hommes et la justice sociale a enregistré des avancées notables sur notre continent. Et nous devons ensemble les approfondir et les consolider pour l’enracinement de la démocratie, et de l’État de droit qui conditionne la pleine réalisation de nos objectifs de développement économique et social.Je suis heureux de constater que le Parlement panafricain se situe dans cette dynamique. Il n’incarne pas seulement les peuples d’Afrique. Il incarne aussi l’Afrique libérée, une Afrique soucieuse de faire de sa diversité une richesse pour construire son unité.J’ai, pour ma part, la pleine conviction que les idéaux du père de l’Afrique du Sud multiraciale, qui est arrivé aujourd’hui au soir de sa vie, et qui est devenu une icône mondiale, vous inspirent et guident vos actions, en tant que représentants des peuples africains.Ces idéaux prolongent aussi la lutte des pères du panafricanisme, auxquels je voudrais également rendre hommage. L’existence d’un Parlement panafricain, à travers lequel tous les peuples de notre continent peuvent dialoguer et faire entendre leur voix, consacre en effet la réalisation, d’une part, du rêve d’unité que Kwamé Nkrumah, Gamal Abdel Nasser, Ahmed Ben Bella, Jomo Kenyatta, Julius Nyerere, et bien d’autres encore, ont nourri pour notre continent, l’Afrique.Monsieur le Président du Parlement panafricain,Mesdames et Messieurs les membres du Parlement panafricain,Distingués invités,Mesdames et Messieurs,La nouvelle configuration géopolitique mondiale et l’ampleur des défis auxquels l’Afrique est aujourd’hui confrontée rendent plus que jamais nécessaire une institution comme le Parlement panafricain.En effet, au moment où les États fédèrent un peu partout leurs énergies dans de grands ensembles intégrés pour assurer leur survie sur les planséconomique, financier et politique, il est indispensable que des hommes et des femmes puissent porter la voix des peuples africains et exprimer leurs préoccupations ainsi que leurs aspirations profondes, dans un monde en pleine recomposition.Cette importance primordiale du Parlement panafricain mérite aujourd’hui d’être soulignée.Ce n’est d’ailleurs pas un hasard, si le Parlement a été l’un des tous premiers organes à voir le jour dans le sillage de la création de l’Union africaine. Il faut rappeler que c’est lors de la 36ème session ordinaire de la Conférence des Chefs d’États et de gouvernements de l’OUA, qui s’est tenue du 10 au 12 juillet 2000 à Lomé, au Togo, que le principe même de la création d’un Parlement panafricain a été adopté, en même temps que l’Acte constitutif de l’Union africaine. L’objectif de départ a gardé toute sa pertinence. Il s’agit de permettre aux peuples de notre continent d’être mieux impliqués dans la prise de décision sur les questions qui engagent l’Afrique.C’est fort de ce rôle primordial du Parlement panafricain dans la bonne exécution de l’agenda institutionnel de notre continent que mon pays, le Togo, s’est mobilisé très tôt pour prendre une part active au processus qui a conduit à sa création. Des juristes et parlementaires togolais se sont, en effet, pleinement investis aux côtés de leurs collègues des autres pays pour apporter leur contribution aux travaux préparatoires qui ont débouché sur l’adoption du Protocole au Traité instituant la Communauté économique africaine, relatif au Parlement panafricain. Le Togo fait également partie des onze premiers pays à avoir ratifié ce texte qui a donné naissance au Parlement panafricain.C’est vous dire combien que le Togo reste profondément attaché à l’essor d’un Parlement panafricain efficace, afin qu’il soit non seulement l’un des rouages essentiels de la machine institutionnelle de notre continent, mais qu’il devienne véritablement un outil de dialogue entre les peuples du continent, un outil au service du développement, de la démocratie et de l’État de droit.Mesdames et Messieurs les membres du Parlement panafricain,Cela fait bientôt une décennie que vous êtes à l’œuvre. Votre mission est exaltante, mais je sais que votre tâche n’est pas toujours aisée.La mise en place des organes prévus par l’Acte constitutif de l’Union africaine est certes un chantier qui avance, mais non sans difficultés.Pour ceux qui sont déjà en place, comme c’est le cas pour le Parlement panafricain, le défi majeur consiste à assurer leur fonctionnement optimal, afin qu’ils puissent véritablement contribuer à la pleine réalisation des objectifs qui justifient leur création. Pour ce qui est du cas spécifique du Parlement panafricain, vos rapports périodiques soulignent, à juste titre, des problèmes matériels récurrents qui se traduisent par de faibles taux de participation aux différentes sessions organisées au cours de l’année. Nos États qui attendent beaucoup du Parlement panafricain sont sensibles à cette situation. La mise à la disposition du Parlement panafricain de moyens adéquats pour son fonctionnement optimal est un défi collectif, et il est temps que des mécanismes soient mis en place pour y remédier de la manière la plus appropriée.Mais l’une des questions fondamentales qui revient sur le devant de la scène, d’année en année, c’est bien celle des prérogatives qui doivent revenir au Parlement panafricain.Après presqu’une décennie d’expérience, la question mérite toute notre attention.Jusqu’à ce jour, le Parlement panafricain a été confiné dans un rôle consultatif, et il est bien légitime que ceux qui y siègent au nom des peuples africains aspirent à un rôle plus affirmé. Cette aspiration est d’ailleurs conforme à la vocation du Parlement panafricain, telle que prévue par les textes. L’objectif ultime qui lui est assigné est de devenir à terme une institution dotée des pleins pouvoirs sur le plan législatif, et dont les membres sont élus au suffrage universel direct.Mais les mêmes textes ne confèrent pour l’instant au Parlement panafricain qu’un rôle consultatif, et laissent aux États membres le soin de changer cette situation par un amendement du Protocole au Traité instituant la Communauté économique africaine, relatif au Parlement panafricain.Cette conception évolutive des prérogatives du Parlement panafricain est sans doute l’expression de la sagesse et du réalisme des pères fondateurs de notre Union.En se gardant de tout dogmatisme et en laissant à l’instance suprême de décision au niveau continental, c’est-à-dire, la Conférence des Chefs d’États et de gouvernements, le soin de renforcer, le moment venu, les prérogatives du Parlement, les pères fondateurs de notre Union ont prémuni l’Union africaine contre les risques qui sont susceptibles d’entraver précocement le bon fonctionnement des organes de notre Union, et donc de freiner le moteur de l’intégration africaine.Malgré nos aspirations à l’unité et à la cohésion, force est de constater que l’Afrique reste encore une mosaïque de peuples. L’Afrique est multiple et sa diversité ne peut être une richesse que si nous parvenions à transcender les particularismes hérités de l’histoire pour les mettre au service des politiques et des objectifs communs de l’Union africaine.Je demeure, pour ma part, convaincu que tout est une question de temps et qu’à l’instar du Parlement panafricain, tous les organes de notre Union exerceront à terme, avec plénitude, les prérogatives qu’il sied de leur conférer pour qu’ils épousent la marche inexorable de l’Afrique vers le progrès.Au demeurant, il vous appartient aussi à vous, Mesdames et Messieurs les membres du Parlement panafricain, d’imprimer le bon rythme au processus devant déboucher sur le renforcement des prérogatives de votre Institution, en exprimant avec force et conviction, chaque fois que l’occasion se présente, vos vues sur les grands enjeux de l’heure.Durant les neuf premières années du Parlement panafricain, j’ai noté la part active que vous avez prise dans le positionnement de l’Union africaine à travers des débats riches sur des sujets de grande importance tels que la crise financière, les changements climatiques, l’immigration, la paix et la sécurité, etc. À chacune de ces occasions, le travail que vous avez accompli a contribué à démontrer le degré de maturité auquel est parvenue notre Assemblée, en dépit des difficultés qui ont jalonné son parcours.Mais le Parlement panafricain peut bien faire davantage. Voix des peuples du continent, votre Institution a toutes les cartes en main pour jouer pleinement le rôle de courroie de transmission entre les populations africaines dans leur immense diversité et les autres organes dirigeants de l’Union africaine. Un Parlement panafricain actif et qui joue pleinement son rôle est un gage de proximité avec les citoyens de notre continent.Je vous engage dans cette perspective à retourner sur le terrain chaque fois que l’occasion vous en est donnée, pour vous mettre à l’écoute de l’Afrique profonde, de l’Afrique des humbles qui, quoi qu’on puisse en dire, nourrissent des attentes précises vis-à-vis du processus d’intégration de notre continent dont ils veulent être des acteurs à part entière.Ces attentes communes sont d’autant plus profondes que les populations perçoivent le processus d’intégration à l’échelle des sous-régions et du continent comme un moyen de réparer les blessures de l’histoire qui a séparé à l’aveuglette et éloigné par des frontières artificielles des peuples jadis intimement liés.Monsieur le Président du Parlement panafricain,Mesdames et Messieurs les membres du Parlement panafricain,Distingués invités,Mesdames et Messieurs,À l’heure de la mondialisation et de l’interdépendance, le Parlement panafricain se doit d’être à la hauteur de l’espérance qu’il suscite sur l’ensemble du continent. Pour y parvenir, il doit nouer et développer des partenariats stratégiques et s’inspirer des exemples de réussite en matière d’intégration régionale.Je me réjouis à cet égard du partenariat que le Parlement panafricain entretient depuis quelques années avec le Parlement européen et qui lui permet de construire progressivement son architecture institutionnelle et de contribuer au raffermissement de la coopération avec l’Europe en favorisant un dialogue de haut niveau sur des questions clefs, telles que la promotion de la paix et la sécurité, la gouvernance économique et le respect des droits humains [Micro éteint].Monsieur le Président du Parlement panafricain, Mesdames et Messieurs, Je voudrais également saluer le Président du Parlement Arabe dans cette salle. L’Union africaine et les pays arabes entretiennent des rapports très étroits depuis plusieurs années.Merci de votre présence, Monsieur le Président ».Monsieur le Président,Voilà donc le message du Chef de l’État togolais que j’ai eu l’honneur de vous transmettre chez vous. Vous savez très bien son engagement pour la cause africaine. Il demeure un fils avéré de l’Afrique, voué au développement de notre continent.Merci, Monsieur le Président,Mesdames et Messieurs, je vous remercie.(Applaudissements)THE PRESIDENT:Thank you very much Your Excellency.Please another round of applause for His Excellency, the Prime Minister of Togo.Let me, on behalf of the Bureau and the Members of the Pan African Parliament invite His Excellency to receive from us a gift on behalf of the Parliament.This is from the Members of the Bureau and Members of Pan African Parliament in commemoration of your visit to our parliament on the occasion of the opening of the Third Session of the Third Parliament of the Pan African Parliament.S.E.M. KWESI SÉLÉAGODJI AHOOMEY- ZUNU [PREMIER MINISTRE DE LA RÉPUBLIQUE DU TOGO]:C’est un cadeau que je reçois au nom du Président de la République et pour lui.Merci à vous tous, Mesdames et Messieurs du Parlement panafricain.THE PRESIDENT:Your Excellency Prime Minister of Togo, Your Excellencies special invited guests, Your Excellencies Members of Bureau of the Pan African Parliament, my dear Colleagues Hon. Members of the Pan African Parliament, distinguished Ladies and Gentlemen, may I now call upon the Hounorable Roger Nkodo Dang, the First Vice President of the Pan African Parliament to give a vote of thanks.HON. ROGER NKODO DANG [PREMIER VICE-PRÉSIDENT DU PARLEMENT PANAFRICAIN]:Excellence Monsieur le Premier Ministre de la République togolaise, représentant personnel de Son Excellence Monsieur Faure Essozimna GNASSINGBE, Président de la République du Togo,Leurs Excellences Mesdames, Messieurs les Présidents des Parlements nationaux et des fora parlementaires sous-régionaux,Monsieur le Vice-ministre des Affaires étrangères de la République d’Afrique du Sud,Leurs Excellences Mesdames, Messieurs les Hauts Commissaires et les représentants des Organisations internationales accréditées en Afrique du Sud,Le Parlement panafricain – le Bureau, l’ensemble des députés ainsi que le personnel du Secrétariat général – est très honoré par votre présence massive, ici ce jour, preuve du soutien inconditionnel que vous attachez à l’unité de l’Afrique et à la devise du Parlement, je cite: « Une Afrique, Une Voix ».Considérant l’accueil et l’hospitalité que l’Afrique du Sud ne cesse d’apporter à nos invités spéciaux et à nous-mêmes parlementaires;Considérant les lourdes responsabilités qui sont les vôtres au niveau de vos États et auprès du pays d’accueil dont vous êtes les représentants et qui conditionnent le seul intérêt qui est de sortir l’Afrique du fardeau des maux dont elle souffre; Afrique, continent le plus riche, mais continent de la maladie, de la faim, de l’immigration massive et la pauvreté où nous perdons les bras forts;Considérant que l’unité de l’Afrique passe par les efforts que les uns et les autres fournissent pour le bien-être des peuples africains;Le Parlement panafricain exprime une profonde gratitude à Son Excellence Monsieur le Président de la République togolaise pour son représentant de haut niveau, ici, Son Excellence Monsieur le Premier Ministre.Nous vous prions de bien vouloir lui transmettre notre attachement et notre respect aux institutions qu’il incarne, si heureusement, pour l’intérêt du Togo en particulier et de l’Afrique de manière générale.Nos remerciements s’adressent également à tous ce qui, en dépit de leurs occupations, ont laissé et ont effectué le déplacement au siège de notre Parlement, ici, à Midrand.Soyez remerciés infiniment pour votre geste de soutien de solidarité.Enfin, nous prions le Tout Puissant qu’Il vous ramène dans vos domiciles respectifs pour que vive l’Afrique, vive le Parlement panafricain.Merci!Gracias!Obrigado!Thank you!Asante!Salam!Shukran!THE PRESIDENT:Thank you very much. I now call on the Clerk of Parliament to make some housekeeping announcements.ANNOUNCEMENTSTHE CLERK:I thank you, Honourable President.After the adjournment of the sitting, there will be a photo session. However, owing to the weather, Honourable Members who are participating in the photo session will be requested to come to this side where we received the guest of honour. They will come into in the circle next to this other door. We are not going eat in the usual place.Secondly, there will be a luncheon for Members of Parliament inside the restaurant that belongs to the Parliament. There will also be a luncheon for the VIPs. The guests who are inside the Chamber, who were invited by the President, can have lunch with him.I thank you.THE PRESIDENT:Thank you very much.Honourable Members, we have now come to the end of our business for today and, therefore, this House stands adjourned until tomorrow, Tuesday, 22nd October, 2013 at 09 O’clock in the morning.I thank you.The House accordingly adjourned at 1223 hours until 0900 hours on Tuesday, 22 October, 2013
Tuesday, 22 October, 2013
THE PRESIDENT:Please, be seated.COMMUNICATION FROM THE CHAIRTHE PRESIDENT:Honourable Members, I have heard telephones ring while we are in session. May I still appeal that Rule 40(h) of our rules of procedure requires all our telephones to be switched off or, at least, on silent while we are having our sessions.Honourable Members, our guest speaker on today’s topic, His Excellency Mr. Erastus Mwencha, the Deputy Chairperson of the African Union Commission, is on his way here but he has been slightly held up in traffic. So, he is just arriving and I, therefore, crave your indulgence. I will give him a few minutes to come in the Chamber.I thank you.HIS EXCELLENCY MR. ERASTUS MWENCHA [DEPUTY CHAIRPERSON OF THE AFRICAN UNION COMMISSION]:Thank you, the Honourable Mr President of the Pan African Parliament, Honourable Members of the Pan African Parliament, Your Excellencies, ladies and gentlemen.Thank you, Mr President, for this opportunity to address this august House on matters relating to our continental integration and financing of our union.As you are well aware, this year commemorates the 50th anniversary of the founding of the Organisation of African Unity/ African Union (OAU/AU).This occasion has given us some sense of pride, as Africans, to see how far we have come from the continent that was once perceived as the "Dark Continent" to one that is now looked at with a lot of hope and expectation. We pay tribute to our founding fathers and mothers for their supreme sacrifice that liberated us and for bequeathing us with a continental framework for unity and development.It also gives us some opportunity to reflect on the challenges that have impacted the trajectory of the continent’s growth and introspection to make us to ask very difficult questions. "Did we do enough? Could we have done more?". More importantly, the occasion has provided us with a renewed purpose to focus on the energies of the future. Thus, the theme "Pan Africanism and the African Renaissance" has been the clarion call for the celebrations of our 50th Anniversary.However, we have to bear in mind the vision embedded in the theme and the vision of our fathers who laid down their lives so that we could be free. The vision of "an integrated, prosperous and peaceful Africa driven by its own citizens and representing a dynamic force in the global arena." This vision cannot be achieved without unity of purpose. You, as members of both our national and continental Parliaments, respectively, have a singularly important role to play. Mr President, that Africa is the next frontier of development is now a common theme. Africa provides huge market opportunities. It is fast becoming urbanised with the number of people living in the cities estimated to reach 50 per cent by 2030, larger than India. Six out of the ten fastest growing economies in the world are in Sub-Saharan Africa and, over the past decade, about a third of fifty-four States have consistently seen about 6 per cent growth rates in Africa. Africa is slowly but surely becoming more stable politically and economically. Most countries have adopted pragmatic economic policies. Our external debt over the last decade has reduced from over 60 per cent, in 1998, to just over 25 per cent in 2007. This phenomenon was part of Africa’s performance which was better than most regions in the world in the wake of the global economic crisis that engulfed the entire world economy.Though moving at different paces across the continent, political reforms are under way and have led to increased political stability. The number of unconstitutional governmental changes has reduced significantly as compared to the 1980s and 1990s. Conflicts are gradually being resolved and African countries, through the AU Peace and Security Mechanism and Support Operations, are taking on greater responsibility for peace on the continent.African dependency on mineral income is also gradually decreasing fueled by new developments like rapid urbanisation; an educated and expanding middle class; an expanding private sector; increased access to and innovative use of digital wireless technology; economic liberalisation and policy reforms; easier access to credit; and greater inward investments in infrastructure and capital projects.Africa has now the youngest population and will soon have the world’s largest workforce. By the end of this decade, the workforce will increase by over 160 million and by 2050, one in four of the world’s workforce will be an African. The middle class, estimated at over 300 million, is still growing.Mr President and Members of Parliament, as good as this sounds, it also highlights the challenges that we face in converting these potentials into developmental dividends for our people. As part of the continental leadership entrusted with the future of our continent, we need to ask ourselves "Are we doing enough to ensure that the future entrusted to us becomes a reality?" After five decades of independence, we are still politically and economically fragmented. We still operate as fiftyfour small markets instead of one continental market. On the world stage, where as fifty-four States we constitute the largest political block from any continent, we are often marginalised because we are unable to unite as one integrated body. We cannot continue to play victim and blame our woes on colonial heritage.The question that we ask is: Have we done enough to change this situation? We can change the scenario that obtains in Africa where, for example, less than 2.5 per cent of world trade in non-oil and nonmineral exports is even lower at an estimation of less than 1 per cent since 1992. We can change the situation that obtains in Africa. We have the highest export product concentration of any continent. We continue to rely on primary commodity exports mainly to the European Union, the United States of America and China perpetuating a cycle of dependency on these external economies. We can change the level of intra-African trade which now stands at 12 per cent as compared to what obtains in other parts of the world like North America which has 40 per cent and Western Europe at 60 per cent.Yes, as compared to other regions, African markets and borders are fragmented and difficult to navigate which makes the emergence of regionally-integrated industries and supply chains very difficult. The high cost of moving goods and services across continental borders leads to poor competitiveness and encourages Africa to look to foreign markets instead of exporting to the huge intra-African market and exploiting the intra-African potential.The absence of a viable continentally accepted financial framework for institutional international trade and a poor infrastructural connectivity in terms of air, road and marine and Information and Communications Technology (ICT) all create situations where it is often more economical to export raw materials than to process them to finished goods here in Africa.It is within our reach, for instance, to achieve a roaming facility within the continent without any financial outlays. All that is required is political will and the decision for us to move in that direction. Of course, there is no secret that in the 21st Century, fifty years after independence, it is often much easier to travel to some parts of Africa through western capitals than from one African country to another.Although we all belong to one continent and union, immigration regulations, visa requirements and differences in border controls consistently hinder the free movement of persons, goods and services from one country to another. Despite the potential to provide the world with highly skilled workforce, weak human capacity development remains a challenge which continually constrains the sustainability of growth, development and integration into the global economy.The experiences of the Asian tigers that do not have significant mineral resource endowments and yet have achieved rapid and stupendous growth and development as a result of massive investment in skills and institutional development is a clear testimony that capacity is critical to integration and development.Mr President, the challenges that Africa faces are many and often vary from country to country. However, in the context of globalisation, there is no doubt that we all must work together to tackle the issue of peace and security; the promotion of intra-Africa trade; the rational exploitation and utilisation of our natural resources; the provision of infrastructure to enable growth; and the empowerment of women and youth. This is the only way in which to achieve optimum benefits from the wealth and talent that abounds in the continent.Fortunately, the discussions on the integration have evolved progressively and, today, the question is how and not why. Whichever way the debate goes on institutional challenges, arrangements, modalities and timeframe for the union, the underlying essence of regional economic cooperation and integration for Africa’s future will remain.One thing though that I am sure we all agree with is that regional and continental integration is imperative for Africa to meet its development challenges and to overcome the limitations of Africa’s small fragmented economies as well as giving it a greater say in the management of global economic and political affairs.To achieve this desirable objective, Africa must demonstrate its readiness to pool our sovereignty. We really need to act together. Without demonstrated political will and a commitment to integrate, this will be impossible. Without the active engagement of our national Parliaments, such a commitment may never be practically articulated.Therefore, in order to transform the huge potential that is in Africa, we must all re-dedicate ourselves to African integration. The strides made by African economies in achieving economic growth must be accompanied by efforts to boost long-term competitiveness if the continent is to ensure sustainable improvements in living standards. This can only be achieved if we pool our efforts together.Operating as fifty-four States, Africa cannot hope to optimise its potential and will remain uncompetitive. The African Competitive Report 2013, which assessed prospects for sustainable growth of thirtyeight African countries, warns that it is urgent for Africa to take steps to increase competitiveness or jeopardise future growth. Without integration, it would be difficult to increase our competitiveness and without your advocacy and efforts as our legislators, both continentally and nationally, this ideal may never be achieved.Integration will also open up space to boost intra-African trade and infrastructure development. It will reduce the cost of doing business in Africa for both Africans and international investors. It will boost investments by providing a ready and accessible market. Talking about intra-African trade, this is one aspect where the Chairperson of the African Union Commission, Her Excellency Dr Dlamini-Zuma indicated that as the Pan African Parliament, time has come that you should be given a mandate not only to develop a continental framework for facilitating trade, but also developing the agenda for trade in the continent. This cannot be left to our national and individual Parliaments.It will ensure more efficient exploitation of our natural resources, energy production and distribution across the continent. It will give rise to new home-grown financial products to facilitate cross-border trade and ensure the dividends stay in Africa. It is, therefore, only through integration that Africa can achieve more cost effective application of ICT technologies and overcome the digital and knowledge divide that is currently separating us from the North.Mr President, this is a call for the building of strong institutions in the Pan African Parliament should rightfully be at the forefront of this effort. At the developmental level, some of the practical steps that are being undertaken and need your urgent support are as follows:Boosting Intra-African tradeThis will involve the ultimate removal of all barriers that hinder the growth of trade between African States and will lead to establishment of our continental free trade area by 2017.The Programme for Infrastructure DevelopmentMr President, the successful implementation of other programmes, namely the Programme for Infrastructure Development in Africa (PIDA) envisages the investment of close to US$68 billion over the next two decades to develop essential cross continental infrastructure. This will facilitate value addition of Africa’s products and optimise development gains. I am sure we all know that through pure absence or unco-ordinated infrastructure network in Africa, Africa loses as much as 40 per cent of its global competitiveness. Imagine what would happen if we gained 30 per cent of the global competitiveness. It would boost more intra-African trade and also export of value-added products to the rest of the world. Comprehensive African Agricultural Development Programme Mr President, the implementation of the Comprehensive African Agricultural Development Programme popularly known as CAADP is designed to enhance food security to remove the dependence of Africa which has over half of the world’s uncultivatable arable land that is not being utilised at the moment, and provide other continents with food. Though there has been an increase in publicprivate financing in the agriculture sector, agricultural losses are forecasted to result in the loss of between 2 and 7 per cent of GDP, and by 2050, average crop yield could decline by as much as 50 per cent due to climate change which is another challenge that we must confront continentally as well as globally.Other initiatives like the Campaign for Accelerated Reduction of Maternal Mortality in Africa (CARMMA), the Pan African University and Developmental Architectures like the African Peace and Security Architecture (APSA) and the African Governance Architecture (AGA) are all part of Africa’s integration and development agenda and a wider effort for strengthening continental institutions.We acknowledge that over the last ten years since our transformation, there has been enhanced institutional framework. We have seen improvements. However, there are still challenges that peace and security and the fight against terrorism continue to pose. Just on this one point, we have, of course, not only seen improved governance but new challenges that emerge, for instance, from electoral processes that also provide challenges from internationally-linked terrorism just as the recent one that we witnessed in Kenya and what we also continue to see, for instance, in the Sahel that is becoming very complex and requires that Africa needs to interrogate the tools that we have and also come up with mechanisms that can address these new and very complex challenges.Mr President, the full and successful implementation of all these programmes requires resources. Without a meaningful continental strategy for generating domestic resources for development, this cannot be achieved. Even more importantly, without the commitment and support of member States to shoulder the cost of integration, this will not be achieved. Currently, the trends do not appear sustainable and there is need for us to intensify the search for alternative sources of funding.Mr President, that brings me to the reflection of the 2014 Budget. For 2014, the Assembly of Heads of State and Government of our union has approved a total of US$308,048,376. This represents 9.81 per cent increase over the 2013 Budget and 2.59 per cent increase in the assessed contribution of member States.The main components of the Budget are Operational Costs at US$137.9 million and the Programmes Budget at US$ 170 million. I should underline here that this Budget only constitutes that intervention in which, as a union, we act collectively and excludes the national component that will also contribute to the regional integration agenda as already articulated from what we have just said above.The distribution by organs of the programme Budget is as follows:(a)African Union Commission (including NEPAD) - 40.7 per cent(b)Other organs, including the Pan African Parliament - 12.7 per cent(c)Special Projects - 7.5 per cent(d)Pass through Fund - 28.1 per cent(e)Technical Assistance which is provided directly by some of our development partners accounts for 11.7 per cent, bringing us to the total of the said US$ 308, 048,376This Budget, as you are well aware, has already been approved by the summit and, for the first time, in AU budgeting, a funding gap of US$78,185,573 was determined and the commission was tasked to explore options for filling the gap. This is being done through reprioritisation and consultations with organs, member States and partners.A significant portion of the Programme Budget is funded by partners and the implications are obvious. In fact, on the Programme Budget, the contribution from development partners is as high as 90 per cent. The implications, as I said earlier, are obvious: overdependency on partners, priority distortions, insecurity of funding and subjecting our future to partners’ conditionalities. These are just the most obvious ones.The question is not just about the money. It is also about our commitment to integration. Are we serious enough about Africa’s integration to invest in it or are we ready to leave external investors to dictate the terms on which we integrate? This is the crux of the matter.This makes the union vulnerable and dependent on partners, leads to compromised ownership of our continental programme and to priority distortions. Current trends in global financial circles clearly indicate that this situation is not sustainable and, sooner than later, Africa will have to look at domestic options for funding its development agenda.It is in this regard that we at the commission would like to work closely with you to help explore alternative sources of funding. This will ensure access to adequate, predictable and assured funding. It will reduce dependency and vulnerability to partners and strengthen programme ownership.As you are well aware, at the last summit, the Heads of State and Government took some significant decisions to look at this situation. These include the need to explore options following from the Report of Eminent Persons chaired by President Obasanjo on Alternative Sources of Funding.Another innovation aimed at achieving this agenda is the authorisation by the summit for the formation of an African Union Fund for voluntary contributions to mobilise private sector support for funding of the integration agenda. This funding can also come from those governments that may be ready to fund designated continental projects or programmes but will only be run as a trust fund.Currently, consultations are on-going with a wide scope of stakeholders from Africa and elsewhere to establish a US$2 billion endowment fund to be called the African Foundation to support specific development initiatives across Africa.As the world comes up with the post-2015 agenda, we must develop our own agenda. Consultations are currently under way to develop Africa’s blueprint for integration and development over the next fifty years. We hope and trust that as Members of Parliament, you will devote some time to debate and come up with a vision of where Africa should be in the next fifty years because the 2063Agenda is a continental one and there is provision already made and arrangements provided for consultations with all stakeholders.We believe that you will also be involved those consultations if this Parliament can also devote some time to debate the 2063 Agenda. These initiatives can only succeed if we are able to resolve the matter of dependency on external sources of funding.Mr President and Honourable Members of Parliament, the importance of your advocacy and legislative support for the implementation of these initiatives cannot be over exaggerated. We look forward to a time when Parliament will have a bigger role in developing, implementing and oversight of not only our Budget and key elements of our integration agenda but also designing, monitoring and implementing the integration itself.Your support, as Parliamentarians, will determine how Africa rises to the challenge of the future.Mr President, on this note, I once again wish to thank you and honourable members for this precious occasion.I thank you.ApplauseTHE PRESIDENT:Honourable Colleagues, may we give another round of applause.ApplauseTHE PRESIDENT:Honourable Members, I have, in front of me, a list of speakers and I will give three minutes for each intervention.HON. MEMBER:Mr President, I have observed that there are two very important documents presented and I find it difficult to discuss the two documents in one intervention. Would it not be proper to separate the two so that we discuss the Agenda 2063 and then later discuss the Budget because the Budget is very, very important for us. So, I just want to seek your guidance on the matter.Thank you.THE PRESIDENT:Yes, Honourable, is it on the same issue?HON. MASTER GOYA (BOTSWANA):Thank you, Mr President. I just rise to support the sentiments that have just been expressed by my colleague on that side and I think it is important that we separate these two issues, given that it is the first time that the AU Budget has been presented at the Pan African Parliament.I thank you, Mr President.22 THE PRESIDENT:Honourable Colleagues, we have, on our list, thirty-three speakers who have expressed their intention to intervene and, going by that, it means that if we allocate three minutes to each speaker, we will be here way past the sitting period of our session. We, therefore, would like to request Members to try as much as possible to intervene within the allocated time. It is one presentation that has been made by our presenter and, hopefully, whenever one of the thirty-three speakers has already taken something up, others can leave that and discuss the other points. I am sure by the time we are done, in about two hours, we would have been able to conclusively intervene on this issue. I, therefore, invite the Honourable Mohamed Ali Foulieh from Djibouti to take the Floor.HON. MOHAMED ALI FOULIEH [DJIBOUTI]:Merci, Monsieur le Président, de m’avoir donné la parole.Je félicite le Vice-président de la Commission de nous avoir présenté l’Agenda 2063 et le budget qui a été adopté par la Conférence des Chefs d’États.J’aimerais tout simplement savoir un peu plus sur le programme de l’Agenda 2063. En effet, je ne vois pas la place qui a été réservée au Parlement panafricain.Je relève simplement que c’est la Présidente de la Commission de l’Union africaine et d’autres organes tels que la Banque mondiale qui ont été mandatés.Je relève également que la Commission devrait consulter les experts techniques et la société civile, mais la place du Parlement dans l’Agenda 2063 n’est pas clarifiée.Donc, j’aimerais savoir quelle est la place qui a été réservée au Parlement panafricain?Je vous remercie.HON. THABANG LINUS KHOLUMO [LESOTHO]:Thank you Mr. President.Honourable Members, I am delighted to have an opportunity to have an input in today’s important debate.Mr. President and Honourable Members, the presenter has rightly reminded us of our history. We know where we come from and we know how far. Regrettably, that part of our history is not our making. The world bears us witness here. We have come this far through thick and thin. Our forefathers and mothers fought wars to liberate Africa. We need not go back there. There are still, though, a lot of challenges such as poverty, malaria, AIDS, unemployment and, above all, division that was left by the colonisers. Hence while there is a need for a programme of action for Africa, we have to decide our future and the future of Africa.Mr. President, Honourable Members, Africa is endowed with a lot of resources and among them are its people who are us. This resource needs to be nurtured. We need to decide what kind of education we need that will equip us with skills to tackle our problems. We have to do away with colonial education, Mr. President, because we know it was not meant to improve us. We are united but divided. How many languages are we using in this House, Mr President?The African Union (AU) agreed way back that Kiswahili should be an African language but we are still using these many languages of the colonisers. Mr. President, my input is that we should agree, in this agenda that, among other things, Kiswahili should be introduced as one language that should be taught to standard ones in all African countries, starting from next year.Thank you.HON. DIKGANG PHILLIP MAKGALEMELE [BOTSWANA]:Thank you, Mr. President.Firstly, Mr. President, I want to thank the presenter for a very enlightening presentation. I want to associate myself with the proposal which has just been made by my colleague from Lesotho, Honourable Kholumo, on the issue of the need for us to have a common African language and being one of the people who speak a bit of Kiswahili, having studied in Tanzania during my earlier years, I can only support him. I also Consider it to be a fairly easy language to learn.Mr President, I do agree with the sentiments of the presenter that we need to come up with an agenda for Intra-Africa Trade. Trade, as we all know, has huge potential for employment creation and, also, for poverty eradication and I want to recommend that it be one of our resolutions that we will have an agenda robustly driven by the Pan African Parliament on Intra-African Trade. I am hoping that, Mr President, you will be able to designate one of your Vice-Presidents to help us lead in the process. I happen to chair the Committee on Trade, Customs and Immigration Matters and I can assure this House that my committee remains fully committed to seeing the realisation of the Intra-African Trade.I also want to support the presenter’s proposal that there is need for us to come up with alternative sources of funding within the AU. I believe we have adequate expertise and resources within Africa which can be repackaged to actually finance the work of the AU and the broader agenda for the development of Africa. However, I think, Mr President, as we look at how best we can broaden the alternative sources of funding, we must also look at how best we can enhance the oversight function of the PAP over the AU on the issue of resources. It is a positive development that, for the first time, the Budget, though belatedly, because it is already approved, is being presented to us. I think, Mr President, that we must look at the mechanisms we use in order to enforce financial discipline within our respective governments such as, for example the establishment of the Estimates Committee and the Public Accounts Committee.I thank you, Mr PresidentHON. SUAD AL-FATIH AL BADAWI [SUDAN]:Thank you very much Mr President, Sir.I have some intervention on three or four things about this inspiring presentation which we have heard this morning. Everything is centred on priorities.I think we are not very serious about the real integration of Africa and this calls for putting down our priorities before anything else. I think our priority should be on the training of young people. Without training, we can go nowhere. People with little work to do will just go on talking as we are doing right now.Mr President, the importation of technology is another priority. We now import canned fruits and meat instead of spending our money on importing technology.Another priority should be aimed at finding mechanisms to combat unemployment. For most of us, unemployment is to find jobs for young people. I do not think this is the way. The way is to create opportunities, ways and means for our population, young men and women, to grow their food, weave their clothes and then look into other things.Another priority is to look at what we have inside Africa. Africa is a wealthy continent. Instead of finding people from outside to give us help, I think we have got enough to give, not to take.Finally, I want to draw our attention to and ask that we study the example of Japan. Wrecked as it was by the Second World War, and without any natural wealth, Japan is now leading. The example of Japan has to be studied very carefully. Japan, Malaysia, Germany, China and India all depended on themselves by looking inside themselves for development.I thank you.HON. MOHAMED GUIDJI [ALGERIA]بسم الله الرحمن الرحيمسيدي الرئيس ،،،شي جميل أن يقدم الأتحاد الأفريقي لأول مرة هذه الميزانية أمام أعضاء هذا البرلمان الموقروهذا شيئ نثمنه سيدي الرئيس عندما تصفحنا هذه الميزانية المخصصة وخاصةً المخصصة منها للبرلمان الإفريقي نجدها هذيلة جداً مقابل النشاطات التي ينوي البرلمان الإفريقي أن يقوم بها في كل مرة ناتي إلى هنا وأثناء دورات هذا البرلمان الموقر وخاصة عندما نكون نحن كلجان نسطر البرامج في كل مرة من اجل النهوض بنشاطات هذا البرلمان لكننا في المرة القادمة نتفاجئ بعدم تطبيق هذه البرامج وذلك بحجة نقص التمويل لهذه البرامج فما الفائدة اذاً من هذه البرامج السيد الرئيس هناك ايضاً شيء آخر أُريد ان اضيفة يتعلق بوسائل العمل فوسائل العمل غير كافية وغير متوفرة بالطبع الكافي لتأدية مهامنا كبرلمانيين في هذا البرلمان مثلاً الترجمة الركيكة والردئية جداً خاصةً فيما يتعلق بالوثائق في اللغة العربية هناك ايضاً الترجمة فيما يخص الورشات سيدي الرئيس هناك احياناً لا نجد هذه الوثائق للترجمة من حتى المترجمين لكي نرسل ملاحظانتا الى اخواننا من مختلف الدول ومن مختلف الشعوب عندي ملاحظات واسئلة أريد ان اطرحها على السيد الذي قدم لنا هذا العرض هل لكم سيدي ان تقدموا لنا من هي الدول التي لم تدفع مستحقاتها من اجل المساهمة في استمرار الاتحاد الافريقي وما هي الطريقة المتبعة لتعزيز مداخيل ميزانية الاتحاد الافريقي وشكراً سيدي الرئيسHON. CHIEF FORTUNE CHARUMBIRA [ZIMBABWE]:Thank you, Mr President.I also thank the Deputy Chairperson of the African Union Commission His Excellency Mwencha for the good presentation and thank him for appearing so many times at the Pan African Parliament to share what is happening at the AU. Now, I have two points. The first comment is on the issue of the Agenda 2063. Listening to the presentation by Deputy Chairperson Mwencha on the issues of value addition, lack of economic integration in Africa, poverty, poor trade and the rest, you will note, as you are aware, that we have been lamenting on these issues for probably more than seventy, eighty or even 100 years. They are actually older than the AU itself or even the OAU. So, it means, maybe, that our approach has not been the appropriate one and I am convinced that Africa is not able to deliver in terms of performance and uplifting the livelihoods of its people because, I think that, as Africans, we have not been authentic.The African countries have not been authentic. We talk of an African Agenda but we do not have African values. We do not have an African springboard that can make us craft a good course and drive that agenda as Africans. Now, unless we come back to the basics, to the root causes of the problem, all these are symptoms of some root causes. One speaker mentioned education. I do agree that it is the type of mind or mindset, mind frameworks that are wrong for us in Africa.Commenting on the budget, Mr Mwencha, since you ascended to the AU, you are aware that, as the Pan African Parliament, we have been complaining about low levels of funding for our programmes. This has been mentioned. We now tend to be funding sittings of the Parliament and the committees only. We need to get more money in so that we are actually oriented, do fact finding missions and be able to provide quality and timely advice as well as recommendations to the AU.I thank you.HON. MOHAMED YOUSIF ABDULLAH [SUDAN]:شكرا سيدي الرئيس.أنا سعيد للغاية لأن الاتحاد الأفريقي يقدم ميزانيته هذا العام إلى البرلمان الأفريقي ، عملاً بالمادة الثالثة من أهداف البروتوكول المنشئ للمعاهدة المنشئة للجماعة الاقتصادية الأفريقية فيما يتعلق بالبرلمان الأفريقي. تعليقاتي:بلغ عجز الموازنة التشغيلية مليوناً ستة آلاف وستين دولاراً. وبالمثل ، تبلغ ميزانية مساهمة الدول الأعضاء حوالي ٪ من إجمالي ميزانية الاتحاد الأفريقي ، وتعتمد إلى حد كبير على الشركاء بنسبة 59٪. أقدم مقترحات عملية لمساعدة الاتحاد الأفريقي على الخروج من هذا المأزق.ثانياً: أن يقدم الاتحاد الأفريقي تفاصيل ميزانيته إلى البرلمان الأفريقي للنظر في أولويات الموازنات التشغيلية والنظر في أولويات الميزانية البرنامجية. المساهمة الثالثة التي يمكن أن يقدمها الاتحاد الأفريقي هي استخدام التجارة لزيادة الدخل القومي لبلداننا بطريقة تساعد الدول الأعضاء على الالتزام بمبدأ الزيادة السنوية. في هذا ، يمكننا الخوض في بعض التفاصيل. نحن ، بلداننا ، ننفق الكثير من الأموال على استيراد العديد من السلع من خارج إفريقيا ، وهي تصل إلى مليارات الدولارات. هؤلاء المليارات ، إذا تعاملنا معهم بطريقة عقلانية ، سيكون هناك فائض لدعم الاتحاد الأفريقي بشكل مباشر ، وأنا أدعوعلى الاتحاد الأفريقي أن يقدم تفاصيل الميزانيات إلى هذا البرلمان وسنساعده بإذن الله على تحقيق الأهداف المرجوة لشعوبنا وقارتنا.شكرا جزيلا لك سيادة الرئيسHON. INNOCENT NKURUNZIZA [BURUNDI]:Merci, Monsieur le Président, de m’accorder la parole.Je voudrais aussi m’associer à mes collègues pour remercier le Représentant de l’Union africaine pour son exposé.En effet, en Afrique, nous sommes indépendants politiquement, mais au niveau économique nous sommes toujours dépendants et cette dépendance économique est la source du néocolonialisme.Chez nous, au Burundi, il y a un adage qui dit: « Celui qui ne se nourrit pas, ne peut pas prétendre à l’indépendance ».Nous constatons que l’Afrique est un continent consommateur. Elle (l’Afrique) ne produit pas. Alors comment prétendre, si nous n’avons pas l’indépendance économique pour faire fonctionner l’Union africaine, nous libérer du néocolonialisme?On a appris qu’il y a beaucoup de fonds d’Afrique qui sont exportés vers l’extérieur, voire même qui sont plus grands que les fonds asiatiques exportés vers l’extérieur.Notre collègue qui est intervenu au nom de l’Union africaine, nous a présenté de bons projets régionaux qui peuvent donner la croissance continentale. Alors pourquoi, mes chers collègues, on ne peut pas faire un plaidoyer pour que ces fonds viennent contribuer aux bons du trésor au niveau de la BAD ou du FMI pour que l’Afrique soit crédible et que ses projets soient financés?Deuxièmement: « Une Afrique, Une Voix », mais je dirais aussi, comme mes précédents collègues l’ont dit: « Une Afrique, Une Voix, Une Langue », parce que les langues sont les germes, les séquelles et les restes du colonialisme. Jusqu’à présent ces langues sont la source des divisions.Alors, je ne peux pas prétendre qu’on puisse avoir une langue en une année ou l’année prochaine. On peut programmer pour cinq ans et confirmer aussi le swahili, parce que dans le Protocole au Traitéinstituant la Communauté économique africaine, relatif au Parlement panafricain, le swahili est une langue commerciale et elle ne peut pas porter [...].Merci.HON. PATRICK MWALULA MUCHELEKA [ZAMBIA]:Thank you, Mr President, for the opportunity.Let me join my colleagues in appreciating the presentation that has been made by the African Union Commission Deputy Chairperson. I remember His Excellency Erastus Mwencha when we lived with him in Zambia at the time he served as COMESA Secretary-General, and we are very proud of him.Mr President, talking particularly about a shared strategic framework for growth and sustainable development, Africa, as a continent, in the last ten years or so, has been able to grow its economy to an extent where, on average, we have registered more than 7 per cent GDP growth per annum. However, we have not been able to retransfer that growth into improving the livelihoods of the majority of the people. Our people continue to wallow in poverty, inequality and unemployment. One of the major reasons is that we have very weak institutions and as we plan to move into the future for the next fifty years, we need to invest in building strong institutions.First of all, before we even look outside, we need to be inward looking by looking at how we can deepen our democracy and good governance so that we have, indeed, as the Deputy Chairperson mentioned strong and functioning institutions so that, over time, we begin to move away from this aspect of strengthening individuals. We need to be looking at how, indeed, we can create wealth and achieve inclusive growth.To do that, in my view, Mr President, we need, indeed, to strengthen the institutions and also prepare adequately for the threats that might be besieging us. There are threats such as how we respond to issues of climate change and global warming. Most importantly, we must also deepen regional integration so that some of those structural and institutional rigidities that affect our continent are, indeed, dealt with. We, then, can move forward as a very strong united Africa.Mr President, I thank you.HON. JOYCE MUSU FREEMAN SUMO [LIBERIA]:I thank you, Mr President.I would like to begin by thanking the presenter for this document. My colleagues have already said it all but let me just make a brief intervention.On the question of strong political commitment, I feel that could be shown through African leaders or African countries which are rich supporting the poorer nations until they get on their feet. That could be a sign of brotherhood in Africa.My sister talked about training. We have resources that foreign nationals come and take away from us. We have diamonds, gold, good food, timbers and bauxite but people come to Africa and use our own resources because we do not produce. They take away our resources and produce finished products and we pay more for them. We can train our people to produce from our own resources so that we are able to sustain ourselves.On the issue of the Budget of the AU, I would like to thank you for preparing this document. At least we know that the Pan African Parliament will benefit a little.However, it seems that they are relying on our duty to ensure that the Member of Parliament be present at this Pan African Meeting. Since you are here, Mr Deputy Chairperson, I want to call upon you to ensure that when you go back to the AU and there is a summit where our various Presidents are present, let them know that the representatives that were elected by their Parliaments to represent us need to be present at all times to discuss Africa’s issues. When it is time to come to the Pan African Parliament, they always have something that will make it impossible for the members to come and attend the meeting. There are important things that people need to discuss and take back for further discussion with their people.This is my intervention and I hope that it is taken into consideration.Thank you.HON. SHITAYE MINALE TIZUZA [ETHIOPIA]:Thank you, Mr President.I would like to thank His Excellency Mr Erastus Mwencha, Deputy Chairperson of the AU. The agenda for Africa for the next fifty years is very ambitious and I believe that all of us have to work and participate in a every urgent sense. All the issues raised are very important but my concern is about human resource which is the key for development, especially in the African context in that we have a very large workforce as mentioned in the presentation. Even the migration of educated people going abroad is extremely serious. I believe that it is not only for the economic benefit, but that our attitude towards our continent, in a very broad sense, is really undermined.So, in the next fifty years, in its activities, the AU and its organs have to work seriously on the change of attitude of the people of Africa towards our home continent. So, I would like to have some clarification about the vision which is there for the development of human power. What are the strategies which are there?Secondly, I want to add my intervention on integration. This would be what kind of activity is there, that is integration in the regions and integration as a whole continent. I do not believe that integration can come by simply talking in meetings, but we have to work strategically in schools, especially on the young generation, to bring spiritual integration and we have to give attention to infrastructure connections which bring Africa physical integration. We can exchange goods, ideas and culture among us. That makes real integration. So, if we can integrate in the real sense then we can benefit from our unity and integrity because I believe that Africa is a very rich continent in nature, but the world, colonial sentiment and instability make Africa to be backwards at present.Lastly, I appreciate the presentation of the 2014 AU Budget at this session and I would like to congratulate all of us on this.Thank you, very much.HON. BAKARY OUATTARA [CÔTE D’IVOIRE]:Merci, Monsieur le Président.L’Agenda 2063 est une idée noble quand on voit les objectifs fixés qui sont l’atteinte de la vision de l’Union africaine, avec pour fondement essentiel le panafricanisme.Les actions à mener sont vastes et couteuses. Pour le moment, l’Afrique dépend financièrement de l’extérieur au vu du budget 2014 financé à plus de 50 % par l’extérieur.Il faut être réaliste, Monsieur le Président.La situation actuelle de misère de l’Afrique arrange l’extérieur qui trouve là, une vache à lait à traire à moindre coût. Il trouvera les moyens de nous assujettir pour mieux nous exploiter. À mon humble avis, la vision de l’Union africaine ne pourra être obtenue que si nous avions eu l’indépendance économique. Pour moi, la première étape de l’Agenda devrait aboutir à une autonomie financière.Mais avant, je voudrais parler du budget de l’Union africaine. Le budget de fonctionnement me semble trop élevé par rapport au budget des programmes.Monsieur le Président,Si nous avons une insuffisance de financement des programmes, comment voulez-vous que nous puissions atteindre les objectifs que nous nous sommes fixés au niveau de l’Agenda?Je dirais, pour conclure, qu’il faut prioriser les objectifs et se donner les moyens de les atteindre sans tendre la main à l’extérieur. En effet, tant que nous dépendrons de l’extérieur, nous ne ferons que « du sur place », parce que depuis cinquante ans d’indépendance, les mêmes problèmes de nutrition, d’éducation, de mauvaise gouvernance persistent dans la grande majorité des pays africains.Je vous remercie.(Applaudissements)HON. LUCKY MULUSA [ZAMBIA]:I thank you Sir for this opportunity.May I thank His Excellency Mwencha and may I also recognise the contributions of all the other Members of Parliament...Point of OrderHON. DIKGANG PHILLIP MAKGALEMELE [BOTSWANA]:I just want to seek clarification as to whether you allow Honourable Members to speak from a seat which they are not designated.THE PRESIDENT:Is the Honourable Member not in his appropriate seat?HON. LUCKY MULUSA [ZAMBIA]:My apologies Sir, may I move to my appropriate seat?THE PRESIDENT:Please do, Honourable Mulusa.HON. LUCKY MULUSA [ZAMBIA]:I thank you Sir and wish to thank Honourable Makgalemela for his sense of humour.Sir, I began by recognising and appreciating the speech by His Excellency Mwencha and also appreciating all the contributions of the Honourable Members of Parliament here assembled.Sir, Africa’s history started around the 1960s and we do know that, at that time, our GDPs were actually better than those of Asian countries. The question is: What is our biggest challenge since the Asian countries have moved forward and we have not?Sir, our biggest challenge is the source of our systems. Our economic, political and electoral systems are borrowed from developed nations. The question is: If we critically analyse these borrowed economic, political and electoral systems that are determined in the developed countries, where they are determined by mechanisms of thought and social needs that are different from our own, as we copied and adopted foreign ways of managing national affairs, did we ensure that we separated that which we have in common from that in which we differ with developed countries who crafted them?How come, for instance, Sir, violence, nepotism and a divided society are not bi-products of the same electoral systems in the western world that we have adopted?Sir, we do not have a similar society that gave birth to the political and electoral system we agreed to adopt. These electoral systems can only work in places where literacy levels and public awareness are high. We should realise that we have not yet reached such status and, therefore, those political and electoral systems might need modification to suit our unique circumstances.Sir, when listening to His Excellency Mwencha and the Honourable Members here assembled, we should be impressed with our analytical minds as a way to find closure to Africa’s collective suffering, a way to walk away from the misery of past, the misery of the immediate past and the misery of the present in the days of African people’s struggling lives, where what is making us push on to another day is simply our sanity.We should declare as follows:1)That we should define for ourselves the qualities our leaders must possess;2)We should never trust any political manifesto and neither should we expect any unfailing guide from the donor community an d their institutions; and3)Let us learn from the negative occurrences in our nations and, case by case, allow interpretation of our experiences to feed into solutions.Let me end by saying mature democracy in the western world was a consequence of development and not that development was the consequence of democracy. That is food for thought.I thank you.HON. LUHAGA JOELSON MPINA [TANZANIA]:Ahsante sana Mheshimiwa Rais na niwashukuru sana Waheshimiwa Wabunge ambao wame-move Azimio hapa sasa hivi la kuhakikisha kwamba Kiswahili kinakuwa ni lugha ya Afrika ambao ndio ukweli wenyewe. Nawashukuru sana.Mheshimiwa Rais, namshukuru ndugu yetu, Mheshimiwa Mwencha ambaye amemaliza kuwasilisha hoja hii hapa.Mheshimiwa Rais, leo tunazungumza miaka 50 iliyopita na sasa tunataka tuzungumzie miaka 50 ijayo, na tuna hii ajenda yetu. Lakini ni akina nani sasa wanaoiandaa hii ajenda yetu na wanawashirikishaje wahusika ili kuhakikisha kwamba tunaandaa ajenda ambayo ita-suit Waafrika wote? Tumefanya vizuri na tumefanya vibaya; nchi nyingi zinajisifu kuhusu ukuaji wa uchumi wake kwamba umekua kwa asilimia 6 mpaka 8. Zinajivunia sana! Lakini wananchi wake ni masikini, wananchi wake hawapati elimu sawasawa, wananchi wake wanakufa na njaa huku nchi zile ziki-declare kwamba zimepiga hatua sana katika ukuaji wa uchumi. Vijana wa nchi zile ni masikini, hawana ajira, nchi zinajivunia kwamba uchumi wao umekua! Nchi nyingine zinajivunia ukuaji wa pato (per capita income), wanajivunia sana ikiwemo Afrika ya Kusini. Wanajivunia sana, lakini watu wake ni masikini sana, hawafanani na hilo pato la Taifa ambalo wanajivunia kwa kila mtu.Mheshimiwa Rais, kwa hiyo, tumefanya vizuri, lakini tumefanya vibaya. Sasa haya yote leo tumejivunia figures, tumejivunia hizi takwimu, tunaingiaje katika agenda hii ya miaka 50 inayokuja ili tuweze kuondokana na hali hii?Mheshimiwa Rais, nchi zetu nyingi zinajivunia maendeleo waliyopiga ambayo ni madogo sana bado, lakini bado wana mikopo mikubwa sana na mikopo hiyo, tayari nchi hizi karibu zitaelemewa na karibu nchi hizi mwisho wa siku watazipiga mnada. Lakini sisi tunajidai kwamba tunapiga hatua, tumejenga barabara, lakini barabara zile walizojenga, viwanda walivyojenga ni mikopo mikubwa waliyokopa na nchi hizo tayari zimelemewa kwa sababu hata uwezo wao wa kukusanya kodi sasa hauwezi kulipa madeni yale. Sasa tunaingiaje katika mpango wa miaka 50? Tumejipangaje? Akina nani wanatuandalia mpango huo ili tuweze kuondoka katika hali hii kubwa tuliyonayo?Mheshimiwa Rais, dakika tatu ni chache sana, lakini niseme, hii bajeti iliyowasilishwa, naona wenzangu wanapongeza, lakini mimi sina cha kupongeza katika bajeti ya AU iliyowasilishwa. Kwanza haituelezi kwamba unapozungumzia tu… (Makofi)Mheshimiwa Rais, ahsante sana.HON. BERNADETTE LAHAI [SIERRA LEONE]:Thank you very much, Mr President.Let me also thank the presenter for the presentation.A lot has been said about the budget and I want to agree with the last speaker in saying that we are Parliaments that discuss budgets and when budgets come to us, they do not come in this form. They come to us with expenditure and income of the previous year’s budget so that we know exactly was expended. They also come with programmes that have or not been implemented and the consequences of the programmes that have not been implemented.We are happy that we are making progress. For a start, we have this budget and we can excuse them for the lapses but for the 2015 Budget and subsequent budgets, let us, please, have all the necessary background information that will help us to interrogate and analyse the budget so that we can come up with strategic concerns and issues that will be ploughed back into that budget, even before it goes for adoption by the different Heads of State.On the issue of the Agenda 2063, I will not talk about all the theoretical issues because what the agenda is actually telling us is how we hope to get to the document that is going to form our roadmap for the next fifty years. Getting it right is as important as the issues that should be in this document. What we have been told here is what will happen, when, by whom and with what.With that, I just want to go to the last page, wherein, we have the proposed roadmap for the development of the AU Agenda. We are already in October and I presume that Phase one to six of that roadmap has already been implemented. Can we be told whether it has already been implemented or not. A proposal like this should also have a budget because if we want to meet this roadmap we should have a budget in place for us to ensure that we do not have any stumbling block in achieving the development of this agenda by June next year, when it shall be presented to the people of Africa.The issue of diversity was stressed here. Of course, I will not go as far as saying that Kiswahili be the language because we know that even in West Africa has developed languages like Yoruba and Hausa that are also widely spoken and even spoken in universities. People can have a whole PhD on one aspect of Yoruba or Hausa. So, I would not go as far but our diversity is not going to be complete if we do not have any one language. Even in this Parliament, when there is no interpretation or translation of one language, be it French, English or Spanish, there would be screaming. This is undermining our diversity.Mr President, I thank you.HON. VINCENT DABILGOU [BURKINA FASO]:Merci beaucoup, Monsieur le Président.Je voudrais, à mon tour, féliciter le Vice-président pour la qualité de son intervention. Évidemment dans une telle intervention, il ne peut pas tout dire. Mais nous avions su voir dans son intervention qu’il met à nu les combats, de mon point de vue, tous les jugements négatifs et encore pessimistes qu’il y a en Afrique.Je crois que la communication qu’il a donnée est une communication confiante. Il a suffisamment dit que les économies qui croissent dans les normes sont de l’Afrique. Il a dit également que nous avons jugulé l’inflation qui est passée de 67 à 7 %. Je crois que c’est une bonne chose. Mais, il a surtout parlé du dividende démographique. Je pense que c’est un aspect assez important parce que l’urbanisation est une richesse sur notre continent.Je voudrais, Monsieur le Président, dire qu’il faut que l’Union africaine ait un programme pour les villes africaines, parce que regardez les capitales et les villes secondaires dans nos pays ; la ville est une richesse, elle doit contribuer à l’économie. Nous n’avons pas l’impression que l’Union africaine a une politique d’urbanisation. Il faut accueillir les enfants qui naissent ; et vous voyez l’émigration. C’est sur ce point-là que je voudrais dire que dans son document, il y a un peu d’insuffisance.Je dois aussi redire que, c’est vrai, la croissance est réelle, mais la croissance à elle seule ne suffit pas. Nous devons regarder dans la stratégie, la souveraineté que nous devons avoir sur nos ressources naturelles. Je pense que sur ce point, le Botswana a donné l’exemple. Le Botswana a su faire un bon usage de ses ressources naturelles et le Botswana est passé, aujourd’hui, de PMA. Aujourd’hui, le Botswana est devenu le pays le moins corrompu. Je pense que nous devrions prendre l’exemple, parce que nous avons de gisements et de richesses et dans nos documents qu’il nous a présentés, nous n’avons pas vu la traduction d’une réelle volonté d’avoir une souveraineté sur nos ressources naturelles et en particulier la terre.Je ne voudrais pas oublier l’intégration qui a été si bien dite par le communicateur. L’intégration doit avoir de points nodaux et je pense que nous devons, dans notre intégration, apprendre d’abord ce qui est primaire, apprendre à voyager librement dans notre continent et cela est impossible. Je suis d’accord avec le commerce intra-africain mais je veux une intégration qui soit une intégration pro-production, une intégration qui soit pro-emploi, qui soit procommerce.Je pense que sur ce point, le document est très bien et je voudrais, donc de ce point de vue, donner tout mon appui et tout mon soutien pour l’Agenda qui a été présenté.Le budget est très clair, mais je pense que nous devons avoir un mandat que l’UA vient de donner, parce que nous pensons qu’en tant que PAP, l’UA parle d’intégration, parle de communication.Je pense que les meilleurs communicateurs, ceux qui peuvent faire l’intégration des peuples, ce sont les députés, c’est le Parlement panafricain.(Applaudissements)Merci Monsieur le Président.HON. SHEKU B. B. DUMBUYA [SIERRA LEONE]:Thank you very much, Mr President.Taking the cue from the Honourable Member who was talking about the budget, I wish to say that budgets are normally meant for Parliaments. Because of the fact that issues of the budget are not being presented to us, I would want to say, here, that presentation of the budget is hollow. It is a hollow presentation because details have not been presented to us. And the fact that they have not been presented with details means that the African Union Commission is not taking the Pan African Parliament seriously. Let the AUC know that we, here, are the accredited representatives of the people, elected by those people to articulate their concerns and aspirations. We should be seen to be more important than people that are working there.Let them take us seriously next time. Let me talk about this diversity and integration of Africa. Mr President, let me say that we, the Englishspeaking people of Africa, are making integration difficult because our colleagues, that is the Frenchspeaking colleagues of Africa, are all making a conscious effort to learn English, but we are very lazy. We are not making any effort to learn French. (Applause) Let us, the English-speaking people of Africa, try to make a conscious effort to learn French so that we can integrate well. That is very, very important, Mr President.Mr President, one colleague talking about the electoral system ended by leaving us a food for thought. Let us think about this theme. We are talking about democracy, democracy and democracy. Is democracy an assurance for development? Mr President, how do we explain the pace of development that certain undemocratic countries are making? For instance, can China be classified as a truly democratic county? What about Rwanda? Does Rwanda really have impressive democratic credentials? But they are making progress. We have to think very seriously about this democracy. We are looking for modification, Mr President. One very interesting thing that I have found is that of talking about the idea of coming up with new ideas for producing significant achievement.The reason for this, Mr President, is that whatever we conceive of these new ideas, we have to make sure that they are implemented. If they are not implemented, you cannot talk about any achievement. So, the moment we think of ideas, we have to make sure that implementation goes side by side with conception of these new ideas. Then, we can make some improvement. Then Mr President, I feel the Agenda for 2063 is good but it is too ambitious. We should have talked about an agenda of twenty-five years.Thank you.HON. HUGUES ALEXANDRE BARRO CHAMBRIER [GABON]:Merci.Monsieur le Président,Je voudrais remercier notre présentateur – la présentation qui a été faite par le Vice-président de la Commission de l’Union africaine – et je voudrais dire que je suis d’accord avec l’Honorable MUCHELEKA de Zambie et l’Honorable Bakary OUATTARA de Côte d’Ivoire pour considérer qu’effectivement, c’est très bien de penser à 2063, mais il y a un économiste éminent qui s’appelait Keynes qui disait: « À long terme, nous serons tous morts ».Je ne sais pas combien d’entre nous seront là en 2063, mais je voudrais très humblement dire à la Commission de l’Union africaine qu’il me semble, qu’en dix ans, on peut changer beaucoup de choses. Je crois qu’il n’est pas inutile de redire ici, qu’il y a des valeurs fortes et universelles. Nous devons continuer à travailler pour faire prospérer la démocratie, même si cela prend du temps. Il faut tenir compte des spécificités et la bonne gouvernance, comme l’a dit notre collègue de Zambie, parce que nous sommes encore dans un univers de chômage, de pauvreté, d’inégalité, de mauvaise répartition de la richesse, et là, il faut absolument travailler pour renforcer la bonne gouvernance.Je crois que l’Union africaine devrait plutôt s’attacher à faire son bilan, à faire son autocritique des institutions comme le NEPAD, tous ces programmes de Lagos qui ont été faits et qui n’ont pas donné de résultats. Il vaut mieux avoir deux ou trois objectifs précis pour renforcer nos institutions, et là, je vous assure que les pays pourront faire le travail, l’intégration régionale ; bien sûr que le Parlement panafricain a un rôle éminent à jouer aux côtés des parlements nationaux.J’aurais aimé que vous puissiez nous dire qu’est-ce que vous faites, Monsieur le Vice-président, pour accélérer la possibilité pour notre Parlement d’être doté de la fonction législative? En effet, c’est très bien de nous dire que nous devons accélérer l’intégration régionale, le commerce, mais concrètement, à chaque fois qu’on parle de ces sujets, ils sont reportés [Micro éteint].Qu’est-ce que vous faites?Merci.HON. NOURENOU ATCHADE [BÉNIN]:Merci Monsieur le Président.Je voudrais, à mon tour, remercier le Vice-président de la Commission de l’Union africaine.Monsieur le Président,J’ai une question que je voudrais lui poser et vous poser à tous, cette même question, à nous parlementaires de l’Union africaine, de savoir à quel moment nous devons connaître du budget de l’Union africaine? Est-ce que c’est après son approbation par les Chefs d’États ou avant? Si je me situe dans le cadre des parlements des nations, je crois que le budget, c’est les parlements qui l’examinent. Si vous regardez les rubriques de ce budget, vous allez voir que l’Union africaine est reléguée au dernier rang – je voudrais dire – que le Parlement panafricain est relégué au dernier rang. C’est comme si l’Union africaine ne veut pas du Parlement panafricain. Et comme vous le savez, nous sommes une institution de contre-pouvoir, c’est nous qui devions connaître du budget et de son exécution.Mais avec cinq cent mille dollars (500.000 $), Monsieur le Président, qu’est-ce que nous pouvons faire? Je crois que les gens ne veulent pas de nous et il vaut mieux que nous restions dans nos parlements. Si on ne peut rien faire ici, qu’est-ce que nous venons chercher? Si nous ne sommes pas indépendants, puisque si on ne nous donne pas des ressources, on nous tient, on ne veut pas qu’on soit indépendant. Qu’est-ce que nous venons chercher?Monsieur le Président,Il va falloir que nous y réfléchissions ! Est-ce qu’il n’y a pas un arbitrage budgétaire qui se fait avant l’adoption de ce budget?Monsieur le Président,Je voudrais qu’on puisse y réfléchir.Les collègues ont déjà tout dit par rapport à l’Agenda 2063. Je propose, Monsieur le Président, comme l’a dit, tout à l’heure le collègue du Gabon, que nous ayons des programmes que nous pouvons exécuter; des programmes à long terme, je crois que c’est bien, mais ce n’est pas pratique.Par exemple, dans le domaine de l’agriculture, il reste beaucoup à faire en Afrique.L’orateur nous a parlé de 12 % de commerce intraafricain ; c’est très faible par rapport aux autres nations qui sont à 40 %.Pour élever ce taux, je crois que nous devons faire des efforts dans le domaine de l’agriculture. Nous avons des terres en Afrique et nous n’avons pas encore atteint la sécurité alimentaire, l’auto [Temps de parole épuisé].HON. CECILIA ATIM-OGWAL [UGANDA]:I thank you, Mr President, for giving me this opportunity.While I congratulate the AU and its predecessor, the OAU, for achieving fifty years of existence, the AU must not forget the past and I feel that the AU must ensure that their unfinished business is brought to the forefront of the agenda.The first on that agenda is to get rid of violence and wars on the continent of Africa, and to make it a peaceful place to live in.Secondly, I have taken note of the fact that in the eight key areas highlighted in the introduction, the issue of women is missing and, Mr President, Iwould want to plead with the AU that if the agenda is to be complete, the issue of women must be brought to the forefront.On the budget, Mr President, I do appreciate the AUC’s initiative to bring the budget to this House, while we are looking it, what input can we make at this material stage? We can do nothing. I feel that if the AUC would like the PAP to have an input and play its role as a Parliament, the budget should be brought to us at its preliminary stage and we should make our input and ensure that there is an oversight mechanism to ensure that the expenditure of the AUC is taken care of.Mr President, I just want to challenge the AUC on the duplicitous manner in which it has adopted a duplicate system in recruiting members of staff in Pan Africa. I feel this is a waste of resources. We cannot have two systems of doing the same thing. That must be looked at to ensure that we enforce the issue of discipline in our financing.Finally, Mr President, I have also taken note of the fact that the PAP, as an institution, has not been consulted on the finalisation of the budget. I wish to plead with the AUC that, in future, the PAP must play an effective role in ensuring that it presents its priorities to be incorporated in the budget.I thank you, Mr President.HON. EBO BARTON-ODRO [GHANA]:I thank you very much, Mr President.I would also like to add my voice to those of the previous speakers with regard to the lucid presentation by the Deputy Chairperson. I, however, have a problem. I would like to add my voice to what you, Mr President, said yesterday in your statement that we need to move from an advisory position to a legislative assembly. It is very important because all these complaints about us not having an input in the budget would not happen if we were a legislative body. We need that force, that power, to be able to play that oversight responsibility that is expected of us. Without that, I think that we are joking.It is clear from the presentation that we know what our challenges are in Africa, but the problem is how to solve them and get over them. Until we have such institutions as the African Court, like you said yesterday, and a legislative assembly, we will get nowhere.I pray and plead that our Heads of State be prepared to look favourably at the document before them regarding our request that we be elevated to a legislative assembly. That is the only forward.I thank you, Mr President.HON. ANDRÉ OBAMI-ITOU [CONGO]:Merci, Monsieur le Président, pour la parole.Je voudrais joindre ma voix à celles de mes prédécesseurs pour remercier le conférencier pour sa présentation.Monsieur le Président,Je ne me réjouis pas parce qu’il y a une décision au sujet du budget. Je n’ai pas à me réjouir !Il y a depuis dix ans que nous demandions à l’Union africaine, à la Commission, tout au moins, de faire examiner par le Parlement panafricain le budget de l’Union africaine. Cela n’est pas fait. On a pris une décision, le Sommet a déjà décidé et on nous présente une décision. Qu’est-ce que nous pouvons faire? Rien, absolument rien et je suis d’accord avec un collègue qui l’a dit. Donc, je ne me réjouis pas pour cela, peut-être pour les collègues qui ne connaissent pas l’histoire, c’est un vieux problème. Un collègue l’a dit, on veut de nous ou on ne veut pas de nous ; c’est une chose.S’agissant de l’Afrique, je crois que le Viceprésident a bien présenté, mais je voudrais donner comme une image. L’Afrique est comme, un médecin ou comme un malade qui connaît sa maladie, qui a les médicaments à coté mais qui ne veut pas se soigner. Il ne fait que se plaindre.Ce discours que nous venons d’entendre est le même discours des Chefs d’États. Ils disent: « Il faut passer maintenant des paroles aux actes ». C’est toujours le même discours. Et notre ami BARRO a raison, est-ce qu’il faut attendre soixante ans, cinquante ans pour que l’Afrique soit intégrée? Parce que l’objectif global, c’est l’intégration. Et qui doit financer l’intégration? C’est l’étranger.C’est une autre faiblesse.Et puis, je vais terminer par un point de politique extérieure: la place de l’Afrique dans le monde.Nous avons tous suivi comment l’Afrique s’est levée pour demander une place de membre permanent au Conseil de Sécurité avec droit de véto, et puis après l’Afrique s’est tue. Nous nous demandons pourquoi? Est-ce que nous faisons partie de la communauté internationale?Merci beaucoup, mais j’espère que, Monsieur le Président, le Vice-président répondra à cette question.Merci.HON. BINTANDING JARJU [GAMBIA]:Thank you very much, Mr President, for giving me this opportunity to say a few words on this important debate.Firstly, I must also join my colleagues in thanking the presenter for inspiring us today with his good report.Mr President, sometimes, we have to ask ourselves that when we talk of Africa being rich with all sorts of resources: What is our continental body doing in terms of exploiting these resources?I think our first priority is to discuss the ways and means of exploiting these resources so that we support our activities from our own funds. Otherwise, we talk of the resources in Africa while we do not exploit them. Then what? That is why we are all in this poverty and we cannot move out of it.Our people are yearning to see good road networks. Our women are dying every minute in trying to give life. Why can the continental body not come to the rescue of these poor women who die in trying to give life? I think that in the next fifty years, we should try to address this because, otherwise, it is a big problem. People are poor, hungry and falling sick every day. So, what is the development? Is it city development? When we go to the rural areas, we do not see the development and people do not even feel it. So, I think that in the next fifty years, we must try as much as possible to spread our development activities so that our poorest people at the grassroots will feel what we are talking of. When we go to the urban areas in any country, we see some sort of development but when we go to the rural areas, we do not see it. People are living in abject poverty.They do not even have good housing. They do not have clean water.After fifty years, we are still struggling. If this is going to be business as usual, I think we will not get out of this situation.I thank you so much, Mr President.HON. AHAMAT TAHIR AHAMAT [TCHAD]:Merci, Monsieur le Président.Permettez-moi, avant tout, de féliciter Son Excellence Monsieur le Vice-président de l’Union africaine, pour son exposé.Définir un agenda pour les années futures, c’est une bonne initiative certes, mais notre continent, comme vous le savez, est confronté à de gros défis pour se développer et cela nécessite également des moyens financiers adéquats. Malheureusement, le budget de l’Union africaine, comme vous le savez, est tributaire des ressources extérieures.Ma question est la suivante: quelle réflexion a-t-on fait au niveau de l’Union africaine pour que l’Afrique ait, quand bien même, une source de financement pérenne?Merci, Monsieur le Président.HON. AWAD HAG ALI AHMED [SUDAN]:Ithank you, Mr President.I join my Honourable Colleagues in thanking the presenter for his brief, informative and comprehensive presentation. We are all glad to see the improvements in the areas of democracy, peace and economic development in Africa. However, we still have a very big challenge in the area of governance.Many presenters in this Chamber realise the weak achievements in Africa. The poor attainment of the MDGs in Africa as compared to Asia is due to bad governance. In many African countries, there is a lack of transparency and accountability. That may be due to the African culture of forgiveness, malice or strong tribal protection. That has a negative impact on anti-corruption efforts, and hence, the development and welfare of our society. I would like to see more effort from the AU, as an institution, in this case.Secondly, we all appreciate the many achievements that the AU has attained on the political side. However, we see little on the economic side despite the fact that the most important goal of the AU is to achieve the economic unity of Africa.There are many suggestions which can be implemented. However, I do not know why they are not implemented. For example, I do not see why we cannot have open borders to facilitate trade between African countries. That, in practice, is there. The borders between African countries are artificial. Why can we not have freedom of investment and ownership for African citizens in any African country? I do not see any difficulties in doing that. Why not treat, for example, all African students equally in African universities as regards fees? When I was the Vice-Chancellor of the Sudanese University, I used to treat all students from Sub-Saharan African countries like Sudanese. I did not see any problem in doing that.Therefore, in this case, I cannot understand the difficulty of collecting the deficit of US$87 million dollars. We have many African countries. If each African country contributed only US$1 million, this can be resolved. I do not understand the reason such a small thing cannot be achieved. I would like the Deputy Chairperson to comment.I thank you, Mr President.HON. ONYANGO KAKOBA [UGANDA]:Thank you, Mr President, for this opportunity.Mr President and Honourable Members, the problem of being among the last speakers is that now you have to repeat what others have been said already. Nevertheless, to reinforce what my colleagues have said, I must point out that Africa is a continent full of paradoxes. The first paradox is that Africa is endowed with natural resources. In the world, It is the most endowed with natural resources but it is the poorest. The second relates to what we have just heard in the presentation that we have half of the world’s arable land. However, just look at how people are going hungry. What is the problem with Africa and what do we need to do?Mr President and Honourable Members, the issue of management of resources is an issue of governance and I do concur with my colleagues who have attributed Africa’s problem to lack of good governance. This is an area that we need to work on. Because of lack of good governance, we have a lot of wastage thorough corruption. Because of lack of good governance, we have nepotism at the expense of effective and efficient service delivery. Because of lack of good governance, we have many grievances that result in conflict leading to wars and, eventually, we have insecurity on the continent. Because of lack of good governance, we are caught up in a web of challenges that we cannot get out of. So, it is high time that Africa refocused on its governance priorities to make sure that we move ahead.Mr President and Honourable Members, for instance, in the budget, a budget of US$308 million, only US$126 million is supposed to be funded by Africa. What is happening? Is this all we can raise on the African continent? A lot of money is wasted through corruption. I do not have the figures now, but the last time I looked at it, the index was to the effect that we have billions and billions of dollars that are wasted every year through corruption, but here we cannot even fund our own budget. If you are only able to fund about 40 per cent, what moral authority do you have to complain when the external powers intervene? He who pays the piper calls the tune and that is what is happening. So, we need to refocus.Mr President and Honourable Members, I want to thank the AUC for bringing this budget but, as my colleagues have said, in future, we need to have this budget early enough because it does not help us to do a post mortem. In my language, we have a saying to the effect that when you are coming from a dark tunnel how ever little the light is, is enough. We have been kept for a long time in the dark in as far as the budget process is concerned. Now that we have come out, next time, we need more light and we need to discuss this budget before it is passed.I thank you for your kind attention.ApplauseHON. GALLICAN NIYONGANA [RWANDA]:Merci beaucoup, Monsieur le Président.J’ai suivi, avec intérêt, l’exposé de Son Excellence Monsieur le Vice-président de la Commission de l’Union africaine, au sujet de l’Agenda 2063. J’ai été séduit par le caractère de ce cadre d’actions qui inspire confiance ; qui ne veut pas rester au niveau des déclarations et engagements politiques qui, souvent, n’aboutissent pas. J’ai retenu avec satisfaction que l’Agenda s’articule autour des objectifs stratégiques très bien choisis et pourra décliner des plans d’actions à court, moyen et long termes. Mais j’exhorte les responsables à bien élaborer des projets réalistes susceptibles de pouvoir rapporter des résultats rapidement. Je ne manquerais pas d’apprécier et de m’inscrire en faveur d’une approche inclusive et participative adoptée pour bien mener le processus. Mais je n’ai pas bien saisi comment on pourra intégrer et généraliser les modèles qui ont réussi, ici et là, sur le continent et qui pourraient être généralisés pour le bien de tous les Africains.Je voudrais, cependant, poser une question sur les capacités de la Commission et des autres organes de l’Union africaine pour la mise en œuvre de ce plan d’action, une fois validé.Enfin, j’ai une petite question de curiosité. Je voudrais savoir si la fédération politique de l’Union africaine est toujours à l’Agenda.Merci beaucoup, Monsieur le Président.(Applaudissements)HON. MASTER MOISERAELE GOYA [BOTSWANA]:Thank you very much, Mr President.In thanking you, Mr President, allow me to also thank His Excellency Mwencha for sharing with us the AU Agenda leading to 2063 as well as the approved Budget of the African Union.Mr President, I think it suffices for me to mention that Mr Mwencha has given us a somewhat good synopsis of what has transpired in this continent in the past, where we are and where we are heading to. I also think it suffices for me, Mr President to reiterate that this is an opportunity for us, as Africa and as Members of Parliament, to craft a legacy that we want to leave for the future generations of this continent and I think Members of Parliament have taken turns to suggest what Africa needs to look like in the year 2063.Mr President, if I were to be asked a question which says: What has Africa achieved, or what has the African Union achieved in the past fifty years? Mr President, I would unequivocally say we have achieved to rid ourselves of colonisation. I think that is the perfect answer that I would give if someone asked me that question. Mr President, if I were to be asked yet another question about what Africa needs to do in the next fifty years, I would say we need to reshape our development architecture. That would be the perfect answer that I would give to someone who asked me that question.Mr President, we need to increase our institutional capability as a continent. We need to be more innovative. We need to come up with African solutions to African problems. We need to focus on our domestic resources. We need to know what minerals we have in our continent. We need to bring back home all the engineers, all African engineers, who reside outside this continent. We need to bring them back home, Mr President. We need to create checks and balances in all our institutions. We need to empower our Parliaments. Our Parliaments are not empowered. That is the reason we have so many problems in Africa, Mr President. We need separation of powers in our institutions.Lastly, Mr President, what we need is to be at peace with ourselves as a continent. As for the budget, let me just appreciate that the PAP has debated the AU Budget and I think this should not be the last time Mr Mwencha, you should talk to your counterparts at the AU that, as Parliament, we need this budget to be debated here before it is approved. That is very important for us. The other thing, Mr President, is that it is only the AUC that seems to have crafted the budget perfectly. You should look at their operational budget, it is actually 40 per cent of their entire allocation and their programme budget is at 60 per cent. However, if you look at the other organs, their programme budget is far less than the operational budget. We need to reverse this situation going forward, Mr. President and I thank you for giving me this opportunity.Thank you very much.HON. AUBIN NGONGO LUWOWO [RÉPUBLIQUE DÉMOCRATIQUE DU CONGO]:Merci, Monsieur le Président, pour la parole.Monsieur le Président,Je félicite le Vice-président de l’Union africaine, Son Excellence MWENCHA pour sa brillante communication. Je félicite aussi l’Union africaine qui vient, pour la première fois depuis dix ans qu’existe notre organe, le PAP, de parler du budget. Je parle bien « de parler » et non de soumettre le budget à ce Parlement qui n’est qu’un organe consultatif en attendant qu’il devienne un organe légiférant, comme nous le demandons et quand le voudront bien les Chefs d’États et de gouvernements.C’est une bonne chose que d’avoir une vision pour l’Afrique dans cinquante ans. Mais l’Union africaine devrait, à mon avis, regarder dans le rétroviseur pour essayer de comprendre pourquoi l’Afrique est si en retard même par rapport à l’Asie, à certains pays asiatiques émergents? Pourquoi l’Afrique demeure une source, bon marché, de nos ressources naturelles et aussi un marché où le monde occidental et, aujourd’hui, l’Asie, déversent leurs produits manufacturés?Pourquoi nos richesses nous entraînent des guerres insensées? Je parle de mon pays, la République Démocratique du Congo, qui connaît une guerre interminable depuis des décennies, dans sa partie Est, à cause de certaines richesses qu’on ne trouve que dans cette partie du monde.À ce rythme, l’Afrique va-t-elle atteindre ses objectifs dans cinquante ans? C’est une question que je pose à chacun de vous, chers collègues parlementaires, c’est une question que je pose à l’Union africaine.Je vous remercie.HON. MARTIN BOHUE [CÔTE D’IVOIRE]:Merci, Monsieur le Président.Je voudrais dire un grand merci au présentateur du document, mais je dois avouer que je reste un peu sur ma faim.Le document présente la situation de l’Afrique en 1963, date de création de l’OUA, avec pour objectif la décolonisation de l’Afrique.2002, création de l’UA ! Quelle est la vision, l’objectif? C’est le développement de l’intégration de l’Afrique. Voilà ce que j’observe.À mon avis, dès lors qu’on a campé cela, tout le document devait, donc, décliner les objectifs globaux et spécifiques, de façon claire et nette, qui vont permettre à nos petits-enfants, en 2063, de vérifier, si oui ou non, ce qui a été défini aujourd’hui, est atteint à cette période. Or, je constate que le document contient beaucoup de choses, mais on a du mal à se retrouver. Et là, j’indexe le Bureau, parce qu’on devait nous remettre ce document à l’avance; au moins hier, nous l’aurions analysé et scruté, parce qu’en fait, il ne s’agit pas de discours ; il s’agit de quelque chose de bien concret.Et donc, si nous voyons les objectifs, on devait pouvoir dégager l’objectif général, les objectifs spécifiques. Par rapport à cela, le budget qui nous est soumis, nous devrions l’apprécier, si oui ou non ce budget peut permettre à l’UA d’atteindre les objectifs qu’elle s’est fixée. Je constate que le budget – on nous dit 308 millions de dollars, en francs CFA cela fait environ 155 milliards ; ce qui est très bas ; parce que cela veut dire que ça n’atteint même pas le niveau du budget d’un État ! Enfin, même pas, très loin ! Conséquemment, on a le budget du PAP qui est d’environ 14 millions, n’estce pas, de dollars, c'est-à-dire, en francs CFA, environ 7 milliards ! Ce qui représente, peut-être, le budget d’un petit ministère ! Qu’est-ce qu’on peut faire avec ça? Voilà qui devrait nous permettre, à mon avis, vraiment de soulever les pro [Temps de parole épuisé].(Applaudissements)HON. JEANE D’ARC NYINAWASE [RWANDA]:Merci, Monsieur le Président, de m’avoir accordé la parole.Je remercie le présentateur pour son brillant exposé.Monsieur le Président,Je me demande si je devais parler du budget ou de la communication des décisions se rapportant sur la répartition du budget, ce budget entre guillemet.Monsieur le Président,Regardons, en toute franchise, l’article 26 relativement au fonctionnement spécifique des commissions permanentes qui sont au nombre dix.Si nous jetons un coup d’œil sur le programme des activités des commissions, je me demande et j’aimerais bien demander au présentateur, quels sont les critères utilisés pour la répartition du budget?Monsieur le Président,Nous sommes les représentants des peuples africains ! Chaque année, au mois d’août, nous sommes, ici, pour parler, bavarder, je ne sais pas quel mot faut-il utiliser? Pourquoi donc ce budget de programmes insuffisant? Comment allons-nous atteindre nos objectifs en tant que représentants des peuples africains dans les commissions alors que nous avons des objectifs que nous devons atteindre?Mais sans budget, quel faire?Monsieur le Président,J’aimerais bien qu’à l’avenir, au lieu de venir nous communiquer des décisions, il faut qu’en tant que parlementaires, que nous puissions suivre le processus du budget avant son adoption par les Chefs de l’États.Merci, Monsieur le Président.HON. ASSOUMANA MALAM ISSA [NIGER]:Merci, Monsieur le Président.Je voudrais également remercier et féliciter Son Excellence Monsieur MWENCHA pour sa présentation.J’ai une ou deux petites préoccupations à soulever, Monsieur le Président.La première, c’est d’abord de soutenir le questionnement que Monsieur FOULIEH s’est fait quant à savoir le rôle ou la place du Parlement panafricain dans cet Agenda 2063.Je profite pour poser une question au Président du Parlement panafricain, pour savoir quel rôle le Parlement a-t-il joué dans le processus d’élaboration de cet Agenda?La deuxième préoccupation, c’est également un soutien au développement fait par l’Honorable Dominic du Ghana, qui a évoqué les questions cruciales de l’heure, à savoir, entre autres, la question de l’emploi des jeunes, la question du chômage, la question de l’émigration clandestine. Il est extrêmement important que nous sachions, que nous voyions clairement dans cet Agenda 2063, ce que fait l’Union africaine, que feront les États africains pour se battre contre le chômage, pour prendre en compte les préoccupations de la jeunesse?C’est là que je voudrais également revenir sur la nécessité pour l’Union africaine de prendre en compte ces préoccupations là, et de faire en sorte qu’il y ait une sensibilisation envers les jeunes.Quelqu’un l’a dit, parmi nous, il y aura très peu de gens qui seront vivants en 2063. Donc, nous sommes en train de réfléchir et de vouloir agir pour la jeunesse.Si cette jeunesse pour laquelle nous travaillons n’est pas au courant de ce vous préparez, autrement dit, n’est pas informée de cet Agenda, n’est pas sensibilisée sur l’Agenda, il est extrêmement difficile qu’on atteigne les objectifs attendus. Je voudrais pour cela dire que, prenez en compte le Parlement panafricain, parce que nous avons un groupe parlementaire qui s’occupe de ces questions et qui va réfléchir pour faire des propositions à l’Union africaine, pour qu’on sensibilise la jeunesse et pour qu’on l’implique dans la mise en œuvre du Programme.Je voudrais, si le temps le permet, lire une partie qui justifie ce que je viens de dire. C’est à la page 6, le deuxième paragraphe de la question 4 où il est dit:« Ainsi, l’Agenda 2063 doit être considéré comme l’occasion unique de recréer le récit africain en le mettant en perspective en vue d’enthousiasmer et de dynamiser la population africaine, et d’utiliser sonénergie constructive pour définir et mettre en œuvre un programme réalisable pour l’unité, la paix et le développement au 21ème siècle. La poussée de l’Agenda 2063 est un programme de rajeunissement social, économique et politique qui lie le passé au présent et à l’avenir afin de créer une nouvelle génération de panafricanistes qui miseront sur les leçons apprises et les utiliseront comme piliers pour consolider l’espoir et les promesses des pères fondateurs d’une véritable renaissance de l’Afrique ».Monsieur le Premier Vice-président de l’Union Africaine [Temps de parole épuisé].(Applaudissements)HON. TANIMOUNE OUMAROU [NIGER]:Merci, Monsieur le Président.Je commencerais par féliciter l’orateur pour la qualité de sa présentation.Monsieur le Président,J’aimerais m’appesantir sur l’extrait du budget 2014 de l’Union africaine, parce que pour moi c’est un extrait. Certains intervenants l’ont dit: « ce n’est pas un budget ».Monsieur le Président,Après l’examen de cet extrait, j’ai remarqué une forte proportion des dépenses de fonctionnement.Pour le budget de la Commission de l’Union africaine: 41 % ; pour le budget du PAP: 76 %.Monsieur le Président,Cette situation, à mon sens, dénote un manque de volonté pour la réalisation des actions d’investissements durables. On se contente plutôt de vivre au jour le jour, en assurant des dépenses de salaires, des dépenses de frais de missions, la traduction, les transports, la santé, la documentation, les missions d’observation des élections, etc.Monsieur le Président,Un autre constat que j’ai eu à faire de cet extrait – le présentateur lui-même l’a reconnu – c’est la forte proportion, forte dépendance – j’allais dire – du budget de l’Union africaine par rapport aux fonds provenant des partenaires extérieurs.Monsieur le Président, Je pense qu’à ce niveau, il y a lieu pour l’Union africaine de repenser le mode de financement de son budget. Certaines organisations régionales, et même sous-régionales, à l’image de la CEDEAO, de l’UEMOA – que je connais – ont eu à réussir par rapport à cette situation.Monsieur le Président,À mon sens, il va falloir penser à un mode de financement du budget de l’UA au moyen d’un prélèvement sur le produit intérieur brut (PIB). Cette situation va permettre de prendre en compte, exactement, le poids économique de chaque pays, de chaque nation, que de se contenter des cotisations des États membres qui sont, pour ma part, forfaitaires.Merci, Monsieur le Président.HON. JACQUELINE AMONGIN [UGANDA]:Thank you, Mr. President.First of all, I would like to commend the work you are doing and I am happy meet all of you, I think it has been quite some time now. I would like to thank the presenter of the two papers on the Vision of the African Union 2063 and the Budget of the African Union Commission, but I have a question. I do not know whether the African Union who are the implementers of the dreams of why the African Union was formed are still following the dreams of the founders of the African Union in terms of the 2063Agenda and the ultimate federation or integration with regard to having one State as Africa because, to me, it is not very clear as to what the African Union Commission is trying to address.As someone in Africa, I am interested in knowing how the African Union Commission is dealing with the issues of conflict within Africa. I would like to know what the AUC is doing right now in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) and in the different areas like Somalia. When Uganda went to Somalia, no other country came up and we call ourselves the African Union. Not even the African Union Commission could pressurise other countries to go in and support. Right now, we are paying the price and being hit by different disgruntled forces.The same applies to Kenya. So, really, I think the African Union should know their needs.Mr President, what are they doing in terms of health?In reproductive health, in the different countries, what is the agenda of the African Union in health delivery? What is the master plan? What are they committing the Heads of State to do? Must our women continue dying while giving birth?(Interjection: Nooooooo!) Must our women continue walking or sitting on boda bodas such as in the case of Uganda and other countries, when going to the health centres where they are expected to pay and they are not able? I think, really, we should stop this talk. Just talking will not help us.We want to know: What is the position of the African Union in terms of the ICC? Why only the Africans? What is our role as Africa? Can we not have an African Criminal Court (applause) where our Heads of State can be taken? What is it? I think, as a young person, I would really be interested to see what the direction of the African Union is. I would be very comfortable. However, if we continue singing the usual talk, I think we will not be moving forward.Mr President, today, unemployment is a great problem. Unemployment is a very great issue. You can go to Coite de Voire, Khartoum, Uganda or any of the 54 countries in Africa but you will not see a master plan for addressing unemployment in Africa.That can only be championed by an institution like the African Union Commission.Lastly, Mr President, what is our mandate as the PAP? What is the African Union statute saying with regard to the scrutiny of the budget? Must it be brought here really when it has been approved? For me really, I would say it’s meaningless. We have just brought this thing to sing about. How can I even sing about this budget when I am not going to make any additions or changes in it? It is a waste of time. So, my question to the presenter of this budget today, Your Excellency, Sir, is: Why exactly did you bring this budget to the PAP? What do you want us to do? In future, even if our mandate or legislative powers are not yet clear, it is imperative that before this budget is approved by the Assembly, the PAP looks at it even though we do not have the powers as you claim. As a sister arm of the AU, we will analyse and then you take what is necessary from this Parliament and it is inputted before it is approved. I think that would make sense.I thank you, Mr President.HON. LOIDE L. KASINGO [NAMIBIA]:Thank you very much, Honourable Mr President.Allow me to join others in thanking the Deputy Chairperson of the AUC for coming here. I know that it is not his first time. I also wish to thank him for coming to share with us the vision of AU 2063.Before I ask the question, I just want to align myself with a colleague who put emphasis on the importance of African Union finding resources within Africa. It is very important. The reason we are in pain, with no development, is that we are being funded from elsewhere. Although we crafted this Agenda 2063, we are not going to implement it with funding from within ourselves.You will agree with me, Mr President, that the person who is feeding you is also controlling your mind. For some of us from countries that are a product of continental solidarity – Namibia - yes, Iagree that there was a time when Africa was really united. During the 1950s, the 1960s, there was a lot of solidarity and, from there, Africa has just decided to collapse. Why? It is because those people who were looking at our resources decided to divide us and it is high time we united.I know, Mr President, that you are just the administrator of the Heads of State and us but, I am sure, you can influence how the Heads of State come up with decisions. I know this issue of self sufficiency and mobilising resources from within Africa came up at the last summit and I know that there is a panel led by His Excellency Obasanjo. I was there when he submitted his report. I was there listened to different comments from different Heads of State. I agree with him that he was also at pains when he said, "You people, you are the people who are governing. You cannot decide to go to the swimming pool and you do not want to get wet." He is also with us in saying that Africa must find resources from within. I hope that next January - I know these things have been deferred - I hope that next January, when they come, they will come up with concrete solutions.My last question relates to the fact that I have looked at the different decisions of the AU, but the one to defer the amended protocol of the PAP is not there.Why?Thank you.THE PRESIDENT:Honourable Members, Honourable Colleagues, I have exhausted the list of Members who had indicated interest to speak. I will now call on our guest, His Excellency the Deputy Chairperson of the African Union Commission, to, please, respond to the issues that have been raised by our Members.Your Excellency, because the issue of the budget coming before the PAP has been raised severally by many speakers, I think that it is also pertinent that we state the facts the way they are. Your Excellency, under the existing protocol establishing the Pan African Parliament, in Article 11(2), it gives a very clear indication that part of the functions of the Pan African Parliament is to discuss its budget and the budget of the community and make recommendations thereon prior to its approval by the Assembly.I know that there have been a lot of attempts to try and interpret the word community but we know that we referring to the African Union because the Assembly, also mentioned there, only exists in the African Union and the community to which the Pan African Parliament belongs is the African Union Community. Therefore, the drafters and the visionary fathers who established our Parliament had in mind that this Parliament would discuss the budget prior to it being sent to the Assembly.On behalf of our colleagues here, we urge the commission to please comply with and obey that provision in the existing protocol and support the work of this Parliament because it is made up of Members representing the African people from various members States and the Budget of the African Union also includes resources that are taxpayers’ money from member States. It is only important that an input is made from this Parliament.Your Excellency, we invite you to respond.Thank you.HIS EXCELLENCY MR ERASTUS MWENCHA [DEPUTY CHAIRPERSON OF THE AFRICAN UNION COMMISSION]:Mr President, Honourable Members, let me, first of all, at the outset, thank all the Honourable Members that have taken the Floor to address the two items that we presented this morning namely, the Budget 2014 and also the strategic plan or Africa 2063 Agenda.Thank you for your insights, thank you for the conviction and passion with which you have spoken and thank you for the information, very rich information, you have also provided for this budget and also for the Agenda 2063.Mr President, I am going to group the response to key block issues that have been raised starting with the Budget 2014 and then Agenda 2063 before attempting to respond to a number of other queries that were raised by the Honourable Members.Firstly, on the budget, indeed, it has been a major struggle for us to synchronise our budget cycle with the work plan of the PAP, let alone getting adequate and full support from other oversight bodies and, particularly, our Committee of Permanent Representatives to sequence events in such a way that both the PRC and Pan African Parliament can have inputs in the budget. One of the things that we have done as regards the budget in changing the cycle is to change approve of the budget which, many of you remember, used to happen in the January Summit, to the July Summit.The reason for doing so is, first of all, to bring about efficiency and effectiveness in the implementation of the budget, which would give us adequate time to make all the necessary arrangements to have the budget in place when the financial year begins. As you know, having the budget approved and taking measures to implement the budget are two very different things. To begin with, we need to inform all the member States to make necessary arrangements to make their contributions to the budget and, in the past, we discovered that this went well into May before we started implementing the budget.In changing the calendar for budget, we have not been successful in synchronising although I do remember that, at least in the Budget 2009/2010, we did try to interact with you although it was still a challenge of having it well in hand for you to be able to make your inputs.So, Mr President, I stand here to encourage us, including yourself, that we continue to work with other oversight bodies so that we can achieve that intention which is stated in the articles of the Constitutive Act and the protocol establishing the PAP that you have ably referred to. In that context, we have already issued the budget preparation cycle for 2015. That budget cycle foresees us finishing the consultations by May, 2014 and, hopefully, the budget approved in the July summit of 2014. I would hope that, in your schedule of events, you will take this into account. Needless to mention that for the 2014 Budget, as you noticed, it was approved way back in May when, actually, it would not have been possible for us to consult you because of the nature and tightness of the schedule.That notwithstanding, I hope that in the process of changing and making provisions for Parliament to continue to play its effective role, as I said earlier on in the formal statement, as an oversight body, this aspect will also be clarified. As your commission, we now stand in between two oversight bodies; one is the PRC and the other is the PAP let alone the process itself that is to be approved by the council and the summit which, we hope, will also be clarified as we look at these protocols in the future. Having said that, let me now say a few words concerning the details of the budget as indicated. Firstly, a number of you have indicated your concern, and rightly so, about the information provided in the budget. This information, we know, is only a tip of the iceberg of what we could have given to you because the relevant documentation which accompanied the budget before it was approved are bulky and, which we hope, in the future, such information can only be made possible during the approval process. The second concern that was raised has to do with the structure of the budget and I would like to thank some of the Honourable Members who have pointed out, particularly, the operational budget and the programme budget and, of course, with regard to the other parts, I can only leave it to the PAP to answer the question as to why, for instance, the PAP Budget is more on the operational and less on the programme side.As rightly pointed out by one Honourable Member, even on the African Union Budget, yes we do have 40 per cent as operational budget and 60 per cent as programme budget, but that is still not ideal when you look at the structure of that budget.The second concern which you have rightly mentioned and which we also indicated in our statement is that of the contributions. Of course, the question that was raised was about budget indicating revenue and expenditure sides. Of course, the revenue side are the contributions by member States. That is why we spend a lot of time indicating what the member States will contribute particularly on the operational budget whereas the international community, our development partners, support us with the programme budget. This is an area or issue of concern and an area that we should continue to work together on.Let me touch on the issues that have been raised regarding our moving forward to identify other alternative sources so that Africa can own the programmes. Africa can reduce the vulnerability of the budget being supported by partners which has many risks. Africa has resources and, as you indicated, it is actually not poor. It is up to us summoning our commitment and solidarity like that exhibited by our founding fathers and mothers. As it was indicated earlier on, that spirit of the 1960s and 1970s seems to be dwindling and I did indicate, in our opening statement, that we need to go back to the spirit of our founding fathers and mothers.You will remember Kwame Nkrumah saying that the independence of Ghana was meaningless unless it was accompanied with a total independence of Africa. Can we not extend this to even our integration agenda that, unless Africa is integrated, our individual independence is meaningless and, of course, our founding fathers knew that the independence of the flag was only one face. Our economic independence was going to be a strong and even harder struggle. That struggle continues and that is why we enlist your support at the PAP level and also at the national level so that we can achieve our total independence.The second question that has been raised is on Agenda 2063. Many have spoken to this but I just want to clarify one point, that the document before you does not attend to the content of what Agenda 2063 should be. The document before you is merely an agenda on how to prepare for 2063. We look forward to your input which can come from your national perspective but also, as many of you have asked, will there be an opportunity for the PAP? We did indicate in our statement that we believe we should be debate and give full and sufficient input to this document which is going to guide us. Questions were raised: Why are we talking about 2063 and not in the short or medium term? Our response to that, Mr President, is that, firstly, if you look at even what we are proposing for the preparation of the Agenda 2063 is to say, they have guide posts. To begin with, ten years down the road, we need to prepare a scenario which will help us to know that you even as we move towards 2063, we will be on the right track. It also has to do with maintaining the right speed so that we can achieve the objective of 2063.We also have another landmark of twenty-five years before we get to our cherished goal of 2063. Indeed, for 2063 we are saying that we should have that common resolve, preach it to our children and to the generation that is to come. Yes, granted that many of us may not be there in 2063, but Africa will be there and, at least, in 2063, let us not have Africa of twenty-four States. Let us have Africa of one State and that answers the question that was raised. What has happened with our political federation? Indeed, we have had a varied and a very exhaustive debate as to how Africa should approach the integration agenda. There are those who advocate that we should borrow from others without reinventing the wheel. For instance, if you look at the European Union (EU), they did not start with political integration.They started with economic integration and gradually expanded. Even politically, they have still not achieved that. They are still talking of moving gradually, still retaining their political single state but, of course, having given away their sovereignty in some aspects of political integration. For example, in the EU today, there is only one spokesperson when it comes to foreign affairs. They do not speak as twenty-eight States. They have one message that they can speak severally. In Africa, we are still speaking as fifty-four States.Now, these are some of the things we need to talk about. How are we going to approach the four or five scenarios of integration? There is economic, political and social integration. How do we engineer all these so that we can move in tandem, but sequence them in such a way that our integration does not become a problem? Those of you who know recent history, when the debate of political integration was raging all over the continent, many thought time for it had not come. Many thought, as Kwame Nkrumah had even said, if we united politically even economically, it would be easier.However, others would argue that it would be better to start gradually. That is why, as Africa, we have taken all these approaches. For instance, we are giving full support to our regional economic communities including, for example, the Tripartite, where we could see, sooner or later, what we are calling a grand free trade area comprising three regional economic communities, that is, the East African community, COMESA and SADC.We hope that similar projects involving Central Africa, West Africa and East Africa can start so that if, for instance, this Tripartite succeeds, it means that half of Africa would have economically come together to form a trade block from which we can then build as to whether we want free movement of people and so on. So, integration must, of necessity, be accompanied with political will for us to be willing to surrender our sovereignty and this is where, as Parliamentarians, as they start interacting with their Heads of State and Government, we really are the principal delegates leading to our pooling of resources.You have a privileged position to interact with them at national level. At your Parliaments, speak about this, discuss it and debate it so that we can achieve Africa’s integration. There is no question about it and we can talk, as many of you have said, we keep on talking. We are good at talking but not implementation. Look at even implementation of the decisions. One Honourable Member asked what we are doing as African Union. There are decisions but the AU cannot implement them. Implementation of those decisions requires they are domesticated at the national level so that they are also given the necessary resources for their implementation. That is a part or role that you can play at national level to ensure that decisions that are taken are being implemented and you can implement many of them at the national level.Mr President, I now only wish to just highlight a few other areas that were indicated just to underscore and also agree with the many Honourable Members that have spoken on a number of issues that have been raised here. One of the issues relates to how we continue to support the PAP to be transformed into a legislative body, a body that has an oversight role and a body that truly represents the people of Africa? If you look at the Constitutive Act of the PAP, it says it is the people’s union. It is not a union of States. It is a union of the peoples of the continent and that union is embodied by yourselves. We see that transformation not only being taken to give you legislative powers but even in the way you elected to this august House and the resources that will be given to you. these are some of the common issues that we need to take together and as I can tell you, as a Commission, we have been struggling.We are continuing to interact, particularly with the PRC, and we want to thank for the taking initiative to also have a joint retreat with the PRC so that we can educate each other to understand that a united Africa can only be good for us. In fact, many of us keep on asking. We need a study which will tell Africa the cost of nonintegration. By clinging to our national sovereignty, how much do we lose by not surrendering our sovereignty? If we monitored this I think, perhaps, all of us would be taken to jail for having wasted so many opportunities but, Mr President, we cannot keep on regretting. What is important is for us to move and acquire this status on a step-by-step basis for the sake of this continent and for the sake of our future.A point has been made that we should promote African languages. In fact, as Africa, we have already come up with what we call the promotion of African languages. We have an institution which is based in Bamako, Mali, and whose functions are to nurture, preserve and develop African languages. As many of you have said, let us see whether we could introduce Kiswahili, Yoruba, Hausa or whatever but, as we do so, we also have to give up a bit of our national sovereignty for the sake of efficiency. Take the case of United Nations.There are delegates from over 200 countries but we do not carry our languages there. How come, even in the European Union, they have twenty-seven languages, but when they go to the European Parliament, they only use two languages? The UN only uses, I think, three or four languages. The working languages are two. Have you ever put, into cost, what is means to operate in six languages? It makes us inefficient and less effective. Yet, when it comes to the UN and other fora, we accept to talk in French, English or whatever. As somebody has said, maybe those of us who are Anglophone need to take a leaf from those who are Francophone who make an effort to learn English but, at least that can reduce the cost because, if you think in terms of the cost behind the scenes, giving us all these languages now, it is very expensive.Mr President, I should have also addressed the question that has been raised time and again on our strategic objective of 2063 by indicating that, maybe, as we give you the Budget 2014, we should also give you AUC Strategic Plan 2014/2016. Some Honourable Members have raised a question as to whether the priorities indicated in the document that we have given you are, indeed, the priorities we are pursuing. No, that is not the case. What I said is that the eight priorities are just discussion issues.However, if you look at our Strategic Plan 2014/2016, indeed, gender is very high on the agenda and you will also notice that we are not just talking of it being a programme on its own, but being mainstreamed together with the youth in each of our programmes. And this is something that we also need to carry to our national level. It is possible for us, in each of our programmes, whether it is on procurement, training, employment or access to resources to ensure that we have - not just talk about it - a very clear timeline and actionable indicators of how we will take care of our agenda because, without it, Africa will also be losing out because we are wasting valuable human resource. As some Members have said, part of Africa’s wealth is not just mineral, but our people. How much are we really empowering our youth and our female gender so that they can also effectively contribute to our economic integration and development?Mr President, a lot has been said, also, concerning peace and security. What is the AU doing in this area? Somali was given as an example, the DRC was mentioned and other spots were also mentioned. If there is one area where the AU has really prevailed and made its mark, it is in the area peace and security. This is because we now have an architecture that responds. We work very closely with the UN Security Council, but Africa is also stepping forward to contribute forces. One Honourable Member said we have not been in Somalia in the numbers we expect. I want to accept that challenge but also raise this challenge to ask other Honourable Members to go to their capitals. Right now, before the UN Security Council, we have a resolution requesting for the re-mandating the African Force in Somalia from the current levels of about seventeen to about twenty-three. We hope that more member States will step forward to do so because you can see the challenge that we face. Without securing Somalia properly, we will continue to have the challenges just like what we mentioned.Now, the conflict in Somalia is also getting infiltrated by international criminals that can also cause harm and insecurity in our continent. With regard to the DRC, a lot of effort is being put in right now. We are working very closely with the UN and the leaders of the region so that we can bring, to some meaningful closure, this conflict that has gone on for too long. However, in all this, again, you go back to resources. It is regrettable if you look at the amount of money we are now spending on these peace missions in Somalia and wherever they are. The funding for them, which is not included in the budget of the US$308 million I mentioned, runs to over well over US$500 million. Almost 100 per cent of it is being contributed by our development partners.How, then, can we secure our peace and security when we depend on the development partners? Can we not give our own battalions? Look at the countries that have given their battalions to be in Mali. Who secured Mali? It is the foreign entities who rushed to Mali to save the situation but, at least, granted, some of our countries have sent forces there to help stabilise Mali and the conflict there is changing. It is becoming more complicated, but we need African forces there. We need resources that we can contribute for our forces to go and stabilise places like Mali.Mr President, a number of other questions that were raised were really in-house and I am not going to touch on them. Let me respond to a few more that have to deal with, for instance, matters to do with recruitment and the legislative nature of Parliament. We have touched on that. I think, Mr President, if there are areas like the issues that were raised about what the AU is doing to reduce mortality of mothers, making sure that the protocol of the PAP is followed and what is being done to mobilise resources for implementation, I have taken them globally. That is why I will just simply say that if you look at our Strategic Plan 2014/2016, it is very exhaustive. It gives very specific output, mandates and, also, what we expect as results.In fact, we are increasingly moving away from just being activity based where people will just say we had this meeting and this resolution. We are taking specific measures and also giving specific results where we will identify, for instance, how we are increasing our food security or reducing maternal mortality in the continent. All these targets are given, but the big issue is that your commission is not a government that has resources that can implement. Your Commission is only a tool that brings together leaders to achieve consensus, agree on a vision, develop a plan of action and implement. That implementation very much rests at the national level where you also play a critical role. It is only by us working together and uniting hands that we can achieve these objectives and by us working together, I can assure you, for the commission, that we are honoured in giving you space and mandate.What we need then is how we can work together with Mr President, whom we continue to work together with quite a lot, so that we can, as you do yourselves at national level, through our leaders, give us that space and also to the oversight bodies that we have, like the council, so that we can truly have the capacity, through resources and mandate, that we can move this continent forward to be a better place for us and for our children. I want to thank you again, Mr President, for this opportunity. I look forward, this time, to coming around before the budget process is over. I also implore you to continue to play the advocacy role at the national level for the good and for the better of this continent.I thank youApplauseTHE PRESIDENT:Honourable Members let us give another round of applause to His Excellency.ApplauseTHE PRESIDENT:Your Excellency, on behalf of the Bureau and Members of the Pan African Parliament, I would like to most sincerely thank you for taking time from your very busy schedule to be with us today to make the presentations and to respond to the issues. You are, indeed, one of the most experienced technocrats/politicians in the African Union Commission.Your wealth of experience has been displayed today. We also want to thank you for the continued support and special interest that you have taken in the affairs of the PAP. As President of the PAP, and even when I was Vice President, you had always provided for us an open door policy, providing us with a lot of very important advice and support that has helped to bring the PAP where we are today. We still look forward to your continued support to ensure that our Parliament is actually and truly a voice for the voiceless millions of Africans. We thank you for coming and we look forward to working closely with you and the rest of the organs of the AU to improve the living conditions of millions of our people who continue to wallow in poverty, hunger, disease and illiteracy. We thank you Your Excellency and God bless youApplause THE PRESIDENT:Honourable Members, we have now come to the end of our business for today and I will, therefore, call on the Clerk of Parliament to make some house-keeping announcements.ANNOUNCEMENTSTHE CLERK:Thank you Hon. President.I have the following announcements to make regarding Committee Meetings in terms of the venue and time.1)The Committee on Co-operation, International Relations and Conflict Resolution meets at 1430 hours in Room Number 1;2)The Committee on Rules, Privileges and Discipline meets at 1430 hours in Room Number 2;3)The Committee on Gender, Family, Youth and People with Disability meets at 1430 hours in Room Number 3; and4)The Committee on Justice and Human Rights meets at 1430 hours in Room Number 45)The Committee on Trade, Customs and Immigration meets at 1430 hours in Room Number 5.I thank you.THE PRESIDENT:Thank you very much.
Wednesday, 23 October, 2013
THE PRESIDENT:Please, be seated.COMMUNICATION FROM THE CHAIRTHE PRESIDENT:Honourable Members, I have received communication from the Office of the Clerk of Parliament in accordance with Rule 8 (5) of our Rules of Procedure, advising the President of vacancies in the Bureau and of Committees and of Caucuses.Therefore, in accordance with Rules 8 (1) e, Rule 8 (9), read along with Rule 9 (2), I hereby declare the following positions vacant:1)Fourth Vice-President from the East African Regional Caucus;2)Chairperson of the Committee on Rural Economy, Agriculture, Natural Resources and Environment;3)Deputy Chairperson of the Committee on Rural Economy, Agriculture, Natural Resources and Environment;4)Rapporteur of the Committee on Monetary an Financial Affairs;5)Rapporteur of the Committee on Transport, Industry, Communication, Energy, Science and Technology;6)Deputy Chairperson of the Committee on Health, Labour and Social Affairs;7)Deputy Chairperson of the Committee on Education, Culture, Tourism and Human Resource;8)Rapporteur of the Committee on Gender, Family, Youths and People with Disability;9)Chairperson of the Committee on Administrative and Financial Evaluation (CAFÉ); and10)Chairperson of the Womens’ Caucus.Honourable Members, furthermore, in accordance with Rule 15 (2) of our Rules of Procedure, the Clerk shall call for submission of candidatures at least seven (7) days before the election. Therefore, we request the Clerk to call for submission for candidatures for the positions that have been declared vacant.Hon. Members, we have a Notice of Motion and I wish to inform Hon. Members that on 21st October, 2013, we received a written Notice of Motion from the Hon. Cecilia Atim-Ogwal to pay tribute to the late former President of the Pan African Parliament His Excellency Hon. Dr Idriss Moussa Ndele and this Motion was submitted in accordance with the provisions of Rule 60 of our Rules of Procedure and will be on the Order Paper on Thursday 24th October, 2013Point of ProcedureTHE PRESIDENT:Chairperson of JusticeHON. CHAIRPERSON OF THE JUSTICE COMMITTEE:Thank you, Mr President, and I am sorry for intervening. I am rising on a point of procedure to seek guidance from the President on the first issue of vacancies. I have listened carefully and, to the best of my recollection, there are some positions that have fallen vacant. These have come about because Members are not coming back to the House, but there are also vacancies that have been declared vacant and yet I can see the Hon. Members who held them within this House. We need clarification as to how this came about because my understanding was that, if a Member is here and the term of office is three (3) years, then someone has to complete the term. I am a bit confused and would like clarification on how that came about.THE PRESIDENT:Thank you.May I seek the intervention of the Chairperson of the Rules Committee of the House on the interpretation of the various Sections relating to Members being re-designated and sworn-in afresh as provided for in Rule 9 (2) of our Rules and Procedure, and its implications?HON. ZELY PIERRE INZOUNGOU MASSANGA [PRÉSIDENT DE LA COMMISSION PERMANENTE DES RÈGLEMENTS, DES PRIVILÈGES ET DE LA DISCIPLINE]:Merci Monsieur le Président.Le Règlement intérieur dispose en son article 9, alinéa 2 sur le serment ou la déclaration solennelle d’entrée en fonction que:« En cas de réélection ou de redésignation, le parlementaire panafricain commence un nouveau mandat. Il prête à nouveau serment conformément aux dispositions de l’alinéa précédent ».Voilà ce que dit l’article 9, Monsieur le Président, sur le serment ou la déclaration solennelle d’entrée en fonction pour le parlementaire qui a été réélu et redésigné par son parlement national. Il doit à nouveau prêter serment parce qu’il commence un nouveau mandat.Est-ce que c’est clair?THE PRESIDENT:Thank you very much.HON. CHAIRPERSON OF THE JUSTICE COMMITTEE:Mr President, I just need to be helped further. Can he now relate that to Article 16 (10) and 8? They must be read together. Have they consulted them?HON. ZELY PIERRE INZOUNGOU MASSANGA [PRÉSIDENT DE LA COMMISSION PERMANENTE DES RÈGLEMENTS, DES PRIVILÈGES ET DE LA DISCIPLINE]:Je ne sais pas ce qu’il veut exactement, notre collègue?Oui! article 16 alinéa, 10: « Le mandat du Bureau du Parlement panafricain est de trois ans ». Le Bureau en tant qu’organe a un mandat de trois ans, pas les membres du Bureau. Le mandat d’un membre du Bureau est lié à son mandat national, mais le Bureau en tant qu’organe du Parlement, a un mandat précis de trois ans.Est-ce que bien clair?THE PRESIDENT:Thank you.Hon. Members, can I please be given a minute to respond to the Chairperson of the Justice Committee. Chairperson of Justice, you raised Rule 16 (10), which says: "The term of office of a Bureau Member of the Pan African Parliament shall be three (3) years", and we agree. It was passed by this House.Rule 16 (11) further says that: "In the event of a vacancy during the term of office of a Member of an organ of the PAP, the Member elected in replacement shall complete the term of his/her predecessor and it may be renewed once."Even when we agree that the term is three (3) years, there is contemplation that there could be vacancy and in that provision, once the vacancy exists, the new person elected to complete that term will only sit for the duration of that term. Now, the issue that has been a point of argument relates to what has been the practice in the past.We know we have had a situation where people have gone for elections in the past and come back, swornin and continued in their offices, which we believe is against the intent of the Rules. The Rules are quite clear that any Member who goes for election and is re-elected and re-designated to this Parliament will be returning to start a new term of office. When you start a new term of office, can you legally justify carrying-over a mandate from your last term of office into your new term of office?As law makers and as leaders of our continent who are against any coups and make loud and clear statements against people who sit tight in office when they have not been re-elected and their tenure has expired, we must be seen to be above board and must be seen to lead by example.I believe that those who made these Rules had a clear intention that once your mandate is finished and renewed, you would seek re-election from the same constituency that elected you in the first place.We, as politicians, should not be afraid of elections. Our ability to perform our duties should stand for us at all times and, as Parliamentarians, we must be seen to be applying the Rules of Procedure to the letter. I believe that this procedure will help us to bring about transparency, fairness and development of democracy on our continent.Hon. Colleagues, we believe that in this process, unless we have a different interpretation, the Rules Committee, by our Rules, is the legitimate body to interpret our Rules. I have sought clarification and I believe that this matter should be laid to rest as it is.I thank you.HON. DIKGANG PHILLIP MAKGALEMELE [BOTSWANA]:Thank you, Mr President.I think with that explanation, I just want to crosscheck if I heard you properly when you were giving us the list of positions which are vacant because, based on what you have just explained, any Member who was holding office and goes for elections, the position they were holding becomes vacant. I want to cross-check whether that, therefore, means that the position of the First Vice-President and the Fourth Vice-President are also vacant.THE PRESIDENT:Thank you very much.The Fourth Vice-President has been re-designated and re-sworn-in. So, she is starting a fresh mandate. The First Vice-President has not been re-designated and has not been re-sworn-in and I believe that his Parliament, from the information available to us, is still sitting up to the 29th of this month. So, his original mandate is still valid.Therefore, for all those whom we have clear information that they have lost elections and, as such, will not even be available for re-designation of a re-swearing or those who have gone for elections but have not yet been re-designated by their Parliaments, their positions will be declared vacant as they arise and we have the appropriate information thus required to do so.UN HONORABLE MEMBRE:Merci, Monsieur le Président.Je pense que dans notre texte, il y a un grand problème, une contradiction totale.Monsieur le Président,Si nous lisons l’article 8 qui dit: « Le siège d’un parlement devient vacant en cas de … » [Micro éteint].Point of OrderHON. MEMBER:Hon. Mr President, when a matter is debated in the House and the President has passed a decision, it is out of order for Members to continue debating it.We debated on what transpired and you have passed a ruling. It is completely and extremely out of order for a Member to revive the debate. So, I want to declare that the Hon. Member, much as I like her, is completely out of order.Thank you Hon. Mr President.THE PRESIDENT:Thank you very much, Hon. Colleague, but In this very peculiar circumstance, let us give those Hon. Members who will require further clarification an opportunity to be heard.I thank you.UN HONORABLE MEMBRE:Merci, Monsieur le Président.Je disais qu’il y a un grand problème dans notre texte, une contradiction totale au niveau de certains articles.Monsieur le Président, Si nous regardons l’article 8:« Le siège d’un parlement devient vacant en cas de:a) Décès;b) Démission par écrit au Président;c) Incapacité physique ou mentale;d) Destitution pour mauvaise conduite;e) Cessation de membre du parlement national ou de tout autre organe délibérant;f) … ».Monsieur le Président, Je vais m’arrêter ici:g) « Rappel par le parlement national ou de tout autre organe délibérant ».Monsieur le Président, Est-ce que les deux postes vacants des organes délibérants vous ont déjà été déposés? Ou vous ontils informé que des parlementaires représentant leurs pays ne sont pas ici, ou n’ont pas de qualités de parlementaires?J’aimerais avoir un éclaircissement!Monsieur le Président, Si on continue:« En cas de vacance annoncée conformément à l’alinéa 5 ci-dessus, le Secrétaire doit en notifier l’État membre ou, dans le cas d’une vacance établie au titre du paragraphe (g) alinéa 1, l’État concerné ».Encore:« En cas de vacance annoncée au titre de l’alinéa 5 ci-dessus, l’État membre sera invité à élire ou désigner une personne en qualité de membre du Parlement et de notifier le Secrétariat, conformément à l’alinéa (1) de l’article 6 ».J’aimerais avoir des éclaircissements, Monsieur le Président, sur l’article 8.Merci, Monsieur le Président.THE PRESIDENT:Hon. Member, what Article are you referring to, in particular, because I am a bit confused? Could you clarify the particular Article of the Rules of Procedure and Sections and sub Section you are reading?UN HONORABLE MEMBRE:Merci, Monsieur le Président.Je voudrais savoir celui qui déclare la vacance de siège? En lisant l’article 8 de notre texte, je me disais qu’il y a peut-être des contradictions dans nos textes.Monsieur le Président,Si nous lisons l’article 8, nous voyons très bien comment la vacance de poste se déclare sur ce que je viens de lire. Si vous regardez très bien, Monsieur le Président, je ne sais pas quand est-ce qu’on déclare une vacance de poste? C’est ce que je disais, Monsieur le Président, conformément à l’article 8.Merci, Monsieur le Président.THE PRESIDENT:Thank you.HON. ASSOUMANA MALAM ISSA [NIGER]:Merci, Monsieur le Président.Monsieur le Président,Relativement à cette question, je voudrais qu’on aille de façon concrète. Il semble que nous sommes en train de faire des généralités alors que la compréhension allait être plus facile si on a pris les choses au cas par cas.La 4ème Vice-présidente a fait des élections semblet-il, et qu’elle est réélue, mais que maintenant son poste est déclaré vacant.Alors, j’ai deux questions:Première question: Est-ce à dire que si on revient pour l’élection au poste de 4ème Vice-président le poste va être ouvert?Monsieur le Président,Je voudrais que vous me le confirmiez parce qu’il semble que le lundi ou c’était quel jour, vous semblez dire que peut-être pour votre cas aussi, il y aurait des élections au cours de votre mandat.Deuxième question: Est-ce à dire que si vous partez aux élections, le poste de Président du Parlement panafricain va être ouvert?Si c’est le cas, je pense qu’il faut qu’on revienne sur ce qu’elle a dit; qu’on revoit nos textes parce qu’on ne va pas avoir des petits mandats de trois ans et revenir à faire des élections chaque année ou tous les deux ans.Merci, Monsieur le Président.THE PRESIDENT:Thank you very much.HON. OBAMI-ITOU ANDRÉ [CONGO]:Merci, Monsieur le Président.Je crois que dans cette salle, il y a des juristes. Lors de la rédaction de ce Règlement intérieur – je parle en ma qualité de membre de ce Parlement depuis sa création – il n’a pas été facile d’adopter notre Règlement intérieur, mais enfin les parlementaires y sont parvenus.C’est clair, la perte de mandat au titre de parlementaire panafricain, lorsque vous avez perdu le mandat national ou tout autre organe délibérant –l’organe délibérant peut être le Conseil National de Transition dans certains pays, c'est-à-dire qu’il n’y a pas un Parlement élu, il y a une situation toute particulière, par exemple en République Centrafricaine (RCA), il y a un Conseil National de Transition; si la situation évolue, peut-être qu’ils pourront intégrer le PAP.Bref! Nous ne sommes pas là.Lorsque vous perdez votre mandat national, vous perdez le mandat de parlementaire panafricain. Si vous êtes réélu dans votre pays, vous revenez ici comme un nouveau, parce que vous devez prêter serment. Mais il n’est pas dit que parce qu’avant d’aller aux élections chez vous, vous étiez président d’une commission et maintenant que vous êtes réélu, vous revenez, vous regagnez ce siège, non!(Applaudissements)Vous ne regagnez pas immédiatement le poste que vous occupiez parce que vous aviez déjà perdu votre mandat. Vous revenez comme un nouveau et vous prêtez serment. En ce moment là, le poste reste ouvert et on fait des élections.S’agissant des bureaux, il y a le principe de rotation, ce qui signifie que si le Premier Vice-président était issu d’une région, par exemple l’Afrique centrale, c’est parmi les candidats de l’Afrique centrale qu’il faut trouver le 1er Vice-président.Voilà ma clarification.Merci, Honorable Président.THE PRESIDENT:Thank you, Your Excellency.HON. SHEKU B. B. DUMBUYA [SIERRA LEONE]:Mr. President, I can see that this issue is becoming increasingly contentious. We had never thought of it and we never knew we would come to this. We already have a programme for today and I would want to advise that we defer this issue. The Bureau, with the collaboration of the Committee on Rules of Procedure and the Committee on Justice will have to sit and discuss it and you can come back to us later.The more we continue to discuss this issue, we are going to eat into our time because any contentious issue is a potential... interruptonsTHE PRESIDENT:Thank you very much.I will take two more interventions and then we will close this issue.UN HONORABLE MEMBRE:Merci, Monsieur le Président.Je pense que le frère qui m’a précédé, avant celui qui vient d’intervenir, a parlé du droit. Ici, le problème relève du droit. On est parlementaire panafricain ès qualité c'est-à-dire c’est parce que vous êtes parlementaire chez vous que vous êtes parlementaire panafricain. On occupe le poste de responsabilité de Bureau, c’est aussi ès qualités mais d’un degré supérieur, parce que les postes qui sont donnés au sein de notre Parlement, c’est ès régional. Ce qui suppose que lorsque vous perdez la qualité vous perdez tous les postes. Si vous perdez la qualité de député chez vous, vous perdez tous les postes. Au niveau de la région, votre région doit présenter le candidat parce que c’est au nom de la région, qui doit remplacer son frère ou sa sœur qui n’est plus à ce poste.Le reste du débat est stérile.THE PRESIDENT:Hon. Member.HON. PATRICK MWALULA MUCHELEKA (ZAMBIA):Thank you Mr. President.I do not agree with the Hon. Member from Sierra Leone who said that this issue…interruptions THE PRESIDENT: Can you, please, go straight to the point if you have a contribution to make.HON. PATRICK MWALULA MUCHELEKA (ZAMBIA):The point, Mr. President, is that we are talking about strengthening an institution and our own rules which we must respect. I think that an interpretation has been given and it is very clear, and you have made a ruling. Therefore, that is the ruling that should stand. If there are vacancies, indeed, they will be filled in accordance with our Rules.The problem we may have, Mr President, is that we might fall into the trap of thinking about those individuals or friends of ours who occupy those positions. There is nothing personal. We are merely trying to strengthen the Rules and our institution as Parliament so that when we call on others to respect the rules, we must be seen to be the first ones to do so.Therefore, Mr. President, I want to support the ruling that you made that those vacancies should be filled in accordance with the Rules. Therefore, there is nothing contentious about this particular ruling.I thank you, Sir.THE PRESIDENT:Thank you very much.Thank you for that contribution. Hon. Member from South Africa, you are the last to make a contribution on this issue.HON. MEMBER [SOUTH AFRICA]:Thank you very much.I would like to concur with all those who have said that we accept your ruling. I would like to caution Members in this House about making decisions to send issues back to the Bureau to be decided for you.The position of the Fourth Vice-President has to be endorsed by this House and you must make the decision on it. Do not send issues away and then complain later because you gave away the control.Thank you.THE PRESIDENT:I thank you very much and, in accordance with the Rules of Procedure that the Committee on Rules remains the interpreter of our Rules of Procedure, the ruling that was announced earlier stands.I thank you.[The Second Vice-President in the Chair]THE SECOND VICE-PRESIDENT:Buenos días. ahora invito al Secretario General del Parlamento, para presentar el orden del día. Invito al Honorable Behtel Amadi, Presidente del Parlamento Pan Africano, para hacer su presentación.HON. BETHEL AMADI [PRESIDENT OF THE PAN AFRICAN PARLIAMENT]:Your Excellencies, Members of the Bureau of the Pan African Parliament, my distinguished Hon. Colleagues; Members of the Pan African Parliament; it is for me a special honour and privilege to stand before you to present the activity report of the Pan African Parliament for the period from May, 2013 to October, 2013.2. UPDATE ON THE TRANSFORMATION PROCESSHon. Colleagues, this report contains some of the important activities of the Pan African Parliament, showing the progress made and challenges encountered in the process. The report covers areas of legislative business, administration, emerging issues in the execution of our statutory mandate, our relationship with other organs of the AU, international relations and relations with our development partners, during the period under review.Dear colleagues, you will recall that in my activity report at the last session, in May/June 2013, I presented to you an update on the transformation process of our Protocol. In that report, I did inform you that at the 20th Session of the African Union Summit in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, the Assembly deferred the consideration of all legal instruments, including our Protocol to the following Session in May, 2013.However, in May, 2013, the Assembly once again deferred the consideration of the draft report on the Protocol to the next Ordinary Session scheduled for January, 2014 and specifically recommended that a more in-depth consultation be undertaken on the draft Protocol, with respect to articles 8(1)(a) and 8(2) on the legislative and oversight powers. This afforded us yet another opportunity to continue our advocacy for the support of the transformation process.3. ADVOCACY MISSIONSDuring the period under review and within the limits of the available resources, we, the Bureau, on your behalf, were able to make advocacy visits to some countries to meet and consult with Heads of State and Government, and the Speakers of their National Parliaments, regarding the need to support the transformation process of the Pan African Parliament.Republic of Niger We visited the Republic of Niger from the 16th to the 18thof June, 2013 and met with His Excellency Elh Mahamadou Issoufou, the President of the Republic of Niger as well as the Speaker of the National Assembly, His Excellency Hamam Amadou and had fruitful deliberations.Republic of Namibia We were also in the Republic of Namibia from the 1st to the 2nd of July, 2013 where we met with His Excellency, Hifikepunye Pohamba, the President of the Republic of Namibia and also held discussions with the Prime Minister, His Excellency Hage Geingob as well as the Speaker of the National Assembly of the Republic of Namibia, Hon. Theo-Ben Gurirab.Republic of Botswana During our visit to the Republic of Batswana from 22nd – 23rd July, 2013, we met and had fruitful consultations with His Excellency, Lieutenant-General Seretse Khama Ian Khama, the President of the Republic of Botswana and the Speaker of the National Assembly His Excellency Hon. Margaret N. Nasha.Republic of Togo We also visited the Republic of Togo from the 30th to 31st July, 2013, met and had productive deliberations with His Excellency, Faure Gnassingbe, the President of the Republic of Togo, and deliberations were also very fruitful.African Ambassadors in Washington Hon. Colleagues, we, also, from the 16th to the 19th of April 2013, had the opportunity to meet and address the African Diplomatic Corps in Washington DC, in the United States of America (USA), and briefed them on the activities of the Pan African Parliament as well as solicited for their support for the transformation of our Parliament.4. UPDATE ON THE IMPLEMENTATION OF THE PAP APPROVED ORGANISATIONAL STRUCTUREColleagues, you will agree with me that right from the approval of the PAP structure and the subsequent approval of the roadmap for its implementation by the Bureau in line with the approved implementation methodologies, I have consistently given you an update on the systematic processes being undertaken by the Bureau in the implementation of the approved structure.Accordingly, on 7th May, 2013, during the 2nd Ordinary Session of the 3rd Parliament, I presented to the Plenary, the Activity Report of the Bureau for the period covering October, 2012 to May, 2013. Item 3 of the report was on the progress report on "the Implementation of the PAP Approved Structure", wherein I outlined the processes that had been undertaken thus far, including the various staff briefings particularly of 1st March 2013, the setting up of the PSIP Committee made up of various categories of staff and the announcement of vacancies for the 48 prioritised positions posted on the PAP website on 6th May, 2013. The progress report was discussed and adopted by the Plenary. The Plenary then encouraged the Bureau to continue the implementation process in line with the outlined roadmap by the Bureau in full transparency.In the same vein, the Bureau has consistently updated the African Union Commission (AUC) and Permanent Representative Committee (PRC) on the progress report on the implementation of the structure, outlining all the steps and sequence of events undertaken by the Pan African Parliament in the recruitment process, without receiving any objection. Furthermore, in the PAP activity report which I presented to the 26th Ordinary Session of the PRC in May 2013, paragraph 2 thereof contained a detailed update on our journey so far on the recruitment process (including the appointment of an internationally reputable independent management consulting firm - Delloite), to help drive the process in full transparency and requested for the release of the necessary funds to support the process as approved by the Executive Council. The said report was highly commended and adopted by all the policy organs of the AU, without any reservation whatsoever. However, only 500, 000 USD was eventually approved for the recruitment process and is yet to be released.The non release of the fund as approved by the Executive Council and the unfortunate internal administrative challenges temporarily stalled the process, resulting in a three-month delay. The recruitment process could not, therefore, be completed as earlier programmed.However, with the funding support from one of our partners, the GIZ that pays for the technical advisor and the independent management consulting firm, we have managed to keep the recruitment process on course. As this stand today, the shortlisting of the first set of applicants, from D1 to P4, has been done by the technical management consulting team and the selection process is expected to be concluded by the end of December 2013 for the five most senior positions from D1 – P4. The Bureau remains committed and unwavering in its resolve to implement the recruitment process to its logical conclusion, and in full transparency, despite the obvious resistance from some quarters. We hope to finally conclude the whole process by the middle of 2014 if adequate resources are made available.5. SPEAKERS’ CONFERENCEConsistent with our tradition and in line with Article 18 of the Protocol establishing the Pan African Parliament, which requires the Pan African Parliament to work in close collaboration with national Parliaments and Regional Parliamentary Bodies, the Pan African Parliament organised a Speakers’ Conference which was preceded by a Meeting of the Clerks of African Parliaments on the 15th and 16th August, 2013. The theme of the conference was on the "Role of Parliaments in the past 50 years and in the next 50 years". The theme of this conference is an affirmation of the recognition that Africa’s democratic institutions are key to achieving sustainable development across Africa. The former President of Cape Verde, His Excellency Pedro Pirez, was the special guest of honour who made a powerful expose on Pan Africanism and African Renaissance.The conference affirmed that: Pan Africanism and African renaissance is a vital engine of African integration and growth, and that there is need to reflect on the progress made to date on African integration. On the issue of the transformation of the Pan African Parliament, the conference resolved that special attention should be paid to the Draft Protocol of the PAP. In this regard, the conference recommended that Parliaments should take the responsibility of sensitising the Heads of State and Governments and Ministers of Foreign Affairs on the need for legislative powers for the PAP. It also identified intra-African trade as one of the key areas for growth and agreed that the expansion of trade and intra-African trade are fundamental to sustaining economic growth in Africa. To this end, the conference resolved that special attention should be given to free movement of people, goods and services with special attention to women traders. In this regard, the conference recommended that the PAP should work in conjunction with sub-regional and national Parliaments to harmonise legislation to remove current trade barriers. It was also recommended that the PAP, in conjunction with national Parliaments, should make concerted efforts to accelerate the ratification, domestication and implementation of the AU instruments. The resolutions and recommendations of the conference are contained in the report.6. MEETING WITH SPEAKERS OF REGIONAL PARLIAMENTARY ASSEMBLIESIn accordance with Article 18 of the Protocol establishing the Pan African Parliament which requires the PAP to convene annual consultative fora with regional Parliamentary bodies, the Bureau of the PAP met with the Speakers of the SADC-PF, ECOWAS-P, EALA and CEMAC on 16th August 2013. The meeting had discussion on the following matters:How to collaborate on the harmonization and co-ordination of laws of member States;How to contribute to the integration agenda; andThe promotion of AU decisions in Member States.Finally, the meeting resolved to meet annually on the edges of the Speakers’ Conference organised by the PAP.7. SPECIAL SUMMIT ON HIV/AIDS, TUBERCULOSIS AND MALARIA: 12 – 16 JULY 2013, ABUJAA delegation of the PAP participated in the Special Summit of the African Union on HIV/AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria from 12th – 16th July 2013 in Abuja, Nigeria. The main aim of the Abuja +12 Special Summit was to review the status of implementation of the Declarations and Frameworks for Action from the 2000 Abuja Summit on Roll Back Malaria; the 2001 Abuja Summit on HIV/AIDS, Tuberculosis and Other Related Infectious Diseases (ORID); and the 2006 Special Summit on HIV/AIDS, Tuberculosis and Other Related Infectious Diseases (ORID). This Special Summit reviewed the status of Africa Governments’ investment in the various national HIV/AIDS, Tuberculosis and Other Related Infectious Diseases (ORID) responses; and adopted a set of actions to enhance the continent’s response and effort at reversing the impact of these diseases by ensuring universal access to services and strengthened health systems.8. WORKSHOP ON TRADE BY THE SOUTHERN AFRICAN CAUCUS IN NAMIBIAIn an effort by the PAP to promote the co-ordination of policies in the constituencies of member states, as required in Article 11(7) of the Protocol, the Southern African Caucus of the PAP, in collaboration with the private sector in Namibia organized a workshop on Infrastructure and Development in the Southern Region on July 1st to 5th, May 2013 in Walvis Bay, Namibia. The objectives of the workshop among others were to inform the members on the Infrastructure and Development in Southern African Region; to enhance regional integration within the Southern Region; and to build the capacity of members to enable them lobby their countries to prioritize Infrastructure and Development so as to promote regional integration within the region. The region agreed that there was need to align SADC States’ domestic policies and laws with the SADC Treaty on Trade.9. FACT FINDING MISSION TO THE CENTRAL AFRICAN REPUBLICLatest developments in the political, security and humanitarian situation in the Central African Republic caught the attention of PAP which dispatched a fact-finding mission led by Hon. Mohamed Guidji, Deputy Chairperson of the Committee on Justice to the country from 2nd to 4th October 2013, in order to gather sufficient information that will enable us to propose solutions to the crisis in that country. The mission report will be presented for your deliberations.10. COMMITTEE ACTIVITIESDuring the period under review, various Committees participated in a number of regional and international meetings and workshops. All the ten permanent Committees of the Pan African Parliament also held their second statutory meetings for the year 2013, between 12-16 August, 2013. During the said period, the Committees had interaction with various invited stakeholders, received presentations and organized workshops. Some of the Committees activities will include the following:(i)The Committee on Justice and Human Rights, represented by its Chairperson, Hon. Onyango Kakoba, participated in Technical Experts Consultation to Review the African Transitional Justice Framework (ATJPF) from 29 - 31 August, 2013, in Nairobi, Kenya. The detailed report of this Committee will be presented for your consideration.(ii)The Committee on Gender, represented by the Chairperson, Hon. Francisca Domingo Stomas, Hon. Evelyn Nawases (Namibia), Hon. Claire Nassa Marie Guigma (Burkina Faso), participated in the 30 of African Women Decade and the Steering Committee of the Fund for African Women, between 9 and 11 June, 2013, in Tunis, Tunisia. The full report will be presented by the Committee.(iii)Hon. Bohue Martin of the Committee on Co-operation represented the PAP at the meeting of the Continental Structural Conflict Prevention Framework (CSCPF) which took place on from 14-16 June, 2013 in Kigali, Rwanda.(iv)The Committees on Education, Culture, Tourism and Human Resources and The Committee on Justice and Human Rights were jointly briefed by His Excellency Dr Kishore Singh, UN Special Rapporteur on Education and the UN Charter on Basic Education Rights and His Excellency Dr Martial Ikoung, AU Commissioner of Human Resource Sciences and Technology.(v)Committee on Trade, Customs and Immigration Matters received a presentation on Intra-Africa Trade, from the African Union Department of Trade and Industry, the members were informed on the important decisions made by AU Assembly related to Boosting Intra-African Trade and Fast Tracking the Continental Free Trade, the Framework, Road Map and Architecture, they decided that the CFTA should be operationalised by the indicative date of 2017 and the challenges and opportunities of Intra-Africa Trade discussed.(vi)Committee on Co-operation, International Relations and Conflicts Resolutions received presentation from the ICRC on responding to humanitarian concerns in armed conflict: ICRC Operations in Africa and presentation from the APRM on the role of the Parliament in monitoring the APRM Member states. The Committee resolved to send fact finding missions to Mali and Central African Republic.(vii)Committee on Rural Economy, Agriculture, Natural Resources and Environment organized a Joint workshop on Climate and Energy jointly with Committee on Transport on 15-16 August 2013, the objectives of the workshop were to inform the members on the impact of climate change on the African Continent, the role of parliamentarians in fighting poverty with power and how parliamentarians can assist in securing funds for energy projects and take legislative actions when they are required. The Committee considered and adopted the report of the workshop on Making Agricultural Investment work for Africa: a Parliamentarian’s response to the land rush, on 26-27 April 2013 in Kigali, Rwanda.(viii)Committee on Health, Labour and Social Affairs received presentation from the NEPAD Agency on the progress on the Model Law on African Medicines Registration Harmonization (AMRH) and the preparations for the planned meetings for October 2013. The Committee considered and adopted the draft report on the Pan African Parliamentary Dialogue on Strengthening the AIDS Response in Africa. The report will be presented by this Committee to the Plenary.(ix)Committee on Gender, Family, Youth and People with Disability organized a workshop on Foundational Principles and Policy Priorities in Family Policies on the Continent, the objectives of the workshop among others were to gain understanding of some of what is already happening in Africa, on a regional and national level, with regards to the family. This will be linked to the international picture and for the Committee to start engaging with the topic of ‘the family’ within the context of PAP and AU, to enlarge the understanding of the Committee’s mandate in this regard.(x)Committee on Justice and Human Rights with the Committee on Education jointly received presentation from Dr Kishore Singh, UN Special Rapporteur on Education on the UN Charter on Basic Education Rights. The Committee also received presentation on the State of Union on analysis of the emerging threats and opportunities for human rights using the UN, AU Policies and Legal Instruments as the framework of reference in terms of their ratification, domestication and implementation. The Committee was briefed on the proposed continental conference on Public Broadcasting and Media Legislative Reforms in Africa by Mr. Jeggan Grey-Johnson, AFRIMAP.11. AU/PAP JOINT ELECTIONOBSERVATION MISSIONS (EOM) During the period under review and in line with Decision No. EX.CI/Dec. 534 (XVI) adopted during the Sixteenth Ordinary Session of the Executive Council of the African Union in February 01, 2010, by which election observation by all the AU organs must be conducted under a centralised budget, the PAP took part in the joint Election Observer missions from June to September, 2013. Thus, the PAP representatives participated in Presidential and Parliamentary Elections held in the following countries:Togo, 21st July 2013;Mali, 28th July 2013;Zimbabwe, 31st July 2013;Mali, 11 August 2013;Rwanda, 16 September 2013;Swaziland, 20 September 2013;Guinea, 24 September 2013;Cameroon, 30 September 2013.However, the PAP is still experiencing challenges related to:Logistical arrangements: late sending of tickets, class of travel and late confirmation of availability of MPs;Language problem: the distribution and deployment of observers regardless of the language of communication in absence of interpretation facility;Lack of information from the coordinating team on some of the activities of the missions, hence the need for the involvement of the PAP staff in the advance technical team; andThe demand for the deputy team leadership position to be reserved for the PAP and the 40 per cent quota issues as had been agreed earlier on by the AU.The foregoing remain unsettled challenges that are still being pursued by the Bureau with the Commissioner for Political Affairs at the AUC.12. INSTITUTIONAL ACTIVITIES12.1. DEVELOPMENT OF THE ONLINE DIGITAL LIBRARYThe development of the Online Library and Digital Repository is progressing well. The software was installed in July/August, 2013. Online cataloguing and other operations are being carried out and tested to ensure the system is functional. Full text documents are being uploaded too into the digital repository and testing is on-going. Staff in the Library, Documentation and Hansard departments have been receiving training on the operations of the systems, Symphony and Archivalware. The PAP is now on Facebook and Twitter and our pages are functional. Content is being posted on these information and knowledge sharing platforms to make the PAP fully digital.12.2. STRATEGIC PLAN OF THE PAPThe first draft of the Strategic Plan of the PAP has been produced and aligned to the AU Strategic Plan. The Bureau is studying it and a validation workshop is being planned with all Bureaus of Committees for the purpose of adapting this strategic plan.13. COMPLIANCE WITH AU POLICIES, STATUTES AND DIRECTIVESThe PAP has consistently committed itself in recent times to comply fully with all AU Administrative requirements, policies and directives in the management of financial, human resource and procurement processes. Various audits (external, internal and donor partner audits) have all observed and attested to the improvement in the compliance trend within the PAP. As the PAP continues to grow and with improved capacity, it is anticipated that this trend will ultimately culminate in full compliance with AU policies and regulations to achieve the required efficiency in the administration of our Parliament.14. BUDGET AND RESOURCE MOBILISATIONThe PAP Budget for the year 2014 has been approved. However, the bulk of the budget mainly covers costs with very little amount for programmes and projects. This has been the trend over the years and thus impacts negatively on the ability of the PAP to undertake certain activities in furtherance of its mandate. Specifically, the budget provides for only statutory meetings and limited amounts for missions with the rest charged to operational costs. The PAP will therefore continue to rely heavily on donor support for the funding of its programmes especially the work of our Committees. With regard to resource mobilisation, most of the partners have indicated that they will support activities linked to governance and human rights. The following development partners have indicated a willingness to continue to support the work of the PAP by providing financial resources; the EC; OSISA, UNDP, GIZ, Australian Aid; and AWEPA. We have also submitted a proposal to ACBF which has been our long time partner, for funding staff capacity building and the PAP is awaiting the response to that.Institutional AssessmentIn 2010 and 2012, the PAP underwent an institutional assessment process. The aim was to enable the PAP to get direct funding from the EC. The aim was to enable the PAP to get direct funding from the EC. In both instances, institutional gaps were identified within the Administration and Finance Department. The Secretariat has been working on the issues raised and the EC audit for 2012 was very positive. The PAP, for the first time, did not incur any ineligible expenditure.13. STAFF MATTERSThe Staff members have continued to render support services to the Parliament with obvious capacity constraints which are being addressed and will hopefully be fully addressed with the implementation of the approved Structure. I would like, at this juncture, to congratulate the Secretariat for their support given the difficult circumstances. Since the last session, the PAP has recruited a Human Resources Officer on short-term contract under the EC support to assist the institution with its human resources challenges. The ACBF Project ended in September, 2013. Accordingly, the contract of all the project staff ended, in line with the EU Staff Rules and Regulations.14. INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS16.1. TICAD V CONFERENCEIn keeping with the provisions of Article 3(7) of the Protocol establishing the PAP which requires the PAP to facilitate co-operation and development in Africa, at the invitation of the Government of Japan, the Third Vice-President, Madam Loide Kasingo, led a PAP delegation, comprising Hon. Makgalemele Dikgang and Hon. Usman Nuradeen, to Japan to attend the TICAD V Conference from 1st to 3rd June, 2013. The meeting was attended by thirty-nine Heads of State and Government from Africa and the Asian region, international organisations, donor countries, the private sector, and non governmental organisations. The TICAD V Conference was co-organised by Japan, the United Nations, the World Bank, and the African Union Commission.16.2. MISSION TO 20TH ANNIVERSARY GENERAL ASSEMBLY OF THE INTERPARLIAMENTARY ASSEMBLY ON ORTHODOXY, GREECEWithin the framework of the implementation of the Co-operation Agreement between the Pan-African Parliament and the Inter-Parliamentary Assembly on Orthodoxy, the Pan African Parliament was represented by the 4th Vice President, His Excellency, Hon. Juliana Kantengwa to participate in the 20th Anniversary General Assembly of the Inter-Parliamentary Assembly on Orthodoxy which was held from 26 June – 1 July, 2013 in Athens, Greece.The conference considered a number of themes, including "Parliamentary-Democracy, Christianity-Orthodoxy: values and concepts", "Orthodoxy and Democracy", "Christianity and Politics in the world of tomorrow" and "Values and concepts of modern era. A critical issue which was presented to the Assembly was the lingering refusal of the Government of Mozambique to hand over church owned educational institutions to the Orthodox Church.16.3. BRIEFING OF AFRICAN AMBASSADORS IN PRETORIAThe Bureau of the PAP met with the African Ambassadors based in Pretoria and they were briefed on the programme for the October session.The meeting took place on 17th October, 2013 in which the President also briefed the Ambassadors on some of the activities being undertaken by the PAP.In their response, the Ambassadors made useful contributions that are of relevance to the African development agenda. The emphasised the need to strengthen the capacity of the PAP in order to effectively deliver on its mandate by the adoption of the draft Protocol and finally pledged their full support for the PAP in its activities.16.4. RELATIONSHIP WITH THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENTThe delegation of the European Parliament and the Bureau together with members of the Joint Delegation on the Africa – European Strategy (JAES) held a working session on the current relations between the PAP and the EP. The meeting agreed to review the MOU between the two Parliaments and to plan for the pre-Parliamentary meeting on the JAES during the next Summit in 2014 on the JAES. A draft MOU has been produced and will be finalised during their next meeting with the Members of the EU Parliament and the PAP scheduled for 25th October, 2013.15. THIRD ORDINARY SESSION OF THE THIRD PARLIAMENT – OCTOBER 21 TO NOVEMBER 1st, 2013Dear Colleagues, the 3rd Ordinary Session of the 3rd Parliament, which commenced on Monday, witnessed the esteemed presence of the Prime Minister of the Republic of Togo, Kwesi Seleagodji Ahoomey-Zunu who represented His Excellency Faure Essozimna Gnassimgbe, the President of the Republic of Togo who had kindly accepted to grace the occasion as our Special Guest of Honour. We also received statements and messages of solidarity from our other special guests.On 22nd of October, His Excellency Mr Erastus Mwencha, Deputy Chairperson of the African Union Commission made a presentation on the African Union Agenda 2063 and the 2014 African Union Budget. The rest of the upcoming activities for the session are indicated in the agenda which is already before you demanding our commitment and cooperation for a fruitful deliberation.16. MEDICAL HEALTH INSURANCE COVER FOR MEMBERS OF PARLIAMENTHon Colleagues, you will recall that I did make a promise to you, that the Bureau of the Pan African Parliament, under my leadership, would take the necessary steps to ensure the welfare of Members of the PAP and that medical insurance coverage is provided for Hon. Members. Accordingly, the Bureau and Secretariat set in motion the process of actualising this. The process has not been an easy one but in a meeting between the Bureau, the Secretariat and Discovery Medical Health Providers, the modalities for the provision of health services to all Members of Parliament, with effect from November, 2013, was finalized.Hon. Colleagues, the good news is that, now, the MPs will be given medical care cover under the package, KeyCare Plus, which gives unlimited cover, within South Africa, to a network of hospitals in case of emergency, trauma and child birth. It also offers unlimited cover in any private institution for emergencies and for planned admissions authorised by the individual of choice within an area which one is resident and provides for chronic medication including cardio vascular disease and treatment of prostate cancer and of course breast cancer. This will take effect from 1st of November, 2013.The registration will commence immediately for MPs that are available. To this end, at the request of the Bureau, Discovery has kindly accepted to come and make a presentation today, Wednesday 23rd October, 2013 to the MPs regarding the few details and processes of this very important medical cover.Dear Colleagues, I believe that health is wealth, without which we cannot effectively deliver on our mandate and I, therefore, urge Hon. Members to, please, avail themselves of the benefits of this singular opportunity.CONCLUSIONThe foregoing is a brief report of the activities of the PAP from May to October, 2013. This report cannot be concluded without renewing our request for your continued support and encouragement, in our determination to continue to pilot the affairs of our Parliament in a judicious and transparent manner.Thank you and remain blessed. God bless you.THE SECOND VICE-PRESIDENT:Gracias señor presidente por su presentación. Ahora voy a abrir el debate y tengo delante una lista de oradores, que se compone de treinta y uno, que cada uno tendrá tres minutos.El primer orador será el HON. ERNESTO JOAQUIM MULATO. Tiene la palabra.THE SECOND VICE-PRESIDENT:Gracias por su intervención.Damos tres minutos, tenemos que aprender a ser breves en nuestras intervenciones, ser lo más breve posible, solamente hablar de lo que más debemos hablar y por lo tanto, si damos más de cinco minutos y tenemos treinta un orador vamos a coger mucho tiempo. Entonces vamos a intentar hacerlo de esta manera, cada uno tres minutos e intentar decir lo más importante. Que todo es importante lógicamente, pero es así, sino, vamos a coger mucho tiempo. Por lo tanto, voy a empezar mi lista.HON. SALEH KEBZABO [TCHAD]:Je vous remercie, Madame la Présidente.Madame la Présidente,Je voudrais, dès le début de ce débat, souligner l’importance du rapport du Président. C’est l’un des moments forts de notre session. C’est pour cela que je voudrais dire deux choses.La première, c’est qu’à l’avenir, le rapport du Président figure en premier dans l’ordre du jour de la session, et non pas en milieu de session, après d’autres affaires qui ont été traitées.La deuxième, c’est dans la durée des interventions. Si nous admettons que le rapport du Président est le moment le plus fort pendant une session, nous ne pouvons pas demander aux députés de prendre la parole pour trois minutes.Madame la Présidente,En trois minutes, on n’a pas dit ce qu’on a à dire. Je crois qu’il faudrait qu’on laisse le temps aux députés de s’exprimer largement, de dire ce qu’ils ont à dire.Un rapport comme celui-ci, je pense, appelle de la part des députés des commentaires beaucoup plus nombreux, fournis et riches, et c’est pour cela que je vais suggérer que vous accordiez cinq minutes de temps de parole à chacun.Merci.HON. ERNESTO JOAQUIM MULATO [ANGOLA]:Obrigado Senhora Presidente. Em primeiro lugar, eu tenho a felicitar o relatório apresentado por Sua Excelência o Presidente do Parlamento sobre as actividades da Mesa. Neste relatório, nós encontramos aspectos fundamentais do nosso trabalho, tais como a transformação do PAP em órgão legislativo e vimos que a Mesa desempenhou com toda a força para sensibilizar Estados e governos para ver se possam entender que se nós queremos democratizar o nosso continente, a África, uma das funções do Parlamento é legislar. Eu gostaria de entender de Sua Excelência o Senhor Presidente que nas visitas efectuadas, os encontros tidos dos quais se alega terem sido frutuosos, podemos antever que os governos visitados venham a ser aliados, no sentido de facilitarem ou votarem a favor do órgão; esse é um aspecto. O outro aspecto também vimos no relatório sobre a Conferência dos Presidentes dos Parlamentos dos Países membros, as recomendações da mesma que também pediam a cada um desses Presidentes serem porta-vozes para intercederem junto dos chefes de Estado e dos governos para facilitarem a tarefa do nosso Parlamento Pan-Africano. A minha pergunta é: qual foi a sensação que a Mesa teve dos Presidentes? Quando eu digo sensação, gostaria de dizer que eles como porta-vozes nossos, ficaram convencidos de que é esta mesmo a tarefa fundamental ou poderão eles se mostrar de acordo, mas que também os próprios não estavam convencidos? Por último, será que há um horizonte visual que esses presidentes possam nos dar um feedback dos seus contactos antes da reunião dos chefes de Estado?É tudo, muito obrigado.HON. SALEH KEBZABO [TCHAD]:Merci, Madame la Présidente.Monsieur le Président,Nous avons écouté votre appel avec beaucoup d’attention. Je tenais d’abord à vous féliciter pour la clarté sur les points que vous avez évoqués, mais, en même temps, dire que nous avons été, pour ce qui me concerne en tout cas, déçus que les problèmes de la maison n’aient pas été posés. Ceux qui ont participé à la Conférence des Présidents, samedi dernier, vous ont écouté. Vous nous avez dit à quel point la maison PAP se portait mal, et aujourd’hui vous ne le répétez pas.Je voudrais d’abord souligner qu’une bonne administration, une administration compétente, loyale et intègre, garantit le bon fonctionnement du Bureau. Or, ce n’est pas le cas. Ce n’est pas le cas, parce que nous avons noté beaucoup de défaillances. Nous en parlons souvent dans les couloirs, et je pense que c’est le moment d’en parler. Il y a beaucoup de défaillances dans notre administration. Notre maison est mal gérée; elle est mal administrée.On commence par le Bureau lui-même. Les défaillances du Bureau sont en particulier le manque de permanence, et donc, le manque de suivi des décisions et de leur application.La nature ayant horreur du vide, le Secrétariat général a évidemment occupé tout l’espace laissé par le Bureau. Aujourd’hui, on assiste à cette situation de blocage où c’est pratiquement un défi qui est lancé au Bureau, qui n’a plus aucun pouvoir. En tout cas, vos pouvoirs sont devenus très limités parce que vous avez, comme vous l’avez dit samedi dernier, face à vous, une équipe du Secrétariat qui s’est emparé du pouvoir et ne veut pas le céder.Je voudrais donc, Monsieur le Président, dire que face à cette situation où nous, parlementaires, constatons une défaillance due à une faiblesse notoire, à une incompétence même de gestion de notre maison, qu’est-ce que vous comptez faire?Il est urgent que des décisions hardies soient prises pour que la maison « PAP » soit redressée immédiatement.J’en profite aussi pour dire vis-à-vis de l’Afrique du Sud, qui est le pays du siège, qu’il y a des défaillances qu’il faut que nous soulignions. L’Accord du siège n’est pas respecté entièrement par l’Afrique du Sud, et cela pose problème. On ne va pas entrer dans les détails, mais les points les plus importants étant la construction du siège. Il y a quelques années, on nous montrait un terrain qui, aujourd’hui, est occupé par d’autres et on ne sait même pas quand est-ce que le siège va être construit par le pays hôte.Le deuxième problème que je voudrais soulever parmi les manquements que nous avons, c’est celui du scandale du Trust Fund. Au fur et à mesure que les années passent, on n’en parle plus et votre rapport ne l’a même pas évoqué. Il faudrait que nous en parlions pour que les nouveaux sachent qu’il y a[Microphone éteint].Pour finir, il y a quelques années le Trust Fund a étélancé ici, à grand fracas de publicité en présence du Président Mandela. Nous-mêmes, parlementaires, chacun d’entre nous a donné une contribution et cet argent a été dilapidé, comme vous le savez. On nous a dit que des poursuites seraient engagées, et aujourd’hui on n’en parle pas.Voilà, mon temps de parole étant terminé, les autres questions vont [Temps de parole épuisé].HON. MARTIN BOHUE [CÔTE D’IVOIRE]:Merci, Madame la Présidente, de me donner la parole,Je voudrais intervenir sur trois points.Premier point:Le document parle du plan stratégique du PAP; c’est un document très important qui va engager les activités du PAP sur une période relativement longue. C’est pourquoi, nous pensons que son adoption définitive devrait intervenir en plénière après avoir franchi le stade des bureaux des commissions permanentes.Deuxième point:Le Président a rencontré des Chefs d’États et des Présidents des Parlements nationaux. Quelles sont les réponses que ses interlocuteurs ont réservées à la question de conférer au PAP les pleins pouvoirs législatifs?Troisième point:Le texte parle de l’assurance médicale des membres du Parlement. Il parle également de la couverture de cette assurance maladie. Dans le texte, il me semble qu’on parle des parlementaires dans leur zone de résidence, ce qui provoque une certaine confusion dans mon esprit. Est-ce cela voudrait bien dire que la couverture devait s’étendre au-delà de l’Afrique du Sud et donc aller dans les pays où résident les parlementaires?Merci, Madame la Présidente.HON. TANIMOUNE OUMAROU [NIGER]:Merci, Madame la Présidente.Je me dois de remercier et féliciter sincèrement le Président, pour la visibilité, la clarté et concision de son exposé sur le rapport d’activités de la période de mai à octobre 2013.Madame la Présidente,Depuis un certain temps, on a remarqué la volonté du Bureau du PAP, sous la conduite éclairée de son Président, d’instaurer une bonne gouvernance notamment en matière de finances. Je me rappelle bien lorsqu’on examinait le projet de budget 2014 en février 2013, à l’époque, nous n’avions même pas eu droit au niveau d’exécution des dépenses du budget 2012. Je dis bien en 2012! Nous l’avons réclamé pour qu’il puisse nous servir de repère parce qu’un budget doit toujours partir d’un point de départ pour une structure qui n’est pas à son début.Nous avons réclamé ce niveau d’exécution, ne serait-ce que du budget 2012, alors qu’on préparait le projet de budget 2014, en vain. C’était une insuffisance caractérisée et nous n’avons pas manqué de le relever en commission. Cependant, nous avons remarqué, tout dernièrement en août 2013 lorsque nous étions en session des commissions, que les services financiers du PAP sont en train de progresser – de s’améliorer énormément parce que pour la circonstance, à l’occasion – il nous a même été livré le niveau d’exécution du budget du PAP de janvier à juin 2013. C’est une situation à saluer et je pense qu’elle provient principalement de la volonté du Président. Cela est à saluer!Monsieur le Président,J’aimerais aborder la question de l’audit externe. Le PAP a fait l’objet en 2013 d’un audit externe au titre de l’année 2012.Le rapport provisoire de cet audit externe a été transmis à l’administration du PAP en 2013. Aucune réaction n’a été formulée alors que les auditeurs ont donné un délai pour permettre à l’administration de formuler ses observations. C’est un rapport contradictoire.En commission, une partie des responsables du PAP ont reconnu l’avoir reçu officiellement et une autre partie a méconnue cette réception.Monsieur le Président,Dans cet audit externe, de graves manquements ont été soulevés et l’administration n’a pas daigné répondre.J’estime que c’est un manquement parce que nous gérons de l’argent public; nous gérons l’argent du contribuable africain. Nous devons répondre à tout reproche qui nous est fait par rapport à cet audit.Monsieur le Président,Quelle a été la suite formulée par le PAP à cette question?Merci, Madame la Présidente.HON. MOHAMED TAYEB LASKRI [ALGERIA]:شكرا السيدة رئيسة الجلسة ؛؛في البداية أحب أن أهني السيد الفاضل رئيس البرلمان الافريقي على هذا العرض الثري والشيق والغنيمـــن النشاطات المنجزة من هذا البرلمان الموقر بالفعل نشاطات البرلمان االفريقي أثنـاء هذه الفترة اآلخيرة كثيفـة وتناولت العديد من القضايا واإلنشغاالت في قارتنا ولكن ؟ نريد من برلماننا هذا ان يتح ّسن في جميع الميادين السيما فيما يخص ظروف العمل آلعضاء البرلمان ومتابعة تظبيق القرارات والتوصيات التي تناقش ويصادق عليها البرلمان وتحسين التسيير االداري ، في هذا السياق لد ّي بعض ريُد أن أطرحها على معاليكم السيد رئيس البرلمان ُ المالحظات أ الفاضل ،، نجز وهذا شي ُء أوالً: - جميل ُ أن مشروع إنجاز المكتبة الرقمية أ ويضاف إلى مكسب البرلمان االفريقي في الحقيقة نحن في هذا البرلمان منقطعين تماما مية هنالك مشاكل ً عن العالم من الناحية الرق في استعمال وســـــــائــل االتصـــال السلكية والالسلكية إنعدام وجود الويــفــي على مستوى الـــبرلمـــــــان االفريقي تكلمتم وقلتم للسادة االعضاء الموقرين ان يطفؤ هواتفهم النقالة في بداية الجلسات ولكن هنالك حل بسيط جدًا بعض االجهزة توضع فـــي غرفــة ما لقطع العــــالقــــــات الالسلكية مع الهواتف النقالة ، ثانيا - العديد ً: ّم المصادقة عليها من من القرارات والتوصيات نوقشت ب ّشدة وت قــبـــــل البرلمان ال ّسيما غياب أعضاء البرلمان أو التوصية القيّمة التي تخص قضية الصحراء الغربية فهل هناك متابعة من طرف البرلمان االفريقي لتطبيق هذه القرارات والتوصيات ثالثا - هل من المعقول سيدي الرئيس ان بعض االداريين من ً: البرلمان االفريقي واالتحاد االفريقي يملكون جوازات سفر دبلوماسية بينما اعضاء البرلمان االفريقي لهم فقط وثائق مرور يجدونها في الحدود في بعض الدول و فيما يخص السيما غياب نشاطات اللجان الدائمة نسجل في التقرير غياب الورشة المشتركة بين لجنة النقل والطاقة والعلوم والتكنولوجيا ولجنة الطاقة ببرلمان جنوب افريقيا والتي كانت لها نتائج جدُ طيبة هذا ما ارد ُت طرحة سيدي الرئيس واشكركم على االصغاء وشكراHON. DOMINIC A. B. NITWUL [GHANA]:Thank you, Madam President.Madam President, permit me to thank the President of the PAP and the Bureau for the six months report that, in my view is very, very good. However, the praises that the Hon. Colleagues are showering on you should rather help you to work harder so that the next report you present will be even more excellent that this. That is why I urge you to focus more on page 2 of your report which has to do with the update on the transformation process. Mr President, I will be glad if, in your answers to what we are saying, you brief us a little bit on what you and the Bureau are personally doing to ensure that the PAP has the legislative function that it so deserves, Otherwise, really, then it is not a Parliament. I will urge, unless you have already started that process, that you involve other eminent African leaders, especially retired Heads of State and retired UN Secretaries-General - there is one in Egypt and another in Ghana - to move, between now and January, from one Head of State to the other to lobby them and ensure that, by January, all of them fall in line and so that it becomes very disgraceful for any Head of State to kick against this. Otherwise, I can tell you, nobody who has power wants to share power and unless we, here, put our heads together, the Heads of State will never, never share power with us because the people will demand accountability from them if they do.Mr President, I just want to conclude by saying that I want to personally thank you and your Bureau for the fact that you have managed to give Members of the PAP the medical care that they so deserve. I am young, but there are many people who are not as young as I am and we need to ensure that, as we leave our countries, we are medically secured here. That is why I will say that it should not just be limited to emergency cases, trauma or child birth. I do not know how many people give birth here. It should be also extended to comprehensive check reviews that will seek to prevent, and not treat, because if you have a lot of comprehensive reviews every six months, I am sure that it will help us, Mr President.Madam President, I thank you.HON. BAKARY OUATTARA [CÔTE D’IVOIRE]:Merci, Madame la Présidente.J’avais deux questions qui ont été, plus ou moins, abordées par les Honorables Martin et KEBZABO.Mais, je voudrais insister sur la deuxième question qui me semble assez importante.Monsieur le Président a dit que le processus du recrutement ira jusqu’à son terme en dépit de la résistance de certaines personnes.Alors, je voudrais une clarification sur ces personnes qui font obstruction au processus et pourquoi, s’il en connaît les raisons bien sûr?Qu’elles sont les mesures qu’il a prises à l’encontre de ces personnes?Je vous remercie.HON. CECILIA ATIM-OGWAL [UGANDA]:Thank you, Madam Chairperson and congratulation for effectively chairing of this session.Madam Chairperson, I would like to congratulate our dear President on his wonderful presentation. I have followed the first, second and now the third report submitted to this House since the President elected and took the mantle of leadership. This actually shows that our votes were not wasted.Thank you, Mr President.ApplauseMr President, in your first report, you highlighted certain achievements and among those achievements were the approval of the structure of the Secretariat since its inception. You have not told us how far we have gone in this regard. Secondly, you also shared with us the progress you have made towards the approval of the draft transforming this institution to a full legislative body. I was very delighted when you actually said that the Council of Ministers of Justice and Attorneys-General all approved, without any reservation and, further, those who also approved the draft were the Council of Ministers.Now, Mr President, I would like you to tell us why there is this delay on the hurdle of Article 8(1a) and Article 8(2). What can we do to remove the hurdle? I think this is important and we must all put our efforts together to make sure that we touch base with our respective Presidents and make sure that the attentions are directed to these hurdles.Thirdly, Madam Chairperson, Mr President has told us that the PAP has now received a bill of clean performance in as far the Ernst and Young Assessment Report is concerned. Now, since we now have a clean bill of performance on all the four pillars it, therefore, means that the PAP can now access the European Union Funds (EDF) directly. Now, how far have you gone in that direction? I am raising this because we are all in standing committees and we are made to work on budgets. The budgets were made and presented to this House and I have been told by all committees, including our own committee, the Committee on International Relations, that we have not, in the whole year, received any disbursement for committee activities. Therefore, what is being done in this direction?Thank you.HON. MASTER MOISERAELE GOYA [BOTSWANA]:Madam President, I thank you very much. Let me also thank our President, Hon. Amadi, for his report. This report, indeed, is elaborate and gives us a sense of what has been obtaining at the PAP since October, last year.Madam President, I want to confine my contribution to two issues on this report. The first one is on the advocacy missions and the second one has to do with staff matters. I would like to urge the President to continue with these advocacy missions. Mr President, you came to Botswana to have an audience with our Head of State and, indeed, the discussions that you had with him were fruitful.However, the word fruitful is not detailed enough. I would have expected you to mention the commitment that our Head of State made to the effect that he was going to talk to his colleagues to support the transformation of the PAP from an advocacy and consultative body into a legislative body. That should have been covered in this report.Mr President, again, as regards the advocacy mission that you undertook to Namibia, you did not tell us how the deliberations went. You are silent on the visit to the Namibian Head of State. It is not covered. For other countries, you have covered that aspect by stating that the discussions were very fruitful.Mr President, on the issue of staff matters, I want to talk about the implementation of the new PAP Structure. I think we all know that the Executive Council approved the new PAP Structure and it was supposed to have been implemented with effect from the year 2012 with a budget allocation of 40 per cent set aside for that exercise. That did not materialise because of financial constraints.This year, we were supposed to have set aside a budget of 15 per cent towards that exercise. Again, it has not materialised. Unfortunately, I do not see this materialising next year, the year after or any time soon because quite a number of member States are not paying their subscriptions.I was at the AU in August, this year, to present and defend the Supplementary Budget of the PAP. The PRC Chairperson told the gathering that the outstanding subscriptions from member States were as high as US$64 million. How do you expect us to implement this structure without funds? Obviously, we cannot.Mr President, I am suggesting or recommending that the Bureau must talk to the AU such that we transfer all the existing staff of the PAP into the new structure and fill all the vacant positions.Thank you, Madam President.HON. SARAH SAYIFWANDA [ZAMBIA]:Thank you very much, Madam President.First of all, may I adopt my sister, Cecilia’s, introductory remarks. As regards the strength of a woman, you are really chairing very well.Secondly, may I also adopt her words about the Hon. Mr President. Indeed, the vote for this august House was not in vain. Mr President, you have a bright future and I congratulate you..I am congratulating the President because of the three items that he has presented to this House which have to do with, firstly, the advocacy mission, then the health insurance cover and, finally, the institutional assessment which he has, indeed, tackled with success with the blessings of the Lord Jesus above.May I be allowed to even read on page 15 of the President’s document. It says, "The Secretariat has been working on the issues raised and the EC audit for 2012 was very positive. For the first time, the PAP did not incur any ineligible expenditure." Well done, Mr President and your Secretariat, and we thank you for your powerful leadership.Having said this, Madam President, may I also adopt Hon. Goya’s statement where he talked about the approved organisational structure.Madam President, the report shows that, indeed, we have no resources. I really second what Hon. Goya has stated. Why can we not defer what we are supposed to do so that we put things in place? We have to go step by step.Madam President, there are Members of Parliament who suffer whenever they go for election observation. They are exposed to economic crises. Honestly, is that healthy?Meanwhile, where we come from, in our National Parliaments, we are respected and yet we are not respected when we come to the PAP. Madam President, I will also second Hon. Goya in that we defer these issues until this august House is well recognised. By saying that, I mean we now have to fight for the recognition of our Protocol. That should come first before we go to all these other issues.I thank you, Madam President.HON. BERNADETTE LAHAI [SIERRA LEONE]:I thank you, Madam President.I would like to join my predecessors in congratulating you for chairing this meeting well. I also congratulate the Hon. Mr President for a welldelivered report. I am sure that he will perform even better than he is doing now. He has both ours and God’s blessing for that. I have three quick comments to make.Madam President, on the issue of the Joint Election Monitoring, we discussed in the Joint Bureau one burning issue which I have not seen reflected in this report. This is the issue of the way the Pan African Parliamentarians are treated by junior AUC staff that go with them on election monitoring missions.These junior members of staff do not have respect and have little regard for Members of Parliament. They treat them as if they were their juniors and yet we belong to one of the organs of the AUC. This issue has been reiterated by a lot of speakers who were present for the Joint Bureau meeting and even in this Plenary. Therefore, I do not know why this issue has been left out. We should not be timid. Let us take the bull by the horn. It is only then that people will know that we are also at an equal level. So, I want this to be recorded. We need to be respected when we go on those missions.Madam President, as regards the issue of medical assurance, we are very happy that we now have medical insurance cover. On the other hand, we are not happy that prostate cancer which affects men is the one that has been opted for and not breast cancer. You know that breast cancer is also very important. These two are both killer diseases that affect men and women respectively. Once a man is above the age of forty, he stands to be affected by prostate cancer. Similarly, women are at risk of being affected by breast cancer after the age of forty. So, please, let us ensure that breast cancer, which is a killer disease in women, is also included under this medical insurance.Lastly, but not the least, on the issue of the Speakers’ Conference, I want say that, in Sierra Leone, we have sent to our President all the outstanding AU Charters that Sierra Leone has not signed and ratified. We are now working with our respective Ministers to bring all those outstanding Charters to Parliament for signing. This is a Presidential decree and we are now working with the Ministers on a time table so that the twenty-nine charters and conventions that Sierra Leone has signed but not ratified are now in the process of being ratified. We hope that in the next Parliament, we will give you a report on all these charters that are now outstanding, but which Sierra Leone will have ratified.I thank you very much and God bless you. May you continue to lead us as you are doing. We are happy with your leadership and we look forward to the future.Thank you, Madam President.HON. VINCENT DABILGOU [BURKINA FASO]:Nous voudrons féliciter, à notre tour, l’Honorable Président BETHEL pour la qualité de son rapport, mais aussi féliciter l’administration du PAP pour la qualité de la traduction en français.Les défis et les progrès accomplis sont clairement établis dans le rapport et je voudrais proposer que les difficultés et les résistances de toutes sortes, dont le rapport fait cas, soient également établies pour le prochain rapport.Je voudrais, en deux points, donner ma contribution.D’abord, sur la question essentielle du Protocole d’Accord et des instruments juridiques qui doivent donner un pouvoir législatif à notre Parlement. J’apprécie le plaidoyer que vous avez personnellement conduit au Niger, au Botswana et au Togo.Sur ce point, je voudrais faire deux propositions:premièrement, je pense que ce point piétine beaucoup et nous devrions aborder la question avec beaucoup de stratégies. C’est pour cela que je propose qu’on puisse établir un groupe de présidents qui doit conduire le processus auprès de l’Assemblée des présidents africains. C’est par cette stratégie que nous pourrions, je crois, avec beaucoup plus de tacts, aborder ces questions avec les présidents africains.Je voudrais proposer que ce soit par exemple le Président du Nigeria, parce que notre Président est aussi soutenu par son pays.Je voudrais également proposer que l’Afrique du Sud fasse partie de ce groupe de contact pour catalyser notre processus.Ensuite, je voudrais proposer mon pays, le Burkina Faso, parce que je pense qu’il a aussi beaucoup contribué, en Afrique, à la résolution des crises. Je crois qu’il est très bien écouté.Enfin, je voudrais aussi proposer le Liberia, parce que sa Présidente est une femme dynamique.Voyez-vous, c’est une proposition que je fais, mais je crois que le Président, lors de ses consultations et de ses plaidoyers, pourrait bien établir une bonne liste. Mais, c’est une stratégie que je propose.La deuxième stratégie que je propose, c’est qu’il faut conjuguer ce groupe de contact avec une meilleure mobilisation de la société civile.Je pense que l’intelligentsia africaine doit être mobilisée.Je pense également que la société civile africaine doit être mobilisée pour ce cas précis et même les peuples africains.Alors, je pense qu’enfin nous pourrions aborder ce point avec beaucoup plus de succès.J’apprécie dans le rapport, les réunions que vous avez eues avec les parlements régionaux et je pense que la qualité même de ces réunions avec les ordres du jour, par exemple l’harmonisation des lois, l’intégration, sont de bonnes choses, et nous avons besoin que ces documents soient partagés avec l’ensemble des membres du Parlement parce que nous pourrions constituer des relais au niveau des parlements nationaux. Ceci a été déjà pris en compte, mais nous n’avons aucun document sur ce sujet. C’est pourquoi, je voudrais proposer que si ces documents finaux existent, que nous puissions les partager avec l’ensemble des parlements.Enfin, je vous félicite, Monsieur le Président, pour l’aboutissement heureux [Temps de parole épuisé].HON. AWAD HAG ALI AHMED [SUDAN]:Thank you, Madam President.I will follow my colleagues in thanking the President of the PAP for his comprehensive report and I want to comment on the election observation missions. It is one of the most important objectives of this Parliament to promote democratic principles and institutions. Therefore, the involvement of the PAP members in the election procedures of the AU election missions is vital for many reasons. Firstly, we believe it is one of the objectives that we are here for. Secondly, we have all noticed that other members of the missions have less experience and commitment.Mr President, we all agree that the role of PAP Members in election observation missions has improved elections in Africa. However, we still need to enhance this role with the following suggestions. To begin with, we need this role to be a formal institution and not depend on the chairperson of the mission. For example; we should be able to make our Members head of the missions going to different areas, be involved in the writing of the reports, have, as already suggested by the Bureau, the Deputy Chairmanship of this missions and so on.Secondly, we need to observe protocol and not treat the Hon. Members as though they are less important than the Secretariat or civil society members. We believe that we have a very important role to play and we need to be involved. We need to have these conditions in place in order to enhance this role.Thank you very much.HON. DAOUDA TOURE [COTE D’IVOIRE]:Thank you, Madam President.Some of my concerns have been taken into consideration by former speakers. Nevertheless, I have two short contributions to make on the document. On page 6, point number 5, for purposes of keeping a good record, I would like the date of the Speakers’ Conference that precedes the National Parliaments and regional Parliamentary bodies to be determined. In that same point, number 5, on the upper part of the page, the report talks about intra-African trade instead of inter-African trade. It is not the same thing. Intra-African trade means trade in Africa, among ourselves within Africa. Inter-African trade means trade between countries in Africa. I think that is what we need. It is very important.Among other things, the document did not take into consideration the excellent workshop that our Energy and Transport Commission did here at the PAP in August. As a matter of fact, our President, Dr. Bernadette Lahai will make a presentation and we will debate on that matter on the 30th of this month.I wish to send my congratulations to President Amadi and his team for the excellent job they have done with regard to the transparency in management and institutional reform that has been undertaken as well as the medical cover that we were all expecting. We would like to assure the Bureau of our full support and encouragement to fully contribute to the uplifting and transformation of this Parliament into a legislative institution, and to improve the quality of this Parliament for the future generations.Thank you, Mr President and your team.ApplauseHON. CHIEF FORTUNE CHARUMBIRA [ZIMBABWE]:We thank you, Madam President. It was unfortunate you had overlooked my name. May I also congratulate you for the chairing and I congratulate President Amadi for the good report.Madam Chairperson, the President is conversing. Can I wait a bit? Otherwise, he will not listen. My first issue is on the advocacy missions. The language he used was that the meetings were either useful, fruitful or productive while some were said to be good consultations. Maybe, he could explain exactly whether these countries are going to support us as it has been said.The second issue is on the implementation of the directive on the organisationl structure and recommended staff, by the AU, on PAP. Mr President, I think it is proving, from this report, that this is becoming problematic. You have indicated that insufficient funds have been allocated and these funds have not been released and, already, we are three months behind schedule. I am aware, as I think everybody is, that this causing a lot of anxiety and uncertainty and, sometimes, politicisation of the whole process. Of course, stakeholders, including staff and even MPs, are very concerned. I think we need to revisit some elements of the implementation schedule of this directive. I think the AU is simply throwing a snake, which we cannot handle, to us and we need to go back to them and tell them that some of the things are unrealistic. Can we really look at the whole directive and see how it can be implemented without causing much disharmony at PAP.The other issue, Madam President, relates to the information we got yesterday from the AU that we have insufficient funds and we need to look for other sources. I am a bit uncomfortable that this report is silent on the trust fund which we thought was the only vehicle for the PAP also to get some alternative sources of funding. So, we need a comment on whither or where to with the trust fund. Lastly, I also want to thank you for the health insurance cover and for the good work you are doing.Thank you.HON. SANTOSH VINITA KALYAN [SOUTH AFRICA]:Thank you, Madam President, for the opportunity to address the House.Madam President, I was starting to think that the PAP was being run like a mini-Republic. However, this morning the President gave me a vote of confidence by starting off to reinforce the running of the PAP according to the Rules. I appreciate that.I hope that it will go further and that mandatory decisions will not be taken at the Bureau level and imposed upon this House.I refer to talk, I am not sure whether it is a fact, that contracts of the positions of Clerk and Deputy Clerk have been extended. I would like to know what authority was used to extend them because I believe that the Clerk is appointed by this House as well as decisions on extensions.Communication remains a problem. We are talking about the transformation of the PAP and I believe that the public profile sits with the President.We have been silent on the issues of Syria, Kenya and the political situation in Swaziland.Human rights of a Member of this House from Swaziland have been violated and yet the PAP has been silent on it.Finances are not transparent enough and the issues of the trust fund and the EU. Donor funding have already been raised. I would like to have clarity on how donor funding is channeled and used.I agree with the President that health is wealth and I hope that the health insurance also includes the use of a gym. Our Members frequent the Boulders Mall and I hope they could go to Virgin Gym and work off some of their stress and relax.I would like to thank the Secretariat for the efficient running of the PAP. With the leadership of the Presidency, we have been able to improve the way we run the PAP. I would like to specially thank the service officers in this House for looking after us.Finally, I would like to ask the President to relocate the Condolence Book for the former President, to outside the Chamber so that Hon. Members can record their condolences. Many of the Members do not go up to the President’s office. I also went there by chance and was able to add my tribute but if the book is outside, with a burning candle, may I suggest, then Members will be able to...HON. LUHAGA JOELSON MPINA [TANZANIA]:Mheshimiwa Rais, nakushukuru sana kwa kunipa nafasi. Lakini vile vile nimshukuru sana Mheshimiwa Rais kwa hotuba yake nzuri aliyoiwasilisha hivi leo.Nakwenda moja kwa moja kwenye ukurasa ule wa 15 ambapo Mheshimiwa Rais yeye mwenyewe anadeclare kabisa na kuonyesha kukata tamaa kwamba sasa jitihada za kuiwezesha PAP kupata fedha za kutosha kuweza kuendeleza shughuli zake ni kama jitihada hizo zinagonga mwamba kila mwaka tunapoziweka.Mheshimiwa Rais, hatuwezi kukubaliana na suala hili. Ni mpaka lini sasa hii PAP yetu itaendelea kufadhiliwa kwa ajili ya miradi ya maendeleo na wahisani? Kwa sababu hata hizo fedha ambazo ninazungumzia kwamba tunazitegemea zaidi kwa hao wafadhili, bado nazo hazitoshi. Fedha za Kimarekani milioni 3.4 hazitoshi kabisa kuiwezesha PAP kufanya kazi zake yenyewe pamoja na Kamati zake. Ndiyo maana tumekaa hapa muda mwingi tumeshindwa kutekeleza majukumu yetu ambayo tumetumwa na Waafrika wenzetu kuja kufanya kazi hapa nzuri sana. Lakini fedha hizi na hata hizo za wafadhili ambazo tunazipata hazitoshi.Sasa katika ripoti hii; pamoja na kwamba tumesema mara kwa mara na kila siku tunarudia, ni lazima tuendelee kusema kwamba, jithada zilizoko za kuhakikisha kwamba PAP inapata fedha za kutosha lazima katika ripoti yako hapa ziweze kuonekana jitihada za makusudi na tumekuwa tukifanya nini kuhakikisha kwamba fedha zinapatikana kwa ajili ya PAP ili watu wote wajue kwamba tunakwamia wapi.Mheshimiwa Rais, ukienda kwa wenzetu wale Makamishna, utaona fedha zao za maendeleo ni milioni 125.9. Ni fedha nyingi sana ambazo zingeweza hata kuwa allocated na sisi hapa tukapata fedha nyingi kwa ajili ya maendeleo.Mheshimiwa Rais, nikupongeze sana wewe pamoja na Katibu Mkuu wa Bunge hili na Bureau kwa ujumla, lakini na Kamati yetu ya Fedha ambapo mimi ni Mjumbe pamoja na Kamati ya CAFE kwamba angalau mwaka huu tumeweza kupata cheti safi cha Ukaguzi. Tumeweza kupata unqualified opinion from auditors ambayo ni jitihada nzuri na mafanikio mazuri ambayo kwa miaka mingi tumekuwa tukishindwa kuyafikia.Vile vile nashukuru sana kwa kuwezesha kuajiriwa kwa watumishi ambao hawakuwepo na ambao yawezekana walikuwa wanatukwamisha. Kwa mfano, Mkuu wa Kitengo cha Ununuzi au Kitengo cha Ununuzi kwa ujumla hakikuwa na mtu. Kwa hiyo, mara nyingi tumekuwa tukipata hoja za Ukaguzi kutokana na hoja hiyo kwa sababu hatukuwa na mataalam. Watu wengine wamekuwa wakilaumu watu wengine hata bila sababu.Wataalam wengine....HON. EBO BARTON-ODRO [GHANA]:Thank you very much, Madam President.I would like to express my gratitude to the Hon. Mr President for a very comprehensive report presented. I would like to concentrate on the elevation of this august House from where it is now to a legislative body.It is clear, from the report, that efforts being made by this House are being thwarted by our Heads of State because, on two different occasions, the issue has been deferred.Fortunately, I was part of the team of Ministers of Justice and Attorneys-General who approved the protocol and I think that we should encourage our President and his team not to give up. The efforts being made to frustrate the PAP are very strong but we should never give up.Apart from that, may I also suggest, as others have suggested, that we need, as Members of Parliament in our respective home countries, to get our respective Parliaments to support us to lobby our respective Presidents. There might not be enough time between now and January but there is a lot we can do. If we are furnished with all documentation, we should be able, in our reports to our countries or home Parliaments, to tell them that we need to organise workshops and make a lot of noise about it. Our constituents do not know that this is going on, that we are being prevented from elevating the PAP from this level to a Legislative Body.We also need to address the issue of the African Court of Justice. It is in the interest of our own Heads of State that we have this court given the mandate that it deserves and that it is given criminal jurisdiction so that our Heads of State will be sent there if they do not comply with human rights and so on and so forth, rather than allowing ourselves to be dealt with by the International Criminal Court.We have all seen what is going on in Kenya and other African countries. Why should we sit by? Why should we allow ourselves to be made bull dogs that have no teeth to bite? We are toothless bull dogs. We can only bark. Let us stand up to the struggle and make sure that the PAP is elevated.Let us, as individual Members, all go back to our home countries and lobby our Presidents so that, at the end of the day, we see light at the end of the tunnel.I thank you, Madam President.HON. JOYCE MUSU FREEMAN SUMO [LIBERIA]:Madam President, I thank you.I would like to begin by thanking the President for his report. I have three important issues in that report that I would like him to respond to. First is the issue of the report that indicted a lot of the staff and led to their resignation because there was confusion amongst some senior staff.The second issue has to do with the election observation mission even though you did not mention the mission to Equatorial Guinea. I want to mention it because I mentioned it in the joint meeting and told you that PAP Members were greatly humiliated by junior staff. When the secretary from the Clerk’s office came back, I am sure that she must have told you how we were humiliated. We were really degraded. Action should be taken to ensure that PAP Members are respected on election observation missions.Madam President, the Bible says if your right hand is sick and giving you problems, in order for it not to contaminate the left arm, you must cut it off. Therefore, whoever is responsible for what is happening here financially, and really that there should be no financial support that we are getting from the AU, must be made to pay.I would also like to say thank you to my sister, under the medical health programme, who has asked you to include breast cancer because it is another killer disease for women. In this way, both sexes can be covered permanently. For some of these sicknesses, when you go to visit a doctor, the cases are not considered because they are said to be chronic. Now that the chronic diseases are being added, remember breast cancer.I thank you.HON. MANCHOLU MOLEMOHI [LESOTHO]:Thank you, Madam President.I thank the Hon. Mr President for his magnificent report. Heads of State and Government made a commitment to strengthen efforts to deepen integration and promote socio-economic development as they have pledged to accelerate the development of infrastructure as a critical component of the African integration and industrialisation agenda and also to develop rural economies.On the regional Parliamentary meeting on the African Governance Platform and promotion of African Union Legal Instrument held in Maputo, Mozambique, Members agreed that the continent should take ownership of and develop resources for the benefit of the people. This was supported by Dr Dlamini Zuma who stated that the mineral sector continues to be the backbone of Africa’s leading economies and that there was a notable trend towards industrialisation by many African countries to support their long-term economic growth potential. Moreover, Africa has received largest share of foreign direct investments (FDIs), which can assist it to address infrastructure constraints.Member States have to speedily implement the continental free-trade area in order to promote the smooth movement of goods, services and people across the continent, and harmonise the teaching of African history, values and Pan Africanism in all schools and educational institutions.I thank you.ApplauseHON. HUGUES ALEXANDRE BARRO CHAMBRIER [GABON]:Merci, Madame la Présidente.Monsieur le Président,Je voudrais vous remercier pour votre présentation très claire, et vous dire que nous sommes derrière vous. Nous soutenons votre leadership. C’est pourquoi je voudrais vous dire de ne pas avoir peur, parce que votre succès sera le nôtre et l’échec sera également collectif.Nous avons donc tous intérêt à vous soutenir dans vos efforts pour transformer le Parlement panafricain.Personnellement, je suis convaincu de vos qualités de leadership. Il faudrait, en ce qui concerne la restructuration de l’organigramme du personnel, que les uns et les autres sachent que nous sommes derrière vous. Mais il ne faut pas, comme l’a dit l’Honorable KEBZABO, occulter les difficultés. Lorsque vous êtes devant nous, n’hésitez pas à nous dire quels sont ceux qui font obstacle au processus.Je voudrais vous encourager, parce que je vous avais dit qu’il y a des personnes ressources, dans cette salle, qui peuvent vous aider à ajuster votre stratégie.L’intervention de l’Honorable Master GOYA me paraît aller dans le sens du pragmatisme. Vous devez avoir un plan B, si d’aventure vous n’avez pas les ressources nécessaires. Il n’y a pas de regret à avoir si on adapte la stratégie pour pouvoir être réaliste et tenir compte des moyens financiers qui sont disponibles. Donc, je vous encourage dans ce sens.Sur le problème du Protocole, là encore, il y a eu de très bonnes idées qui ont été dites par mon voisin de gauche, l’Honorable BARTON. Il faut un groupe de pression, il faut faire du lobbying.L’idée de notre collègue du Burkina de voir les chefs d’États, la société civile, voyez-vous, Honorable Président, je pense que vous devez être moins accommodant, et vraiment foncer et avancer; faire du bruit, pour que les réunions ne soient pas reportées.Enfin, Monsieur le Président, si vous le permettez, [interruption du micro] par rapport au décès du regretté Idriss Moussa Ndele, je voudrais qu’il y ait une initiative, parce que nous ne pouvons pas [interruption du micro] ayant connu cet homme de qualité qui vous soutenait, passer son décès comme ça, sans réaction, et je voudrais prendre une initiative, conformément à ce qu’a dit notre collègue d’Afrique du Sud, [interruption du micro] mémoire reste vivace ici, au Parlement. Je crois que c’est notre devoir de le faire pour tous les efforts qu’il a faits.Avec mes excuses, Madame la Présidente, je vous remercie.HON. ONYANGO KAKOBA [UGANDA]:I thank you, Madam President.I want to add my voice to my Hon. Colleagues who have already extended their appreciation to the Hon. President and the Bureau for this report. It is quite a good report.I will just touch on a few issues. Firstly, I want to appreciate the advocacy missions just like my friends have done and I have noted, with appreciation, that the areas that the missions visited are some of the areas that have been problematic, especially in the SADC area. While my appeal is that there will be more, I have seen a number of countries and I am happy that Botswana is on board but also try to bring Zimbabwe on board because I know that these have been countries that have been problematic in this area.The day the PAP is transformed, it shall even eliminate the contradictions like the one we had in the morning. This is basically because our term office at PAP is pegged to another Parliament. However, if the PAP is transformed, then I think we should be able to make things clear.Madam President, I also want to thank the Hon. President for the challenges that he has managed to overcome but we still has some challenges especially for the people in the PAP leadership here. One of them is in the area of communication. The PAP needs to improve this because we know that we are normally here for a very short time and much of the work we do is through communication. At times, the PAP may send messages and find that the network is down. Secondly, at times, the messages delay. I will give an example of when I was supposed to go to Nairobi for a meeting that I attended. I received the message on the very day I was supposed to travel and the air ticket was not there.Fortunately, Kenya and Uganda are very close and there are three flights. That is how I managed to make it in a day. A Colleague from my committee was supposed to travel to the Central African Republic but he was not able to go because the message arrived late and they have a time limit within which they are supposed to get permission.The other area that we may have to look at is the issue of Committee Clerks. The PAP needs to have clerks attached to committees because it is good for institutional memory as well as for follow-ups. In most cases, the clerks that are temporary create a problem in making sure that we have a follow up what we have discussed.I want to thank you very much for this opportunity and I thank you for your kind attention.HON. FRANCISCA DOMINGOS TOMÁS [MOÇAMBIQUE]:- Muito obrigada Senhora Presidente pela concessão da palavra. Agradeço a apresentação do relatório do Parlamento Pan-Africano.Saudar o Senhor Presidente e a sua Mesa em geral, pelos esforços empreendidos na realização das actividades do PAP, apesar de reconhecermos que há insuficiência de orçamento. De igual modo, saudá-lo pelo trabalho de sensibilização dos Estados membros para transformação do PAP em Parlamento Legislativo.Gostaria, aqui, de apelar a todos os meus colegas, que esse desafio não deve apenas se circunscrever na Mesa da Assembleia do PAP, mas sim deve ser de todos nós, nos nossos países.A problemática da natureza linguística não se observa apenas na observação eleitoral. Mas sim, aqui mesmo, no nosso Parlamento Pan-Africano temos problemas sérios de tradução de documentos, principalmente na língua portuguesa. Muitos documentos não são traduzidos e, muitas vezes, quando são traduzidos, são mal traduzidos, e nós acabamos não compreendendo o sentido da intervenção ou mesmo o sentido do documento, principalmente nas Comissões de trabalho.Senhora Presidente, gostaria que pudesse reter essa atenção, principalmente quando dizemos que estamos numa África, numa só voz, apelamos que o tratamento seja por igual.Senhor Presidente, não gostaria de terminar a minha intervenção, sem agradecer a preocupação que Vossa Excelência tem tido com os Parlamentares do Pan-Africano ao celebrar o contrato de seguro médico e aqui gostaria de propor que não apenas o cancro de mama, mas também observar o cancro de útero porque muitas senhoras morrem deste cancro de útero, principalmente nas idades em que nós nos encontramos. É verdade que a minha colega falou de cancro de mama, mas também o cancro de útero.Muito obrigada pela atenção.HON. ASSOUMANA MALAM ISSA [NIGER]:Merci, Madame la Présidente, Je voudrais vous féliciter pour cette occasion que vous avez d’exercer le leadership féminin dans notre Parlement et on s’en félicite au vu de la qualité de votre prestation.Je voudrais également féliciter Monsieur le Président, AMADI, pour la qualité du rapport et commencer par appuyer l’Honorable Vincent DABILGOU qui a dit que cette fois-ci, la traduction en français est quand même appréciable.Je crois que cela doit être un élément à placer dans votre bilan.Monsieur le Président, Je voudrais appuyer un certain nombre de préoccupations soulevées par l’Honorable OUATARA de Côte d’Ivoire, lorsque dans votre rapport vous dites qu’il y a un certain nombre de résistances – parlant du personnel bien entendu. Je crois qu’il faut être précis. De quels types de résistances s’agit-il? Et par qui?Cela m’amène à vous posez la question de savoir: est-ce que, véritablement, le Parlement panafricain n’est pas otage de la qualité des contrats de travail qu’il fait signer par les employés?Je voudrais également revenir sur la question de l’audit.Est-il vrai qu’il y a eu un audit?Pourquoi les députés du Parlement panafricain n’en sont pas informés?Je crois qu’il est important qu’on sache les recommandations faites dans cet audit. Et comme nous sommes en train de le faire, que nous vous fassions des recommandations pour que vous résolviez ces problèmes.Je le dis, Monsieur le Président, parce que personnellement, vous avez fait preuve de beaucoup de volonté pour implémenter la bonne gouvernance au Parlement panafricain.Vous avez fait beaucoup de choses pour améliorer la visibilité du Parlement panafricain.Vous avez fait beaucoup de choses, Monsieur le Président, avec vos rencontres avec les partenaires, vos rencontres avec les Présidents des Parlements pour que le Parlement panafricain retrouve une certaine image – j’allais dire – améliorer une certaine image de leadership.Il est important que ces efforts que vous êtes en train de faire, ne soient pas éclaboussés par le comportement des agents du Parlement panafricain.Il faut que vous continuiez dans cet effort. Vous avez fait preuve de quelque fermeté, il faut aller dans ce sens en vous disant que vous avez le soutien des députés du Parlement panafricain.Ce que nous voulons, c’est que le Parlement panafricain ne soit pas ridicule. On ne peut pas manquer de partenaires tout simplement parce que la gestion est mauvaise et vous voulez améliorer la gestion.De quoi avez-vous peur, Monsieur le Président?I would like to end by saying that you have to go ahead, Mr President. You have our support and history will know that you passed through this Parliament this year.I thank you.(Applaudissements)HON. ELISE NDOADOUMNGUE NELOUMSEI LOUM [TCHAD]:Merci Madame la Présidente et félicitations, parce que c’est la première fois que quelqu’un prononce aussi bien mon nom.Madame la Présidente,Je voudrais tout d’abord saluer la concision du rapport des activités présentées par le Président du PAP que je tiens à féliciter pour cela.Madame la Présidente,J’ai une proposition à faire et une question d’éclaircissement à poser.Monsieur le Président,J’ai suivi avec une attention toute particulière la présentation du rapport et j’ai pensé retrouver une partie des sentiments que vous avez partagés avec nous lors de la Conférence des Présidents, le samedi dernier.Nous savons qu’il y a quelques petits problèmes qu’il ne faut pas sous-estimer. Mon prédécesseur Assoumana vient de vous faire part du soutien de tous les parlementaires; nous connaissons votre personnalité, Monsieur le Président, et votre leadership à bien vouloir diriger cette Institution.Le PAP doit fonctionner comme une vraie institution parlementaire même si c’est le premier cas d’espèce sur le continent. Pour expérience à partager, je suggérerais que vous restauriez la permanence des membres du Bureau pour suivre de près le fonctionnement de l’administration qui doit plutôt dépendre du Bureau et des parlementaires et non le contraire. Je parle en tant qu’ancienne Viceprésidente de cette Institution et je sais que les petits problèmes qui commencent par se mijoter ont, à un moment donné, donné plutôt raison à l’absence des parlementaires au sein de l’Institution.Vous êtes le Bureau, essayez d’assurer la permanence à tour de rôle au sein du Parlement.Monsieur le Président,Vous aviez évoqué dans votre rapport la problématique de la mise en œuvre du nouvel organigramme. Je suis sidérée de suivre le modèle et la démarche qui seraient appliqués à notre personnel à coût de petits contrats. C’est ce que vient d’évoquer mon prédécesseur. Je trouve que c’est illégal et sachez qu’il n’y a pas de feu dans la maison. Allons doucement dans la mise en œuvre de cet organigramme et procédons étape par étape pour assurer au personnel une certaine garantie et lui accorder surtout une certaine confiance pour mieux travailler. Monsieur le Président, On ne doit pas jeter le bébé avec l’eau du bain.Je soutiens également la deuxième partie de l’intervention de mon voisin de derrière, Monsieur GOYA.Mon troisième petit élément que je voudrais ajouter à mon intervention, c’est de vous féliciter pour l’assurance que vous accordez aux parlementaires mais ajouter, en plus, – mes sœurs qui m’ont précédée, en la personne de Joyce et de Bernadette – qu’il faut considérer également le cancer des seins et le cancer de l’utérus.Merci beaucoup, Monsieur le Président.(Applaudissements)HON. BENDIR KHATARI DJAMEL [SAHARAWI]:شكرا السيدة رئيسة الجلسة ،،في البداية احب ان اهني السيد الفاضل رئيس البرلمان االفريقي عن هذا العرض الثري والشيق والغني من النشاطات المنجزة من هذا البرلمان الموقر بالفعل نشاطات البرلمان االفريقي اثناء هذه الفترة االخيرة كثيفة وتناولت العديد من القضايا واالنشغاالت في قارتنا ولكن نريد من برلماننا هذا ان يتحسن في جميع الميادين السيما فيما يخص ظروف العمل ألعضاء البرلمان ومتابعة تطبيق القرارات والتوصيات التي تناقش ويصادق عليها البرلمان وتحسين التسيير االداري في هذا السياق لدي بعض المالحظات نريد ان اطرحها على إن مشروع انجاز معاليكم السيد رئيس البرلمان الفاضل: - اوالًالمكتبة الرقيمية انجز وهذا شي جميل ويضاف الى مكسب البرلمان االفريقي في الحقيقة نحن في هذا البرلمان منقطعين تماما عن العالم من الناحية الرقمية هناك مشاكل في استعمال وسائل االتصال السلكية والالسلكية انعدام وجود الويفي على مستوى البرلمان االفريقي تكلمتم وقلتم للسادة االعضاء الموقرين ان يطفؤ هواتفهم النقالة في بداية الجلسات ولكن هناك حل بسيط جدا بعض االجهزة توضع في غرفة لقطع العالقات الالسلكية مع الهواتف النقالة ثانيا - ً: العديد من القرارات التوصيات نوقشت بشدة وتم المصادقةعليها من قبل البرلمان السيّما غياب أعضاء البرلمان او التوصية القيمة التي تخص قضية الصحراء الغربية فهل هناك متابعة من طرف البرلمان االفريقي لتطبيق هذه القرارات والتوصياتHON. SHEKU B. B. DUMBUYA [SIERRA LEONE]:Thank you very much, Madam President.Madam President, I have observed that since President Amadi assumed the mantle of leadership of this Parliament, the activity reports presented to this House, so far, have been impressive. I hope he will continue to do so.Madam President, what we expect of our leaders in Africa is that they must deliver on their promises. I recall, Madam President, that when President Amadi, then as First-Vice President, wanted to run for the presidency, he did promise certain things and I am proud and glad to see that he has been delivering on some of these promises. I hope he will continue.Madam President, on the question of transformation, it said that to be realistic is not to be pessimistic.Much as I am not pessimistic, I have my doubts as to whether our leaders are prepared, at this time, to give us this power that we so desperately need. I do not want to feel that they are totally averse to the idea but, for the moment, I do not think they are prepared. So, something has to be done about this.Madam President, we have been told by some people that we suffered a good deal of humiliation where some of our Hon. Members went with the AU on these election observation missions. The reason for this is that we have been partnering with them. We had been doing this on our own. Let us begin to do election observation missions on our own as we used to do and then we will not talk about this humiliation any more. The question of this Business Class, I think, has been dragging on for quite some time. It is an insult to some of us that these people travel in Business Class and we are subjected to travel in Economy Class. That trend also has to be reversed.Madam President, I want to let the President know that the medical health insurance cover for Members of Parliament is a monumental achievement. Mr President, more grease to your elbow. I hope you will do more. However, Madam President, if the President wants to crown the glory of his achievement or the consummation of his achievements, I want him to work on our leaders so that special arrangement will be made wherein Hon. Members will have to travel here as it done in ECOWAS. You find that the attendance is very poor and this has been the trend for the past two to three years. Attendance has been very poor. Let it be done as it is being done in the case of ECOWAS where they finance everything.Thank you.HON. GUY CHRISTIAN OSSAGOU [GABON]:Merci, Madame la Présidente.Malheureusement, je n’étais pas là lorsque le Président a exposé son rapport d’activités. J’étais retenu pour des raisons de santé quelque part.Je crois que ceux qui sont intervenus avant moi, notamment Mme LOUM et l’Honorable CHAMBRIER ont intégré mes préoccupations et cela ne sert à rien pour moi d’y revenir.Merci.HON. MOHAMED YOUSIF ABDULLAH [SUDAN]:Thank you, Madam President.Let me start by congratulating you and the Bureau for this very elaborate report. I will begin by addressing the transformation process. In this regard, I have two issues to look at. The first one is about the dispatch of missions to countries with reservations. The second point is to knock on efforts and receive clear responses from those countries with reservations.As regards the issue of the implementation of the PAP approved organisational structure, we have one problem which is very clear and that is the nonpayment of the money by the AU. This is disrupting our activities and delaying the transformation. Therefore, we want, as a Parliament, to send a letter to the AU that they are frustrating our activities and our work. This has to stop. They have to assist us in this regard since they have approved the Budget.The second issue regards the contracts of the staff. These should be handled in a way that staff are not frustrated so that they can work in the manner that they should.Madam President, I think that there are many problems as regards the issue of communication with the PAP. One of them is translation. The languages are not accorded equal treatment. In some cases, there are no documents at all in some languages. At other times, especially in committee meetings, there are no documents and the translation is, sometimes, very poor. In this regard, I am referring to Arabic and other languages.As regards the Speakers’ Conference, we have two issues to deal with and come up with our priorities. One issue is to implore them to expedite the ratification of AU instruments. This should be made very clear to our Speakers. This is our request as a House. We will not achieve the AU objectives or policies unless our leaders in our Parliaments work very hard to ratify those instruments.The second issue is to have them provide written notification from their Parliaments that they agree to the PAP being given the legislative and oversight powers. These are two issues which I think are very important and essential to deal with.Thank you.HON. INZOUNGOU-MASSANGA ZELY PIERRE [CONGO]:Merci, Madame la Présidente, pour la parole.Madame la Présidente,Je voudrais, d’entrée de jeu, féliciter Monsieur le Président du Parlement panafricain pour la qualité de son rapport, mais aussi pour son leadership, comme l’ont dit mes prédécesseurs, à la tête du Parlement panafricain.Personnellement, cela ne m’étonne pas parce que lors de son investiture, le Président nous avait rassurés qu’il travaillerait dans le sens de la continuité de ceux qui ont imprimé comme rythme, avec le défunt Président Idriss Ndele Moussa; et aujourd’hui il se comporte exactement tel qu’il avait prévu.Monsieur le Président,Madame la Présidente,Mon propos va commencer par le point sur les activités des commissions permanentes pour dire qu’autant je reconnais la qualité du rapport, autant je m’indigne de ce que le Président ait totalement ignoré les activités de la Commission Permanente des Règlements, des Privilèges et de la Discipline.Est-ce que c’est une omission faite dans le sens de dire que la Commission n’a pas travaillé? Ce qui n’est pas tout à fait vrai, parce que, tout à l’heure, on va examiner un document qui a été étudié et soumis par la Commission Permanente des Règlements, des Privilèges et de la Discipline.Donc, l’omission ne se comprend pas! Il faut certainement rattraper parce qu’il y a d’autres commissions qui sont revenues deux ou trois fois, mais la Commission Permanente des Règlements, des Privilèges et de la Discipline n’est citée nulle part.Le deuxième point de mon propos porte sur ce que vous relevez comme facteurs de blocage du processus de mise en œuvre de la nouvelle structure du Parlement panafricain. Vous avez dit, Monsieur le Président, que le manque de déblocage de fonds par le Conseil Exécutif et les malheureux problèmes internes ont temporairement bloqué le processus.Quelles sont ces problèmes internes, Monsieur le Président, que vous qualifiez de malheureux?Pourquoi ne les portez-vous pas à la connaissance de la plénière pour qu’on en débatte et que des solutions définitives soient trouvées pour vous permettre de conduire de façon sereine le processus à son terme?Dans le même ordre d’idée, Monsieur le Président, vous faites état de la résistance manifeste de certaines personnes à la volonté du Bureau de mettre en œuvre le processus de recrutement. Il y a des sous-entendus dans ce que vous dites et ces sousentendus méritent d’être clarifiés.Mes collègues du Gabon, du Niger, du Tchad – et j’en oublie – vous ont rassuré de notre soutien sur ce que vous devez entreprendre dans le sens de mettre en œuvre le nouvel organigramme du Parlement panafricain.Vous n’avez donc pas de raison d’avoir peur parce que les parlementaires sont là pour vous soutenir.Monsieur le Président,Dans la mise en œuvre du nouvel organigramme, si le Bureau décide de reprendre le recrutement de tout le personnel, il doit se séparer préalablement du personnel actuel de façon appropriée et payer tous les droits inhérents à la cessation de fonction conformément aux statuts et règlement du personnel de l’Union africaine.A-t-on déjà évalué l’incidence financière?Le PAP est-il disposé à y faire face?Je vous pose ces questions, Monsieur le Président, et vous voudrez bien certainement apporter quelques éléments de réponse. Vous avez dit que le processus de sélection devrait être terminé d’ici fin décembre 2013, pour la catégorie des fonctionnaires du cadre supérieur.Si dans cette catégorie là, il est compris le Secrétaire général, le Secrétaire général adjoint, j’aimerais rappeler, Monsieur le Président, que le recrutement du Secrétaire général et des Secrétaires généraux adjoints est de la compétence du Parlement panafricain.À ce que je sache et selon notre tradition, au mois de décembre, le Parlement panafricain ne tient pas de session ordinaire. La prochaine que l’on pourra envisager sera au mois de mai.La prochaine session ordinaire aura lieu au mois de mai, mais vous promettez de recruter les cinq plus hauts fonctionnaires d’ici décembre. Comment allez-vous le faire?C’est de la compétence du Parlement panafricain!Allez-vous convoquer une session extraordinaire? Si c’est le cas, merci beaucoup.Enfin, Monsieur le Président, je voudrais vous rappeler que l’article 10 du Règlement intérieur sur les privilèges et immunités des parlementaires énonce quelques droits dont devraient jouir les parlementaires. Malheureusement, il n’en est pas encore le cas. Vous voudriez bien vous en préoccuper surtout que cela relève de la compétence stricte du Bureau.Voilà ce que je voulais dire, Monsieur le Président, et je vous pose la question de savoir où est-ce que vous en êtes avec le processus d’évaluation de l’Accord de siège entre l’Union africaine et la Parlement panafricain sur le siège du Parlement panafricain, avant d’envisager sa révision?Je vous remercie.HON. M. MOHAMED GUIDJI [ALGERIA]:شكًرا سيدتي ،، بسم هللا الرحمن الرحيمفي البداية اشكركم سيدي ا الرئيس ،،على تمكيننا من هذا التقرير ئلة واتمني ان اتكون االجابة واضحةً المهم أود ان أطرح بعض االس. كما تعلمون سيدي الرئيس ، البرلمان يعاني من نقص فادح في وسائل التغطية بعض الموظفين قد انتهت عقود ارتباطهم بهذا البرلمان وهناك أعمال للتراخي في القيام بالعمل من طرف بعض الموظفين في هذا البرلمان وعليه فاني اعيد وأطرح هذا السؤال الذي طرحه الزمالء من قبلي: - إلى أين وصلت عملية التوظيف التي ُعلن عنها ،النقطة الثانية: - تتعلق بنقص وسائل العمل أقتصر فقط في مايتعلق يعقل سيدي الرئيس في سنة ُ باالنترنت الريفي أ 2016 اليوجد برلمان في المعمورة دون وسائل اتصال فنحن معزولون سيدي الرئيسن عن العام الخارجي.اما فيما يختص بيئة الترجمة التي سبقني اليها بعض الزمالء نقول سيدي الرئيس الترجمة ردئية جدًا خاصة فيما يتعلق منها باللغة العربية فأحيانا عندما نشارك في بعض المناقشات حتى هذه الترجمة الردئية لم نجدها حيث االوراق كلها باللغة الفرنسية أو باللغة االنجليزية ، وأحياناً النجد حتى الترجمة الفورية ، وفيما يختص باالنتخابات سيدي الرئيس ، ُصدق الينا الكثير في مشاركة البعاثات ومراقبة االنتخابات فأنا أتصور انها إهانة للبرلمان االفريقي أيعقل ياسيدي الرئيس ان يتحكم فينا موظف بسيط من االتحاد االفريقي ، انا كل ما اطلبه سيدي الرئيس ومن السادة أعضاء البرلمان الموقرون ان نجد حل لهذه المشكلة أو أن نعلق مشاركتنا في هذه البعثات. مرة اخرى سيدي الرئيس اشكركم على كل ماتقومون به ولكن كما قالها اصدقاء او أعضاء قبلي! ممن تخافون سيدي الرئيس ؟ فكل أعضاء البرلمان اللذين سمعناهم اليوم وعددهم كان اكثر من 31 متداخال. يساندونكم فالقرار لكم وللمكتب سيدي الرئيس فأين المخاوف ياسيدي الرئيس إن البيت يكاد ان يغلق مرة اخرى إن هذا البرلمان يكاد االيكون بسبب تصرفات بعض الموظفين في هذا البرلمان اشكركم والسالم عليكم ورحمة هHON. OBAMI-ITOU ANDRÉ [CONGO]:Merci, Madame la Présidente de la séance.Je voudrais, comme mes prédécesseurs l’ont fait, remercier et féliciter le Président du Parlement panafricain pour la présentation de son rapport intersession. C’est un rapport qui est clair, mais qui a déjà suscité beaucoup d’interrogations, surtout sur le fonctionnement administratif et financier du Parlement. Ce sont deux choses très, très importantes, Monsieur le Président du PAP. S’il n’y a pas d’administration, pas de finances, comment le Parlement peut-il exister, fonctionner, comme il se doit?Comme les autres l’ont dit, je crois que vous êtes, si vous le voulez, le garant du bon fonctionnement du Parlement; bien sûr, avec vous, les membres du Bureau. Vos responsabilités sont collégiales avec les autres.On ne peut pas mieux dire et vous avez bien fait de le dire. Je trouve que ce n’est pas normal de nous dire, ici, qu’il y a au sein de l’administration, des personnes qui résistent quant à l’application et à la mise en œuvre d’un nouvel organigramme.Ce n’est pas normal!Le Bureau existe ou n’existe pas!Pourquoi il ne peut pas trancher?Amenez les dossiers, donc, en plénière, comme ça nous trancherons!Si le Bureau ne peut pas, si c’est une faiblesse ou s’il y a quelque pesanteur, présentez-les nous!Mais, pour ce point, je pense que, s’il n’est pas réglé, il n’y aura pas d’efficacité dans le fonctionnement de notre Institution.Deuxièmement, c’est sur la transformation du PAP.Monsieur le Président,Nous sommes tous, ici, animés par ce souci d’arriver enfin à un Parlement qui puisse donner à l’Afrique des lois qui s’appliquent à tous les États membres de l’Union africaine.C’est notre collègue de la Sierra Leone, l’Honorable SHEKU, qui a dit: « qu’on est un peu tous optimistes », mais je ne voudrais pas être pessimiste.J’ai peur!J’ai une inquiétude!Je suis sûr qu’au sein de la Conférence, c’est-à-dire les Chefs d’États et de gouvernements qui siègent, ils doivent décider, tous [Interruption du micro].Je crois qu’ils n’ont pas tous la volonté de nous accorder ce pouvoir. Mais la lutte continue.On espère toujours!C’est pour janvier 2014 et nous reviendrons, ici, certainement, avec un sourire ou non.Merci, Monsieur le Président.HON. KONE DONGON [CÔTE D’IVOIRE]:Merci, Madame la Présidente.Je voudrais m’associer aux remerciements et aux félicitations de tous mes collègues à l’endroit de notre Président.Monsieur le Président,Je voudrais réagir par rapport aux missions conjointes d’observation des élections. Monsieur le Président, J’avoue que je suis entièrement d’accord avec vous sur les problèmes soulevés, et vous encourage à poursuivre les discussions avec l’Union africaine.Monsieur le Président,J’ai eu l’honneur et l’avantage de participer à la mission d’observation des élections générales du 31 juillet dernier au Zimbabwe.Je voudrais réagir par rapport à quatre points. Le premier, ce sont les problèmes liés à la logistique. J’apporte de l’eau au moulin de l’Honorable Sarah de Zambie, pour dire que le voyage en classe économique ne devrait pas être un problème. Néanmoins, il faudrait que les informations arrivent à temps, afin d’éviter le paiement de quelques pénalités par rapport au billet d’avion. Il faut aussi faire attention aux itinéraires.Juste un exemple: je pars du 7 au 8 novembre prochain à Malabo. On me fait partir d’Abidjan en passant par Addis-Abeba, et je reviens à Malabo; plus de quinze heures de vol, alors que je suis à deux heures et demie de Malabo.Concernant la traduction, je ne reviendrais pas sur ce point, mais sur la mission au Zimbabwe, tous les documents, toute la formation s’est faite en anglais, et cela a handicapé beaucoup d’observateurs, notamment lors de la formation et des débats sur le rapport.Concernant l’implication du personnel du PAP dans l’organisation des missions, je dirais que cela est très important. Lorsque nous sommes revenus du terrain à Harare, certains sont restés de dix-sept heures à vingt-trois heures pour attendre une chambre d’hôtel, parce que simplement la réservation n’avait pas été faite pour notre retour.Monsieur le Président,Le mémorandum qui existe entre l’Union africaine et le PAP stipule que le PAP doit représenter 40 % des missions d’observation. Mais, au Zimbabwe, nous étions à peine 20 %; environ neuf (9) sur soixante-dix (70) observateurs.Pour terminer, je voudrais dire, Monsieur le Président, que nous vous avons adressé un rapport, après cette mission au Zimbabwe. Je vois bien qu’on en a tenu compte. Je voudrais vous en remercier et vous en féliciter.Je vous remercie, Madame la Présidente.HON. MOHAMED ALI FOULIEH [DJIBOUTI]:Merci, Madame la Présidente.Je voudrais m’associer également aux autres collègues pour féliciter le Président pour le rapport qu’il vient de nous présenter. Ce ne sont pas simplement des félicitations, ce sont aussi des encouragements, parce qu’en mon sens, il ne fait qu’exercer le pouvoir que nous lui avons dévolu.Je vais en outre m’associer aux collègues qui m’ont précédé pour déplorer les humiliations et les bafouements des droits des parlementaires panafricains lors missions d’observations. Ce ne sont pas des fonctionnaires de l’Union africaine, il ne faut pas se tromper, car selon les dispositions des textes, les organes de l’Union africaine sont en premier lieu, la Conférence de l’Union qui est représentée par les Chefs d’États, le Conseil Exécutif qui regroupe des Ministres des Affaires étrangères et finalement le Parlement panafricain. La Commission ne vient qu’en cinquième position.Notre vocabulaire doit par conséquent être adapté. Nous sommes membres de l’Union africaine, mais la Commission n’est que l’organe administratif. Elle décide de manière excessive et s’arroge tous les pouvoirs.Ainsi, en application de l’article 10, alinéa 5 du Règlement intérieur:« Pendant toute la durée de leur mandat, les Parlementaires ont droit à un passeport diplomatique de l’Union ».Nous ne voulons plus de ces passeports, de ces laissez-passer rouges, Monsieur le Président.Il faudrait que tous les parlementaires panafricains rendent ces passeports rouges parce que même les fonctionnaires de l’Union africaine et ceux du PAP ont des passeports numériques qui sont d’une autre couleur bleu.Qui sont les parlementaires? Eux?Ce sont donc des parlementaires qui deviennent maintenant des fonctionnaires. Si nous ne sommes pas capables de faire respecter nos droits et dignité, comment voulez-vous que nous puissions aller devant les Chefs d’États pour demander les pleins pouvoirs législatifs au Parlement panafricain?Ce n’est pas possible; nous ne devons pas nous tromper d’adversaire, notre adversaire principal, c’est la Commission de l’Union africaine qui, en premier lieu, s’arroge tous les pouvoirs. D’ailleurs, au lieu que le budget soit présenté par les commissaires compétents devant le Parlement – il y a plusieurs commissaires à l’Union africaine – on nous envoie, ici, un Vice-président d’une commission. Ce qui est totalement intolérable. Cela démontre le peu d’intérêt qu’on accorde au Parlement panafricain.Nous ne devons pas aller voir les Chefs d’États! Nous devons nous battre contre la Commission de l’Union africaine pour que nos droits soient respectés, parce que la Conférence des Chefs d’États de l’Union africaine nous a déjà donné le pouvoir législatif, mais à titre consultatif. Ce pouvoir législatif nous donne d’abord le pouvoir de contrôler le budget de la Commission. Alors, si nous avons ce pouvoir, nous pouvons également contrôler l’ensemble des actions de la Commission [Temps de parole épuisé].HON. ASHEBIR WOLDEGIORGIS GAYO [ETHIOPIA]:Thank you, Madam President.Hon. Members, as an Ethiopian, the host nation of the African Union, it will not be appropriate if I do not witness for our President, His Excellency Hon. Bethel Nnaemeka Amadi, because I have had an opportunity to be with him and accompany him to the AU Mission, Ethiopian authorities and AU organs.Madam President, Hon. Amadi is very committed and tough in negotiations. He is a man of principle. He even listens to us and is honouring his promises. It is my pleasure to congratulate this august House for electing a President like Hon. Amadi. I urge Hon. Members to give him a big round of applause.Having said this, Madam President, I have the pleasure to ask the Hon. Mr President to work on the amendment of regulations. The PAP has some irregular regulations in the Rules of Procedure. For an instance, the General Assembly of this august House recruits the Clerk and the Deputy Clerks which is not appropriate for such an Assembly. They should be recruited by the President and the Bureau.Secondly, Madam President, the PAP regulations provide that Members should stand when talking. There are elders in our Assembly and Members who are ill. I think this should be amended. Members should be allowed to talk while seated otherwise many Members who are not able to stand will keep quiet. We will not hear their interventions.Madam President, I would like to ask the Hon. Mr President to take note of this and ask the Committee on Rules of Procedure to work on it.Regarding the election observation missions, Madam President, we are grateful that we are part of them but our reports are not included. The Hon. Mr President is tough and I know that he can negotiate with the AU. I urge him to work seriously and proceed with the negotiations and ensure that our reports get included in the AU Report.Madam President, I thank you.74 HON. P.C BAI KURR [SIERRA LEONE]:Thank you, Madam President. I also want to thank everybody who has spoken and my thanks further go to the President.Listening to all of you, my view is that you have contributed very well. As far as I am concerned, now, it is for us to just pass resolutions for the reports that have been given by the Hon. Mr President to be a working document for this noble House. A working committee can be set up to implement the issues raised in the report. If we want to debate this and say it is good but we do not have resolutions and a working document to bring in the issues and address them, then there is not going to be any development.The President has raised vital issues and some of the people have raised very important issues. So, I will recommend that this House adopts this report but still set up a working committee to implement the issues raised by this noble House and the report of the President. That will be my recommendation. Then we will address the issue of the restructuring, funding of the restructuring, donors and fundraising. We raise very important issues at every time we speak. I admire everybody here.With regard to our travelling documents, it is easier and cheaper for me to fly to London than for me to fly from Sierra Leone to go to Nigeria. Is this what Africa should do? If you want to buy something and ship it to Sierra Leone, it is more costly to buy it from Africa than the United States of America (USA). Are these not issues we should come together and address? Let us create. Give us the forum to create. We should have a radio station. The PAP, by this time, should go on air. We should have a system of communicating with our people but we come here and talk to ourselves. Even people at the airport, when we come there, do not know what the PAP is all about. That is right here, in South Africa, because there is no communication. We have intellectuals, educated people, here, and we need a radio station across Africa. We have people here who can produce newspapers, journals, reports of what is going on in the world.Thank youHON. SUAD AL-FATIH AL BADAWI [SUDAN]:I thank you very much, Madam Vice President. I would like to express my happiness. I would like to speak in Arabic.اريد ان اعبر عن سعادتي با للغة العربيىة الهتمام السيد/ أمادي ألفائق وقيامة بهذا النشاط الواسع في هذه الفترة الوجيزة السيما الول مرة حسب ما أنا أعلم االنفتاح على العالم يعني في فترة قصيرة انفتحنا على ثالثة قارات) اسيا – اوروبا – الواليات المتحدة او امريكا.(وهذا عمل جيد يستحق عليه الثناء. أما االنشطة المحلية الخاصة باللجان فهي تقع في خارطة ضعف في البرلمان وذلك ليس لشح االمكانيات ولكن لسبب أخطر من ذلك هو التركيز على إيفاد الضيوف من الخارج يقدمون العروض وتناقش العروض وينتهي االمر كل اللجان تفعل ذلك واللجان هي سيدتي الرئيسه روح البرلمان التي البد من إيجاد التمويل لمشروعاتهم وبرامجهم التمويلية ال ألخطب الممدودة من الخارج النقطة الثالثة: - هي العمل الرائع الذي قام به السيد / أمادو الذي ينم على اهتمامهُ بأعضاء هذا البرلمان ومحبتهم لهُ لذلك نجد ان العالقة بينه وبين اعضاء البرلمان حميمةُ جداً وفيها شيء من ألخصوصية وهو ريد أن اتحدث في هذا فقد تحدث ُ االهتمام بصحة بصحتنا جميعا والأ عنه الكثير من االعضاء النقطة الثالثة: - سيدتي الرئيسه الزلنا بال جواز للسفر هذه الوريقة الحمراء التغني والتثمن من جوع ع ّرضتنا للحرج.. كثيراً االخ الرئيس الكالم موجهه للسيادتكم الجهاز االداري في هذا البرلمان يحتاج للدعم المالى والتدريب سوى ان كان هذا الموجود أو الذي سياتي حتى يؤدي دورة بالذهنية والجدارة المطلوبة وأخيراً يعاً مستعدون لتمويل اللجان المتخصصة مننا جم حتى نجد ُسبالً للمشاركة كما فعلنا في الماضي وكما نفعل االن وشكراHON. PATRICK MWALULA MUCHELEKA [ZAMBIA]:Thank you, Madam President.Let me also join Hon. Members who have congratulated the President on the report that he has presented so well. It is very informative and it has raised a lot of important issues. There have been a number of positive developments from the time that President Amadi took over the presidency of the PAP.However, Madam President, there is still need or room to do more. One of the issues that have personally concerned me with regard to the affairs of the PAP is the issue of how we can invest in good corporate governance. Sometimes, it is very clear and you see it based on what has been observed and the evidence available that we, indeed, need to invest a lot of our time in strengthening this institution, especially with regard to the separation of functions. Sometimes, you are not very sure who is responsible for the day-to-day running of the affairs of PAP Secretariat. Is it the Bureau? Is it the Clerk? So, you see all those areas where there are some kind of overlaps and this is where you bring in the aspect of good corporate governance and I think this is an area which needs to be addressed.Madam President, there is also the issue of restructuring of the PAP Secretariat. This issue has been on the agenda for quite some time, but I am also aware that the AU, for instance - and also when we look at the President’s report - we do not seem have resources for it. Because this situation has been going on for a while, most of our staff are currently very demoralised. This is a process that seems to be going on forever and I think it is time that this matter is addressed once and for all without necessarily using the process to try and, perhaps, sort out all those that may be perceived as wrong doers. I think and believe that we will be able to rise to the occasion and do what has to be done.Lastly, Mr President, I just want to express my disappointment with regard to the manner in which, once again, our Heads of State have deferred the decision on giving this Parliament the legislative powers. This is where we seem to be failing in promoting good governance in Africa. The problem we have is bringing leaders to account. If, indeed, we are saying that Parliament has a role to play, then, we need to give it that space to engage and ensure that we play that oversight role on our Heads of State.I thank you, Madam President.HON. BETHEL AMADI [PRESIDENT OF THE PAN AFRICAN PARLIAMENT]:I thank you, Your Excellency.Hon. Colleagues, you will agree with me that a lot of contributions have been made that are very useful and would help enrich the report that we have presented. Let me start by apologising for those whose committee activities have not been included in this report. It is an omission and oversight which we will ensure that my office corrects. Not that many committees have carried out activities that are not contained here and we will make sure that this does not happen again.It is a long list of reactions and I will have to find where to start from. Let me start from the issue of the transformation of our Parliament. Hon. Colleagues, we have gone through a long process and the protocol as amended is, of course, not the same as what we had approved in this Chamber initially. What we had approved was that we would go for the full legislative powers and that we would be given the required authority to carry out what we need to carry out in clearly-defined terms but, of course, when we went to the validation workshops, which took over three years, government experts from all over Africa were involved. We had workshops here, Ethiopia and various other locations. Then a final document was produced under the supervision of the AUC. This, for us, was a step forward from where we are. Actually, for the people of Africa that we represent, it would be a leap forward in that our Parliament would now be endowed with oversight functions.It is clearly defined, like we said yesterday to the AUC Deputy Chairperson, that the Budget of the AUC and most come to Parliament. So, it is more clearly defined in the new amendment that the representation of the people of Africa should be most of the year. We are all committed in our national Parliaments and most of the time you cannot find adequate time to concentrate on the work of the PAP. So, we have proposed that the membership be drawn from member States of people who ordinarily would be qualified to be Members of their national Parliament, but who will cease to be Members of their national Parliament when they come to the PAP. The issue of tenure and elections will now be defined. All Hon. Members will arrive here, serve one tenure of five years at a time. This tenure can be renewed once. In that way, is they can concentrate on the work ahead of them. So, these key amendments have passed the approval of the Ministers of Justice and Attorneys-General of member States without any reservations. They went to the PRC and passed. At the Executive Council, they raised issues on two key articles. The first deals with Article 8(1a) which primarily deals with our legislative powers. This is in relation to the power to make or propose draft model laws in areas as recommended by the Heads of State and Government.Hon. Colleagues, draft model laws are just that. It is a draft of a model. It is not legislation. They are hopeful that those draft model laws will help in the harmonisation of legislation across the continent. There are key areas which we believe that if the integration of our continent, especially our economic integration, must be successful, then we must begin to harmonise these key areas. These are issues concerning free movement of people, goods and services. Hon. Colleagues here have been talking about passports and the travel documents that we are given but if proper legislation is put in place for the free movement of Africa citizens within our continent, they would have no need to worry about those things. Then it becomes possible for us to move from one place to another. We talk about integration and yet we put visa restrictions on our citizens from moving from one part of Africa to another. However, citizens of other countries in Europe and America come to our countries and are issue with visas at the airport. Even when you have these AU Diplomatic passports, some member States still insist on issuing visas and I have encountered it myself on many occasions.Some member States still insist that because I am a Nigerian, and all Nigerians must be given a visa before they are allowed entry, I must also be submitted to the process of being issued a visa despite the fact that I carry an African Union Diplomatic passport. And yet we talk about integration. So, I believe that the PAP has a critical role to play in a ensuring that the free movement of people, goods and services is done on a legislative basis to ensure a level playing field, harmonisation of our border restrictions and free flow of trade across our borders. This is especially so for the small traders who are usually women traders doing the cross-border trading. They are handicapped because there are various restrictions that hamper them from moving from one country to another. When you think of the fact that our continent, with fifty-four countries, is the most fragmented continent on earth and the aspect of the difficulties we have with our civil service, the customs and all the officers at the borders who make it difficult for our people to carry out even the legitimate exercise of trying to make a living and impose on them difficulties, we believe that the time has come for this difficulties to be removed by giving legislative functions to the PAP to help harmonise some of these standards.So, Article 8(2) is simple. It talks about our oversight functions. The AU’s resources, even though not completely got from member States, a large chunk comes from them. Those member States spend taxpayers’ money. How do you spend taxpayers’ money without proper Parliamentary oversight? It does not happen anywhere in the world. Even when the fear of oversight is based on the usual fear that people have of Parliaments across the continent at our national levels, we believe that the programmes of the AU which are tied to these expenses will require some level of input from the PAP. These programmes are sometimes carried out in member States. So, we are in a good position to know how effective, useful and successful these programmes are. In the process, we can interrogate and make adequate and useful contributions to enhance the work of the Union and to show that our Union is actually working for the people of Africa. So, we believe that the requirements that we have asked for in the amendment are not things that should require the level of opposition that we have received. We think that part of the opposition is based on a lack of adequate explanation and information. I have had the opportunity, Your Excellencies, to speak to many Heads of State and Government on this issue and we have realised that, a lot of times, they are not properly briefed on what the truth of the matter is when the other interests have been put before them. I would like to say that we have had very useful and fruitful deliberations with all the member States we visited. I think that discussions between one President of the PAP and Presidents of other countries require some level of confidentiality which I cannot speak about in this open plenary. Of course, I believe that many of our Presidents are fully committed and in support of what we are doing. I will continue to pressurise them. However, I would like to urge our various national delegations that the work is not just for us in the plenary. The work is also for Hon. Members, when they return to their various member states to engage the leadership, the Speakers of their national Parliaments, Presidents of their various countries, the Foreign Affairs ministries and delegations made up of Hon. Members to push this case forward. We will provide you with all the detailed information you require, the copies of the protocol and the arguments we have put forward. We have developed an ad memoir which has all the issues raised in it. I will make these documents available to every national delegation that can go ahead during these few months to try as much as possible to reach out to the leadership to make them understand that what we are asking for would not in, any way, derogate from the powers of our national Parliaments. It will not, in any way, affect the national sovereignty of member States and it will only be a step forward to begin to build, on our continent, institutions that are strong enough to be able to support the African governance architecture and work for the people of Africa.ApplauseI have equally taken note of the suggestions that we have additional special delegations made up of former Heads of State and many opinion moulders in our society across the continent. I think it is a beautiful idea but the only problem we have is that each of these missions cost us money and we do not have enough resources. I would have loved to go to so many more countries and visit to negotiate and seek support for our protocol. However, we have limited resources within which to carry out those missions. We are hopeful now that some of our partners have indicated interest to support this process. However, they have not been able to clearly come forward with the support that we believe we need.Your Excellencies and Hon. Colleagues, we have had a lot of comments on the issue of the approved structures for the PAP. Let me state, Hon. Colleagues, that the situation that we find ourselves in is simply a situation that we inherited. From the inception of the PAP, there were discussions about the approval of a staff structure. The approval process went on for many years and it was never concluded. Of course, the PAP kept hiring and employing staff under different conditions. Some were under regular contracts, others were under short-term contracts and still others were under fixed contracts. Work was going on. Then came the Executive Council decision that the PAP must subject its structure to the structures committee of the PRC for approval. That process now required that we go before them in order to get our structure approved. I had to attend a couple of those meetings in Addis Ababa to first negotiate. We started negotiating and from the proposed structure, we had over 100 staff that we wanted. They kept pushing us down, cutting us back until we arrived at about seventy-four positions that they approved.With that approval, we had hoped that the implementation would be very straight forward and that we look at our own existing staff because, in fact, the final approved structure contained the positions of every existing staff member in this Parliament. We also made sure that all the positions of these existing staff were guaranteed under the new approved structure. The vacancies and key areas in which we did not have staff were also included. When we went to some summit, the final approval came with conditions and methodologies for implementation and that is where our problems started. In these conditions and methodologies, they insisted that all existing staff of the PAP, even though they were employed, would be subjected to a new implementation of the structure and would need to apply and compete with other African citizens in full transparency. We went back to them to say we have a difficult with this because we have staff who had contracts that are under the existing rules and regulations of the AU.Now, you, the AU did send your human resource people concerning these interviews. You have been giving them money based on the fact that these are regular staff in the budget. You have also given them the various amendments and conditions of service. The AUC that they knew about that but this was the decision of Executive Council and so, we have to implement it.As far as they were concerned, what you have in our institution are people who have been employed and have been working but the structure had to come first. This had been done outside the structure. So, we had to come and implement the structure as it had been approved. We came back here and we are caught in a difficult situation. There are people with contracts that are not expired. We started the process where we said for those whose contracts have not expired, we would not touch them because that could have its own implications. And even in the process of implementing this structure, we had several meetings with staff to explain to them our predicament and difficulty. Some proposed that we disobey the Executive Council. I said I would not be the head of an institution that, rather than do the right thing and engage, would begin to disobey. We must obey the rules as they have been laid down by the institution that we belong to. So, what is required is to find how we can manage this process so that it will be as permanent as possible and so that it can effectively deliver, to us, the Secretariat that we desire to work for this Parliament.So, we began a process in which we involved them. We set up the PSIP Committee made up of members of staff. We said this new Structure Implementation Committee would sit down and draw guidelines on how we would get this thing done. We got one of our partners, JIZ, and because NEPAD, a sister institution based in Midrand here had the same approval with us on the same day and had the same methodologies and conditionalities, but they had made more progress than we had because they had on their staff only short-term contract staff. And now they had been absorbed into the AUC as a division of the commission. So, they had started implementing. So I had a meeting with the CEO, His Excellency former Prime Minister Molaki who said he was getting the approval of AUC and thought we should follow the same process. So, we invited the staff and had an audience with them. We discussed with them and agreed with them that we should also buy into the same process and that is what we did. Even the institutional investor that was advising on the implementation, and had finished a substantial part of his work, was also available to help us. So, we started that process and we engaged then and they were working with the staff committee to develop the modalities of how we would implement this structure. Of course, you know, change is always difficult and I understand that predicament because many of them are foreigners living in South Africa with their families under conditions of contracts. So, when their contracts are not long enough to have difficulties managing some personal issues. But there is no progress you can make without some or pain or some sacrifice. So, we tried to reassure them that PAP process we are doing was going to be transparent and above board. We would even go a step further and guarantee all those members of staff who are qualified and are holding positions that they would be short listed for whatever position they are holding. There would be automatic pre-short list for all those who are holding any position. It would be automatic for them to be short listed for those positions.Now we also made a provision for internal applications from members of staff who wanted to apply for positions within the system. I was convinced that if we brought somebody to compete with me today for the presidency of the PAP and we go for an interview - he is from outside, he has not been here and if he beats me, then I should go home because I believe that I have learnt the job long enough. I have been here long enough to be able to give a good account of myself if I have to compete with anybody. We are convinced that we will do whatever we can to support the process to make it as painless as possible but the difficulties are that if we want do a transparent process that would be one or two casualties. There are people in certain positions who do not even have the required academic qualifications required for their position by the AU standards. So, how do you deal with that kind of situation if you want to be transparent? Of course, there are also regulations about distribution. There must be geographical balance. This is an African institution and so let us have staff from all over Africa. There is no reason why one state or region should have much more than others.ApplauseSo, that is part of what we were asked to do and we do not think there is anything wrong with it. There must be that balance and spread to ensure that every African nation has an opportunity to bring its citizens to work in our Parliament and contribute. Those are the issues that we are dealing with, but I want to promise you Honourable Colleagues, that we are convinced that we must remain transparent, fair, just and above board in our decision-making processes. So far, because of financial constraints, we are looking at the top five positions which they have now started processing. The posts will be available for us, this week, to begin the process of interviewing for these positions. As I have already stated before, because we are a political institution, I am going to invite not just the AUC and other relevant bodies be part of the panel, but the Chairpersons of the five regional caucuses will join the Bureau in making these decisions collectively on your behalf.We are now in the process of arranging for those interviews in November and I hope that by December, we should be finished. The Chair raised an issue. We, as the Bureau, cannot take a decision on something that is clear in our rules of procedure. It says that the plenary must approve the appointment of the Clerk and Deputy Clerk. So, the plenary will have to approve the appointment of the Clerk and Deputy Clerk. There is nothing we can do about it. They have to wait for the plenary to approve it. I would never, with my twenty-seven years as a lawyer, stand and break the rules of our institution. There would be something wrong in that kind of process. So, we will bring it before the appropriate authority to take the appropriate decision and we move forward with it.Hon. Colleagues, we also have this issue of the rest of the staff. We, at the Bureau, have continued to try to manage the process. These whose interviews have not fallen into first five, hopefully, by next year we will get enough resources to fund them. We will continue and we agreed in our last Bureau meeting to further extend. An issue was raised about extension and employment. I think you read the rules properly, it says that we must approve the appointment. What we have done is an extension and I think an extension is within the rights of the Bureau to extend an existing appointment. I cannot expect that each time we want to extend an appointment of somebody who has already been appointed by this Bureau and who has gone through the necessary staff assessment processes, we need to come back to enable the Bureau to give a six-month extension to an existing contract. I think we are still within the rules. We have looked at it and we have extended all the staff whose positions may not be interviewed fully to April, to give them enough time to participate in the process. so that about the time we come here in May, we will, hopefully, if adequate funds are available, completed this process. It is not our making that it is a painful process but we have to deal with it.I want to promise like I have done all the time that we will do it in full transparency, with clarity and we are always available to explain to the individual Members of Parliament whose constituents would have approached you, please feel free to come to my office any time. I have had an opportunity to discuss with many regional delegations. We will explain to you where we are and why and we look forward to your continued support and co-operation to ensure that this Parliament is endowed with the level of Secretariat that we require.Hon. Colleagues, another issue that has been raised by many who have spoken is the issue of the election observation missions. This is a very important role for our Parliament. Hon. Members will recall that historically the PAP used to send independent election observation missions to member States. We had a budget line for election observation. Following one particular election observation mission, we issued a report that was different from the reports of the Union. The politics of election observation came to the fore and the PAP was now by Executive Council decision requested to be part and parcel of the AU election observation missions. In that way, we were no longer allowed to hold our own independent election observation missions.To enforce further, the budget line for election observation by the PAP was cancelled. So, we did not even have the resources to carry out election observation missions even if we wanted to. Of course, you know that the danger that we would be there if we took donor funds to go on election observation missions, a lot of political interpretation would be put into it. So, it is not an option available to us. Yes, we are going and the conditions that we have found ourselves in are bad. I have had the opportunity to negotiate with former Commissioner for Political Affairs and we put on the table all our concerns, starting from the leadership of the election observation missions. Now we have agreed that we will have 40 per cent of the delegation to be made up of Pan African Parliamentarians. That is being implemented but the only problem with it is that we never have enough people. Some Members are ready and available to attend every election observation mission because, sometimes, you get the notice very late. Sometimes, they also have administrative problems in managing the tickets and flights.So, we agreed in principle in our first negations that the 40 per cent of that delegation would come from the PAP. We also demanded that the deputy leader be from the PAP. In fact, my first demand was that the leadership should be alternated between the PAP and AU. So, we would have a PAP Member leading one mission and then the next one can be taken by somebody else from the AU. However, they explained to us that election observation missions are not necessarily just meant to look at elections only. Sometimes, they involve some peace building efforts. Sometimes, they involve some level of negotiations and that they had decided that the former Heads of State would be in a better position to be involved in some of these processes especially in the build-up to some of these elections in troubled areas.We said that was fine because we respect our former Heads of State and we would work under them. We would be happy to be part of this process. Then we demanded the deputy leader position, the creation of a deputy leader position for our delegation so that we can be part and parcel of the decision-making process and they said they would look into it at our next meeting. So, we had a list of demands about air tickets and class of travel. I told them that MPs in my country travel business class and that the same applies to most member States. We cannot be given tickets in economy class while some senior staff of the Union would go in business class.So, we had that argument and back and forth and they said those were the rules but we told them that the financial regulations that we had seen and gone through have no provisions for Members of Parliament. They are not considered in those regulations. In fact, they said the process is on now and I insisted that these be amended and there is a meeting in December to make our inputs on the new amendment to the financial rules which we believe should capture the true status of Members of Parliament. We are elected by our various constituencies to represent them and we cannot take any treatment that is less.ApplauseSo, that process is on. We are hopeful that when it is concluded and the rules recognise us for who we are, who we should be recognised as, those issues will be dealt with and we are still hoping to have a meeting before the end of the year with the new Political Affairs Commissioner. She has confirmed. I have requested for the dates but because of the nature of this session, we decided to do it after the session to engage the Political Affairs Commission which is in charge of election observation to ensure that the respect and role that must be given to Members of Parliament in election observation is actually given to us. Our inputs in these processes can help build good Parliamentary democracy on our continent. Our role, therefore, cannot be over emphasised and I believe that. Hon. Members, I urge you to, please, continue to work for our continent. Sometimes, you will have to work in difficult conditions but we have a commitment to the people of Africa. We have a commitment to serve our continent because the current state of affairs on our continent requires that we, as leaders, go the extra mile to make our contribution to ensure that our people are brought out of the current status of wallowing in poverty, hunger, disease, illiteracy and bad governance.Hon. Colleagues, I have also noted the issue of our audit reports. You will agree with me that, years ago, we had issues with the financial rules and regulations and their implementation in our Parliament and I must pay tribute to the immediate past President of this Parliament, Honourable Dr Idriss Ndele who went the extra mile to ensure that we are, first and foremost, above board before we can point fingers at others. I took a way and cancelled all benefits for Bureau members that were not approved in the AU rules because they do not even recognise the Bureau. So, as Vice Presidents under him, we never received any allowances whatsoever unless we came for a Bureau meeting and we were paid for per diem and hotel. When we went for official assignments we got the same per diem as the staff who were escorting us on the mission. We got the same. We were not even allowed to have any expenditure that was not according to the rules and was defined by the accounts people. When I say expenditure I mean something as simple as when you go to visit the Republic to Togo, and they send you security, protocol and all the things that they are deserving of the office of the President of the PAP. When leaving, you cannot even, within the rules, at last give even a US$100 to say thank you. So, you would end up doing it from your own resources because you cannot account for it. There is no permission for its use. So we kept up that process and any process that we have a difficulty in was in the capacity of some of our finance departments and so over the last few years we have enhanced our capacity by hiring short-term staff funded by the EC programme to strengthen that department and that is why my honourable colleague who spoke earlier has mentioned that they were looking for the reports of expenditure before the 2013 Budget and they could not get it. But, today, we get quarterly reports of expenditure which is a major improvement on our accounting processes.ApplauseWe have been able to move some of these problems with the audit for where they were to where they should be. Of course, you know audits are. Some are still in green. You know, audits reports of 2010/2011 recommended one or two things to be implemented. Some we can implement because we have resources to do so now. Others we cannot implement because we do not have the resources. Once in a while, we still have some red flags being raised by some auditors who have come. But there is no institution that ever has a perfect audit. My belief and faith is that we have consistently continued to push for transparency and accountability from our Secretariat. We have had to put in place enough capacity to support the work they do. We are trying as much as possible to ensure that the rules for procurement and accounting are followed.However, like I said we still have some lingering audit queries from, maybe from five or six years ago. We had some people who were asked to refund some money. Some have left and that money has not been refunded. You know some of these things exist, but we are working on them to ensure that we clean up and be ready to have a clean slate. Luckily, the progress we have made so far has helped us. to have recent audits that no longer see the PAP as an institution that is non-compliant. We have reached the stage where we can now have audits reports that show that a lot of progress has been made. However, that does not mean that it is uhuru. It does not mean that we have reached independence. We still have slight problems here and there such as late responses to audit queries by the Secretariat. These are issues we are working on and we are hopeful that we will overcome each and every one of them to be an institution that we can all be proud of.Hon. Members, we also have the issues of translation of documents and difficulties, sometimes, because some of the documents come a bit late and the translators do not have enough time. I know it is a specialised business. The translators need time to go through and be to translate properly. When they rush it we notice mistakes especially in some of these slightly more technical languages and translations. We do have those difficulties. My appeal is to, please, bear with us we will continue to work on it, but we also urge that the documents that are for translation should come on time to enable the translators to do effective work. There are some documents such as, for example, the Agenda 2063 document of the AU, which was done in only two languages by the Union, that is English and French. We are convinced that if we try to translate it they would not be taking ownership of the document and we will be liable in any misinterpretation of any of those issues in that document and that is why we were unable to provide it in other languages, prior to the deliberation yesterday. We considered it but we felt that to translate a document like that from the AU which they had done in only two languages to further take it to other languages, we might lose the meaning of some of the words or the intent of some of the issues. So, we have that slight difficulty and we apologise to our colleagues who felt that they did not have it in the language they best needed it in.Hon. Colleagues we have also heard mention about the Wi-Fi and technology. You know, we have a host contract agreement based on which the South African government provides certain facilities for the PAP. I know these facilities were provided when we started nine years ago and today that host contract agreement has expired. It expired a few years ago. We are working on a meeting with the Department of International Relations and Cooperation who handle it on behalf of the Republic of South Africa. I have had an audience with the President of the Republic on the issue and he has given some directives. We are working in committee format to look at the key areas of the host contract agreement.However, we also have a small technicality. The host contract agreement is between the AUC and the Republic of South Africa. So, we are also working with the African Union Commission to ensure that, as the owners of the host contract agreement, they deal with these matters. I discussed here today with the Deputy Chairperson of the Commission and I am hopeful that progress can be made on the issue of the permanent site so that as we approach our tenth anniversary it would be nice for us to be know that we are moving forward with all the issues. So on the issue of WI-FI and all the other IT support which is part of what the South African government provides for us we have had a problem because most of the equipment has become obsolete over time. You know how quickly these mobile phones and technologies change every day. So there have been changes and modernisation. Some of the equipment we have is not as updated as it should be. They have their procurement processes and they have to follow a due process to come to that. We are hopeful that this will be handled and, of course, you know that IT infrastructure means that all our information is in it. So, there is security also to be taken into consideration. We are working to ensure that these things are done to the best interests of all concerned. Hon. Members we also have mentioned the issue of the trust fund. The trust fund is a bit of a concept but, of course, most of you who have institutional memory will know that it also became a problem for our Parliament, especially in the utilisation of the resources in the trust fund. When I was elected Vice President under President Ndele, it was one of the major problems we had. We saw that the accounting for the trust fund should be presented to the new Bureau. We asked for documents but we did not get them. The Accounts Department told us that they did not know anything about the utilisation of the trust fund and that the trustees managed the fund. So, there were no records within our Accounts Department as to funds that were contained in the trust fund.We started the process of set up a committee to look it into it. We approached Nedbank the bankers of the trust fund. The President went to them asking to them to freeze the trust fund account pending when the conclusion the process, but Nedbank refused. They said the President was not a signatory to the account and that, at such, they could not take instructions from him. We had a lot of difficulties. In the end, we worked with various institutions. We wrote to the AU. We wrote to member States where the trustees came from, demanding that they come and account for the utilisation of the trust fund. We are at the point where we have asked the Nedbank to call for a meeting but they have kept changing the dates of the meeting. While we are here, during this session, we are hopeful that the Bureau will have an opportunity to meet with them to give us additional information and an update but I would like to say that from what we have received, so far, there is no money left in our trust fund. It was expended before Idriss became President. We should also now be able to give you a write-up on that. I think we will make it available in the next report clearly so that you can see where we are. However, as an institution, because of our improvement in our accounting and transparency we are getting more donors who are interested in working with us and that is a good sign.ApplauseI do not know if we will go back to the regime of the trust fund. I think that we will deal directly with our development partners on a case by case basis. I think it is better at this point to make sure that we do not put ourselves in a situation where we appoint eminent citizens to look after collective resources and then end up not getting the level of transparency that we expected from them.Hon. Members, another issue that has been put forward is the issue of the medical cover for Honourable Members of Parliament. And I want to promise you that breast cancer, cervical cancer, prostate cancer and all the possible ailments of old age will be covered under this but, of course, we have made a provision with the Discovery Health Fund people to come and brief us so that we can clearly understand what is covered. You know it is a bit technical. They give you something with the left hand and take it away with the right hand. So we need to hear from them. We have made arrangements for them to come and brief this Parliament with details. You can ask all the questions you want to ask. I am not an expert in that area, but what we know is that the cover will be for South Africa. It will be an all year round cover and will not be dependent on our sessions. It is an all year one cover in South Africa for Members of Parliament. It will include health checks to ensure that we go for regular medical check-ups and they will come with the details this afternoon. We will give then a few minutes of our time to explain to us the details. We think that it is important that we all sign on to this programme and it would help to ensure that the health of those who work should be protected as we always say health is wealth We look forward to them coming to brief us and to members utilising this facility, that would help many of us who are aging.So, Hon. Colleagues, I think that I have attended to is almost all the issues raised unless I have omitted something that...HON. MEMBER:interjected.HON. BETHEL AMADI [PRESIDENT OF THE PAN AFRICAN PARLIAMENT]:Well somebody has proposed that we look at the ECOWAS Parliament’s way of doing things. While that would be a wonderful idea according to our protocol, it clearly states that member States should be responsible for the attendance of Members to PAP sessions where the national Parliament is responsible for Members’ attendance. Their own protocol is different but you know that ECOWAS is the richest regional body that has its own resources. They take their money from source. Three per cent of all customs duties paid in West African countries goes to ECOWAS directly. So, they have a direct source of funding. They are even richer then the African Union, as of today. They have their source of funding. Unless you find alternative source of funding for our Union, it will be very difficultand I know proposal came from many that funds should taken from tax on telecommunications or tourism and different countries blocked the suggestions different... the tourism countries, they said no, no, we do not want tourism.From what I heard, the Chairperson of the panel that was tasked with coming up with alternative sources of funding, former President Obasanjo, told Heads of States that, "Well you are now in charge. I do not know how you want to do it, but the problem is yours and you must fund this Union. I do not know how you want to swim without getting wet. If anybody wants to swim in a pool they should be ready to get wet. We need to make those sacrifices to fund the activities of our Union." Until that is done, we still have a situation where most of the Members will have to be sponsored by the member States.So, Hon. Colleagues, I think I have not captured everything but I have tried the best I can within limited time. If I have left out anything, I am available in the office to attend to all members who have issues to raise.I thank you and God bless you all.ApplauseTHE SECOND VICE-PRESIDENT:Muchas gracias.En nombre de todos vosotros le doy las gracias al señor Presidente por sus excelentes aclaraciones, y os pido la adopción de este informe de actividades del Parlamento Pan Africano.Adoptado.Hon. Members, before we go into the Second Order of Business, may I, on your approval, suspend sitting to enable the Discovery Medical Insurance team to come and brief us as, in accordance with Rule 31 of our Rules of Procedure, we cannot do it in plenary.If you so approve, we will now suspend business and allow for the presentation by the Discovery Medical Insurance on the MPs’ health cover.
Thursday, 24 October, 2013
THE PRESIDENT:Please, be seated.Hon. Members, in accordance with Rule 9 of the Rules of Procedure, we shall now swear-in new Members.The following Hon. Members took the Oath of Solemn Declaration, signed it and took their seats:1) Hon. Chen Chenhamo. C. Chimutengwende - [Zimbabwe]2) Hon. Priscah Mupfumira – [Zimbabwe]3) Hon. Tapiwa Mashakada – [Zimbabwe]THE PRESIDENT:Hon. Members, I shall now call on the Clerk to read the Notice of the Motion.THE CLERK:Motion to pay tribute to the late former President of the Pan African Parliament, His Excellency Hon. Dr Idriss Ndele Moussa.THE PRESIDENT:May I now call upon the Hon. Cecilia Atim-Ogwal to move the Motion.Thank you, Mr President.HON. CECILIA ATIM-OGWAL [UGANDA]:Mr President, I am moving this Motion in accordance with Rule 60 of the Rules of Procedure of the Pan African Parliament (PAP) to pay tribute to Hon. Dr Idriss Ndele Moussa in appreciation of the contributions he made as a Member of PAP and subsequently, as President of the Second PAP.Mr President, can I go ahead to read the entire document?THE PRESIDENT:Yes, you may.HON. CECILIA ATIM-OGWAL:Mr President, cognisant of the contribution made by His Excellency Ndele in steering PAP during the time of its infancy, Noting the role he played in lobbying Heads of State and Government to transform PAP into a legislature, Further noting that His Excellency Ndele led by example and left no record implicating him in any corruption or abuse of office, Appreciating that as a person, he was a peace-maker and made his office accessible to any Member of Parliament for consultation, Recognising that his humility challenged Members and set a good example to be emulated by leaders after him, Applause PAP hereby resolves to pay tribute to late former President of PAP His Excellency Dr Idriss Ndele Moussa who died in a car accident on 19th May, 2013 and expresses its appreciation for the mature and skillful manner he steered the Second Parliament.Mr President, I beg to move.MR PRESDENT:I invite Honourable Saleh Kebzabo to second the Motion.HON. SALEH KEBZABO [TCHAD]:Je vous remercie, Monsieur le Président.Je ne sais pas si le Règlement le permet, Monsieur le Président.Initialement, c’était le Premier Vice-président, l’Honorable NKODO qui devait appuyer la motion.Mais compte tenu du fait que, pour des raisons de santé, il était hospitalisé, l’Honorable CECILIA m’a demandé si je pouvais le remplacer.J’ai répondu oui! Je suis disposé à le faire! Mais comme notre collègue est là, est-ce que je peux lui remettre cette responsabilité, Monsieur le Président?MR PRESIDENT:Okay, you want somebody else to do it? You want the Vice-President?HON. SALEH KEBZABO:Yes, thank you.MR PRESIDENT:Your Excellency, you have the Floor.HON. NKODO DANG ROGER [PREMIER VICE-PRÉSIDENT]:Excellence Monsieur le Président,Je voudrais d’abord présenter toutes mes excuses à la Chambre entière pour mon indisponibilité d’hier, pour des raisons de santé. Toutefois, j’étais avec la Chambre pour toutes les décisions qui ont été prises.Monsieur le Président,Chers collègues,Concernant la motion, je ne voudrais plus m’attarder sur ce que la collègue a dit, mais je voudrais quand même faire remarquer que lorsque nous sommes ici, nous avons un employeur qui est le PAP, car nous venons tous de nos États respectifs.Le Président Idriss a été enterré avec les honneurs dus à sa nation. Il est quand même tout à fait normal que le PAP où il avait servi, puisse lui accorder les mêmes honneurs ou bien les mêmes attentions.J’irais même un peu plus loin en disant que, pour tous ceux de nos députés qui sont morts, ils devraient mériter la reconnaissance du Parlement panafricain, étant entendu qu’ils ont deux employeurs.J’appuie donc profondément, et de tout cœur, la motion soulevée par l’Honorable Cécilia.Je vous remercie.THE PRESIDENT:Hon. Members, the question before the House is the Motion by Hon. Cecilia Atim-Ogwal that cognisant of the contribution made by His Excellency Ndele in steering PAP during the time of its infancy;Noting the role he played in lobbying Heads of State and Government to transform PAP into a legislature;Further noting that His Excellency Ndele led by example and left no record implicating him in any corruption or abuse of office;Appreciating that as a person, he was a peace-maker and made his office accessible to any Member of Parliament for consultation, Recognising that his humility challenged Members and set a good example to be emulated by leaders after him;PAP hereby resolves to pay tribute to late former President of PAP His Excellency Dr Idriss Ndele Moussa who died in a car accident on 19th May, 2013 and expresses its appreciation for the mature and skillful manner he steered the Second Parliament.Honourable Members in accordance with the provision of Rule 66 (1), debate on the Motion may not exceed one hour. I have a list of about 17 speakers and I will, therefore, allow three minutes per speaker.HON. MEMBER:Mr President I thought once the Motion has been accepted I could have one or two minutes to speak on the Motion.THE PRESIDENT:You will be allowed to speak.Let me call upon the Hon. Cecilia Atim-Ogwal.HON. CECILIA ATIM-OGWAL [UGANDA]:Mr President, I felt obliged to move this Motion to pay tribute to our dear friend and leader who passed on soon after participating actively in the deliberations of the Second Session of the 3rd Parliament.Your Excellency, you recall that there was a divine arrangement for the late Ndele to come to your office and I was fortunate enough to be in your office on that day when you had a three-minute meeting with him. I believe you also felt blessed to have the last handshake with him and I also felt blessed to have the last handshake with him.Mr President, I want to quote from Albert Pike who said, "What we have done for ourselves alone dies with us, but what we have done for others in the world remains and is immortal". Indeed, Mr President, the support Dr Idriss Ndele gave to ECOWAS and restoring constitutional order and integrity in Mali and Guinea Bissau will remain a permanent evidence of Dr Idriss’ contribution to this world.Mr President, Dr. Idriss moved a Motion on the 9th day of October, 2012, to congratulate Uganda for having achieved fifty years since its Independence, and what he said about Uganda moved us. It is a permanent memory in the minds and hearts of all the Ugandans.Dr Idriss was a true African son. He was humble and respected the rights of women and children, and made tangible contributions towards maternal and child health. This was the man who, after handing over the mantle of leadership to you, Mr President, Bethel Amadi, humbly took his seat as an ordinary Member; never demanding any special treatment.This was a true son of Africa. This was our dear brother and we miss him.I thank you, Mr President.HON. ANDRÉ OBAMI-ITOU [CONGO]:Merci, Honorable Président.Honorables Députés,Chers Collègues,Au moment où nous engageons un débat sur la mémoire de notre frère, notre ami, notre collègue, le Dr Idriss Ndele Moussa, deuxième Président du Parlement panafricain, qui a trouvé la mort dans un accident de la circulation, j’aimerais exprimer, ici, toute mon émotion en évoquant sa mémoire.En effet, le Président Idriss NDELE, était de nationalité tchadienne mais ressortissant de l’Afrique centrale. Après chaque session ici, Honorable Président, notre frère prenait un peu de son temps pour séjourner à Brazzaville, la capitale de mon pays, le Congo. Nous étions souvent ensemble, oubliant toutes les contraintes que nous imposent la session, et d’autres choses qui vous procurent le stress et nous nous comportions en simples citoyens congolais ou brazzavillois. Il était très simple, humble. Il ne demandait rien. Il avait toujours un sourire. Il connaissait beaucoup de brazzavillois, je peux dire plus que moi-même, citoyen de cette ville.Idriss NDELE, son humilité s’est manifestée ici, même, parce que membre fondateur de cette Institution qu’est le PAP, après qu’il ait quitté son mandat, qu’il avait fini son mandat de trois ans. Il a rejoint notre Commission Permanente de la Coopération, des relations internationales et de Règlement des Conflits sans chercher une place d’honneur. Mais la Commission malgré son refus, lui a fait une place d’honneur au présidium, c'est-à-dire [Temps de parole épuisé].HON. AHAMAT TAHIR AHAMAT [TCHAD]:Merci, Monsieur le Président.Je remercie d’abord l’Honorable CECILIA pour avoir pensé à proposer cette motion.Mes remerciements vont également à vous, Monsieur le Président, au Vice-président du PAP, ainsi que toutes les délégations qui ont eu à assister aux obsèques officielles du défunt.Le Dr Moussa YAYAMI était pour moi un père. J’ai appris beaucoup de lui. Il est certes parti, Monsieur le Président, mais il demeure toujours en nous.C’est avec beaucoup d’émotion que je prends la parole aujourd’hui.Je vous remercie.HON. CHIEF FORTUNE CHARUMBIRA [ZIMBABWE]:Thank you, Mr President.Mr President, I also wish to associate myself with this Motion. I worked with the late Dr Idriss Ndele Moussa here at the PAP and I want to confirm the high complimentary remarks made by the previous speakers which include the fact that Dr Ndele was an accessible and honest leader. He was a man of high integrity who brought financial sanity to the PAP. It is critical, Mr President, that we emphasise the issue of financial sanity because Hon. Members of this House are known for making very loud pronouncements about good governance and calling on other leaders that they should be leaders that rule according to the law.We are all aware that it is Dr Idriss Ndele who introduced the committee of CAFE whose sole intention was to ensure good governance at the PAP. As you are aware CAFE in that area did a commendable job and you reported, on Monday, Mr President, that the auditors have since been issuing very good reports about financial management or administration at the PAP. Much of that credit should go to the late Dr Idriss Ndele and I salute him and want him to rest in peace.Thank you very much.HON. JOYCE MUSU FREEMAN SUMO [LIBERIA]:Thank you, Mr President.I would like to pay a special tribute on behalf of all Liberians.The late former President of the PAP was a nice man. I will let you know a secret today. I remember when we were planning to elect Madam Mongela at the Town Lodge where we were staying with Kenyan Members.The Kenyan Clerk, at that time, was being pressurised to resign. We organised a group to go and plead with Madam Mongela let him finish his term. She refused.We went back to our hotel and said; "Well, we have spoken to her and she has refused. What can we do now? Let us make sure she is not elected." We asked ourselves who to elect next. Somebody suggested that we elect Hon. Idriss Ndele because he was the quietest in our group. We then elected him.Since then I have known him to be a nice man and very responsive to the talks we shared with him. It was so saddening when I heard that he was dead. So, on behalf of my country, I would like to, first of all, send my heartfelt condolences to his family and to all of us and to let you know that we are very touched by his death but the Lord knows everything.Thank you very much.HON. ONYANGO KAKOBA [UGANDA]:I thank you, Mr President.I would like to add my voice to those of my colleagues who have paid tribute to the late Hon. Idriss. I want to point out that he was an upright and transparent leader.Mr President, I joined the PAP in October, 2011. During the period that we were here together, I never heard anything negative about him. He was a very humble, simple and friendly person. During the session just before he died, I remember us meeting at some restaurant. After I had my lunch, he told me not to bother to pay because in his culture the one who comes last is the one who pays. It was not the lunch offer that mattered but the humble and friendly manner in which he did it.Mr President, it is very unfortunate that we have lost him. At times it defeats my understanding why good people usually die earlier and the bad ones last for a long time.LaughterIt defeats my understanding. However, we take solace in the fact that it is the Lord who gives and takes away. This reminds me of a story of a gardener who had a very beautiful flower in the garden. He wanted this flower very much but at one time, his master came and said that he wanted to take the flower and cut it. The gardener was left with nothing. I believe we loved Hon. Idriss but the Lord also loved him and has taken him away. May his soul rest in eternal peace.I thank you.HON. JULIANA KANTENGWA [RWANDA]:Thank you, Mr President for recognising me.Mr President, I also wish to associate myself with the Motion of paying tribute to our late brother, colleague and former President Idriss Ndele. Dr Ndele inherited a divided House. To those of us who were here, who saw it, it had the potential to degenerate into a chaotic Chamber characterised by factions of the winners and losers. However, his meekness and humility captivated and charmed even the most critical to the point that within less than one year, he had succeeded to be the befitting consensus man at the helm of this august body. He inherited a divided House and passed over a united House. That is the legacy that I, as one of the founder Members of this House, remember and credit him for. I pray that God Almighty listens to our tribute and may I also take this opportunity, Mr President, with your permission, to pay tribute to our other departed colleagues, late Hon. Abducadeni of Djibouti and late Hon. Matsitsi from Botswana. May their souls rest in eternal peace.I thank you, Mr. President.HON. PARAMOUNT CHIEF BAI KURR KANAGBARO [SIERRA LEONE]:Thank you, Mr President, for giving me the Floor.I will say on behalf of my country and my senior Members of our delegation, that we pay great tribute to this gentleman. Like previous speakers have said, he showed humility. Some of us listen to the Pastor say "When you humble yourself, you shall be exalted." That was what happened with our late colleague. He was reachable, simple, humble, a good listener and a good mixer. He did not put himself above anybody but mixed and participated with everybody around him. We miss him so much and when I learnt about his death yesterday, I felt very terrible in my heart and I even thought about why we should all be worried about events when we don’t last in this world.Sir, in my humble contribution, I would suggest and I know the Bureau will do something to reflect to the home, family and country of our late former President for us to send a delegation to witness his burial. I think it would be well accepted by his family and country to see a good delegation from the PAP to reflect our sympathy and empathy. I, therefore, ask that God puts him in his rightful place in Heaven and blesses his family, country and the PAP. I know he will want to see a successful legislative PAP even in his eternal life.I thank you, Mr. President.HON. SUAD AL-FATIH AL BADAWI [SUDAN]:Thank you very much Mr President.There is a saying that the good die young. Dr Ndele was a man of clean hands and a rich heart. He was a leader who left behind him a wealth of values and good attitude. I remember when I first told him about a project we were undertaking, his instant reaction was that of full support. He even came over to Khartoum to discuss the project with the Minister of Health and insisted on forming a steering committee from the PAP, the National Assembly of the Sudan, the Ministry of Health and the NGOs to ensure the continuity of the programme.Mr President, I consider Mr Moussa a son, a brother, a friend and one of the pillars of development.Thank you.ApplauseHON. JEANE D’ARC NYINAWASE [RWANDA]:Merci, Monsieur le Président.Je voudrais appuyer l’Honorable CECILIA.Monsieur le Président, Je saisis cette opportunité pour présenter mes sincères condoléances, et suis de tout cœur avec vous dans cette douloureuse épreuve. Je m’associe à votre peine dans cette douloureuse circonstance.Monsieur le Président,Pour moi, je conviens qu’Idriss Ndele n’a pas quitté ce monde. Au contraire, je pense bien qu’il est toujours là, en tant que modèle du Parlement panafricain.Il est difficile de trouver les mots justes à un frère aimé, adoré qui nous a quitté subitement, mais j’apprends qu’il est parti pour bien nous accueillir les jours à venir.Monsieur le Président,Pour ceux qui croient en Dieu, il y a toujours un commencement et une fin.Toutes mes condoléances au Parlement panafricain et à la famille de l’Honorable Moussa Idriss Ndele. Il restera toujours le modèle.Chez nous, il y a un proverbe qui dit « qu’un homme fort ne meurt pas, il se repose ».Merci.HON. MEAR ALI SIRRO [ETHIOPIA]:شكرا سيدي الرئيس ،،، حينما نتحدث عن اآلخ المرحـوم الدكتور ادريس موسى على ادلي كـان صديق ألجميع وكان صديقنا الحبيب و بالنسبة لي صديقاً كفرد االخ الدكتور كان ر ُج ًل باراً إلفريقيا وكل همومه إلعـالء كلمة الوحدة لتطوير البرلمان االفريقي وكل همومه اإلفـــــــــريـقية وخاصة أمــالً بان يكون للبرلمان االفريقي سلطة كاملة وناضل ألجل هذا و كان رجـــ ُل السالم وأألمـــن والــصــدق ومحبوب لكل أعضاء البرلمان وكان خســارة ألفريقيا وخاصة خــســرنــا نـــحـــــن في البرلمــــان االفــريــقـــي هذا الـــرجل الذي ناضل ألجـل أفريقيا وكان كل همومة ألجل إعــالء كلمة الوحدة االفريقية وخاصة ان افريقيا خسرت رجل نبيل ذو ذكــاء وذو إهتمام كامل والبد ان نتعلم من اعماله الخيرية وكذلك خسرنا أألخ محمد عبد القادر كان من اعضاء هذا البرلمان بحادث سيارة ولهذا السبب أدعـوا هللا ان يفسح لهم من جناته وأتــمــنــي أن نعمل ونحاول الخيرات التي عملوا بها كمثلهم وان نهتم بمثــل هذه االمور وشكرا جزيال سيدي الرئيسHON. ISAAC STEPHEN MABILETSA [BOTSWANA]:I thank you, Mr President. In my culture, there is an adage that says only cowards die. Heroes never die because their legacies live on. I wish I could be at the Freedom Square and chant a slogan saying "Long live the legacy of Idriss Ndele, long live!" This is what I really desire to do.Mr President, in thanking the Hon. Cecilia Atim-Ogwal for moving this Motion, I think that further to that, maybe, we should name one of the buildings within the PAP after Idriss Ndele. In particular, I am thinking about this meeting Chamber. Like you have various buildings in universities named after people of repute, I am suggesting that we name this building as the Dr Idriss Ndele Chamber.ApplauseMr President, I think that by doing it that way, we will have taken a step further than what Hon. Cecilia Atim-Ogwal has done. I think that that would be fitting tribute.Mr President, I was privileged to not only be a Member of this Parliament under the leadership of the late Hon. Idris Ndele, but also his fellow Member of the Co-operation Committee to which I still belong. When he descended from his seat of Presidency, he went back to the Committee on International Relations, Co-operation and Conflict Resolution which he loved so much.Mr President, as many have already described his character, he might have appeared humble, soft, sociable but he was an extrovert and charismatic but his softness and humility did not imply that the man was stupid. The Co-operation Committee benefited the most from the man because that is where he had the most opportunity to show his excellence to Members directly. I remember him for that. Mr President, I agree with what Hon. Obami-Itou from Congo said that when he arrived at that committee after descending from his seat, he sat at an ordinary place. We said no because we wanted to make a special seat for him. He refused but we forced him to have a seat right at the front table as a gesture of honour for what he had done to this Parliament.Thank you.HON. DR. BERNADETTE LAHAI [SIERRA LEONE]:Thank you Mr President.Mr President, I came to this Parliament in 2009 under the Presidency of the late Dr Idriss Ndele. As he steered the activities of this Parliament I would, sometimes, see him sitting in front of us. He was a man that was humble and unassuming but very efficient in carrying out the business of this House.I remember on two occasions, coincidentally, we met in New York in the Hilton Hotel when I was attending the Arms Trade Treaty negotiations on behalf of the Parliamentarians for Global Action. Every morning when we met in the dining room he would ask me how the negotiations we going on and he wanted to know more about the Arms Trade Treaty. He expressed the wish that in the not too distant future, this Parliament and the Parliamentarians for Global Action could have a cordial relationship, a relationship that we have already formed in his absence but that can be attributed largely to his encouragement.On the last day of our departure from this Parliament, Mr President, Dr Ndele and myself met at the photograph stand where we were collecting our photographs. We stood there and exchanged courtesies. Having collected our photographs we said goodbye to each other. A few days after I returned I received the sad message through my email that he had passed away. Life is so short and so sudden. You are there today, tomorrow you are not, but I know that his legend will live on. The history of the PAP and Africa will never be complete without his legacy. God had given him to us and God has taken him away. Let us give glory to the Lord.Thank you.HON. AWAD HAG ALI AHMED [SUDAN]" شكرا سيدي الرئيسلسيد / أسيلينا على هذا المقترح الذي يحوى كلمات طيبات وشكراً لقد تعَّرفت على السيد الدكتور ادريس إدلي عندما حضرت مؤخراً لهذا البرلمان ومن ذلك الوقت أصبح صديقاً قريبا مني ولقد زارنا في السودان وزارني في منزلي وقضي معي عدة ساعات جميالت فهو نعم الصديق ونعم االخ ذو الخلق الرفيع والقيم العالية وكان يشارك معنا في كل احتفاالت ومناسبات مجموعة شرق افريقيا فهو مثال للصداقة والوحدة االفريقية واإلخاء االفريقي وكل هذه الكلمات التي يقولها المداخلون اليوم البد ان توثق وتنقل السرته الكريمة ولزوجة. ليعلمون انهم فقدو رجل عظيماً ولكم الشكر والتقدير"HON. ASSOUMANA MALAM ISSA [NIGER]:Merci, Monsieur le Président.Monsieur le Président,Permettez-moi de dire merci à Madame Cécilia et à l’Honorable NKODO qui ont eu cette initiative qui nous donne, certes, l’occasion d’être justes vis-à-vis de quelqu’un que nous avons tous aimé. Mais, je commence par dire qu’il y a une chose qui me réconforte, parce que tout ce que nous sommes en train de dire aujourd’hui, nous l’avions déjà dis devant Idriss Ndele Moussa à l’occasion de votre élection.(Applaudissements)On doit être fier de lui, parce que nous sommes en train de nous répéter. Cela veut dire que ce que nous sommes en train de penser et dire sur lui, c’est sincère, c’est juste, ce ne sont pas juste des éloges qu’on fait pour le plaisir de le faire.Monsieur le Président,L’Honorable MABILETSA m’a marché sur ma langue, mais j’ai déjà transmis la proposition àl’Honorable CECILIA pour qu’on baptise cet Hémicycle, la salle « IDRISS NDELE MOUSSA », pour plusieurs raisons:il fut l’un des membres fondateurs, à ce que je sache, de ce Parlement;il fut l’un des Présidents de ce Parlement qui a le plus servi le Parlement panafricain;il fut le premier Président de ce Parlement qui nous a quitté.Pour que dans dix ans, quinze ans, cent ans, les gens sachent qu’il y a eu un passage d’une personne valeureuse, il serait juste qu’on étudie la possibilité de transformer cette salle, en salle « IDRISS NDELE ».Je voudrais également dire, que nous devons rester en attache avec les Tchadiens qui sont là, avec nous, pour savoir s’il y aura désormais une date commémorative, soit l’an un ou l’an deux ou à une circonstance quelconque, un hommage qui doit être rendu à Idriss NDELE. Que nous soyons informés pour que, volontairement, sans aller en mission, chacun, en tout cas, puisse le faire, puisse se déplacer et marquer aux Tchadiens tout cet attachement que nous avons en la personne d’Idriss NDELE.La vertu, l’humilité, la simplicité, le courage, l’honnêteté, tout ce que nous pleurons aujourd’hui, sont partis avec NDELE.Mais si nous voulons prouver que nous aimons NDELE, ce que nous devons le prendre en exemple pour bien servir ce Parlement panafricain.Je vous remercie.HON. ELIZABETH AGYEMAN [GHANA]:Thank you very much, Mr President.I also want to congratulate Hon. Cecilia for moving this Motion for such a good man of Africa, Dr. Idriss Ndele. I was here throughout his reign in the past three years. He was a good man and a good listener.He always lined up with us to buy his food in the dining room. That tells you the kind of person he was.I lost my husband in May, when I was here for the last sitting. I had to go back to Ghana after three days and when I told him about what had happened to me, he said, "Let us take a picture." I took a very nice picture with him and enlarged it. I made two of them and I brought one to give to Dr Ndele. I did not know that he was dead.Ecclesiastes 3:8 tells us that there is a time to be born and a time to die. Dr. Ndele came to do his part and now he is gone. I pray that the good Lord keeps him in His bosom.Thank you, Mr President.HON. HENRY WILLIE YALLAH [LIBERIA]:Thank you, Mr. President and Hon. Members of this PAP.For me, I did not see President Ndele but paragraph 3 of the Motion that is before me moves my heart so much.In Africa, it is difficult to see African leaders praise someone as it is being done for this leader. Everyone who has stood up has spoken of his kindness, but one virtue he left behind, according to paragraph 3, is that which states that His Excellency Ndele led by example and left no record implicating him in any corruption or abuse of office. That is difficult to achieve for African leaders. In one way or the other, he might challenge one of these crimes, but to have him exempted in an exemplary way is something good to note. Now the example is for us. Everyone will have their day to be saved. We will all leave this earth and go up to our Father. This is only on condition that we are believers. However, when the time comes, will you measure up to this leader? We still have a chance to take note and change if we are not that way because Africa needs great men like this. May his soul rest in peace and let his family take counsel.Thank you.HON. MOHAMED YOUSIF ABDULLAH [SUDAN]:،،،. السيد / الرئيس شكراً بحق سعى لتكريس قيًم النزاهة الرئيس الراحل إدلي / كان برلمانياً والشفافية والحكم الرشيد وذلك من خالل تطبيق لوائح االتحاد االفريقي على كافة انشطة هذا البرلمان كان كذلك افريقياً محباً للشعوب االفريقية عندما ظل يجتهد مع االتحاد االفريقي ومع رؤساء بالدنا لمنح االتحاد االفريقي قوة المراقبة وقوة الت ّشريع كان انسانياً يحترم جميع افراد هذا البرلمان رجاالً ونسائاَ نح ُن خلوقا إذ نفتقدهُ هذا ً اليوم نتفقد خلقهُ ونفتقد حرصهُ ونفتقد قناعته بوحدة القارة وبوحدة باراً إلفريقيا ولتشاد وإلسرته مصير شعوب هذه القارة إننا نفتقد إبناً المكلومة نسأل هللا تعالى له الرحمة ونقف في هذا اإلطار مع القرار المطروح على هذا البرلمان وشكراHON. ELISE NDOADOUMNGUE NELOUMSEI LOUM [TCHAD]:Merci, Monsieur le Président.Vous avez remarqué que je suis arrivée en retard, et je me suis arrêtée à l’entrée. À l’entrée, j’ai senti comme s’il y avait quelque chose de pathétique qui se déroulait dans la salle, en écoutant la voix de ma sœur du Ghana.Hier, j’ai été obligée de me retirer très tôt à cause d’une fièvre. Je ne savais pas qu’il y avait une liste sur la motion en l’honneur de notre frère défunt, NDELE.L’hommage que je voudrais rendre, c’est d’abord au Parlement panafricain, parce que non seulement nous sommes arrivés ici en 2004, avec NDELE ensemble, mais c’est un frère avec qui nous avons partagé un long chemin politique. Il a été d’un grand soutien pour moi, et moi, également, je marchais avec lui.Ces derniers jours, à Ndjamena comme ici – parce qu’on s’est séparé la dernière fois, ici, à Midrand – il me laissait des messages qui me laissaient prévoir beaucoup de choses.Avant de quitter pour Midrand, il m’a invitée à déjeuner. C’était son anniversaire. Il partait pour Brazzaville pour la réunion du Lions Club avant de venir ici, à Midrand.Généralement, quand on partage un repas ensemble, on se partage un verre de vin.Et ce jour-là, je lui dis: « Président », et il m’appelle « Ma double Présidente ». Je lui ai demandé: « Il n’y a pas de vin aujourd’hui? ».Et il m’a dit intimement: « Elise, je voudrais partager quelque chose avec toi. J’entre dans ma 60ème année, et je voudrais laisser tout tomber; les bêtises, l’alcool, tout ce qui est mauvais dans la vie ».Et je lui ai dit: « C’est rare! ».Et, en lui reposant la question: « Pourquoi cette décision? ».Il me dit: « Je veux me refaire une autre vie ».Hélas, cette vie ne sera pas sur terre.Nous sommes venus ici, à Midrand, et pendant les premiers jours, il ne me lâchait pas. Et il me disait tout le temps des choses que je n’arrivais pas à discerner. Jusqu’au jour où il présentait ma candidature comme Vice-présidente au Caucus, je lui ai dit: « Non, on va laisser les autres aller. Nous, on va rester derrière pour encadrer ».Il m’a dit: « Non, vas-y ».Et, KEBZABO a présenté ma candidature.Il m’a dit: « Je vais à l’hôpital, et je reviens ».J’ai dit: « Qu’est-ce que tu as? »Il me dit: « Je vais juste pour faire un check-up ».Je ne savais pas que ça allait être si fatal.Nous sommes rentrés!Il m’a proposé de passer par le Cameroun et je lui ai dit que je n’aime pas trop passer par ce pays parce qu’il faut encore changer de vol.Il me dit: « Moi, je passe par là-bas ».Je suis arrivée le vendredi et il me dit: « Tu rentres avant. Tu demandes à ta chargée des relations publiques de nous organiser un dîner d’au moins dix à quinze personnes ».Je lui dis: « Ok, je prendrai le soin ».Mais, entretemps, je suis arrivée. Le mardi et le vendredi, je me suis rendue vers le Nord où mon mari assure une fonction de gouverneur.J’arrive un vendredi. Il m’appelle et me dit: « Je suis à l’aéroport ».Je lui dis: « Moi, je suis à 300 kilomètres de Ndjamena ».Il me dit: « Tu reviens quand? »Je lui dis: « Dès que tu as besoin de moi ».Je suis allée: vendredi, samedi, dimanche, vers vingt heures, le Vice-président de l’Assemblée m’appelle.Il me dit: « Élise, tu es où? »Je lui dis: « Je suis à Ati ».Et il me dit: « Passe ton mari ».Je lui dis: « Ok, tu l’appelles sur son téléphone, parce qu’il était avec des gens ».Et le Vice-président, qui est un ami à nouségalement, appelle mon mari.Entretemps, la Directrice de Cabinet du Premier ministre m’appelle et me dit:« Elise, tu es où? Ton ami a fait un accident ».Je lui dis: « Quel ami? ».Elle me dit: « NDELE! ».Je n’avais que la voix pour crier et hurler seule.Le lendemain, j’ai immédiatement pris la route pour revenir.Mais je vous assure, cet hommage que j’ai tenu àrendre, c’est l’alerte première du Président Amadi.Je l’ai appelé; il ne répondait pas, et je lui ai envoyéun message. Il a réagi immédiatement.Il m’a dit: « Elise, what happened?»Il ne faisait que pleurer, et on pleurait au téléphone sans rien se dire. Je ne lui ai pas donné la réponse.Je lui dis: « C’est un accident. Moi-même j’étais loin, et je ne sais pas comment l’accident s’est passé ».Tout ce qu’il m’a dit, c’est: « I am coming ».L’afflux des messages de chaque pays de ce continent, l’afflux même des personnalités que vousêtes sur le territoire tchadien, nous a fait comprendre combien vous avez de la considération, non seulement pour notre pays, mais pour notre frère défunt.Le Président est arrivé!Beaucoup de collègues ont également envoyé des emails, des messages par SMS, des coups de téléphone. Je les ai fidèlement répertoriés.J’ai tenu à ce que tous ces noms soient lus publiquement lors des funérailles nationales qui ont lieu à la Place de la Nation, au Tchad, devant le Chef de l’État, le Premier ministre et les autorités de la République.C’est à nous de vous dire merci, et c’est l’occasion de le faire aujourd’hui.THE PRESIDENT:Thank you very much, Honourable colleagues. For me, it has been very difficult personal period. I had the honour to serve as Vice President under Dr Idriss and not enough words can be said in this hall to fully capture or properly describe the qualities of the man that we are talking about today.Dr Idriss came to my office on the Tuesday before the end of the Session to say that he would be travelling back. Little did I know that that would be my last personal encounter with him. That is the afternoon that Honourable Cecilia Atim-Ogwal had also come into my office and we exchanged banters. I had a short private meeting with him and wished him well. We agreed that we would meet in Addis Ababa the next week to attend the AU 50th Anniversary. He would come in as part of the delegation of the President of Chad and I would attend as President of PAP.After we closed on Thursday, I travelled on Friday with the rest of the PAP delegation to Addis Ababa to attend the PRC meeting on Saturday. It was late on Sunday night or early Monday morning that we started receiving messages. When I got an sms from Her Excellency, Honourable ////, I thought that something was wrong with the message and that maybe it was because her original language was French. I thought that there must have been a mistake somewhere. I tried to telephone but I could not get through to her. Then I got through to a member of staff of PAP who also comes from Chad and who I knew was very close to President Idris. She tried to talk but she could not because she was crying and I knew then that it was true. I called Honourable //// again and she was able confirm our worst fears.Then I invited to my room, at 1 am Ethiopian time, the rest of the PAP delegation – the Vice Presidents, Clerk of Parliament and all elders and broke the news to them. We agreed that we would stay in touch with Members of Parliament from Chad to know the timing and the date of the funeral.As soon as we confirmed that, I left the 3rd and 4th Vice Presidents to look after our affairs at the AU Summit and I travelled. I could not get a direct flight to Chad and so I flew Lagos. I drove to Cotonou and flew to Niger on to Chad. We arrived to a very warm reception even though everybody had a heavy heart and a heavy face. Fortunately, I had been to Chad a few months earlier on an official visit on an advocacy mission to the President of Chad. I had received very warm grand welcome from all the members of PAP from Chad including Dr Idris who led that reception. Coming back a few months after to meet the //// of affairs, to me, was almost a very difficult task.The people of Chad, the Government and the President honoured him in a way that I felt proud to have worked with him. He was given a State funeral. At the State funeral, we gave a funeral ovation and bade farewell to this great son of Africa on your behalf and on behalf of the people of Africa. We attended all the interment processes and on your behalf, met with the family along with the delegation from Chad to PAP.Honourable Members, as we pay tribute to this very honourable man, let us also use the opportunity to pay tribute to our colleagues who passed away during this same period – Honourable Mohammed from Djibouti and Hon. Masisi from Botswana.The challenge for all of us who are still in this hall is that one day we will answer that call and when we do, what will be said about us? I thank all of you who have said very kind words. I thank all who have made proposals. I believe that as an institution that follows Parliamentary procedures, these proposals should come in the form of an amendment. May I, therefore, seek that one of those who made proposals should move an amendment to this Motion so that we can properly include the proposal.HON... I thank you, Mr President. I do not have the text of Honourable Cecilia in front of me and neither did I consult the Standing Orders as to what section of it I should move the amendment on. Nevertheless, my proposal is that we move an amendment that in addition to the tribute that we have made, we name this meeting Chamber as Dr Idris Ndele Hall.Mr President, I thank you and move accordingly.Applause MR PRESIDENT: Is there a Seconder?HON… I second the amendment.I thank you.MR PRESIDENT:Honourable Members, the amendment to this Motion is that PAP hereby agrees to name this meeting Chamber as Hon. Dr Idriss Moussa Ndele Hall in memory of our departed President.ApplauseMR PRESDENT:Agreed to.Hon. Members, may I, therefore,...HON. MEMBER:Mr President, you asked for an amendment. It is good to know from your intervention that you and others were there.However, some of us were not there. Is it possible for all of us as honourable Members of Parliament to make our humble contributions to send to the family to say that we still remember him, his wife and children? That is my proposal. We have done it before for others. I am sure that when you went there, you went on our behalf but it would not matter that we do many good things at all times.AN HON. MEMBER:On a point of order, Sir.Mr PRESIDENT:I thank you. Before I take the point of order, let me respond to the high Chief. I believe that that can be done amongst ourselves administratively and need not be part of this formal Motion. It is a good idea and it can be done administratively amongst ourselves. A point of order is raised.AN HON.Mr President, with due respect, it is not my habit to take you back to a decision that you have already taken. However, I just want my legal mind to be cleared. Naming this Chamber is a very good gesture but I want to clear it legally. I would like to find out, bearing in mind that we are hiring this building, whether it does not have any legal implications when it is named after someone. Please, clear this for me.MR PRESIDENT:It is an amendment to a Motion.The motion has not been passed yet. However, if you want a background, I think that this PAP as an institution has been here for many years. The building, of course, does not belong to us but it is for our use. For as long as we are using it, we can name any hall after anybody we want, if we so decide in this Plenary that this is the honour we want to give to our colleague. When we get a permanent site, whoever is still left in PAP can decide. For now, we have use of this building. We are not going to change the building. We are only going to put the name in memory of our colleague, if this plenary so decides or agrees to it. I do not see anything wrong with it.I thank you for your point of order.AN HON MEMBER:I thank you Mr President and Honourable Members. I would like to congratulate the mover, Honourable Cecilia Atim-Ogwal and the House on this Motion. With due respect to the couching of the words in the resolution, I am seeking to improve on the couching of the words. With your indulgence, I wish to propose as follows:That we paraphrase that"The Pan African Parliament resolves to pay glowing tribute"We add the word "glowing""to the late former President of the Pan African Parliament, His Excellency Hon. Dr Idriss Ndele."You realise that His Excellency, Dr and Honourable are not properly aligned. Therefore, we re-align and say:"The Pan African Parliament resolves to pay glowing tribute to the late former President of Pan African Parliament, His Excellency Honourable Dr Idriss Ndele Moussa, who passed away..."I have a problem with this word "died" because we believe he has an ongoing legacy. So, if we say"died", it means that it is finished. To me that does not come out well."... on 19th May,..."AN HON. MEMBER:Passed on.AN HON. MEMBER:Thank you very much."... who passed on, on 19th May, 2013 and expresses its...,"We add the word "greatest appreciation"."... greatest appreciation for the mature and skilful manner in which he steered the Second Parliament and for his great service to the peoples of Africa."Mr President and honourable Members, I believe, substantively that if we couch the words this way, it will be phrased and we shall have captured the spirit in which all of us are speaking about the late former President.I beg to move.MR PRESIDENT:Is there a Seconder?HON. CHIEF CHARUMBIRA:I second the Motion to amend as stipulated.THE PRSIDENT:Is that agreed to?ApplauseTHE PRESIDENT:The amendment is agreed to.HON. OBAMI-ITOU ANDRE [CONGO]:Merci Honorable Président.J’ai le texte proposé par notre collègue CECILIA. J’ai vu le dispositif après les considérants: « Le Parlement panafricain décide de saluer la mémoire de l’ancien Président du Parlement panafricain, Son Excellence Docteur Honorable Idriss N’DELE ». Il faut ajouter son nom « Moussa », pour être complet.Ensuite, « qui est décédé », on enlève le « qui est » et on met tout simplement « décédé le 19 mai 2013 ». C’est un amendement de forme.Je voudrais ajouter à l’actif du Président N’DELE, au niveau du deuxième considérant: « Prenant acte du rôle qu’il a joué dans le lobbying des Chefs d’États et de gouvernements afin de transformer le PAP en un organe législatif » pour dire qu’il n’y a pas que cela, Monsieur le Président. Il n’a pas fait que ça. Il a fait aussi le plaidoyer auprès des Chefs d’États pour la ratification par les parlements nationaux de la Charte africaine de la démocratie, des élections et de la gouvernance.Ça aussi il l’a fait!Il l’a fait!Il a rencontré le Président de mon pays, j’étais présent lorsqu’il a parlé de la Charte.Je pense qu’il faut ajouter à son actif cette activité.Merci.THE PRESIDENT:Thank you! The seconder who proposed an amendment?AN HON. MEMBER:Mr. President!MR PRESIDENT:Honourable please! There is an amendment proposed! If you give me a minute! Yes no seconded?Yes the 1first Vice-President, could you seconded?HON. N’KODO DANG ROGER [PREMIER VICE-PRÉSIDENT]:J’appuie cet amendement, parce que sur le plan de la forme, c’est très important ce que le Président OBAMI-ITOU a dit.Je ne voudrais pas qu’on circonscrive les activités que le feu Président Idriss a menées. C’est dans cet esprit que le Président OBAMI-ITOU a voulu élargir. Tout cela entrait dans le cadre de ses fonctions, des activités qu’il a menées et qui sont, si on peut les qualifier, des plus importantes.Aucune activité n’étant plus importante que l’autre, mais je conviens avec le Président que ce travail de lobbying auprès des Chefs d’États ne s’était pas limité seulement à la transformation du PAP. Il est allé plus au-delà de cela.Merci, Monsieur le Président.THE PRESIDENT:Thank you very much!Proposed amendment agreed to?ApplauseHON. CECILIA ATIM-OGWAL [UGANDA]:Thank you, Mr President.First of all, I want to appreciate all the contributions made. They were very emotional and very factual and reflect the real man that we are paying tribute to. I do concur with the amendments given or proposed particularly to the last paragraph and also the second one which I would want to be consistent with the first paragraph by saying the Pan African Parliament deserves to. So, we have to continue and be consistent and pay glorious tribute by naming the plenary hall. So we must have the consistency. I think that will be captured by the Secretariat.However, Mr President, I feel that on the proposal that was made by one of the Members that Dr Ndele left school-going children and a family - and we are very appreciative that you had the opportunity of meeting them - I think our role, really, as the PAP that saw this man use his greatest energy to build this institution, our sympathy should go beyond just expressing it in a debate like this. I think our sympathy should go towards assisting the family in a tangible way. Today, Mr President, I want to demonstrate this. I was not able to talk to my delegation but, as a person, I already came with my funeral contribution of US$200 and I will be asking the delegation from Uganda to also make a humble contribution. I am also asking the Chairperson of the Central Region to take the responsibility of receiving any contribution that will be made because much as we have said a lot of good words about this dear friend and brother of ours, I think, it is also important that they must be accompanied by a tangible contribution.I thank you, Mr President.THE PRESIDENT:Thank you very much. Our colleagues, on behalf of the Pan African Parliament, we have also visited the family and made a contribution, but of course the proposal is a good one. It is not part of this motion; I would have asked Hon. Members who have any such interest to please allay us as we ask Hon. Siria and Hon. S. Dlomu to send back our messages to the families.Hon. Colleagues, the question before the House is about the motion as amended and moved by Hon. Siria Atrwell Maguire, agreed to. The motion is hereby agreed to.AN HON. MEMBER:Mr. Presiden...THE PRESIDENT:Yes, point of order?UN HONORABLE MEMBRE:[...] Elle est dépendante de la motion!C’est pour faire une proposition!En fait, la mort n’a pas seulement enlevé IDRISS, elle pourrait arriver à chacun de nous, d’un jour à l’autre. Il faudrait plutôt qu’on puisse penser à créer une association des parlementaires panafricains.Ainsi, lorsque nous venons à chaque session, nous pourrions contribuer à hauteur de cinquante ou cent dollars. Cela dépendra de ce qu’on va décider. Mais, il faudrait mettre en place une caisse qui permettra, éventuellement, de contribuer aux événements graves de la vie qui pourraient survenir d’un jour à l’autre à l’un des membres du Parlement panafricain.Je vous remercie.(Applaudissements)THE PRESIDENT:I thank you. May be you will see me in my office after sitting. I will organize for those possibilities of that.HON. MEMBER:Can I seek guidance Mr. President? Thank you Mr. President - [The President having agreed]. I am sorry I walked in a bit late. So, I did not have the full benefit of listening into the submission of colleagues, but you just mentioned it in passing that we should use this same opportunity to pay our glory and tribute to the late Idriss from Chad and our former colleague from Botswana.I was just wondering whether this idea was captured in the debate because at the end of the day of course the motion does not resolve as such and it is common parliamentary practice to pay tribute to colleagues, not only the former presidents. So, I am just rising to get guidance from you about the other former two colleagues who passed on; whether we need to bring another motion in their names or we just seek an amendment in this manner and we carry it forward in an omnibus fashion? May I seek your guidance, Sir?THE PRESIDENT:As much as this particular motion has been agreed to, all issues on this motion are closed.Hon. Members you will recall that in my opening address we did pay tribute and did observe one minute of silence in memory of all our departed colleagues; all meant together and I believe that whatever else that anybody proposes would have to come in a different form; another motion if you want, and go through the processes.Hon. Colleagues, I thank you and I think we have a lot of things to do today and therefore want us to move quickly.In accordance with the provisions, I now overrule each one hatch. It is with great pleasure that I now invite the following guests into the Chamber. I invite Dr. Tobias Takavarasha, the Food and Agriculture Organization Representative for South Africa. I will also invite Dr. I. Mabhutsu, a Representative of His Excellency, Dr. Mustapha Kaloko; the Commissioner for Social Affairs, to please come and take their seats in the Chamber.Thank you, you are welcome Hon. Guests. We now commence the business of the day and our first order of business. I shall therefore call the Clerk to read the first order.Hon. Members, may I on your behalf call upon Dr. Tobias Takavarasha, Food and Agricultural Organization Representative for South Africa to make his presentation. You may please come to the podium.DR. TOBIAS TAKAVARASHA [THE FOOD AND AGRICULTURE ORGANISATION (FAO) REPRESENTATIVE FOR SOUTH AFRICA]:The Hon. President of the Pan African Parliament, Honourable Members of the Pan African Parliament, it is indeed a great honour and privilege for me, as representative of the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organisation to take the podium to address you on the critical subject of poverty eradication, policies and strategies for development for Africa.In making this presentation, I start by making three key statements: the first one being that one of the most visible manifestations of poverty is hunger, food insecurity and malnutrition. The second submission is: given that the predominant role of agriculture in Africa is paramount, improving agriculture productivity is, therefore, the most obvious strategy to eradicate hunger and poverty.However, at the same time, Hon. Mr President, I admit that agriculture is not the only answer to poverty eradication. There is a myriad of other complementary measures and strategies that are needed to eradicate hunger and poverty. As indicated, I am the Country Representative for the FAO in South Africa and have worked also with the NEPAD Agency of the AU before coming to this position.My presentation will focus on the state of poverty in Africa. What is Africa’s response through the Comprehensive Africa Agriculture Development Programme? What is FAO’s role in strategic objectives in this regard and conclude by asking what Parliamentarians across Africa can do and are doing to help eradicate poverty in Africa. I will start by highlighting the current state of affairs. I will not bombard you with any statics but simply highlight that the figures are as grim as they are familiar. More than 800 million people - this is globally but the majority are in Africa - suffer from chronic hunger. One in four children, under five years of age, is at the risk of dying as result of poor nutrition associated diseases. Over 2 billion people lack vitamins and minerals they need to growth and develop into healthy human beings. At the same time, the world already produces more than enough food for all. However, many do not have access to the food produced because they simply do not have the resources needed to purchase or produce enough good food. Poverty is, indeed, the only factor behind hunger. Wars, natural disasters and economic crises can only block people’s access to food. Furthermore, even if food is available, it is important that people eat food that is well balanced, safe and nutritious.Without boring you with statistics, I have summarised the global poverty reduction effort from 1992 to 2010 and it shows that persistently high poverty levels still exist in Africa and a marginal decline over the past the past twenty years unlike a sharp decline in Asia. The green graph on the top shows that, by 1990, over 60 per cent of the population in Africa were living below $1.25 a day. As of now, in 2010, we are still hovering around 50 per cent compared to the lowest Middle East and North Africa which is the red bar at the bottom. This is just to give you an indication that the journey to eradicate hunger and poverty in Africa has started but is still a long way and yet Africa has great potential. By way of example, 60 per cent arable land in Africa is irrigated compared to 22 per cent in the rest of the world and yet Africa is awash with huge rivers but has not been able to harness that capacity into irrigation to ensure sustainable productivity given the persistent droughts on the continent.Another example, we all agree that fertiliser is necessary to boost productivity. Our statistics show that 17 kilograms of fertiliser per unit of a hectare is applied in Africa compared to around 222 kilograms in Asia and 120 kilograms as a world average. This shows, again, the potential to increase productivity in Africa using fertiliser. We are aware, again, that the largest share of arable land in the in the world, that is 16 per cent, is in Africa and yet the largest share of uncultivated arable land 79 per cent is in Africa. Hence, you hear a lot of interest on land rush.Over 60 per cent of the population in Africa lives in rural areas which, again, means there is potential to harness that resource. We are also aware that the fastest population growth, urban population and the percentage of youth population, is in Africa. This could also be a potential for addressing policies that address the youthful population which is on demands and the rapid increase in urban population.We are aware, in Africa, of huge food import bills but we are also saying that these huge food import bills can and should be translated into supporting local production. Just to give you, without using any boring statistics, a graphical presentation of Africa’s yield gap and to get and potential showing that very slow pace in the increase of yields that is the amount of grain you can produce per hectare compared to other regions. The red bar on top shows the growth in productivity using rice as an example. The blue one shows growth in Asia. The green one, sadly, shows the small growth of productivity. Slow growth of productivity means that your labour, land and water are not being used as effectively as, probably, God intended when He gave you that land.Cereal production per capita has been declining in Sub-Saharan Africa while rising in Asia and South America. Again, this shows that as population is increasing, the amount of grain that is being produced is not increasing to feed that population, hence you see that green bar which is flat, representing cereal productivity or production per capita.Against this background, Mr President, the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organisation has a goal to improve nutrition, increase agricultural productivity, raise the standard of living in whole populations and contribute to global economic growth. The FAO’s mandate is to support its members in their efforts to ensure that people have regular access to enough high quality food to lead active healthy lives. But FAO cannot do it alone. Ridding the world of food insecurity and malnutrition requires action at all levels of society from farming communities to international organisations. FAO is making efforts to decentralise and strengthen the capacity of regions in the member countries to address the issue of food. In that regard, FAO has narrowed its strategic objectives into five specific ones. The first one is to help eliminate hunger, food insecurity and malnutrition. The second on aims to make agriculture, forestry and fisheries more productive and sustainable. As a third objective, we want to reduce rural poverty. The fourth objective sees a move to more inclusive and efficient agricultural and food systems. The fifth strategic objective is to increase the resilience of livelihoods from disasters.However, this is not about the FAO. It is also about Africa’s response. I chose one strategy for poverty eradication. This is the Comprehensive Africa Agricultural Development Programme (CAADP) in which FAO has been collaborating with the NEPAD Agency of the African Union since the Maputo Declaration in 2003 where Heads of State and Governments adopted CAADP as a tool for poverty eradication in Africa using agriculture. The principles or targets that define CAADP are an agricultural-led social and economic transformation. CAADP proposes the pursuit of a 6 per cent minimum average annual sector growth rate. It also advocates and recommends allocating 10 per cent plus of the national budget to the agricultural sector and I know that I am speaking to Parliamentarians who we will vote and argue for sectoral budgets in their Parliaments. There is a need to exploit the regional complementarities and co-operation. Africa needs to work as a regional integrated continent coordinating dialogue, review and accountability. That is our principle of CAADP as we well as promoting partnerships, alliances between farmers, agri-businesses, civil society as well as development partners.We are pleased to say that CAADP as a tool for agriculture development to eradicate poverty is making some inroads. For example, we have noticed that agriculture is back on the political and policy agenda at national and international forums. It is pleasing to note that more and more discussions concerning agriculture are taking place. Political commitment to increase the budgetary allocation is increasing in a number of countries. African stakeholders are being mobilised around a common agenda. We also notice that the promotion of regional integration and coordination is increasing in some regions. In the ECOWAS, the regional contact of CAADP, EGAD, is doing the same. SADC is doing the same. We are also aware that there is a multi-donor trust fund that is supporting capacity of AU institutions, that is the regional economic communities, for their CAADP implementation.Another achievement is that there is evidence that based on the peer reviews, agricultural plans and programmes are being developed. It is no longer the case of just a blue print given to sector to implement but peer review and evidence-based planning is being implemented. CAADP is serving as an important point of discussion for governments in their engagement with the domestic and international private sector. However, we also are aware that this is all happening against a changing global environment. While food stocks are low, prices are increasing and becoming more volatile especially food prices. We are aware of the impacts of climate change and demand for bio-fuels. We are aware of parts of the world economy that were formerly dominant but are shrinking. Overseas development, for instance, is shrinking and donor dependence is under threat. Financial markets have become more turbulent. There is scarcity and high demand, globally, for cheap primary resources such as land, water and labour. The European Community (EC) countries are still subsidising agriculture with negative impact on African competitiveness. These are issues still under debate. Global economic and dual politics are changing fast and Africa would remain a weak player unless properly integrated.Of course it is not always bad news. There also success stories and progress that we have witnessed. About ten of the fifty-four African member States have reached the target of allocating at least 10 per cent of public investment towards agriculture. From the statistics available, among them are Burkina Faso, Ethiopia, Ghana, Guinea, Malawi, Mali, Niger and Senegal. About ten countries have exceeded CAADP target of 6 per cent growth in agriculture production. From our statistics, examples include Angola, Eriterea, Ethiopia, Burkina Faso, Republic of Congo, Gambia, Guinea Bissau, Nigeria, Senegal and Tanzania.At the FAO’s 30th Conference, thirty-eight countries in the world were recognised, eleven of which were from Africa for achieving the millennium development goal target of reducing hunger between 1990 to 2015, three years before the deadline of 2015. These are Algeria, Angola, Benin, Cameroun, Djibouti, Ghana, Malawi, Niger, Nigeria, Principe and Sao Tome, and Togo. We are also aware that three countries have met the ambitious 1996 World Food Summit Goal to reduce, by half, the total number of the hungry. These are Djibouti, Ghana, Principe and Sao Tome.In closing this slide, I, therefore, Mr President ask what role Parliaments and Parliamentarians can play in advancing policies for poverty eradication in Africa. Here I am preaching to the converted who provide stewardship of the pertinent committees of Parliaments in their respective countries where they make demands, debate and approve budgets.They play a crucial oversight role on the Executive to hold them accountable to meeting the people’s expectations and promises made. They mobilise citizens in their respective constituencies to actively participate in the struggle to extricate African populations and communities from poverty, hunger and malnutrition through increased agricultural production, productivity, food and nutrition security as well as sustainable management of natural resources for lasting prosperity. They engage the leadership in the AU member States to accelerate the implementation of the commitments undertaken over the years at the various forums to advance key policy frameworks such as CAADP in 2003 during the Maputo AU Summit, the Africa Fertiliser Financing Facility and there are many other examples. They should play a role in facilitating and strengthening the voices of African farmer organisations, in particular, small-holder farmers and women. We are pleased to note that there is now a Pan African Farmers’ Forum supported by the AU which is strengthening the voice of farmers in general. Finally, Members should play a role in promoting and enabling policy environment for economic development.Talking about the role of Parliament in building and enabling policy environment, I just picked one example in the case of promoting fertiliser. This could include creating conducive legal and a regulatory frameworks with dedicated roles and forcing the needs through clearly defined regulatory bodies, eliminating tariff barriers and supporting responsible competition in the private sector and sharing appropriate government control of fertiliser procurement and distribution while supporting investment in marketing infrastructure and active business associations, promoting farmer adoption and demand for fertiliser through public resource and the development in targeted extension services and building a regional framework for fertiliser trade that reduces cross border transport costs and support, the establishment of regional inspection and certification systems and addressing other topical issues such as land reforms, youth empowerment, climate change and governance issues.My concluding remark, Mr President, in thanking you for honouring me and FAO to address this august House, the PAP, is that Parliament has a critical role to play in advocating for laws and policies for the eradication of poverty in Africa.Secondly, it has a role in holding the Executive accountable for the implementation of policies, strategies and programmes that they have committed themselves to. Thirdly, Parliament has a role in ensuring that there is full participation of all constituencies at all levels.I thank you, Mr President.(ApplauseMR RETSELISITSWE MABHUTSU [REPRESENTING `THE COMMISSIONER FOR SOCIAL AFFAIRS, AUC]:Honourable President, Honourable Members of the Parliament, it is a great honour to be here, presenting on the Poverty Eradication Policies and Strategies for Africa which were supposed to have been presented by the Commissioner for Social Affairs, Dr Mustapha Kaloko but due to other pressing commitments he is not able to be with us here today.The presentation will look at the strategies and initiatives that were started since the establishment of the Organisation of African Unity (OAU) and its successor the African Union (AU). These will be the Lagos Plan of Action, the Abuja Treaty which goes with the African economic communities, the New Partnership for Africa’s Development and, of course, the specific policies, some of which Dr Tobias has already touched on, and the latest initiatives.Excellencies, the Lagos Plan of Action was born out of the meeting that was held in Lagos, Nigeria in 1980 in which the African leaders decided to reflect on what had been achieved in the first twenty years since the establishment of the Organisation of the African Unity. You will recall that during the establishment of this organisation, the focus was on helping Africa to gain political liberation and, by 1980, the majority of the African States were now self governing.Therefore, the focus became economic self determination with emphasis on agriculture, science and technology, industrialisation, intra-Africa trade, infrastructure development, human capital development, national resource development and shared Learning. However, there were some challenges. The majority of the African countries were under new governments, with structures that were inherited from the colonial masters. There was a lack of frameworks for the realisation of the intra-African economic linkages. Of course, another challenge which, at that time, some people looked at as a positive contribution was that of the Britton-Wood institutions which looked at the negatives and then used to impose their own different programmes which were biased or had the influence of the colonial masters. One of such is the popular Structural Adjustment Programme which, somehow, managed to deviate the focus of Africans from the Lagos Plan of Action to concentrate on their own development agenda. The other challenge has always been non-existence of a domestic private sector in which, in most African countries, business was driven by governments. Dependence on donor assistance in which their preferences were imposed as against the African Agenda and finally the influence of the multi-national corporations cannot be over-emphasised.The Abuja Treaty came ten years later to establish the African Economic Community as a way to foster continental integration, and this was proposed to be pursued through phases. The first stage would have been the creation of regional blocs in regions where they did not exist in 1999. By 2007, it would have strengthened the inter-regional economic community integrations and the inter-regional economic community harmonisations. The schedule is there and you can see that the ultimate move would have been to end all transition periods by 2034. Of the regional economic communities which are recognised as the pillars to help Africa get out of the current conundrum, we have Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa (COMESA) which was founded in 1994; the East African Community (EAC) which came into being in 2001; the Economic Community of Central African States (ECCAS) founded in 1995; the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) which is the oldest and was formed in 1975; the Southern African Development Community (SADC) founded in 1980; the Inter-Governmental Authority on Development (IGAD) founded in 1986; CENSAD was founded in 1988; and UMA was founded in 1989. Then ten years later as we continued to reflect on what was working and how we could improve, the African leaders met in Lusaka, Zambia, to merge the two plans, one of which was guided by former President Thabo Mbeki of the Republic of South Africa, former President Olusegun Obasanjo of Nigeria, President Abdulaziz Bouteflika of Algeria, and the second plan which was the OMEGA Plan and was developed by former President Abdulaye Wade of Senegal.The Heads of State resolved to call this new plan the New Partnership for Africa’s Development in 2001. Today, as a programme of the AU, NEPAD provides an overarching vision and policy framework for accelerated economic co-operation and integration. However, like the previous plans, there are some challenges. We recognise the strengths, there are some weaknesses and there are opportunities. I will skip these ones to save on time.I will go straight to the specific programmes that are being implemented under the umbrella of NEPAD. Under the social sector we have the Social Policy Framework which tries to co-ordinate all social related programmes and policies. One of such that comes to mind could be the Campaign on Reduction of Maternal Mortality in Africa which is part of the sexual and reproductive health. Dr Tobias has already talked about the second one and relates to the comprehensive agricultural UN programme in which we recognise the abundance of land in Africa, and if you apply the comparative advantages, we believe that Africa can feed the rest of the world. Why is this not the case? Why are we importing more than 70 per cent of our supplies from outside the continent? This is partly because there is lack of basic infrastructure, be it telecommunications in which the suppliers can communicate with the buyers. In economics we talk about the surplus units and the deficit units. Those who are in demand should be able to communicate with those who have supplies. In reaction to that, the Programme for Infrastructure Development was put in place in which it will provide or endeavours to provide transport corridors across the continent. This will help producers to have access to the markets as well as the buyers being able to communicate or identify where their supplies can be sourced from.However the other challenge that Africa is facing is that we have these abundant natural resources and we can also be in a position to produce agricultural products but they need to be processed. In response to that one as well, the AU put in place the Accelerated Industrial Development Programme for Africa which aims to help African producers to add value to their produce before they go to the market. You will attest to the fact that most of our produce, be they mining products and whatever, are sent or exported to the developed world and they put value to them and then send back to Africa where we buy them at very high prices.Our import bill is a serious challenge in which imports have always been higher than exports. However, when you look at the amount of exports vis-a-vis the amount of imports - if not in value terms, we are talking about quantities - we are sending more outside but the balance of payments is always skewed because what we are buying is already processed, has value added and becomes much more expensive. Now, with this addition of industrial development, we are hoping that whatever is produced or mined from the continent will be able to be distributed within the continent as a finished product and the surplus can go to the rest of the world. Of course, we need to trade with the rest of the world for obvious reasons. This programme is supported by the sister programme which is called Intra-Africa Trade. The two built on the previous interventions like the programme in which we believed that once the continent is networked, transport wise, telecommunication and otherwise, then Africa will be able to inter and intratrade. This also leads us to the Minimum Integration Programme which tries to look at the different regional economic communities, compare what works in one regional economic community and what does not work in the other, promote experience sharing and replicate the best practices.On education, it has always been claimed that we adopted our curriculum from the colonial masters which, somehow, has brought on what is called the false paradigm. Now, the African leaders have decided to establish their own institution with a home-grown curriculum to have graduates who will respond to the African needs. This is called the Pan African University. The Pan African University has five institutions across the five regions. Three are already operational. In Central Africa, one is based in Yaoundé, Cameroon. The second one is in East Africa and based in Nairobi, Kenya. The third is in West Africa and based in Nigeria. Algeria will host the fourth one which is going to be operational towards the end of this year or early next year and the last one will be based here in South Africa.We, as Africans, we have been using a vocabulary we are calling ‘brain drain’. Now, we are saying let us look at the same from a positive aspect. Our counterparts call it brain gain. Why can we not also call it a brain gain by taking stock of African Diasporas, establishing the sectors and industries in which they are working and coming up with what is called Diasporas data bank? When those people retire, they come back to Africa. African countries can help them to establish similar institutions to the ones they worked for to tap on the skills and expertise the gained while they were in the Diaspora.Secondly, the amount of remittances these people send home is much more than the amount of remunerations that Africans based in Africa get and support their own families. If we can put in place an enabling environment, attract them to invest in Africa, like other countries have done - I can mention a few African countries that are already reaping the benefits of such individually, but, now, we are saying let us standardise, copy the best model, the best practice and replicate it as much as possible. Zimbabwe has what is called the home link in which they put in place a mechanism to attract their people in the Diaspora to send their remittances home. In Ethiopia, if you look at the infrastructure in Addis Ababa, the larger share is owned by Ethiopians in the Diaspora through similar programmes and, therefore, the AU, together with the EU, have established a migration policy in which the whole purpose is to try to attract those Africans who are in the Diaspora to come back home and reinvest in the continent. With regard to the remittances, the African Union is in the process of establishing the African Institute for Remittances which is going to be based either in Kenya or Mauritius following their successful bid to host the institution. This institution is going to help to make sending money from abroad much easier with mutual benefits for both the senders and the receiving countries. These are some of the specific programmes that can be anchored under the NEPAD programme.However, as we reflect on it, again, ten years later you will recall that in May, this year, the leaders celebrated the African Union Golden Jubilee in which we took stock of initiatives and programmes that had been in place since 1963. We interrogated success stories and then we are saying where and how did we go wrong? Let us project for another fifty years and see how we can get Africa out of the current situation. This, you heard from the AUC Deputy Chairperson I am told. It is called the African Agenda 2063 whose aim is to rekindle the Spirit of Pan Africanism. I am sure you are very much aware that since the end of the political struggle or, rather, since the attainment of political liberation, we are no longer talking or seeing things in the same way. Now, we are saying let us try to rekindle that. Some African countries liberated other African countries. Now, on economic liberation, why can we not pursue the same strategy? Why cannot the big brothers help those that are struggling to get out of their poor and pathetic situation?Therefore, the African Heads of State instructed the AUC Chairperson to embark on the preparation of this long-term Africa-wide plan which is going to be themed a Shared Strategic Framework for Equitable Growth and Sustainable Development. The objective of this is to chart a development trajectory for Africa for the next fifty years in order to determine the type of Africa whose destiny would have been determined by Africans. This aims to incorporate the African perspective on the development of the UN-wide Post 2015 Development Agenda. We recognise global initiatives and we are saying Africa should speak in one voice with a common destiny and common goals to be pursued, and when we go to the global fora, there should be a common denominator that would be coming from Africa.How is this being approached? One of the challenges or, rather, the failure of the previous intervention is that we realise that key stakeholders were not consulted. Now, to ensure that the Africans owned the Agenda 2063, the process is being extremely consultative, supported by high level research and analytical work. The consultations started in September. Among the stakeholders that have already been consulted is the African private sector, the civil society, the African researchers and think tanks, African Diasporas and the African Ministries of Planning and Economic Development. As we are meeting here this week, the consultations are going on in which regional economic communities and other AU organs are meeting in Botswana and they are being requested to identify their own constituencies and present these proposals to the constituencies for it to be owned up to the grassroots level.We have also consulted women and youth. We are planning to meet the Eminent Persons in Africa and the former Heads of State and, of course, the Diasporas have already been met. And these are the selected milestones and priorities that the AU Agenda 2063 aims to realise.With this, Hon. Members and Hon President of the House, I thank you for your time and the opportunity to share with you the Poverty Reduction Policies and Strategies.Thank you very much.[Applause]THE THIRD VICE-PRESIDENT:Thank you, Dr Kaloko, for your additional policies and programmes towards addressing the problem of poverty in Africa.I shall now allow the debate on the two presentations. I have a list of speakers. I will humbly remind Hon. Members to stick to three minutes intervention. The first on the list is Hon. Shitaye Minale Tizazu from Ethiopia. You have the Floor, Madam.HON. SHITAYE MINALE TIZAZU [ETHIOPIA]:Thank you, Madam President.I would like to thank Dr Takavarasha and Dr Kolako for their presentations. They are very good presentations on these critical issues. Having said this, I wish to state that the policies and strategies for poverty eradication and development in Africa are a very important part of the agenda that was mentioned by the presenters to us, the African Parliamentarians.I think, first of all, that we have to be clear enough and motivated to play our part effectively as Parliamentarians in the PAP or in our respective countries. We have to focus more and I would especially like to give attention to the building of institutions and we need to have a strong system that we want to build.Thus, we have to be clear with what we have or what we do not have in our continent. As it was mentioned in the presentation, Africa is a rich continent and we have always said that. A variety of resources are found in Africa and we always say it but our people are starving. That is due to the improper usage and management of our resources as well as lack of good governance and accountability.Poverty eradication activities cannot stand alone. In my opinion, that is economic development but it needs peace, security and good governance. So, how can all these important issues come together? For example, if I take my country, Ethiopia, the Government has highly concentrated on pro-poor activities like agriculture, education, health and infrastructure development. So, I think we have to be aware and clear about what areas we have to give attention and the issues that we have to give priority to.I have a question for the first presenter. In his presentation, he said that predominant agriculture is an indicator for poverty reduction, if I am not mistaken. So, do you think that giving a priority to agriculture cannot be the best means for poverty reduction in Africa because reality, as it was mentioned, is that 16 per cent of the arable land is in Africa of which 79 per cent is uncultivated in the continent? So, do we need to give more attention to agriculture?The other issue that I want to raise is that there are plenty of policies, strategies and even the information that has been presented is information about different platforms or actions. On the basis of this, Africa is still behind. We cannot even feed our population in this modern 21st century. So, in my opinion, we have to find solutions by ourselves and not by borrowing from outside. We can always lessen our problems to do with, for example, trade imbalance, low infrastructure connection, instability, insecurity and the like. So, these highly educated intellectuals, as mentioned by the second presenter, can bring the best practical solutions. In fact, practical solutions are for our younger generations. I do not expect ready-made solutions, but I believe they have to bring the very best and practical solutions for our exercise.Thank you.HON. AHAMAT TAHIR AHAMAT [TCHAD]:Merci, Madame la Présidente.Permettez-moi de remercier les intervenants pour leurs exposés très enrichissants.Parlant des défis liés au Plan d’action de Lagos, il y a le Programme d’Ajustement Structurel du Fond Monétaire International, qui selon l’exposant, sont contraignants et imposés aux États africains.Je voudrais savoir si l’Afrique ne pourra pas s’appuyer sur les blocs régionaux et la coopération Sud-Sud pour se développer et éradiquer la pauvreté.Je vous remercie.HON. PATRICK MWALULA MUCHELEKA [ZAMBIA]:Thank you, Madam President.In appreciating the two presentations that have been made, one thing that I still keep wondering about is how, indeed, it is still a paradox that in the midst of plenty natural resources, Africa still has so many poor people with a manifestation of high levels of poverty, hunger and food insecurity.Madam President, the first presenter as well as the second presenter highlighted a number of challenges. Listening to them, I also conclude that, to a large extent, what we lack in Africa is good and inclusive governance of our natural resources, especially that we have concentrated on exporting primary commodities without value addition.Madam President, we also face the challenge of institutional and structural rigidities in most of our countries. Therefore, most of our countries in Africa have even failed to meet the 2015 Millennium Development Goal (MDG) Number one (1) that talks about poverty reduction and reducing hunger by 50 per cent.As a way forward, Madam President, we need to seriously look at how we can have inclusive growth by way of promoting the agricultural sector. If we agree that the agricultural sector is very important for our economic growth and the majority of our people in Africa are engaged in it and its related activities, then it is a sector that needs to be prioritised. Of course, it cannot stand alone. It has to be supported by other equally important sectors such as education, health, water and sanitation.Most importantly, in talking about agriculture, we must look at value addition or the growth of agrovalue chains so that we can improve the income of the majority of our people that wallow in poverty. As we do that, the aspect of improved infrastructure and intra-Africa trade, also come in as very important factors but, most importantly, I would still want to emphasise the aspect of improved and inclusive good governance of our natural resources.The last speaker talked about Africans in the Diaspora. If we are going to bring the people, that have gone away, back to Africa, then we should also be talking about improving our governance architecture in most of our African countries because that is one of the reasons those people went away. As long as we continue with poor governance, we may not be able to attract them back.Madam President, I want to end by emphasising the aspect of investing in good and inclusive governance for us to be able to move forward.I thank you, Madam President.HON. DOMINIC A. B. NITWUL [GHANA]:Madam President, let me thank the two presenters for opening up our thoughts to a few things concerning Africa particularly, issues to do with poverty reduction.I feel that the Fourth Plan which they call the Lagos Plan of Action (LPA) has failed totally. If you look at what they were asked to do between 1980 and 2000, I do not believe that we achieved much. We failed to achieve self-determination in agriculture, science and technology. We have failed in intra-Africa trade. We have failed to develop our resources and are not sharing any information.Madam President, African resources are being dissipated not to Africans but people outside. We cannot achieve poverty reduction when we have refused to strengthen the private sector. Go to most African nations and you will realise that the Government is still the largest employer. The private sector is not being strengthened to employ. If we have to move forward, we have to strengthen our private sector. Let the private sector be the largest employer, educate our young ones and provide them with jobs.Madam President, we cannot move forward either if we fail to eradicate corruption and nepotism within Africa. When a few people decide to share the little resources, where you have what we, in Africa, call the 90-10 Rule where 10 per cent of the people share the resources while the other 90 per cent do the work and suffer, we will not be able to succeed. We cannot also succeed when we just have smaller markets within ourselves and pretend that we are going to trade. I will give you an example of West Africa. In West Africa, we can have a market of about 250 million people to trade with if we can form one block and have free movement of goods and services. However, as it is now, some countries even have a market of less than two million people. How are you going to succeed when you do that?We think that it is better to bring things from China, Europe and the Americas rather than just across the neighbouring countries. Nigeria or Ghana would rather bring salt from Brazil than just across from each other. If we cannot stop it and cannot improve on that, we are going to have problems.I thank you.HON. BAKARY OUATTARA [CÔTE D’IVOIRE]:Merci, Monsieur le Président.Le problème de la pauvreté et du sousdéveloppement de l’Afrique relève d’une véritable volonté politique des États africains, et parmi les indicateurs de la pauvreté, l’accès à l’autosuffisance alimentaire occupe une place capitale.3 Le conférencier l’a dit, la grande partie des terres arables du monde se trouve en Afrique. C’est pourtant en Afrique que la sous-alimentation est plus grave.C’est vrai que les conditions climatiques sont favorables dans certaines localités. C’est pour cela qu’il faut une véritable politique d’intégration de l’Afrique avec une vraie fluidité transfrontalière.Monsieur le Président,Je suis convaincu que, tant qu’il n’y aura pas une véritable politique de développement agricole dans nos pays où les terres sont pourtant fertiles, et que l’on arrête de privilégier les importations pour des intérêts égoïstes des dirigeants; tant qu’il n’y aura pas une réelle volonté d’intégration des États africains, avec une volonté affichée de solidaritéinterafricaine au plan nutritionnel, que les mieux nantis climatiquement assistent les plus défavorisés; tant qu’il n’y aura pas une application effective de la bonne gouvernance, avec régression des conflits armés internes, empêchant les populations de cultiver leurs terres; et tant que l’éducation ne sera pas une réelle priorité pour nos gouvernements, Monsieur le Président, pour ne citer que ces quelques données, l’Afrique ne sortira jamais de la pauvreté et du sous-développement.Monsieur le Président,Les problèmes sont connus, et les stratégies sont aussi connues. Beaucoup de réunions ont été tenues, il faut tout simplement les appliquer au lieu de les ranger dans les tiroirs, une fois rentrés dans les pays respectifs.Monsieur le Président,Vivement le pouvoir législatif pour que le PAP puisse véritablement jouer son rôle, en obligeant pratiquement les chefs d’États à appliquer les résolutions qu’ils signent eux-mêmes.Voici la solution, chers collègues!Arrêtons de tourner en rond!Je vous remercie.HON. CECILIA ATIM-OGWAL [UGANDA]:Thank you, Mr President.I wish to appreciate the presentations given to us concerning the poverty situation in our continent.Mr President, I just want to highlight two things. Firstly, it is known that Africa is endowed with natural resources which are now higher than can be found elsewhere in any other continent and yet Africa is still wallowing in poverty. I think there is something that we, who are trusted with leadership at the moment, should address with a bit of seriousness to see how we can direct our resources to improve the welfare of the people we lead. This is a very important matter.Mr President, Africa’s ignorance is also being exploited. I know that this continent is being invaded with this new concept of genetically modified production and if this is done, I know that in the rural population, people have to keep some seeds for planting the following season but the moment we expect a poor person to look for money to buy seeds, it will not be possible. We will just be making the situation of poverty worse than it has been. I think the concept of introducing genetically-modified production must also be considered.Above all - and I want to end with this point - the farmers in rural Africa will continue to be poor until we come up with a new concept of providing capital for them. We cannot expect a poor farmer in a rural area to go to town and negotiate loans. They cannot manage the conditions of borrowing through the banking systems.Africa must consider creating farmers’ banks where farmers can borrow money and can be given special concessions knowing very well that the climate in our continent is also very unpredictable.I thank you, Mr President.HON. MEAR ALI SIRRO [ETHIOPIA]شكرا سيدي الرئيس. أود أن أشكر المتحدثين على هذا العرض القيم. السيد الرئيس.مفهوم الفقر له أسباب عديدة ومتنوعة ، بما في ذلك الاقتصادية والسياسية والاجتماعية والبيئية ، وكذلك الصراعات الداخلية والخارجية. من التراجع.السيد الرئيس من المسؤول؟ يجب أن نسأل أنفسنا لماذا؟ المئات من المواطنين يموتون غرقا في البحار في البحر الأسود والأحمر وفي أماكن أخرى في سيناء حسب ما نقلته وسائل الإعلام (CNA) وعبر المعلومات ، ومن المسؤول ولماذا؟ الأفارقة يموتون في هجرتهم إلى عالم ثان. يجب أن نسأل أنفسنا أن قاراتنا ليست فقيرة ، بل غنية بمواردها الطبيعية وقوتها البشرية ، لكن "عدم الاستقرار السياسي والاقتصادي تسبب في الكارثة" التي وجدنا أنفسنا فيها. السيد الرئيس: من أجل مكافحة الفقر يجب تهيئة المناخ المناسب والعمل من خلال البنود التالية:فتح الحدود المغلقة التي أنشأها الاستعمارفتح الأسواق أمام الدول الأفريقية فيما بينهايتنقل المواطنون في أنحاء قارتهم بدون تأشيرة خلق بيئة مناسبة للأسواق الحرة تنشيط جمعية الفلاحين مساعدة الفلاحين على تطوير زراعتهم تطوير سوق العمل وتطوير برامج لمكافحة الفقر المساواة والعدالة بين الرجال والنساء في المجال الاجتماعي والاقتصادي والسياسي - تنمية الحد من الفقر المستدام.السيد الرئيس ، هناك تحسن مع الدول الأفريقية. بدلا من ذلك ، هذا يشجع وهناك تحسن وأنهم يقومون بعمل جيد. يجب على الدول التي تقوم بتطوير المناهج التعليمية والاقتصادية والبيئية أن تجد تطورها كما بدأت. على سبيل المثال ، هناك بعض الدول ، على سبيل المثال ، إثيوبيا التي ليس لديها نفط ، ولكن هناك تنمية في جميع المجالات ، وهناك نرى تغييرًا جذريًا في جميع المجالات ، سيدي الرئيس ، الفقر يجعل الإرهاب صعبًا. من أجل محاربة الفقر والإرهاب ، يجب علينا نبذ الفساد وحل مشكلة التوظيف والتطلع إلى العدالة ودعم القانون وحقوق الإنسان وتوسيع الديمقراطية وتشجيع الحكم الرشيد لكل هذه الحلول. شكرا سيدي الرئيس.HON. ISAAC STEPHEN MABILETSA [BOTSWANA]:Thank you, Mr President.Mr President, looking at the strategies that have been employed by our leaders since more than fifty years ago, it appears that we are not winning the war on poverty eradication. In my own view, I tend to feel, respective African Governments are not laying proper infrastructure for agriculture, are not investing enough in agriculture and we are promoting, in a majority of the cases, subsistence agricultural practices which are not taking us nowhere despite the fact that we are endowed with such rich lands and rivers and, in some regions, rainy seasons that are almost throughout the year. So, I believe, Mr President, that we need to do more in terms of investing in agriculture. That is my first point.My second point is that, Mr President, recently when I was coming from the Central African Republic, in the aircraft, we were handed magazines. One of the magazines which I read was the Newsweek Magazine. It was reporting about the United Nations Panel of Experts who were discussing the issue of poverty in Africa. One of the leading experts is a son of this neighbouring country, Professor Arthur Mutambara, among others.What they were saying was that because we are endowed with so much raw materials and we are not beneficiating them, in other words, we are not developing industries locally, we are shipping them abroad. By so doing, while we have the benefit of gaining quick revenue that we want to use to run the Government, the value that we get out of exporting these raw materials, we are losing ten times as much than if we were investing. That means we are not getting full benefits, by exporting these resources that we have, not getting the right revenue value that we ought to get.I know Professor Turak who was once a Member of this House. He has written articles on this issue and he has been consistently talking about beneficiating Africa’s raw materials. You know, people that are just doing small tillage of land like that never graduate from poverty and even the schemes that are employed by some countries to mitigate the effects of poverty never lets our people that are poverty stricken graduate from it.This is a challenge that, Mr President, Africa should be considering because without really taking proper mitigation schemes, we are going to go in the wrong way and we are not going to succeed in doing this. Irecall, during the apartheid era, here, in South Africa, P.W. Botha saying Africa is getting chicken feed loans while, in South Africa, they are doing mega loans for commercial projects which has more value to the nation.I thank you Mr. President.LHON. DR. BERNADETTE LAHAI [SIERRA EONE]:I thank you, Mr President.I also want to thank the presenters for their presentations. My contribution will be based on agriculture research because that is what I have known and done my whole life before coming to Parliament.Mr President, if we look within the CAADP programme, the fourth pillar places a lot of emphasis on research. How can farmers move from subsistence to commercial farming? It cannot happen and never will if they are not provided with improved technologies and techniques of production, sustainable land management and efficient water use. This is why agriculture research is very important.However, it is sad to note that African Heads of State have not given agriculture research the importance that it deserves. Yes, we have been told that a few countries have reached the target of reducing poverty by half. Some have even reached the target of the Maputo threshold of 10 per cent budgetary provision for agriculture, but it suffices to say that despite this target, agriculture research still remains relegated to the periphery and yet no country is 5 going to move with regards to their full selfsufficiency in agriculture without the continuous injection of research...For example, we all know that because of the Nerica Rice, the new rice of Africa, that was invented or produced by Professor Monti-Jones, today, rice production has tripled or quadrupled. The evidence is all there. However, what actually worries me is that our African Heads of State seem unworried because the examples are there. Recently, they pledged to contribute US$10,000 to the budget of the Forum for Agriculture Research in Africa (FARA). This is the institution under the fourth pillar of CAADP that is responsible for giving direction in agriculture research in Africa. Only two countries, Ghana and Sierra Leone, have been able to meet this target. What is US$10,000 annually to this budget when some Heads of State can buy one pair of shoe for US$10,000 or even host a birthday party for a one-year old son or daughter that exceeds US$10,000? They prefer that we should move agriculture from where we are now and yet we cannot.Mr Speaker and Hon. Members, it is my fervent wish that, in the not too distant future, we will bring FARA into this Parliament to tell us what it is doing so that Members will be aware that this is an important institution and that they should urge our respective Governments to live up to their expectations.I thank you very much.HON. VINCENT DABILGOU [BURKINA FASO]:Merci, Monsieur le Président.Je voudrais, avec votre autorisation, que vous me permettiez de féliciter les deux conférenciers, parce qu’ils ont, en tout cas, dépeint une situation sur un sujet très, très préoccupant pour le développement de l’Afrique.C’est vrai, l’état des lieux qu’ils ont posé interpelle. Je pense que les pays africains doivent se déterminer, doivent s’engager, doivent forger de nouvelles politiques. Je crois que c’est ce qui s’est traduit avec le plan d’engagement de Lagos.Mais c’est vrai, nous ne devons pas oublier que la lutte contre la pauvreté reste un sujet très complexe. Il est complexe, et je crois que c’est ce que l’Honorable Dr LAHAI venait de présenter tout à l’heure.Cette lutte est complexe tant que les pays africains restent sous-développés, restent techniquement et scientifiquement en dehors du marché mondial de la technologie.Les pays africains doivent prendre conscience et s’en convaincre que nos pays ont été colonisés. Nos pays ont été exploités, spoliés, dominés culturellement et économiquement. Aujourd’hui encore, nos pays restent sous la domination du néocolonialisme, mais aussi sous la domination de la mauvaise gouvernance.Je pense que c’est ce qui fait que, lors du Sommet de Copenhague sur le développement social, la communauté internationale – vous vous rappelez–avez clairement dit qu’elle serait incapable d’aider les pays africains à éradiquer totalement la pauvreté. Ça a été dit!C’est pour cela que je soutiens la communication donnée, tout à l’heure, par les deux présentateurs, en disant que les pays africains doivent élaborer des plans nationaux et régionaux. Mais nous devons savoir que ces plans nationaux et régionaux souffrent de pressions extérieures de la part des bailleurs de fonds, et surtout des ONG qui ont la malice de nous entraîner vers des plans qui sont en dehors de nos réalités socioculturelles. C’est cela la vérité au niveau de l’ensemble des plans que nous exposons, en général, au niveau des grandes conférences.Je soutiens que nous devions comprendre que finalement le développement n’est rien d’autre qu’un processus de renforcement de capacité. C’est pour cela que, quand on parle développement, je vois l’éducation. Quand on parle développement, je vois alphabétisation. Quand on parle développement, je vois des universités. Quand on parle développement, je vois des laboratoires de recherche, parce que nous devons nous autodéterminer en Afrique pour prendre en charge notre développement, et apprendre aussi à dire nonà certaines aides, à certaines idées qui ne font que pourrir nos plans de développement, et qui nous empêchent de nous [Temps de parole épuisé].HON. AWAD HAG ALI AHMED [SUDAN]:Thank you very much, Mr President.To me, the challenges in poverty eradication are not the policies or strategies. The causes are well defined and agreeable. The challenges are on 6 implementation of these strategies and policies. Due, firstly, to the bad governance, as indicated by many Members of this House, it has its bad implications in decreasing the gap between poor and wealthy people and this can block foreign investors.Secondly, there is lack of good research in agriculture, as indicated by Hon. Lahai. We should effect it in the law. When compared to Asia or Europe, we have seen that most of our good African researchers stay in industrialised countries because of the attractive environment they give them. For the unpredictable climate, this is due to the bad influence of the industrialised countries on the environment which has sometimes led to a lot of rains which destroy our villages and infrastructure and, sometimes, led to water shortage.Mr President, people come from different countries to take our goods at a very low price and bring them back at a very high price. That is why we should negotiate with these countries to support African countries to raise their productivity and build infrastructure such as dams and irrigation systems.This support should not come to us as a donation. It is our right. It should come as compensation for their bad use of the environment and the use of our good resources in their countries. On the other hand, the PAP and the national Parliaments should work hard to ensure that there is good governance because, as indicated in this House by many presenters, bad governance is one of the many reasons there is an increase in poverty.Thank you very much, Mr President.HON. TSEPO MONETHI [LESOTHO]:Thank you, Mr President, for allowing me this opportunity to say a few words and I would also like to extend my thanks to the two presenters who actually presented very eloquently.As it has been said, there have been the establishment of associations for co-operation within this Africa like SADC, ECOWAS and others but, up to today, they have not been able to help the continent with eradicating poverty. It is clear and it has already been said by most of the Hon. Members who have spoken before me that these meetings and summits where we make resolutions and conventions and not implement, them does not help Africa.One good example is the Maputo Declaration where it was agreed that at least 10 per cent of the fiscal annual budget be given to agriculture in order to develop structures but that has not happened with most of the African countries.One other thing that is still lacking is the framework for the minimal intra-African economic linkages whereby we find that it is really difficult to trade with a neighbouring country due to some laws that are made by these revenue authorities within the continent. It makes the trading and eradication of poverty very difficult.One other thing will be recommendations from bodies such as the IMF whereby they make recommendations which are not meant to help Africa develop. For instance, they will recommend to governments to their estate, claiming that the locals will be able to buy shares in those state properties. However, when those state properties are being sold, it is only foreigners who will have the chance to buy them and that means all the benefits of the state properties still go outside the continent.Another issue is the dependency on foreign donors whereby they set terms which favour the external donors. This does not help in developing Africa.Another thing that was said which is important to me is that of engaging Africans in the Diaspora, but before you can do that, we need to ensure that, indeed, we apply zero tolerance to corruption as African Governments and make sure that we leave these legacies of nepotism that we have.I thank you Mr. President.HON. DAOUDA TOURÉ [CÔTE D’IVOIRE]:Monsieur le Président, il y a un contraste évident.Nous sommes un continent riche, mais la grande majorité de nos populations est pauvre.Si nous voulons sortir de la pauvreté, nous devons changer d’attitude. Nous devons penser que nous ne sommes pas condamnés à être des pauvres. Nous devons changer la manière dont on se regarde. Nous devons avoir une vision. Oui! Nous avons une vision, une vision pour les prochaines cinquante années c’est bien, très bien d’ailleurs.Aussi, je propose que l’Afrique aille plus vite car le reste du monde ne nous attend pas. Avec les nouvelles technologies, tout est constant, tout est en mouvement.Si l’enjeu est de définir une vision, une stratégie et un plan d’actions pour sortir nos populations africaines de cette pauvreté, cet enjeu doit prendre en compte notre destin qui doit être déterminé par les Africains eux-mêmes à tous les niveaux.L’Union africaine et les organisations régionales doivent, à travers les législateurs que nous sommes, faire des lois harmonisées, suivies et évaluées.Les gouvernements à travers la bonne gouvernance, la paix sociale, les programmes d’appui à l’agriculture, à l’agro-industriel et à l’industrie par les nationaux eux-mêmes, le soutien de prix aux paysans, la formation des jeunes agriculteurs modernes et des jeunes agricultrices aussi, la gestion efficiente des terres contre l’arrivée des multinationales surtout asiatiques – je vois la Chine arriver en Afrique – le transport surtout maritime, combien de pays parmi nos pays ont une flotte maritime? Il n’y en a pas beaucoup, même l’aviation, il n’y a pas beaucoup de pays qui ont des lignes aériennes. Si elles existent, elles sont très pauvres et au niveau de la spéculation boursière, sur les matières premières, nous devons influencer le marché des ressources et des matières premières et non subir les aléas des marchés de Londres et de Chicago où nous sommes absents.Nous devons donc donner des bourses à nos enfants pour intégrer ce milieu du trading international. Sinon un jour, ils refuseront d’acheter notre café, notre cacao à des prix raisonnables comme ce fut le cas en 1986 où l’économie de la Côte d’Ivoire avait été asphyxiée par le marché international.Oui, notre bonheur est entre nos mains! Nous parlons beaucoup d’agriculture, mais il ne faut pas oublier l’industrie, les mines, le pétrole. On nous endorme avec les problèmes de ventre et les problèmes de faim. C’est vrai qu’on doit manger, mais il ne faut pas oublier que les gens sont en train d’exploiter nos mines, notre pétrole. Il faut qu’on se réveille! Il faut qu’on se réveille car le monde avance et nous devons avancer avec ce monde.Je vous remercie.HON. MOHAMED ALI FOULIEH [DJIBOUTI]:Merci, Monsieur le Président, de m’avoir donné la parole.Je remercie les intervenants de nous avoir présentéun exposé assez clair. Je reprends quelques éléments qui ont été exposés, pour dire que l’agriculture est certes, la base de tout développement, mais la pauvreté et la sous-alimentation – pour ne pas dire la famine – découlent de l’absence d’une politique des pays africains, notamment le faible financement dans le secteur primaire tel que l’agriculture.Les organisations régionales doivent être l’un des leviers pour redynamiser une politique agricole. Je constate en effet, que de grands pays comme le Soudan pourrait nourrir toute l’Afrique, si l’on y investie les moyens nécessaires.L’instabilité politique, la lutte et la violence engendrées par la compétition politique constituent aussi l’un des facteurs de la pauvreté.Les questions de l’éducation, de fuite des cerveaux, de la place de la femme dans la politique de développement sont également un facteur de pauvreté.Je pense qu’il y a actuellement un problème qui se pose avec acuité et auquel un nouveau problème est venu s’ajouter. Il s’agit de la question de l’accaparement des terres arables par les puissances étrangères ou par des sociétés multinationales. Alors que déjà l’agriculture dans les pays africains est très faible, on assiste à cette cession des terres à certains pays étrangers qui viennent s’accaparer de toutes les terres arables en Afrique.À quand donc une protection de ces terres et un soutien aux agriculteurs africains?Je voudrais savoir donc, pourquoi le Parlement panafricain ne peut pas légiférer dans ce sens en élaborant une proposition de loi pour protéger les terres arables?Pourquoi ne pas disposer de recommandations faites dans les grands sommets au niveau mondial?Je constate avec regrets, que nous sommes la seconde Institution représentant les peuples africains en dehors de la Conférence des Chefs d’États.Alors que dans les grands sommets mondiaux, les grands experts se bousculent, ici, certes nous sommes contents que les experts viennent, mais je crois que le temps accordé à la lutte contre la pauvreté n’est pas suffisant; il faut au minimum deux jours. Il aurait fallu disposer de deux jours pouréchanger avec les experts sur les politiques nationales – ce qui est intéressant, ce qui a réussi dans un pays africain et qui peut l’être dans un autre pays africain – si nos expériences [Temps de parole épuisé].(Applaudissements)HON. KHALIFA SULEIMAN KHALIFA [TANZANIA]:Mheshimiwa Rais, nashukuru.Nami niungane na wenzangu katika kuwapongeza waliotoa mada.Mheshimiwa Rais, umasikini wa Bara la Afrika unachangiwa na mambo mengi. Kwa mfano, suala la kilimo bado halijapewa kipaumbele ipasavyo katika Bara letu. Watu wetu wengi bado wanalima kwa kutumia jembe la mkono, wanakosa madawa, wanakosa mbolea, vitu kama hivi bado pia vinasaidia sana kuwarudisha nyuma wakulima. Hata mazao yanayozalishwa na watu wetu, yanakosa masoko ndani ya Bara la Afrika, na pale yanapopata masoko, basi yanapangiwa bei na wakubwa na hivyo utakuta hakuna kinachopatikana.Mheshimiwa Rais, baya zaidi ni uwajibikaji wa viongozi wetu katika Bara la Afrika. Kwa mfano, sote ni mashahidi hapa kwamba nchi zetu nyingi zinachukua mikopo na misaada kutoka Mataifa makubwa, mikopo ambayo mwisho wa siku inalipwa na wanyonge waliopo katika nchi zetu. Lakini mikopo na misaada hii inaishia mikononi mwa wajanja wachache tu ambao wanafaidika wao na familia zao, na matokeo yake wananchi walio wengi mwisho wa siku wanabeba mzigo wa kulipa mikopo ambayo wala hawakufaidika nayo.Mheshimiwa Rais, lingine ni biashara. Nchi ili iendelee inahitaji kufanya biashara, inahitaji kukusanya kodi vizuri na zile ambazo labda zina utajiri wa kimaumbile kama madini na mafuta na gesi au kilimo.Mheshimiwa Rais, kodi katika nchi za Kiafrika hazikusanywi ipasavyo. Wale wenye uwezo wa kibiashara na wanaoweza kuwapa rushwa wakubwa wanakwepa kodi. Utakuta katika bajeti zetu zote, misamaha ya kodi inachukua sehemu kubwa sana ya bajeti zetu. Hali hii inarudisha nyuma sana watu wetu, kwa sababu kodi zile kama zingepatikana zingesaidia kwenye kilimo na miradi mbalimbali.Lakini kosa lingine ambalo linafanyika ni kudharau suala zima la viwanda. Viwanda katika Bara letu leo, vingi vimekufa na mwisho wake tunaagiza bidhaa.Mheshimiwa Rais, inashangaza sana! Hivi kweli Waafrika hawawezi kuzalisha kuku wa nyama mpaka kuku wa nyama waletwe kutoka Brazil katika mahoteli makubwa ya leo katika Bara hili? Hili ni suala la uwajibikaji. Tumewaachia sana wawekezaji wafanye wanavyotaka, matokeo yake wanaona Bara hili ni jalala, wanakuja wanatupa wanachotaka, na wanafanya wanavyotaka. Ni lazima sasa tubadilike. Bajeti za nchi zetu zitoe kipaumbele kwenye elimu, kilimo na miundombinu. Mambo haya yakifanyika, yanaweza kusaidia sana uchumi wa watu wetu.Mheshimiwa Rais, lingine pia ni kuhusu hawa watu walioko nje (Diaspora). Mpaka lini tuna kigugumizi cha kutoa uraia wa nchi mbili katika Bara letu? Mtu hawezi kuwa yuko Ulaya, anapata maendeleo makubwa, lakini unataka aje awekeze kwao wakati wewe unamkataa kuwa kule sio kwao. Hawezi kuja!Lakini kama wote tutaruhusu uraia wa nchi mbili, watu wataona kwao ni kwao na kule waliko ni kwao.Mheshimwa Rais, nakushukuru sana. (Makofi)HON. NOURENOU ATCHADE [BÉNIN]:Merci, Monsieur le Président.Monsieur le Président,Je voudrais, à mon tour, féliciter les deux orateurs qui nous ont présenté ce bon document.Monsieur le Président,Le 9 septembre 2013, à Maputo, l’Alliance pour une Révolution Verte en Afrique a lancé son premier rapport sur l’état de l’agriculture en Afrique. De ce rapport, nous retenons les mêmes statistiques, les mêmes constats que ce que vient de nous livrer le Représentant de l’Organisation des Nations-Unies pour l’Alimentation et l’Agriculture (FAO), le Dr Tobias. On peut retenir:« plus grande disponibilité de terres arables en Afrique »;« faible utilisation d’engrais minéraux, environ dix-sept kilogrammes à l’hectare »;« agriculture pluviale tributaire des changements climatiques », etc.Si nous nous accordons sur ce constat, et que nous retenons que le développement de l’agriculture peut contribuer à la réduction de la pauvreté, que faisonsnous alors?Que faisons-nous pour faire développer l’agriculture?Que faisons-nous pour que, dans les universités, dans les écoles, nous aidions à la recherche scientifique?Monsieur le Président,Que faisons-nous pour que nous réduisions le taux d’importation en Afrique, qui est aujourd’hui de 70%, a dit le deuxième communicateur?Monsieur le Président,Après ce constat, je voudrais poser quelques questions à Monsieur le Représentant de la FAO.La première question:Est-il possible que la FAO fasse obligation aux nations d’Afrique de respecter l’Accord de Maputo de 2003, qui demande aux nations de consacrer 10% de leur budget à l’agriculture?La deuxième question:Quelle est la relation entre la FAO et le Programme Alimentaire Mondial (PAM)?N’est-il pas plus profitable à l’Afrique que le PAM investisse plutôt dans la [Temps de parole épuisé].HON. MANCHOLU MOLEMOHI [LESOTHO]:I thank you, Mr President and I thank the presenters for their reports.Mr President, food security is one of Africa’s most pressing concerns and needs to be taken into consideration in the short to medium-term.The future sustainability of farming is vital in Africa’s continued growth and fight against poverty.There is also a need to support smaller, emerging farmers especially women.Mr President, there is also a need to study the impact of climate change in Africa and seek solutions that will enable agriculture to remain sustainable.In conclusion, agriculture research is required as an important investment which continually provides services to the agricultural sector to produce good quality products at the right yields and at the right time while enabling access to markets.I thank you.HON. GALLICAN NIYONGANA [RWANDA]:Monsieur le Président,Nous faisons partie de ces leaders du continent africain qui sont particulièrement interpellés pour apporter une contribution en vue de bien conduire ce chantier de l’éradication de la pauvreté, c'est-à-dire que tous les leaders africains devraient prendre le devant et conjuguer les efforts en vue de créer un cadre politique favorable à l’épanouissement de tout un chacun, tout en réservant une place de choix à la femme et aux jeunes.Monsieur le Président,Pour cela, les politiques, les stratégies et les programmes déclinés dans tous les secteurs devraient mettre le citoyen au centre du développement, non seulement en tant que bénéficiaire, mais aussi en qualité d’acteur.Ceci permettra à la population de s’approprier ces programmes les concernant, une condition sine qua non pour obtenir leur adhésion et aussi réussir leur mise en œuvre.Monsieur le Président,Un autre point que je voudrais souligner – qui ne doit pas être occulté – est une question relative au contrôle des naissances. Ce problème ne concerne pas que le nombre d’enfants ou la densité de la population.Le contrôle des naissances renvoie aussi et surtout à la qualité de la population et au développement durable, eu égard à l’incidence de la pression démographique sur certains indicateurs de développement – entre autres – l’éducation, la santé, la sécurité alimentaire, le chômage, l’émigration, l’environnement, etc.Monsieur le Président,Qu’on le veuille ou non, tous les pays africains surpeuplés ou non, sont tous concernés par cette question qui pèse lourdement sur nos maigres économies et risque même d’annihiler les acquis actuels et escomptés.Monsieur le Président, Au sein du Parlement rwandais, nous avons mis sur pied un Forum des Parlementaires qui nous permet de parler haut et fort de ce problème et je vous affirme que ce plaidoyer a ouvert les yeux à un grand nombre de décideurs.Merci, Monsieur le Président.HON. RABIA ISSA BINEGDE [ETHIOPIA]:Thank you, Mr President for giving me the Floor. I also wish to thank the two presenters for making good presentations.Poverty is a threat on our continent, Africa. However, African countries are not giving attention to this problem. The reason I say this is that many African countries are ignorant of our productive force who are the youth and women. This force cannot participate in economic, political and social development and will not benefit from it. Because of this, many African youths migrate to different 0 continents. To this end, they become the target of terrorism.In our continent, there is a great unemployment problem especially with the youth and women. With solving these problems, we cannot eradicate poverty. In other words, our youths’ behaviour has not changed. They focus on only government employment. They are not creating their own job opportunities. So, we have to work to change the attitude of our youths so that they become competent with their education and creativeness. This can only be achieved when African countries’ leaders are keen and work towards this achievement. So, what is the role of the PAP in achieving this goal? This issue can be answered through policies and strategies of poverty reduction.Thank you, Mr. President.HON. THABANG LINUS KHOLUMO [LESOTHO]:Thank you, Mr President.A lot has been said about this very important topic that is being debated today and I want to commend, through you, Mr President, this August House, for their bravery in talking about poverty eradication as against the belief of other people that we should only talk about poverty reduction or poverty alleviation. So, surely, this is an indication that we are serious about Africa.Mr President Africa is not poor. Africa is endowed with a lot of resources like I said when we were talking about the Agenda 2063 but what is the problem is that we have been brainwashed by the colonisers. They fragmented Africa and gave us their education so that we remain their servants. They gave us their languages which we continue to use even today. They divided Africa into the fiftyfour small markets and they made us abandon our means of living. I was delighted when one of the presenters indicated that there is a Pan African University which I believe will help to address our problems. The move to integrate Africa is, of course, the answer to most of the problems that we have.Mr President, it is time for us to look into doing away with the colonial borders to promote the unity of Africa, promote intra-trade in Africa and, of course, ease the movement of Africans. The problem here, Mr President, is with the rigidity of our leaders.They enjoy leading these small fragments and making plans and promises which are never implemented. Mr President, the challenges faced by the Lagos Plan of Action still prevail. I need not go through all of them one by one, but all of them still prevail. We elect governments but the IMF remains the super government and we do not see progress in Africa because the IMF, in my opinion, is the stumbling block.Thank you.HON. MOHAMED YOUSIF ABDULLAH [SUDAN]:Thank you very much Mr President.I would like to start by thanking the two presenters for these eloquent presentations and I would like to start by questioning the ability of the AU and the PAP in the implementation of AU policies. We plan properly but we are very poor in implementing. What efforts are being put in place by the AU in implementing these policies? What efforts are being put in place by the AU in order to co-operate closely with the PAP in two areas; firstly, in the area of Parliamentary monitoring to allocate resources for the implementation of these policies and, secondly, harmonisation of laws and policies of the AU within respective national policies.I do not see that there is a clear vision. They say that you plan your work and implement, and work to your plan. This is not there. The AU is planning properly but not implementing its plans.Mr President, I would like the second question to go to my brothers. According to a research and report that came up from another study in 2000, it was stated clearly that the cause of poverty cause in underdeveloped countries and the developing countries is trade in commodities. This is the basic factor but we are trading in these primary commodities. We are not adding value and, therefore, we are not going to be prosperous. We are always going to be poor.Therefore, I think that the recommendations were clear in that area. One has do with giving priority to human development skills in the context of improving our capacities to innovations and improving our capacities in the area of research. This is not done and I think this is one of the areas which we should, as a Parliament, start to work on. How can we put more money in the education of innovations and how can we put more money in the education of research? These are two very important areas as a Parliament and the AU. This is very important.The next important issue, before the microphone goes off, which is also very important in relation to this, is what we can do to develop good technologies relevant to our resources and what baseline data is needed for the plan because I can see that we do lack, really, the baseline information about the African 1 resources. Then we can help our countries to properly plan and implement good policies.Thank you very much, Mr President.HON. ELIZABETH AGYEMAN [GHANA]:I thank you Mr President. I also thank the presenters for the good presentations that they have made. What we have heard today is not different from what we have heard before. People always come here to give us lectures about poverty eradication. It is one thing to discuss issues in Maputo and Abuja and another to put them into practice in our various countries.All that they are saying is about the eradication of poverty in this society. Presenters always come to Parliamentarians. If I asked them why they are here today, they would say it is because we are closer to the people and know their problems. However, what are they also doing for Parliamentarians? We also need their support to be able to go down to our people, talk to them and try to advise them to go into agriculture.One of the presenters said that we have fertile land in Africa but it is not easy to begin agriculture if you do not have the resources. Agriculture should be made lucrative enough to attract people. These days, the youth are not ready to go into agriculture because they prefer to go outside, work and bring some money to their family. As he mentioned, brain drain is also killing us.Mr President, I think that we have to get processing machines. This is very important. When you go down to their farms, people need irrigation schemes, good roads and transportation. Some people can get their produce ready but have no means of transport. This is killing agriculture. Therefore, I plead with them that whatever they go to discuss, they should make sure that they bring all these issues on board and go down to the people in their various countries. If they support us, as Parliamentarians, we will also support our people and work with them to go into agriculture.Mr President, I thank you.HON. BERNADETA KASABAGO MUSHASHU [TANZANIA]:Mheshimiwa Rais, ahsante sana kwa kunipa nafasi na mimi niweze kuchangia.Mheshimiwa Spika, nchi nyingi za Kiafrika ni masikini. Uchumi wa nchi nyingi sasa hivi katika Afrika inasemekana kwamba unakua, lakini watu wake wanaendelea kuwa masikini. Kwa hiyo, ina maana kwamba ukuaji mkuu wa uchumi hauendani na upunguzaji wa umasikini kwa watu wetu wa Afrika.Mheshimiwa Rais, nchi nyingi zina mipango ya kuondoa umasikini. Umoja wa Afrika wamepitisha mipango mingi tu na mikataba ya kupunguza umasikini, lakini: Je, kweli umasikini unaendelea kupungua au watu wanaendelea kuwa masikini?Mheshimiwa Rais, kuna mipango ya kupunguza umasikini; kuna Maputo Protocol, kuna Post-2015 Development Agenda, na sasa kuna Ajenda ya 2063. Je, kweli nchi zetu zilizoridhia hii mikataba, zinaitekeleza? Ili kuweza kuondoa umasikini ni lazima tuhakikishe kwamba hii mikataba inatekelezwa katika nchi zetu.Mheshimiwa Rais, zaidi ya asilimia 80 ya Waafrika ni wafugaji, wakulima na wavuvi. Kama tunataka kuondoa umasikini Afrika, lazima mipango ya kuondoa umasikini iwalenge hawa watu walio wengi. Nakubaliana na watu kwamba kweli Afrika tunahitaji uwekezaji mkubwa kwenye kilimo kama foreign direct investment in land, lakini uwekezaji wa aina hii hauwezi kumsaidia Mwafrika mmoja mmoja kumwondolea umasikini, utawanufaisha wale wawekezaji.Mheshimiwa Rais, hebu tufikirie, zaidi ya asilimia 70 ya chakula tunachokula Afrika kinalimwa na hawa wakulima wadogo wadogo. Kwa hiyo, kama tunataka kuondoa umasikini katika Afrika, tuwalenge hawa wakulima wadogo wadogo. Tuhakikishe katika nchi zetu tumeweka mipango waweze kupata ardhi, waweze kulima, waache kulima na jembe la mkono, waanze kulima na trekta, tuwezeshe mabenki mbalimbali yaweze kufungua mifuko au madirisha ambayo yatawezesha hawa wakulima wapate mikopo midogo na mikubwa ambayo ina riba nafuu na masharti nafuu. Bila kufanya hivyo, watalima na wataendelea kuwa masikini.Sisi wenyewe Waheshimiwa Wabunge tuna kazi ya kufanya. Lazima tuhakikishe kwamba hii mikataba mbalimbali inayopitishwa katika Afrika inakuwa translated katika vitendo. Tuhakikishe katika nchi zetu kwamba kuna mipango mbalimbali ambayo itaweza kutusaidia na kuendeleza kilimo, lakini vile 2 vile lazima tuhakikishe kwamba kuna mabenki ambayo yanakubali kuwakopesha wakulima, na vile vile lazima tuhakikishe sisi kama Wabunge tunapitisha bajeti ya kutosha kuweza kuinua kilimo na hapo tutaweza kuondoa umasikini.Mheshimiwa Rais, ahsante sana kwa kunipa nafasi.(Makofi)HON. WONDIMU GEZAHEGN GEBREMICHAEL [ETHIOPIA]:Thank you, Mr President, for giving me this opportunity.I also thank the presenters for their wonderful presentations. If possible, Mr President, we need a hard copy of the formal presentations.Mr President, having this poverty eradication policy for Africa is very important. In my country, Ethiopia, we call poverty an enemy because it exposes people to so many things. It exposes people to conflicts, unwanted beliefs, especially for Al-Shababs, migration and many other things. Because of this, we call it our enemy. Poverty is an enemy for Ethiopians and for Africans.To eradicate this, we have to focus on agriculture because the reality in Africa is that 60 per cent of our population lives in rural areas. The rural areas depend on agriculture and because of this objective reality, we have to focus on agriculture.When we focus on agriculture, we also have to focus on individual households. We have to address the issue individually by transforming farmers from the traditional agricultural system to a scientific agricultural system.In order to have this, our farmers have to use technology. To use technology requires money so we have to provide them with financial support. We also have to train our farmers. Most of our farmers are illiterate and, therefore, cannot use technology unless we train them. So, we have to train them and then when we train them we have to focus on all households.When we went to one area, we found that one household would have six or seven members. In many areas that we see, training is only given to farmers so this...HON. HENRY WILLIE YALLAH [LIBERIA]:I thank you, Mr President and distinguished colleagues. This has been a long history about Africa. Like the speaker from Ghana said, it is a culture for people to present to us the desk profile about poverty in Africa. I believe, strongly, that we, as leaders, are speaking more than we are acting. Even in some of our weak ways, we can start on the job on our own and it can work.Our education is so much labour than entrepreneurial based. There has been no time that we teach our younger people how to grow a small thing so that it becomes bigger. Therefore, they do not imagine anything, and anything that looks big to them is impossible to achieve in their minds. We cannot blame them but ourselves.If you went to various schools, every young man’s dream, when he completes his studies, is to become an accountant. In fact, the only thing he sees is to be a lawmaker. Right now, in our country, the challenge is that younger people everywhere do not want to develop businesses.The way we execute our budgets, sometimes, does not impact the common people in the middle class. For example, our budget this year in our country has now been signed by our President the way we cut it. We got angry and distributed it in a way that smaller enterprises will have the chance to bid for contracts and receive so that they too can live.Our country is being captured by the Lebanese, Chinese and all the Europeans. If you go to the bank as a Liberian, you cannot get a loan except if you have a foreigner backing you. Their argument is that you are not credible. What is this credibility?AN HON. MEMBER:You are not worth it.HON. HENRY WILLIE YALLAH:Yes! You are not credible and, therefore, they cannot give you a loan and yet the money they loan out to these foreigners is ours. It is depositors’ money. Who deposits money in banks? When it comes to loans for us, they say that we are not credible. This, of course, is because these bigger institutions are collaborating with our own leaders. That is the truth about it. It is about bigger heads and bigger companies. When people report to them, they ask who is taking a loan. We should expose them. In our country...HON. LUHAGA JOELSON MPINA [TANZANIA]:Thank you, Mr President and all presenters.Hon. Mr President, poverty in Africa is not taking a holiday despite the efforts put in place. For the past fifty years, poverty has reduced at slow pace. We 3 have to ask ourselves questions. Do we allocate sufficient financial resources to the sectors of economic growth and poverty reduction like agriculture, electricity and other infrastructure? Is our budget of every financial year a pro-poor budget or vice versa? When you go to every country in Africa, you will find the recurrent expenditure is at 70 per cent and the development expenditure is below 30 per cent. How can you realise development in such budgeting?Hon. Mr President, when you take and when you consider agriculture as many of my colleagues have said, do peasants, as farmers, have access to finance? Do we have strong financial institutions which provide financial support to farmers? In the real sense you will find the existing banks are not favourable to these peasants and farmers. They are not favourable. The terms and conditions do not support them. So, you have to establish strong financial institutions which should support agriculture in every country in Africa.Secondly, for African countries to realise a remarkable achievement in poverty reduction, we should put in place a clear mechanism on how to curb the challenge of illicit financial flows. When you are talking about illicit financial flows, you are talking of huge and massive amounts of money which is taken away from Africa. That money could be used in investing here in Africa and solve the problem of poverty. Now, I am saying that the illicit financial flow has reached between $50 billion and $148 billion per year in Africa. So, it is a huge amount of money and this is according to Global Financial Integrity and the AU.Mr President, do we have adequate legal frameworks to curb the challenge of transfer pricing in Africa? Here, in this practice, such a lot of money...HON. SHEKU B. B. DUMBUYA [SIERRA LEONE]:I thank you, Mr President,It is my view, Mr President, that the rush for diamonds and gold in the past and even as at now, has led to people deserting the land for these areas because the thinking is that diamond and gold give quick money but agriculture is delayed money. However, we have to realise that diamonds and gold are wasting assets. The only thing that lasts forever is agriculture and if only we try to reckon with this fact, then we can understand why there is a compelling need to improve agricultural productivity.Mr President, it has been said and graphically been demonstrated that 60 per cent of our population live in the rural areas. That being the case, Mr President, this is all the more reason these people should be encouraged by being given every opportunity and the facilities to let them continue to stay and work on the land. When these facilities are provided for them, I am sure, they will not be ready to leave. So, agricultural productivity will be right up there.Mr President, two things have been said and they have even been overstated but they are very important and these relate to good governance and corruption. Mr President, where there is good governance, it is our thinking that this ensures peace. Where there is peace and security, we can be sure that economic development will take place.That is why, in Africa, we have to emphasise that we have to make sure that good governance prevails. We also have to deal with the situation of corruption. What corruption does is that it makes very few people live in riches whilst the majority wallow in abject poverty and, perhaps, wretchedness. Wretchedness, in this case, really becomes another name for poverty. Therefore, we must ensure that corruption is eliminated.Thank you.HON. CHIEF FORTUNE CHARUMBIRA [ZIMBABWE]:Thank you, Mr President.May I also thank the two presenters for the good papers they have given us. Mr President, the information given by the two presenters speaks loudly about the unsatisfactory situation on the continent with respect to poverty and food security. The information is clear that we have had various initiatives, with very high sounding economic blueprints, starting with the Lagos Plan of Action 1980 to NEPAD and I think more are coming. Despite all that, we do not seem to be getting out of the predicament of hunger and poverty. When I look at some of the listed issues and challenges, I see listed on the paper six challenges. However, when I look at them critically, it is actually that five of them are symptoms. There is only one which is a root cause and this is the issue of lack of focus on a home grown agenda. To me, that is the root problem with all the initiatives we have been trying to undertake.The frameworks that have been presented lack the conviction of the majority of the very Africans that these frameworks would want to see out of poverty. These frameworks are not embedded within the African values, ethos and thinking of the Africans They are top-down and people lack initiative to propel them. As a result, we have figures that we have the largest water bodies on the continent but no irrigation and then the WFP, for example, designing programmes of giving us food aid. Why not provide irrigation facilities on the continent? Why not provide agriculture inputs on the continent? Ultimately, it is also the issue of ownership of natural resources, Mr President, where we do not own the natural resources and then we cannot value them. The multi-nationals then benefit and we do not have the money to invest in agriculture. All these issues need to be solved and, in Zimbabwe, you are aware, we have undertaken the Land Reform Programme and Indigenisation and we are doing very well. I can assure you, just wait for another five, ten years and we will be a shining example that we have actually emancipated ourselves and encourage the other countries to follow suit.Thank you, very much.HON. THULO TSOEU MAHLAKENG [LESOTHO]:Thank you, Mr President, for according me the opportunity to make a very brief intervention.In aligning myself, Mr President, with the speakers who came before me, I have already added my word of applause and congratulations to the presenters.I had initially, Mr President, identified a number of items that I intend to comment on but since I am speaking after more than 30 speakers from this august House, I will be very cautious, Mr President, to avoid speaking at the risk of being repetitive and to that end, Mr President, I have identified and decided to comment on only two salient points appearing on page 6 of the document presented by the second presenter, entitled, "Poverty eradication policies and strategies for development for Africa".The presenter Mr President has touched and commented on two points that I take to be very important. He has touched on the aim to rekindle the spirit of PAN Africanism and he has also touched on the need to determine the type of Africa whose destiny is determined by Africans.I take, Mr President, these two to be very important goals and noble ideals without which, the pursuit of the Agenda 2063 would be empty and meaningless.Mr President, this tends to take me back to the point that was made and correctly put by Hon. Kholumo, the Hon. Member from Lesotho the previous day when he said that we should try to stop the perpetuation of Africa that is still glued to its colonial past in terms of languages and instead Africa should strive for and move towards an establishment of and encourage a language that is more of Africa than of foreign countries. This point we endorse Mr President.We echo our support Madam President (there is a change now) that this is a way of realising the aim to rekindle the spirit of Pan Africanism and the rekindled Pan African Spirit would be a vehicle that would make it possible to determine the type of Africa whose destiny is determined by Africans.I thank you, Madam President.HON. MASTER GOYA [BOTSWANA]:Thank you, Madam President.Madam President, as is the decorum in this House, let me start by thanking you for giving me the Floor and request you to allow me to also thank the presenters for their wonderful presentations.I was, in particular, interested in the first presentation made by Dr Tobias Takavarasha and I do hope that these powerful presentations will be made available to us as Members of Parliament.Madam President, poverty eradication policies and strategies that have been crafted by many African countries have been promulgated from the United Nations’ millennium development goals (MDGs). The way things are moving right now, Madam President, many African countries are not going to achieve these MDGs. Even the little effort that has been made by some countries is actually not changing the lives of the people on the ground. It is not actually eradicating poverty on the ground.Many governments are just rushing to make sure that they present figures to the UN as if they are doing something but whatever they are doing is not changing the lives of the people on the ground. I think this needs to be said, Madam President.Most of the existing policies and strategies in African countries do not economically empower people for self sustenance. They do not do that. Madam President, we need policies that will help Africans step out of poverty and embark on the road to wealth creation.We should not just get poverty out of people but we must make sure that when we do that, those people must become rich. I think we need such policies. We do not need policies that actually make people live 5 from hand to mouth. We do not need such policies in our continent.What is even more frustrating, Madam President, is that poverty eradication policies in Africa do not have monitoring and evaluation mechanisms. Even the few efforts that governments are doing are actually not monitored to see to it that whatever finance or assistance given to people is achieving the intended purpose. I think that needs to be done, Madam President.Finally, I think it is high time that we crafted our own narrative on how we should eradicate poverty in Africa. We should not depend on the UN). Let us do it ourselves in Africa.Madam President, I thank you very much.HON. AMINA ABDOU SOUNA [NIGER]:Merci, Madame la Présidente.Je voudrais, tout d’abord, joindre ma voix à celles de ceux qui m’ont précédée pour féliciter les deux présentateurs, pour la qualité de leur présentation.Après tout ce qui a été dit, dans cette salle, Madame la Présidente, je voudrais insister sur un point; c’est que dans beaucoup de pays d’Afrique « la pauvreté a un visage féminin ».Au Niger par exemple, les femmes sont à plus de 50% de la population et trois femmes sur quatre sont pauvres.Il est alors évident qu’on ne peut pas éradiquer la pauvreté sur le continent africain sans agir sur un de ce maillon principal qui est la femme.Ce qui m’amène à poser la question suivante au deuxième présentateur, Docteur Mustapha.Est-ce que les politiques d’éradication de la pauvreté en Afrique prennent en charge la promotion de l’autonomisation de la femme? Car comme dit l’adage: « le mal se guérit à la racine ».Merci, Madame la Présidente.HON. P.C. BAI KURR KANAGBARO [SIERRA LEONE]:Thank you, Madam President.This is a very important topic. I want to thank the Bureau for inviting these guest speakers and I want to thank the presenters. The topic is extremely important. The dependency syndrome is what is the issue. There is political independence without economic independence. For any home, any husband, any mother who cannot feed his or her own children earns no respect from his or her family. The topic is the embodiment of existence. The topic is the embodiment of development. The topic is the embodiment of honour, respect and security for a people, a race, a continent and to give self esteem to mankind.The topic is the embodiment of more than human development goals, including the MDGs. The debate on poverty eradication - I will not call it eradication - but poverty reduction, because even in the United States of America (USA), there are still poor people, but our poor are the poor of the poorest. They are poor not only in food, like the presenter said, but other means and requirements like production, productivity, global warming, climate change, deforestation, forest degradation, banks and financial institutions, creation of wealth, capital formation, market forces, international trade, import/export polices of the world, land policies, energy policies, fuel crises, the MDGs, financial crises, food crises, education, information, communication, ICTs, food technology, postharvest losses, insecticides, pesticides, food preservation, bureaucracy, the World Bank, the IMF, donor countries which give us wrong support, and donor institution like DFID and the European Union. You can talk of health, science and technology, and manufacturing. This is what is lacking.We have iron but we cannot manufacture iron. We cannot use it. Anybody who cannot use iron is a slave. It will be used against you. That is why the USA can intervene in all countries because they know how to use iron. On gender balance, when you talk of poverty eradication, it is not food only. It is about job creations for our women and youths, our mining policies, mining agreements, corruption in establishing our contracts and agreements. The world must feel for Africa for the pittance. They get something worth US$1 million and sell it for US$10 billion that will ruin the African continent. We produce what we do not eat or use, and eat what we do not produce. There is backwardness in technology and brain drainage. Some African countries had to liberate some African countries politically. Now, how can we come together? The only way we can reduce poverty in Africa is by have to becoming a united continent and building a United Nations of Africa.Thank you.HON. SUAD AL-FATIH AL BADAWI [SUDAN]:Madam President, I thank you but I have 6 a project which I would like to share with my colleagues here. If there is no time to do this, then I cannot speak because it will take over three minutes to explain.THE THIRD VICE PRESIDENT:I take note of that. Three more minutes are added to your time.HON. SUAD AL-FATIH AL BADAWI:To start with, I believe that poverty is superficial in Africa. It is merely due to the lack of mature policies, applicable ideas and proper advocacy. Let me move very quickly. I have a project for poverty eradication. It is not just words, condemnation and lamentation. It is a down to earth project which I started in my country. I work with the grassroots all the time. We figured out this project with other NGOs and two banks – the Micro Finance Bank and the Farmers’ Bank back at home. We implemented this project and it succeeded.The project was made up of two groups. The first one was the group for housewives and the Micro Finance Bank. The second one was the group for farmers who were either illiterate or university graduates, and the Farmer’s Bank. I believe that housewives are the most trained group. They are naturally trained to manage their houses. Therefore, we figured out that the house, whether it was a shack, a hut or a palace, should have its own food grown inside the house. How could this be done?We managed, through the micro-finance, to borrow money which was refundable by the family itself. We bought the farming inputs. For example, we bought seeds for seasonal vegetables to be planted by the housewives for two to three years. They also reared fifteen chickens so that the housewife should not have to go out to the market place to buy anything. We furnished them and trained them in maize and vegetable production and it worked.At the end of the month, the housewife would take all the meat and chicken products, eggs, vegetables and fruits to a market place where she would sell them and bring back the money from which she would refund her loan and use the rest to raise her standard of living. It worked because this project cost us US$170 to US$200 dollars only. Since it succeeded, we are taking it as a pilot plan. Now, we are taking it to the rural areas and I think that it will be less expensive.This will cut down on prices because if all the farmers will not go and buy meat, vegetables, fruits and what not, all prices will be cut down. However, this is just a pilot plan, and I think it will do this in the near future.As far as farmers are concerned, they are either graduates from university or illiterate poor farmers. I do not care about mechanisation. I think that the farmer should use his own traditional tools to cultivate the land. We have land and water. We also have men who think. It is all there. Therefore, let them do this. Take all the farmers for farming and let all the housewives and women make food inside the house so that the farmers, through the Farmers’ Bank, will get small loans and try to cultivate their land.The idea behind this is that on the one hand, we cut down prices in the market place and, on the other, train the farmers to better their products for export and come back with cash. This will enable us to recognise and raise the standard of living of families.This project has been implemented in Sudan and has lifted 169 families out of poverty. I know that it is a small number but when we go to the rural areas and other states of Sudan. I think that it will help in lifting people out of poverty in a smooth and practical way without any kind of rotary, condemnation, lamentation or corruption. This is because the people who are responsible for poverty eradication are the poor people themselves and, in very few years, I believe that they will be well off.Thank you very much.MR. RETSELISITSOE MABUTHE [REPRESENTING THE COMMISSIONER FOR SOCIAL AFFAIRS, AUC]:Mr President, Hon. Members, I must say that we have received more than we had bargained for. This is the most constructive feedback that we ever expected from Hon. Members.I would just like to tell Hon. Members that in my presentation, I limited myself to the home-grown policies and strategies and that is why I only spoke about the Lagos Plan of Action, Abuja, NEPAD and now the Agenda 2063.The reason is that we are not saying the previous policies and strategies have failed. We are saying that like any other person-made plans initiatives and programmes, we always have to review, improve, learn from mistakes and come up with new approaches that will give better results.What has happened here with the current Lagos Plan of Action is that we are saying the Plan was hijacked 7 by those outside through the platform that we share globally, which may be the Britten-Wood institutions and the UN system. They came in to influence and urge Africa to implement their foreign policies.Hon. Members will agree with me that donations are not merely donations. When some people look at them at the surface, they would believe that these countries love Africa so much that they are just giving us their monies. They bring the donations and tell us which programmes to implement. This means we are implementing the foreign policies of the donor countries.What is the role of the august House? The presentation of these programmes is basically to request Hon. Members that when they go back to their respective National Assemblies, they should remind member States, through the Heads of State and Government, that they ratify so many things at the continental level but domestication and implementation is a problem.We have all these things but we are failing to implement them because they are not integrated into national plans. The AU cannot come and impose things that South Africa or Lesotho do not want to implement. We need to try by all means to make sure that whatever is out there, ratified and agreed to at the continental level, if it is going to bear positive results for us, is incorporated into our planning, budgeting system and we put in place monitoring and evaluation frameworks so that these people can report back.The other issue that I would like to respond to, considering the time constraint, is the generic proposal. When we unpack the proposal, all the issues that were raised by Hon. Members are there.The issue of agricultural research is high in our agenda. We have a programme called Africa Research Grant (ARG) which we are implementing with the EU. We are looking at post-harvest technologies, water and sanitation, and renewable energy.Another issue which was also raised is that of gender. Gender is an integral part of our planning and we know that all member States have gender high on their agenda. There is no way we can overlook the role of women in all that we are proposing.Hon. Members, I wish to, once again, request that this has to be a joint force. Technocrats will propose these things through their research and observations, and come to you to propose programmes that have to be implemented. The role of Hon. Members is to ensure that these are integrated into national plans and into to regional plans. That is the only way we can make headways in terms of eradicating poverty.I thank you.MR TOBIAS TAKAVARASHA [THE FOOD AND AGRICULTURE ORGANISATION (FAO) REPRESENTATIVE FOR SOUTH AFRICA]:I thank you, Mr President.I will reiterate our appreciation and acknowledgement in joining my colleague from the AU that we view ourselves as technocrats, technical advisors, who are led by the priorities set by the member States where we then come in, particularly speaking for the FAO, to provide the necessary technical advice such as sharing best practices and knowledge, but in support of the priorities set by the member States. In that scope, we acknowledge all that Parliament is and the role it can play in motivating member States to implement the programmes.Listening to this debate that has been very enriching and helpful, it helps us to understand from a technical point of view that we do not operate in a vacuum but there are many players out there. From women empowerment groups, various Parliamentarians in their different spheres of life, will guide us in what we do. In listening to this discussion, Mr President, I quickly summarised some very generic recurring themes that the Hon. members were raising such as good governance, political stability, capacity development, agricultural research, political will, regional integration, value addition, need for funding for agriculture, youth and women empowerment, focus on intra-Africa trade, focus on African ownership and home-grown agendas. Focus should be on implementation, not just planning, and there should be focus on monitoring mechanisms.There are, in addition to those, specific areas which I picked out and which I could quickly just respond to as FAO. In particular is the issue of South-South Co-operation. We view it as a very major step in supporting and utilising the brains that we have in Africa, where we can take experienced experts from one African country and not necessarily just from outside Africa to support another country, we believe that this is a partnership that FAO is already doing with a number of countries to promote South-South Co-operation.Having discussed and listened to the discussion on the brain drain in Africa, we also believe that this could be one way of leveraging the expertise that is scattered everywhere to focus our efforts into agriculture and South-South Co-operation.A point was raised regarding the WFP/FAO Partnership and I wish to explain that the UN system is being encouraged to operate as one where we can and there are many instances in many countries where, in fact, the WFP/FAO jointly execute programmes. We have one example where the WFP purchases food products from small-holder farmers to distribute into areas of need while the FAO partners with them in ensuring that the production takes place to the rightful quantities and qualities needed.There was also reference to the running of the private sector. We are increasingly realising that it is an untapped resource in terms of the expertise that lies in the private sector. We have spoken of the need for employment creation through agro-processing and value addition and the private sector has a major role to play and FAO has developed a Private Sector and Civil Society Organisation Partnership Strategy which we are in the process of implementing.There was a particular reference to seed technologies - appropriate seeds that are developed and researched within Africa and mention of genetically modified products and, in our view, at the moment, we are focusing very much on the traditional conventional research that we have been accustomed to and where seed varieties are introduced to new technologies, we are saying that countries should have strict bio-safety regulations that enable them to understand what they are importing or using. That is why we are supporting, very much, funding for strengthening agricultural research so that some scientists in some particular countries can correctly advise and analyse measures that are suitable for the African countries.Finally, on the issue of youths and women empowerment; it is something that we give strict attention in term of recognising that the majority of farmers in Africa are women headed and, therefore need appropriate programmes. The youth empowerment is a major issue. We are encouraged by many countries which are already setting up funding mechanisms and facilities, that require no collateral, which enable youths to use their youthfulness and skills to promote and create jobs for themselves.My final word Hon. Members and Mr. President, is to say, again, thank you for this opportunity for the FAO and AU, on our behalf, to have come to address you.Thank you.THE PRESIDENT:Honourable Members, may I, on your behalf, thank our guest speakers who have made very wonderful and enlightening presentation. May we, please, give them another round of applause.ApplauseHon. Members, may I call on the Clerk of Parliament to make some house-keeping announcements.ANNOUNCEMENTSTHE CLERK OF PARLIAMENT:Thank you, Mr President. There will be the following meetings taking place this afternoon:The Western African Caucus at 2:15 p.m. in Committee Room No. 1.The Eastern African Caucus at 2:30 p.m. in Committee No.2.The Southern African Caucus at 2:30 p.m. in Committee Room No. 3.The Central African Caucus at 2:30 p.m. in Committee Room No. 4.The Northern African Caucus at 2:30 p.m. in Committee Room No. 5.After these caucus meetings, there will be a meeting of the Women’s Caucus at 3:30 p.m. in Committee Room No. 3.I thank you, Mr. President.THE PRESIDENT:Thank you very much. Hon. Members, we have now come to the end of our business for today and, therefore, this House stands adjourned until Monday the 28thOctober, 2013 at 09:00 a.m. May I use this opportunity to remind all Hon. Members that tomorrow, Friday, the 25th of October, 2013, we will have a dialogue on Education for All which will start at 09:00 a.m. and I urge that 9 all Hon. Members be present for this because we shall take attendance as usual.Thank you very much and God bless you.
Monday, 28 October, 2013
THE PRESIDENT:Please, be seated.COMMUNICATION FROM THE CHAIRTHE PRESIDENT:Hon. Members, in accordance with Rule 9 of the Rules of Procedure, we shall now swear in new Members.The following Hon. Members took the Oath of Solemn Declaration, signed it and took their seats:1) Hon. Mohamed Abdullahi Kamil –[Somalia ]2) Hon. Bibi Khalif Mohamed – [Somalia]3) Hon. Rachel Shebesh – [Kenya]4) Hon. Milly Grace Akhof.. Abone – [Kenya]THE PRESIDENT:The Clerk shall now read the first Order of the Day.THE CLERK:Presentation and Debate on Peace and Security in Africa and Presentation and Debate on the Report on the Fact-Finding Mission to the Central African Republic.THE PRESIDENT:Hon. Members, may I call upon Hon. Saleh Kebzabo, the Deputy Chairperson of the Committee on Co-operation, International Relations and Conflict Resolution to present the Committee’s report.HON. KEBZABO SALEH [PRÉSIDENT DE LA COMMISSION PERMANENTE DE LA COOPÉRATION, DES RELATIONS INTERNATIONALES ET DE RÈGLEMENT DES CONFLITS]:Monsieur le Président, bonjour!Chers collègues, bonjour!Comme vous le voyez, ce rapport va être présenté dans des conditions inhabituelles, à savoir que le Commissaire de l’Union africaine ou son représentant chargé des questions de paix et de sécurité n’est pas présent dans notre salle, alors qu’en principe c’est lui qui devrait faire, en quelque sorte, ce qu’on peut appeler l’exposé introductif et nous, le PAP, on fait le rapport sur la situation.C’est donc un petit handicap!Le deuxième handicap vient de ce que la Commission Permanente de la Coopération, des relations internationales et de Règlement des conflits elle-même a travaillé dans des conditions inhabituelles, surtout par manque de temps, et pour une question de méthode qui n’a pas été bien assimilée, je crois, parce que l’Institut des Relations internationales d’Afrique du Sud avec lequel on travaille, a dû rendre ses exposés plus tard que prévu, ne donnant donc pas le temps à notre assistante de bien travailler le rapport pour qu’à notre tour, on puisse le reprendre en main et le finaliser. 0 Ce n’est que pratiquement ce week-end – alors que j’étais en retraite – qu’on a pu retravailler sur la dernière mouture du rapport, dont je trouve qu’il est relativement long. Vous l’avez entre les mains et si je devais lire ce rapport, je le ferai pendant, pratiquement, une heure et vingt minutes. C’est le temps que j’ai calculé.Je crois que je ne vais pas vous asséner cette lecture.Je vais, puisque vous avez une copie et surtout que je pense que la copie en anglais était disponible depuis vendredi ou samedi dernier, si vous l’avez eue, vous l’auriez donc lue.Je vais donc passer en revue tous les pays qui sont concernés.Les pays concernés par notre rapport sont: le Mali, la Guinée Conakry, le Kenya, la République Démocratique du Congo (RDC), le Madagascar et la Somalie.Situation en République du Mali:Je vais commencer par le Mali.Le Mali, si vous vous souvenez des événements qui, maintenant, datent de moins de deux ans, est l’exemple type d’une mauvaise décolonisation. On a assisté à des événements qui, en quelques jours, ont pratiquement provoqué l’effondrement de l’État, aucune des structures en place ne pouvait tenir, l’armée en particulier a fui devant les rebelles et l’État était pratiquement inexistant en dehors de Bamako.C’est dans ces conditions que ce qu’on appelle couramment les djihadistes, c'est-à-dire les mouvements de libération qui se réclament de l’islam – ils sont essentiellement trois ou quatre – ont donc occupé le terrain. Il s’agit du Mouvement National pour la Libération de l’Azawad (MNLA), Al-Qaïda au Maghreb Islamique (AQMI), le Mouvement pour l’Unicité et le Jihad en Afrique de l’Ouest (MUJAO) et le Mouvement Arabe de l’Azawad (MAA).Ces mouvements ont, chacun, pris position dans la région du Grand Nord qui constitue pratiquement les 2/3 de la République du Mali. C’est sous leur férule et sous leur pouvoir que les populations ont enduré toutes les situations pendant plus d’un an; et la situation s’est amplifiée de mal en pis au point que dans le coup final qui a été porté, c’est la République du Mali elle-même qui était en danger.Donc, les Chefs d’États se sont concertés et se sont mis d’accord pour que la France intervienne. Nous pouvons dire que c’est grâce à l’intervention française de janvier, soutenue par des pays africains comme le Tchad et le Niger, que l’avancée des djihadistes sur Bamako a été stoppée, permettant ainsi l’arrêt de tous leurs affrontements, parce qu’une à une les villes qui étaient occupées – Tombouctou, Gao jusqu’au Nord Tessalit – ont été libérées, donnant donc la voie à une situation nouvelle.Sur le plan militaire aujourd’hui, c’est sous la férule des Nations-Unies qu’une mission, la Mission multidimensionnelle intégrée des Nations-Unies pour la stabilisation du Mali (MINUSMA) – qui doit en principe, au final, avoir douze mille six cents (12.600) soldats – a été constituée pour aider le Mali à se reconstruire politiquement et économiquement.Politiquement, ce qu’il faut retenir de la situation aujourd’hui, c’est que les mouvements de rébellions sont en perte de vitesse. Il faut surtout que les honorables députés, que vous êtes, comprennent que la situation caractérisée par la rébellion des touaregs est un phénomène qu’on doit comprendre en Afrique où on ne le comprend pas toujours très bien.Les touaregs au Mali représentent environ moins de10 % de la population et dans le Nord qui est la région qu’ils réclament, ils représentent là aussi à peine 10 % de la population. Donc, c’est eux qui sont, aujourd’hui, responsables de toute cette situation et certains de ces mouvements réclament même une certaine autonomie.Si l’autonomie est le fait de la majorité de la population, je pense que les touaregs eux-mêmes ne seraient pas en mesure de gouverner une région qu’ils ne contrôlent pas au plan démographique.C’est donc cette réalité sous-jacente qu’il faut toujours avoir à l’esprit dans cette situation du Mali pour comprendre la suite des événements.Il y a eu dans l’intervention française ce qu’on peut appeler une erreur, pour ne pas dire une faute, qui a été commise lorsqu’une à une les villes du Nord sont tombées et que l’armée malienne a suivi le mouvement en occupant ces villes.Kidal, la dernière ville qui a été reprise n’a pas été remise à l’armée malienne. C’est cette situation là qu’on vit encore aujourd’hui, parce que Kidal reste toujours incontrôlée et c’est là qu’ont lieu tous les mouvements.Du point de vue développement de la rébellion, tout ce qu’on peut constater aujourd’hui, ce sont des 1 coups que les rebelles font à Tombouctou, essentiellement, ou à Gao, de temps en temps des commandos, des kamikazes font des coups, se retirent et on a l’impression que c’est cette guerre asymétrique qui va prendre le relai et qui va continuer à déstabiliser la région. On ne sait pas encore pendant combien de temps. Je crois que c’est le fait le plus marquant qu’on peut retenir aujourd’hui.Sur le plan politique donc, avec l’intervention étrangère, les Maliens ont été aux urnes pour élire un président de la République et cela s’est passé en juillet dernier. Contre toute attente, l’élection s’est bien déroulée et les résultats ont été unanimement acceptés. C’est ainsi que le Président Ibrahim Boubacar KEITA a gagné l’élection au deuxième tour avec 76,5 % des voix.Dès qu’il a été élu, il a prêté serment et a installé son gouvernement. Il a mis en place un Forum qui doit en principe, dans les jours qui viennent, se réunir essentiellement sur la question du Nord, parce que c’est le problème le plus important au Mali, aujourd’hui. Il a aussi mis dans son gouvernement un portefeuille pour le Développement et la Réconciliation, essentiellement pour les régions du Nord.Donc, voilà les grands défis qui se présentent au nouveau Président élu qui a déjà convoqué le corps électoral pour les élections législatives qui vont, je crois, avoir lieu le 24 novembre, dans une situation des hommes politiques assez confuse, parce que les partis politiques n’étaient pas assez préparés pour cela. Mais tout a été mis en place avec la suite de l’élection présidentielle et l’appui des pays et donateurs pour que le Mali puisse traverser ce cap du 24 novembre, avec une Assemblée élue, légitimement et ainsi définitivement, le pouvoir élu permettant de relever les autres défis qui sont l’uniténationale et le développement.À propos de développement, vous vous rappelez qu’il y a quelques mois, tous les donateurs se s’étaient réunis à Bruxelles et s’étaient mis d’accord sur un programme de développement de plus de trois milliards de dollars (3.000.000.000 $) qui a été accepté. Si cette somme devait être octroyée pour le développement du Mali, elle permettrait au Mali de redécoller définitivement et de se mettre au diapason des pays qui doivent dans une ère de paix et de stabilité.Je ne vais pas finir avec le Mali sans dire qu’il y a quand même une donne militaire assez importante, parce que vous vous rappelez qu’en mars de l’année dernière, des jeunes militaires ont fait un coup d’État qui n’a été pratiquement soutenu par personne, sauf quelques factions à l’intérieur du pays et ce sont ceux-là qui ont contribué à la déstabilisation du pays, à l’accentuation plus précisément, de la déstabilisation au point qu’il a fallu qu’avec les élections et la légitimation d’un pouvoir, ces militaires soient au fur et à mesure écartés.Aujourd’hui, on pense que leur position est devenue très marginale dans le pays.Voilà ce qu’il faut retenir pour le Mali.Situation en République de Guinée Conakry:Le deuxième pays est la Guinée. La Guinée dont il faut rappeler que c’est un pays qui a pratiquement vécu pendant cinquante ans sous la dictature par manque de démocratie. C’est cette situation qui a été héritée par le pouvoir civil actuel, après les élections présidentielles de 2010.Aujourd’hui, le Président Alpha CONDÉ – qui a été élu en 2010 dans des conditions souvent pas très claires et pas très appréciées par les autres partis politiques – fait face à une situation politique et économique assez tendue.Pour ce qui concerne la situation économique, ceux qui connaissent la Guinée ou ceux qui y vont, savent que l’un des premiers défis, c’est le manque de l’énergie dans le pays. Quand vous arrivez à Conakry, ce qui vous frappe le plus, c’est l’obscurité la nuit. Il n’y a pratiquement pas d’électricité dans un seul quartier, même le système par rotation qui a été mis en place ne marche plus. Le pouvoir n’arrive pas à régler ce problème essentiel qui est celui de l’énergie. On attend la mise en route d’un barrage qui doit produire 175 Mégawatts dans deux ans, mais les gens sont assez sceptiques sur cette échéance.Le deuxième défi est celui des mines.En Afrique de l’Ouest, la Guinée est présentée comme étant le pays le plus riche au plan du soussol. C’est en effet, un pays qui a d’immenses potentialités de sous-sol, notamment le fer, la bauxite et autres qui, malheureusement, ont fait l’objet d’une exploitation pas toujours bonnes, dans des conditions de relations avec les partenaires étrangers, pas toujours de meilleures, amenant le Président Alpha CONDÉ à annuler, pratiquement, tous les contrats de concession minière qui étaient octroyés avant lui et on les a évalué à environ 800 contrats.Alors, quand vous avez à faire à une situation politique déjà difficile et qu’au plan économique, une situation non moins difficile qui vous amène à faire face à des pouvoirs économiques parfois étrangers assez puissants, je pense que tous les ingrédients sont en place pour qu’on dise qu’une déstabilisation de la Guinée est possible.Le point phare sur le plan des contrats miniers qu’il faut peut-être vous citer, c’est qu’un des concessionnaires qui a acquis sous le régime du Président CONTÉ, le défunt CONTÉ, le militaire qui était au pouvoir avant Alpha CONDÉ, donc il y a un groupe minier franco-israélien qui a acquis une concession pour environ 145 millions de dollars.Puis, quelques années après, ce groupe a scindé cette concession en deux et a vendu une partie à plus de 2 milliards de dollars.Donc, c’est ce scandale qui a fait fâcher le Président CONDÉ et qui a dit que tous les contrats ont été signés dans des conditions léonines et qu’il ne les reconnaît plus.Aujourd’hui, ils sont en train de renégocier, contrat par contrat, et pour un souci de transparence, un site web a été ouvert à la Présidence – que tout le monde peut consulter – sur les nouveaux accords signés avec les entreprises minières.Au plan politique donc, c’est dans ce contexte que le Président Alpha CONDÉ, après avoir gagné les élections présidentielles, devait en principe, d’après la Constitution provisoire, organiser des élections législatives six mois après, mais il n’a pas pu le faire.Il n’a pas pu, il n’a pas voulu ou les conditions politiques et économiques ne lui ont pas permis d’organiser ces élections dans les délais prévus, et finalement ces élections n’ont eu lieu que le 28 septembre dernier. Et fait unique en Afrique, il a fallu plus de trois semaines pour qu’on annonce les résultats provisoires.Aujourd’hui encore, on attend que la Cour Suprême valide les résultats qui ont été annoncés par la Commission Électorale Nationale Indépendante (CENI). Ces résultats dont les chiffres sont dans le rapport mettent certes, le parti du Président en tête, mais ne lui donnent pas la majorité à l’Assemblée nationale.C’est donc cette situation politique nouvelle qu’il faut observer avec toutes les tensions que cela peut provoquer – et que vous pouvez imaginer – entre le parti au pouvoir et les partis de l’Opposition qui sont pratiquement maîtres du terrain et qui, après chaque difficulté, après chaque affrontement politique, lancent des gens dans la rue pour des manifestations qui ont déjà amené, depuis l’année dernière, à provoquer plus d’une cinquantaine de morts dans les manifestations. En dessous, en fin fond de cette tension politique, se trouve une tension ethnique dont on a toujours parlée – et qu’on déplore en Guinée – et qui s’accentue de plus en plus entre les deux ou trois principales ethnies du pays.Voilà pour ce qui concerne la Guinée! Le défi étant la sortie des résultats des élections législatives qui se sont déroulées, il y a quelques semaines, pour amener le Président CONDÉ, avec un peu plus de légitimité, à entamer un programme qui doit amener les Guinéens à travailler beaucoup, de plus en plus, vers l’unité nationale et à surmonter les difficultés ethniques, et sur le plan économique à relever les défis, que j’ai évoqués, qui sont des défis du point de vue de l’énergie essentielle et le défi du contrôle par le pays, des mines et des immenses richesses du sous-sol de la République de Guinée.Situation au Kenya:Le troisième pays est le Kenya.Au Kenya, vous vous rappelez que les élections de mars 2013 ont porté au pouvoir le Président Uhuru Kenyatta en tant que premier Président à diriger l’institution réformée et un gouvernement décentralisé dans son pays. Son rôle est particulièrement crucial.Les élections précédentes, d’il y a cinq ans, s’étaient déroulées dans des conditions, vous vous rappelez, de violences qui ont provoqué beaucoup de morts et qui ont amené la Cour Pénale Internationale (CPI) à inscrire le Kenya parmi les pays qui doivent être poursuivis et en particulier certains dirigeants qui, à l’époque, n’étaient pas des dirigeants élus comme aujourd’hui et qui le sont aujourd’hui, le Président et le Vice-président. Le Président Uhuru et son Viceprésident Ruto sont poursuivis par la Cour Pénale Internationale.Vous vous rappelez les derniers épisodes qui ont amené l’Union africaine, elle-même, à se saisir de cette question qui, aujourd’hui, est devenue une des questions importantes dans les relations Nord-Sud et dans les relations de la CPI avec les pays africains.Les pays africains de l’Union africaine pensent, peut-être avec raison, peut être avec des sentiments parfois mêlés – je ne sais pas quel mot il faut employer pour le caractériser – d’un certain parti pris et surtout, je crois, avec le désir de se protéger.Les pays africains et leurs dirigeants contestent très sérieusement la CPI qu’ils considèrent comme un organe mis en place par le Nord afin de sévir essentiellement, surtout contre les dirigeants des pays africains. C’est un débat! C’est un débat et je crois que là-dessus entre les gouvernants et les citoyens et les hommes politiques, que nous sommes, il y a un débat.Est-ce que la CPI joue son rôle ou est-ce qu’elle privilégie la poursuite des dirigeants africains?Toujours est-il qu’au niveau de l’Union africaine, et contrairement à l’idée qu’on avait pensée développer au départ, on n’a pas rompu avec la CPI.Ce qui est une bonne chose, je crois, et on est dans une situation d’attentisme. Mais cette situation est de nature à ne pas laisser les dirigeants Kényans travailler en toute indépendance et s’occuper des questions de leur pays, ce d’autant que, vous vous rappelez, le 21 septembre précisément, il y a eu une attaque d’un Centre commercial à Nairobi, l’attaque de Westgate a ramené les esprits à la raison et ramené surtout à la réalité.Le Kenya, aujourd’hui, avec son intervention en Somalie, place ce pays dans une situation d’instabilité. Si on n’en prenait pas garde, une instabilité qui pourrait sérieusement perturber le mandat du Président Uhuru Kenyatta. C’est donc cette donne étrangère qui, aujourd’hui, représente un danger pour le développement du Kenya.Comment est-ce que les dirigeants du Kenya vont faire face à ces attaques d’Al-Shabab et auront-ils les moyens surtout d’y faire face et de l’éradiquer, tout en poursuivant le programme de développement démocratique, parce que les élections qui ont eu lieu, de l’aveu de tout le monde, l’ont été dans des conditions de démocratie et de transparence que personne ne remet en cause, à telle enseigne que nous ici, au niveau de notre Commission, nous avions même proposé qu’une délégation se rende au Kenya.Je crois que c’est le lieu de le rappeler, une délégation du PAP devrait aller au Kenya pour voir, s’inspirer de ce qui s’est passé, encourager les dirigeants du Kenya à poursuivre dans la voie démocratique pour qu’il représente un exemple à suivre pour les autres pays de la sous-région et pour les autres pays africains.Voilà essentiellement, quels sont les défis que l’équipe actuelle au pouvoir au Kenya doit relever avec l’appui des autres pays voisins et de l’Union africaine dans le problème de la CPI.Situation en République Démocratique du Congo (RDC):Des pays observés, le pays suivant est la RDC.La RDC qui, au cours de ces six derniers mois, est restée focaliser sur la guerre qui sévit dans la partie orientale du pays, notamment ce face à face direct avec le M23 et en direct avec le Rwanda.On ne peut pas, aujourd’hui, parler de la situation politique au Congo sans évoquer les pays voisins.Certes, la naissance du M23 a mis en exergue cette situation, mais si c’est une situation latente et qui dure depuis des années empêchant, de notre point de vue, le Congo à jouer véritablement son rôle.Le Congo est un pays immense, près de 2.500.000 km2. Donc, gouverner un pays aussi immense est déjà en soi un grand défi. Quand on sait dans quelle condition ce pays évolue depuis une vingtaine d’années, on peut réaliser quelles sont les difficultés que les dirigeants actuels peuvent rencontrer pour s’occuper du développement de leur pays dans des conditions aussi difficiles.Pour ne pas citer tout ce qui s’est passé ces dernières années, on peut s’arrêter sur ce qui se passe actuellement, pour constater avec tout le monde que le M23 qui existe dans le Kivu, dans le nord Kivu précisément, empêche le gouvernement central d’avoir un contrôle effectif sur cette région qui est très riche, qui est extrêmement riche, et je pense que ce sont ces richesses qui sont à la base de la déstabilisation du Congo.Le Rwanda, en particulier – qui a été cité par un rapport des Nations-Unies – a été accusé d’avoir été à la base de la formation du M23 qu’il a armé et dont on dit parfois que ce sont ses propres hommes aussi qui sont entrés en territoire congolais.Le Rwanda, évidemment, s’en défend et dit que son seul souci c’est de lutter contre ceux qui veulent le déstabiliser et qui sont réfugiés au Congo depuis les années 90.C’est donc sur ce combat entre les deux pays que la situation reste figée et c’est ce qui a amené les Nations-Unies à renforcer les pouvoirs de la Mission de l'Organisation des Nations Unies pour la Stabilisation en République Démocratique du Congo (MONUSCO) qui, aujourd’hui, avec une force d’environ 18.000 hommes, a le pouvoir et la capacité d’intervenir militairement. Mais beaucoup d’observateurs pensent que la MONUSCO ne joue pas son rôle jusqu’au bout. Elle se contente et s’est 4 contentée, comme la dernière fois – c’est déjà beaucoup – d’empêcher la reprise de Goma, mais elle aurait pu, puisque le mandat l’en autorise, poursuivre le M23 jusqu’à, peut-être, le bouter hors du territoire congolais. Je pense que là aussi, c’est une donne internationale que l’on ne maîtrise pas. Quel est l’agenda effectif des grands pays et des Nations-Unies sur le Congo? Ceux qui, peut-être, en ont la réponse, pourront intervenir dans le débat pour nous dire exactement quel est le future de ce pays avec cette situation inexplicable qui gangrène le développement politique et économique du Congo et empêche le Président KABILA, en tout cas, de mener à son terme tout son programme.Il y a eu ces dernières semaines un grand forum qui a réuni autour du pouvoir, pratiquement, toutes les forces politiques du pays pour aboutir à un grand gouvernement de cohésion nationale qui doit être bientôt mis en place.Est-ce que c’est la solution finale ou l’une des solutions essentielles pouvant amener le Président KABILA à reprendre en main, avec beaucoup plus d’efficacités et de réussite, le développement de son pays?C’est ce qu’on verra!En tout cas, il a prononcé un discours la semaine dernière qui a résumé un peu tous les points forts de ce forum et dont on attend la mise en œuvre, en particulier de ce gouvernement de grande ouverture, dont on va voir s’il va effectivement comprendre toutes les forces du pays pour permettre, enfin, au Congo d’agir dans une unité beaucoup plus grande avec plus d’efficacités pour que le pays se concentre, enfin, dans l’unité, à se battre pour le développement de la démocratie et pour faire avancer le développement économique du pays.Situation à Madagascar:Madagascar, depuis mars 2009, vit dans une crise dont on espère qu’elle connaîtra son aboutissement dans les jours et semaines qui viennent.En mars 2009, vous vous rappelez, le Président élu, Marc Ravalomanana, a été chassé du pouvoir par un soulèvement populaire conduit, à l’époque, par le jeune Andry Rajoelina. Celui-ci, depuis quatre ans pratiquement, dirige un gouvernement provisoire, repoussant de mois en mois, d’année en année, les élections qui doivent être organisées.Je crois que la Communauté internationale a marquéson ras-le-bol et a imposé que les élections se déroulent, maintenant, très rapidement afin que le pays sorte de cette crise qui l’empêche politiquement et économiquement de réaliser son programme et d’affronter les défis qui se présentent à lui.Avec le soutien de l’Union africaine et des Nations-Unies, des élections présidentielles vont donc avoir lieu – je n’ai pas exactement le calendrier, je n’ai pasécouté les informations ces jours-ci – mais en principe le cycle des élections devait commencer avec, comme vous l’avez suivi, les principaux dirigeants du pays qui en ont été écartés selon la volonté, d’abord, de la communauté internationale pour que les textes législatifs soient respectés. Donc, les principaux dirigeants politiques connus, le Président actuel et ses trois prédécesseurs, ont été écartés de la course présidentielle.Est-ce que cette méthode pourra amener le pays à une paix démocratique, à une paix politique?Lorsqu’un nouveau pouvoir issu des urnes sera installé, aura-t-il véritablement la légitimité qu’il faut et disposera-t-il des capacités de contrôle de toutes les autres forces politiques et en particulier les forces militaires dont on ne sait pas encore, jusqu’ici, quelle est la position par rapport à tout ce qui se passe depuis quelques années? C’est cela la question que tout le monde se pose!Mais les dispositions sont prises pour que ces élections se déroulent de façon transparente parce que même les bulletins, pour une fois je crois, les bulletins eux-mêmes ont été sécurisés et tout le processus électoral a été sécurisé.C’est donc un défi très important pour Madagascar!Cette étape est une étape historique qui devait donc, comme je l’ai dit tout à l’heure, lui permettre de traverser tous les écueils qu’il a connus jusqu’ici, et enfin, peut-être, grâce à ce processus électoral de s’inscrire véritablement dans la démocratie pour que le pays sorte de ce cycle de violence qui date, en fait de plus de quatre ans. Cela fait plus de dix ans que Madagascar vit dans cette situation de crise et on ne peut pas dire que dans ces conditions le pays puisse véritablement se développer.Nous souhaitons, en tout cas, que les élections se déroulent dans de bonnes conditions et ouvrent la voie à une situation politique beaucoup plus sereine et favorable à permettre à Madagascar de s’inscrire dans une autre optique, une optique de développement et d’unité nationale.Situation en Somalie:La Somalie est présente dans nos rapports à chaque session et pour cause. Je ne vais pas rappeler ici, quels sont les faits précédents, quelle est l’histoire récente du pays et pourquoi le pays est plongé dans une situation de déstabilisation chronique, puisque un nouveau mot est né dans les langues française ou anglaise pour caractériser un pays qui est dans le désordre, c’est la « somalisation ».Quand un pays a des problèmes, comme on l’a vu au Mali récemment, on dit qu’il y a des risques de « somalisation ». Au Congo on dit qu’il y a des risques de « somalisation ». Donc, le nom Somalie a donné naissance à un nouveau mot qu’on appelle « somalisation » et qui veut dire déstabilisation chronique. C’est cela la situation actuelle de notre cher pays, la Somalie, qui depuis plus de vingt ans, vit effectivement dans une situation de déstabilisation que personne n’arrive à contrôler.Je crois que c’est le lieu ici, de souligner le rôle de l’Africain. On l’a vu tout à l’heure au Mali, un peu avec la France, les pays africains sont intervenus pour permettre la remise sur pied du pays, mais en Somalie, c’est essentiellement les pays africains qui interviennent. Ce sont les armées africaines qui interviennent. Le Kenya, le Burundi, l’Ouganda et l’Éthiopie sont les pays qui ont envoyés des troupes en Somalie et qui ont fait qu’aujourd’hui, s’il y a un espoir que le gouvernement actuel puisse avoir un peu plus de légitimité et qu’on arrive enfin à organiser des élections, c’est grâce à des pays africains.Je crois qu’il faut le souligner, et c’est à l’actif de l’Union africaine et dire comme certains de nos collègues l’ont proposé, qu’il faut que d’autres pays africains se joignent à ces quatre pays que je viens de citer, pour que la charge soit un peu plus supportée par d’autres, parce qu’une intervention militaire coûte chère. Aucun pays africain n’a véritablement les moyens d’envoyer des milliers de soldats dans un autre pays, parce qu’il faut tout le support, toute l’intendance, tout le financement, que nous n’avons pas, et qui nous amènerait à le faire au détriment de notre propre développement.Donc, vous voyez quelle est l’importance, comment il faut apprécier l’intervention de ces quatre pays en Somalie. C’est vrai que la communauté internationale, en particulier, je crois l’Union européenne et les Nations-Unies soutiennent fortement ces pays. Mais, je crois que pour que la palme soit vraiment remportée par les pays africains, il faudrait que d’autres pays se joignent à ceux-là pour aider la Somalie – et nous pensons que c’est possible – à entrer dans un cycle qui ne fasse plus fi à la violence; un cycle qui, dans une Somalie unie, peut permettre au pays, je crois, d’aborder une ère nouvelle, d’aller à des élections et peut-être d’en finir avec la guerre dans les mois ou dans les années qui vont suivre. Si ce pays doit être abandonné à son triste sort, ce qu’on appelle la « somalisation » va encore se poursuivre et il est à craindre que dans ces conditions là, la Somalie ne soit rayée de la carte avec la création de plusieurs États.Le rapport sur ce point est assez précis. Il décrit de façon détaillée, l’évolution de ces derniers mois, pour montrer à quel point les acteurs intérieurs et extérieurs conjuguent leurs efforts pour permettre à la Somalie de sortir de cette situation.Nous pensons qu’avec le New Deal, le document qui a été accepté par tous les partenaires, le New Deal somalien pourrait enfin aboutir, de sorte qu’avec l’aide des donateurs, le pays puisse affronter les défis fondamentaux qui se présentent à lui pour que demain le mot « somalisation » soit retiré du vocabulaire et qu’on dise que ce pays a enfin pris la voie du consensus, de l’unité, du développement et de la démocratie.Voilà essentiellement chers collègues – j’ai dû résumer pour ne pas vous infliger une lecture lourde – puisque vous avez le document en main, je vous en ai fait une restitution sommaire pour nous permettre d’avoir beaucoup plus de temps dans le débat, parce que nous seuls, à la Commission, nous ne détenons pas la vérité.Nous savons que dans cette salle, il y a beaucoup d’autres personnes qui peuvent, au cours de ce débat, apporter une contribution positive.Monsieur le Président,Arrivé à ce stade de mon exposé pour tirer une conclusion générale, je voudrais faire une observation d’approche.Nous, au sein de notre Commission, nous recevons régulièrement l’Institut des Relations internationales d’Afrique du Sud qui nous fait des rapports sur les pays africains en crise afin de nous donner les éléments devant nous permettre de faire un rapport en plénière.Vivant cette situation régulièrement et connaissant aussi certains mécanismes de fonctionnement de 6 notre « Maison », nous pensons qu’il y a parfois des déperditions financières et d’énergies.Dans cette salle, je suis certain qu’il y a d’éminentes personnalités – il y a des chercheurs; il y a des hommes politiques; il y a des scientifiques – qui sont capables de nous produire des rapports beaucoup plus probants et en phase avec la réalité que ce que nous recevons des experts qu’on paye chèrement et qui nous produisent des rapports qui ne sont, peut-être pas souvent, à la hauteur de ce qu’on attend.Donc, c’est le lieu pour moi, Monsieur le Président, de lancer un appel au Bureau pour que, véritablement, si on veut travailler dans de bonnes conditions et faire appel à des ressources intellectuelles probantes, il faut sortir des sentiers battus.Il faut que nous envisagions l’avenir du PAP avec un appel à des ressources intellectuelles beaucoup plus probantes, beaucoup plus riches et beaucoup plus efficientes, devant vraiment, nous permettre d’avoir des éléments de travail basés sur des faits qui sont irréfutables et qui, du point de vue intellectuel, peuvent nous apporter quelque chose qui serait irréfutable.Donc voilà la conclusion que je voulais tirer, et la conclusion par rapport à la situation de paix et de sécurité en Afrique. Cette situation présente encore des zones d’ombre. Notre continent n’est pas entièrement à l’abri de crises et de soubresauts beaucoup plus graves qui pourraient venir nous déstabiliser.Regardez un peu la carte de l’Afrique et vous verrez que de l’Afrique du Nord en passant par l’Afrique de l’Ouest, l’Afrique Centrale et l’Afrique Australe, partout où nous regardons, il y a des foyers de tension.C’est à cela qu’il faut que les dirigeants africains consacrent leurs efforts pour que des crises qui, parfois ont des fondements politiques, par exemple le refus de la démocratie, que ces crises puissent être surmontées afin que notre continent, de plus en plus, s’inscrive dans le concert des nations qui veulent continuer dans une démocratie transparente en organisant des élections transparentes pour que nous puissions entamer le chemin de notre développement par la démocratie.Je vous remercie.(Applaudissements).HON. ISSAC STEPHEEN MABILEATSA:Thank you Mr President and good morning to you all.The mission to the Central African Republic was led by Hon. Mohamed Guidji. Unfortunately, he had to fly back home last Friday. I am, therefore, standing in for him. I am sure that all of you have received a copy of the main report. Before I proceed, let me indicate to you, Hon. Colleagues that I will not read it as it is. I have tried to leave out some of the items that I believe are not really part of the crisis in the CAR. However, we will read about them in the report. They are very important.Let me start by saying that the latest developments in the political, security and humanitarian situation in the CAR caught the attention of the PAP which resolved to send a fact-finding mission to the country. The mission took place from 2nd to 4th September, 2013. The central theme, one of the promotion of the principles of humanitarian rights and democracy in Africa, the PAP had, during the Seventh Ordinary Session of the Third Parliament held from 6th to 17th May, 2013, taken the resolution to send a fact-finding mission to CAR in light of the political, security and humanitarian situation in that country.The objective of the fact-finding mission was to gather maximum information from members of the transitional government, political forces, civil society organisations, international organisations and religious groups in order to enlighten the PAP in accordance with its constitutive role and pursuant to the Protocol establishing it.The composition of the members of the mission is in the report. You will see the list and, therefore, I will not go through the names.Preparation of the mission in CARThe National Transitional Council (NTC) of the CAR had set up an organising committee composed of four members of the transitional Government - two former members of the PAP and eight members of the administrative secretariat. The organising committee of this PAP mission warmly welcomed and effectively assisted the mission of the PAP to settle and effectively carry out its task and mandate.Hon. Gina Rouso-Songs, member of the organising committee, member of the NTC and former Member of the PAP was designated to accompany the PAP Mission members to different meetings that the mission attended.Institutions and personalities consultedAgain, it is a long list in the report. You can read who the mission met from members of the transitional Government, national council, political parties, civil society organisations, religious groups, the media and international organisations. You will read those from the Report.Origin of the political crisisThe current political crisis in the CAR emanates from two causes namely; immediate and historical. Let me talk briefly about the historical causes.There are three causes responsible for the historical political crisis in the CAR. The first one is the poor organisation of the 2011 elections. According to the different stakeholders the mission spoke to, the 2011 elections were marred with irregularities which were disputed by opposition parties. The parties regrouped under the platform Front for the Annulment and Resumption of Elections (FARE).During the second round of the 2011 Presidential Elections, these organised parties, unable to impact an electoral process which was biased from the onset, decided at the end of the race to withdraw from the process.The political leadershipThe current political crisis in the CAR is reportedly linked to bad governance and hypocrisy which took root through the re-election of former President François Bozize in 2011. The regime of former President Bozize did not entertain any dialogue with opposition parties and other stakeholders in the country. There was a real impasse in the manner of political leadership in the country.President François Bozize’s political leadership style was a dictatorship based on family affairs in the management of the country and control of State power. Opposition parties were consistently contesting this bad governance practice.Immediate CausesThe coup de tat of 24th March, 2013 was organised and executed by a coalition of the Central African rebel forces under the banner Seleka Movement led by Michel Djotodia. The rebel forces seized power and its leader Michel Djotodia proclaimed himself President of the Republic immediately after seizing power through this revolution.The coup de tat of 24 March, 2013, caused serious violations of human rights and led to the deterioration in peace and security as well as the economic situation in the country. This unconstitutional political change of power of 24th March, 2013, led to the suspension of the Constitution of 27th December, 2004, and to the dissolution of all democratic institutions of governance.From the discussions with different stakeholders, two scenarios emerged to the mission. In the first scenario, there were those people who supported the coup de tat. In the second scenario were those people that were against it. Those who supported the coup de tat of 24th March, 2013, had conceived this unconstitutional change of government as a ray of hope for the people of the CAR. However, a few weeks after the coup de tat, the situation deteriorated and led to acts of rampant violence, murders and looting in the capital Bangui as well as in the hinterland.Management of the Political CrisisThe role of the African Union and the Economic Community of Central African States in resolving the crisisFollowing this coup of 24th March, 2013, in the CAR, the AU and Economic Community of Central African States (ECCAS) were faced with the challenge of unconstitutional change of government occurring outside the legal and constitutional framework. Each of the two parties took measures in an attempt to restore peace and order in the country.Now, let me briefly discuss the role of ECCAS in resolving the crisis. The ECCAS, at its Fourth Extraordinary Summit held on 18thApril, 2013, in Ndjamena, Chad, resumed the developments of a crisis in Central Africa. The summit adopted a declaration called the Declaration of Ndjamena which contained decisions along the lines of normalisation of the situation in the CAR.The Formation of the Transitional Council and other InstitutionsPursuant to the agreement of Ndjamena of 18thApril, 2013, and a roadmap on the composition and function of the NTC, transitional governance institutions were established in order to manage the Transitional Government for a period of eighteen to twenty-four months. This followed the recommendation of the Extra-ordinary summit of ECCAS held on 3rd April, 2013, in Ndjamena, Chad, which recommended the establishment of the NTC.Let me now discuss the mandate of the NTC. The NTC was provided and conferred with legislative powers under the Ndjamena Code of 18thApril, 2013. The NTC was formed with the participation 8 and the contribution of ECCAS consisting of 105 members designed in line with the composition of the dissolved National Assembly. In other words, this NTC is like Parliament. It is like ourselves although we do not have any legislative powers yet.It was recommended at the Extra-ordinary Summit of ECCAS that the composition of the NTC be reviewed. Therefore, the number of seats within the NTC was increased from 105 to a total of 135. The additional thirty seats were allocated according to regions, political parties, including the former majority political party which was under represented, political military groups, civil society and women.The NTC was, therefore, created on 13th April, by Order No. 005. The NTC has full legislative powers.It is responsible for preparing the draft Constitution and submitting it for a referendum.Voting and the Promulgation of the Constitutional Transitional CharterThe urgent task of the NTC was to develop and adopt a constitutional charter re-organising all public authority institutions in accordance with the Libreville Agreement and the Ndjamena Declaration to the popular consensus of the CAR political parties.The NTC, therefore, voted for the Transitional Constitutional Charter which was supported by the Head of State and the Transitional Council on 18thJuly, 2013. The promulgation of this charter was considered to be the beginning of the transitional process in the CAR.The Transitional Constitutional Charter provides for the election of a transitional Head of State by the Council. In accordance with the provisions of the Charter, the Executive branch is composed of the Head of State of the transition, the Prime Minister and the Head of the Transitional Government. The transitional Head of State was elected by the NTC, that is the Parliament itself. The legislative and constitutional power of the CAR is exercised by the NTC. It is also expected that the TCC will provide for the establishment of the Constitutional Court and the Transitional Council of Communications.Establishment of the Transitional CourtIn accordance with the provisions of the Ndjamena Declaration and the TCC, a transitional court has been implemented. The designation of constitutional judges was endorsed by decree of the Head of State of the transition countersigned by the Prime Minister.The members of that Constitutional Court took oath on 16th August, before the NTC. The Transitional Court is responsible for ensuring constitutionality of laws, hearing electoral disputes, proclaiming and declaring final election results and administering oaths to the democratically elected President of the Republic.Election of the Head StateThe NTC proceeded to elect the former rebel leader Michel Djotodia who led the coup of 24th March, 2013, and proclaimed himself Head of State as a new transitional Head of State on 16th April, for the duration of the transition. He took oath under the Transitional Charter and the Transitional Court on18thAugust, 2013.The crisis between the main authorities in chargeAccording to many national and international observers, the three main authorities of the transitional Government, that is the Transitional Head of State, the Prime Minister and the President of the Transitional Council do not appear to cooperate very well to effectively manage the transitional period as envisaged.The appointment of the Prime Minister reveals that he had been recommended in the Libreville Declaration of 11th January, 2013, to head the National Unity Transitional Government. The elected Prime Minister, who is head of Government administration, is from the Democratic Opposition and previously held the position of Prime Minister in Bozize’s Government. According to the interlocutors, the Head of State who is from Seleka Coalition and the Prime-Minister who comes from the former Democratic Opposition do not appear to have the same political will and agenda.Some of the interlocutors indicated that the governmental team is not fully controlled by the Prime Minister. They felt that the Democratic Opposition is not effectively involved in managing the transition. The relationship between the three leaders of the transition sets hurdles in the management of the transitional process and this poses a threat to the organisation of credible elections if the three leaders of the transitional government do not co-operate.Issues of the Security CrisisThe lack of security is the biggest factor facing the nation of the CAR. This has disastrous effects on the entire population. The political change that occurred 9 in the CAR on 24th March, 2013, has resulted in a serious breach of security due to the escalation of all sorts of vices and the consistent presence of rebels and foreign mercenaries in the capital, Bangui, as well as in all provinces in the country.The Problem of the Seleka RebellionAccording to stakeholders the mission met, the Seleka Rebellion is the source of security problems, violation of human rights and acts of mutiny in the capital, Bangui, as well as in the hinterland. Despite the seizure of power by the Head of the Seleka Coalition, the enemies of Seleka continue to commit human rights violations and abuses against civilian populations with impunity. The rebel forces are made up of several Central African factional groups supported by foreign mercenaries. There are many provinces which are under the occupation of the rebels.The Seleka sought dissolution throughout the country. Enemies of Seleka committed all kinds of violations and abuses against the civilian populations. Destruction of social and administrative infrastructure, looting, vandalism, theft, rape, robberies, kidnappings and summary executions are the order of the day.According to most people the mission met, foreign elements, alongside the Seleka Movement, commit abuses against the Central African Republic people. It is worth noting that the impunity weighs heavily among the members of Seleka. The Seleka Rebellion is widespread in approximately 95 to 98 per cent of the country. It is only in the south west of the country where Seleka failed to conquer because of the presence of the Ugandan forces that are in that region. The Seleka has, during this invasion, released very dangerous prisoners into the society – thieves, robbers, murderers and other criminals. Some rebel leaders have managed to secure channels of State revenue to support their plans, thus preventing the Government from fully doing its sovereign and statutory responsibilities and duties.After the Bangui Charter, one of the rebel leaders of the Seleka Movement, namely Abdulai Miskim, separated himself from others and began to organise and orchestrate acts of destabilisation on the new authority in the capital. He has now been arrested in Cameroun but his elements remain loose and scattered in the country. According to the brief by the stakeholders, the Seleka Coalition is composed of approximately 20,000 rebel forces.The security situation in the CAR is very alarming. The lack of security is so widespread throughout the country. Seleka elements attack and cause havoc in all provinces throughout the country with the exception of Bangui the Capital which is under the protection of ECCAS forces. Out of the sixteen provinces in the country, Seleka controls fifteen, thus leading to serious security breaches throughout the country.Reports of looting, kidnapping, robbery, theft, rape, killings, destruction of private infrastructure and public buildings and other criminal acts are registered daily throughout the country. The CAR has become a lawless State where rebels make their own laws with impunity in most parts of the country. Only the Capital, Bangui, is under the control of the State with improved security. According to the stakeholders who met the mission, their current workforces are not able to restore security, peace and order throughout the country.The Violation of Human RightsSince the coup of 24th March, 2013, the human rights situation has drastically deteriorated at an alarming rate. Acts of violations of human rights, torture and killings perpetrated by certain elements within Seleka are widespread both in the capital, Bangui, as well as in the hinterland. Reports and cases of killings and summary executions, material and physical abuse and violation, the rape of women and girls, abductions and arbitrary arrests and extortion of funds have become the daily feature and occurrence.The Economic Situation and the Plight of the Displaced Persons and the RefugeesAccording to the office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees based in the capital, Bangui, significant populations have fled and taken refuge in the bushes and forests fleeing the abuse they suffer at the hands of Seleka elements. From the onset of the crisis in December, 2012, the UNHCR had developed response strategies to mitigate the crisis in terms of civilian protection, especially through meetings with the relevant movement leaders to ask them to avoid forced recruitment of children into their ranks. Mutiny has hindered the office of the UNHCR from playing its humanitarian role since its offices are ransacked and looted.The problem currently facing the efforts of the UNHCR from responding through its humanitarian role is that people have fled their homes and taken refuge in bushes and forests and are not easily accessible. Their houses have been looted and burnt down and whole villages have been burnt down by elements of Seleka. According to the officials of the 0 UNHCR, there are approximately 394,979 people who are displaced inside the country. Out of that number of refuges, 42,000 are in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), 9, 000 in Chad, 5, 000 in Cameroun and 4,000 in Congo. The total number of refugees in the neighbouring countries is estimated at 60,000 persons as per those figures.The offices of the UNHCR in these countries have responded positively to attend to the plight of these displaced persons and they are looking after them very well.Socio-Economic Consequences of the CrisisThe political and security crisis in the CAR has resulted in disastrous consequences on the social economic sectors of the economy. Let us look at the education sector, for example. There were several interruptions in the education system at the beginning of 2012/2013 academic year in the country which operated a two-tier system. While examinations are organised in Bangui and in some localities in the country it was during this time that classes resumed tentatively in some areas. Since 10th December, 2012, teachers have abandoned their posts to escape to Bangui. School infrastructure has been destroyed and the lack of security prevents parents from sending their children to school.The Health SectorThe Health sector has also experienced disastrous disruptions. The health personnel were not spared the atrocities and deserted hospitals and health centres countrywide. The health facilities have been destroyed and damaged and no medication is available even just for ordinary First Aid. The few health workers who remained in the provinces were subjected to threats and harassment by Seleka elements. Women give birth in the bush without any medical assistance whatsoever and water-borne diseases are rampant and prevalent.The Economic SituationThe economic consequences of the political and security crisis in the CAR are numerous and diverse.These consequences include but not limited to, amongst others, the following:(i)The non-payment of salaries to civil servants for more than four months during the mission;(ii)The regression of trade inflows between the CAR and the neighbouring countries such as Cameroun;(iii)The economic suffocation of the CAR by the rebels who attacked the main sources of public revenue for their personal gain and benefit;(iv)The damage and harm to the economic apparatus in the private and public sector;(v)The break-down of social, economic and agricultural activities throughout the CAR territory poses serious threat of food crisis; and(vi)Discontinuation of farming, breeding, fishing and other activities which could also lead to serious food shortages in the country;The plight of the Parliamentarians of the former ParliamentParliamentarians of the Fifth Parliament revealed to the mission that since 24th March, 2013, the peace accords of Libreville and Ndjamena by Heads of State of ECCAS has never been complied with to allow for the establishment of an environment conducive to peace and reconciliation. They indicated that Article 7 of the Libreville Agreement which states that the National Assembly shall maintain its prerogatives until the next legislative elections was not respected.These former Parliamentarians raised their concerns over the silence on Article 7 of the political agreement in Libreville from 11th January, 2013, in international meetings to resolve the crisis in the CAR. According to them, the situation makes the 135 members of the National Transitional Government and their constituents skeptical about the prospects of peace. This situation is not likely to facilitate the creation of an environment conducive to promotion of national reconciliation, peace and security as well as organising free, fair and credible elections.The stakeholders that we met proffered some proposals that they believe the international community and the AU should actually address in trying to resolve the crisis in the CAR. The civil society and the different social political groups are proposing the following:a) The Transitional Government should scrupulously respect the different agreements signed and the provisions 1 of the TCC in order to have a successful transition;b) The international community should provide multi-faceted support to the Central African Republic Government (NTC) for the restoration of security and public order as well as the provision of humanitarian rights and the fight against impunity orchestrated in the country by Seleka elements;c) The Transitional Government should return the non-conventional foreign forces to their respective countries;d) The Transitional Government should organise an all inclusive dialogue in order to create a climate of peace and reconciliation;e) The Transitional Government should identify and bring justice to perpetrators of crimes and atrocities against the population; and f) The international community and the AU should assist the Transitional Government to prepare serious, transparent and credible elections at the end of the transition in order to avert undemocratic challenges and violence as was the case in 2011.There have been other suggestions and solutions that have been undertaken by ECCAS. The ECCAS plays a very important role in the resolution of the crisis in CAR. Since the beginning of the crisis in December, 2012, ECCAS has taken certain measures dealing with the signing of the Libreville Agreement on the Resolution of the Political Crisis in the CAR; and the Declaration of Principles of the Parties to the Negotiations in Libreville on the Crisis in CAR was considered and adopted on 11th January, 2011.All parties in the ConflictThe Ndjamena Declaration of 18thApril, 2013 was adopted after the coup de tat of 24th March, 2013. It sets provisions for the management of the transitional period which is between eighteen to twenty four months and the organisation of Presidential and legislative elections.The establishment of a multi-national force of ECCASThis multi-national force is made up of soldiers from Central African countries. The FOMEC was made up of 7,000 men at the beginning of the crisis whose mission was to foil elements in the Central African army but when the situation deteriorated, FOMEC forces re-adapted to the situation by providing security. They are present in the central, west, north and in the Mbege Region. Thanks to FOMEC, security returned to the capital, Bangui. FOMEC forces secured the economic highway of the country between the corridor of Bangui and Gala, Cameroun, that had been held hostage by the rebels. In other words, it was not traversable.The FOMEC also undertook an operation of disarmament and depositing arms in depots in the capital, Bangui, by rebels who were accepting peace and amnesty. However, the forces of FOMEC are not sufficient to ensure the security throughout the CAR.The other effort is that of assuming the responsibility for paying salaries and salary arrears for the members of the civil service still due to the public officers by Congo. Efforts are being made by the Ombudsman of ECCAS for the payment of arrears of salaries to these officials. The first instalment of arrears is already paid and the second one will soon be paid.Action Taken by the AU to Strengthen SecurityThe AU is also very concerned about the security situation that continues to deteriorate in the country despite efforts by the Transitional Government. Since the coup de tat of 24th March, 2013, the security situation in the country increasingly calls for consented intervention of the AU. The Peace and Security Council of the AU decided to implement an international support mission. (MISCA) to the country, that is a military force to restore order.Military officers from MISCA/AU in collaboration with ECCAS officials are fast and loose on the ground for the establishment of MISCA which is scheduled for deployment in early 2014. There was a draft agreement between the AU, ECCAS and the Transitional Government on the implementation of the MISCA.Contrary to the will of the AU, the MISCA can only be functional in January, 2013. It is a robust force that will protect the entire CAR population and help to restore security and order in the country. The MISCA will replace the FOMAC and train the 2 Central African Republic national force that will provide security throughout the country.The Role of the UN in Resolving the Crisis From the beginning of the crisis, the UN partnered with CAR through the intensification of its actions to foster security and protection of the civilian population. The UN Peace Buildings Office in the country, BENUCA, is developing a mechanism to ensure stability in the country. The BENUCA force is also seeking funds to help reform the Central African Republic army.Analysis of Information Gathered by the PAPThe political, security and humanitarian situation in the country was felt to be extremely alarming. The situation is so catastrophic that the Government is not able to assume its statutory and sovereign duties and responsibility to its peoples.The CAR is experiencing an unprecedented crisis that has resulted in the degradation of morale and has resulted in serious violation of human rights. There is no co-relation between violence, human rights and impunity in the CAR.The mission noted that the African Commission on Human and People’s Rights cannot undertake any visit to the CAR to investigate the level of violation of human rights in the country and the impunity that is there for fear of security and safety of its personnel.The international community must take urgent measures to lift the country out of this situation. The Transitional Government is lacking financial resources to restore peace, security and order in the country. The slowing down of the social economic activity is likely to cause a food crisis in the country.Sanctions imposed by the AU against the CAR have exacerbated the economic crisis in the country whose populations are victims and has resulted in the inability of the Government to deal with its sovereign duties. There is urgent need to restore constitutional legality in the CAR and, to do so, the country needs the support of the international community.The differences that exist between three leading actors or political leaders of the transition, that is the Head of State, the Prime Minister and President of the Transitional Council, and which are explained by lack of trust and collaboration, hinder the progress the transition so much desires.The transitional authority should create a level playing field and think about the national interest of the people as a whole in order to successfully manage the transition for the organisation of credible, free and transparent elections.Recommendations of the MissionGiven the prevailing political, security and humanitarian situation in the CAR, and on the strength of information gathered from all relevant stakeholders, the PAP Mission hereby recommends as follows:(i)In view of the rapid deterioration and fragility of humanitarian, peace and security situation which hinders free movement of persons and goods in the CAR, the efforts made by African Union for deployment of MISCA throughout the country needs to be accelerated in order to facilitate a climate for organising of transparent, free and credible elections and for the holding of election campaigns and the provision of social humanitarian services;(ii)The Transitional Government should take rapid and appropriate measures to resettle persons displaced from their homes in order to facilitate provision of humanitarian assistance and other social services such as health, education, water, food provision, etc, which have been destroyed during the uprising;(iii)The is need for the African Union to urgently take measures towards uplifting the economic sanctions imposed on the CAR in order to build the capacity and facilitate the organisation of financial resources by the Transitional Government in order to pay basic utility services such as public service salaries, utilities and other resources for the organisation and preparation of credible elections as well as the provision of basic public infrastructure;(iv)The Transitional Government should give an urgent priority towards the disarmament of the heavily-armed Central African 3 Republic militias and foreign mercenaries and expel the later who have spread throughout the country and separate them to create the necessary environment conducive to the free election campaigns without threat to the national security;(v)There is need for the international community to put pressure on the three leading actors or leaders mandated to manage the transition so that they work in close cooperation for the interest of all the people of the CAR;(vi)There is need for the AU to take urgent measures for lifting the economic situation against the CAR in order to guarantee a climate conducive to the return of technical and financial partners to the country for the resumption of their financial support;(vii)There is need for the African Committee on Human and People’s Rights to respond to the urgently desperate and serious violations of human rights and the impunity prevailing therein;(viii)There is urgent need to organise an all inclusive dialogue of all strata of Central African Republic society for the establishment of a peaceful and orderly climate before the organisation of the elections; and(ix)There is urgent need for the AU to organise continental meetings with all stakeholders of the conflict in CAR.Finally, Mr President, I wish to thank all my colleagues who were part of the mission for their support, working tirelessly, co-operating very well with me and for making valuable contributions during the mission.I thank you Your Excellency the President and dear colleagues for listening to me.ApplauseTHE PRESIDENT:Hon. Members, we have received two presentations. I shall now allow debate on the presentations. I have a list of six speakers. We shall give three minutes to each speaker to intervene. The first speaker on my list is Hon. Aubin Nogngo Luwowo from the DRC.HON. AUBIN NGONGO LUWOWO [RÉPUBLIQUE DÉMOCRATIQUE DU CONGO]:Merci, Monsieur le Président, pour la parole.Monsieur le Président,Vous serez un peu indulgent, parce que vous avez suivi le Président de la Commission Permanente de la Coopération, des relations internationales et de Règlement des conflits, l’Honorable Saleh KEBZABO, qui a regretté que les experts de l’Institut d’Études de Sécurité sur la situation sécuritaire en Afrique n’aient pas été profonds dans la présentation de la situation des conflits en Afrique, et principalement en République Démocratique du Congo.C’est pourquoi, le Président Saleh a demandé que ceux qui connaissent mieux ce conflit, ceux qui comprennent mieux ce conflit puissent l’expliquer à l’intention d’autres collègues. Donc, vous serez indulgent, Monsieur le Président, de me donner un peu plus de temps pour que je l’explique à nos collègues.Monsieur le Président,Le Congo-Kinshasa ou la République Démocratique du Congo a neuf (9) voisins. Il a neuf voisins qui sont: le Sud-Soudan, la République centrafricaine, le Congo Brazzaville, l’Angola, la Zambie, la Tanzanie, le Burundi, l’Ouganda et le Rwanda.Mais, depuis près de deux décennies, le Congo n’est déstabilisé qu’à partir du Rwanda, l’un de nos voisins.Pourquoi ces guerres récurrentes à partir d’un seul territoire, alors que nous en avons neuf?À mon humble avis, et selon les experts de la communauté internationale, c’est principalement à cause des richesses que recèle cette partie de la République Démocratique du Congo; des richesses qu’on ne trouve que dans cette partie du monde, notamment le coltan qui sert à fabriquer le téléphone, et qui est résistant pour la fabrication de certaines pièces dans l’aviation.Monsieur le Président,Depuis des décennies, le Congo souffre de cette ingérence de son voisin rwandais avec lequel nous ne demandons qu’à vivre en paix.Il est vrai que le Rwanda a connu un génocide en 1994. Ce n’est pas le Zaïre de l’époque qui a invité les Rwandais à traverser et à venir au Congo. C’est la situation de frontière. Nous ne pouvions pas placer un soldat ou un policier à chaque mètre pour empêcher aux Rwandais, qui venaient de s’entretuer, de traverser. Et ceux qui ont traversé sont dans nos brousses.Monsieur le Président,Le Rwanda nous reproche de n’avoir pas neutralisé les Forces Démocratiques de Libération du Rwanda (FDLR). C’est vrai, les FDLR sont dans nos brousses. Mais elles font beaucoup de mal aux Congolais! Elles violent des Congolaises; elles pillent le Congo! Nous n’avons pas les moyens militaires pour les chasser!Les Rwandais ont traversé, à un certain moment, avec l’aide de l’armée congolaise; on n’a pas réussi.Les Rwandais sont restés à l’Est du pays, de 1998 à 2001; de nonante-huit – comme disent les Belges – à 2001, mais ils n’ont ni chassé ni neutralisé le FDLR. Ils étaient là avec le Rassemblement des Congolais pour la Démocratie (RCD).Mais comment nous demander, aujourd’hui, alors qu’on n’a pas encore conçu une armée véritablement efficace, de chasser ces FDLR?La solution serait peut-être de faire ce que nous faisons; ce que la communauté internationale nous demande de faire! La solution serait que le Rwanda négocie avec ses rebelles, comme nous, nous négocions avec nos rebelles.Le Rwanda ne veut pas négocier avec les rebelles, le FDLR, parce qu’ils ont tué. Mais nous négocions avec le M23 qui ont tué, qui tuent et qui violent, qui détruisent notre pays, qui détruisent notre environnement.Monsieur le Président,Le Rwanda a entretenu le RCD, c’est une rébellion;le Congrès National pour la Défense du Peuple (CNDP), une rébellion; le [10:51:30], une rébellion! Aujourd’hui, le M23, une autre rébellion! Demain, peut-être, le M24, le M25, le M26! Nous ne cherchons qu’à vivre en paix avec le Rwanda.La communauté internationale a sa part de responsabilité. Elle exige à la RDC de négocier avec ses rebelles, mais ne demande pas au Rwanda de négocier avec ses rebelles. Or, la seule solution pour nous, c’est que le Rwanda négocie avec ses rebelles; nous négocions avec les nôtres! C’est vrai que nous sommes depuis dix (10) mois à Kampala, mais ça ne marche pas.Le Congo a montré sa bonne foi! Il a envoyé une délégation pour négocier avec ses rebelles.Les rebelles congolais ne sont pas plus saints. Ils tuent comme le FDRL tue. On a entendu, au cours de l’exposé du Président, tout à l’heure, qu’il y a eu concertations nationales. J’ai pris part à ces concertations nationales comme un opposant. Je ne suis pas du système. Les gens ont parlé librement, et on a fait des propositions – à peu près 626 propositions – pour qu’on retrouve la cohésion nationale, et ce n’était pas de la complaisance. Le Président Kabila a fait un discours qu’il a prononcé pendant que nous étions ici. Il a pris l’engagement de respecter ce que les concertateurs ont dit.J’ai entendu, pendant ce séjour ici, Monsieur le Président, qu’on dit que si les rebelles du M23 ont pris les armes, c’est à cause des élections de 2011. C’est vrai, toutes les élections en Afrique, on sait toujours qu’il y a contestation. Elles ne sont pas parfaites comme dans certains pays [Temps de parole épuisé].HON. BENDIR KHATARI DJAMEL [SAHARAWI]شكراً سيدي الرئيس ،،، وشكراً - مقدم تقرير لجنة النزاعات و العلاقات الدولية لدي ثلاثة ملاحظات: الملاحظة الاولي: - هو تغييب الوضع السائد في بلدي منذ أربعين سنة وهذا أراه غير مبرر إذا أعتبرنا أن النزاع في الصحراء الغربية مع جار ومع بلد افــريـــقــيانياً: إن القضية الصحراوية لأي اربعين سنة تعيش تعتيماً إعلامياً وهذا يساهم في تعميق التعتيم ، كان بود اللجنة والمعهد كذلك أن يُدرج بلدي من ضمن البلدان التي لن تعيش إستقراراً ولاسلماً نحن مشردين 38 سنة نعيش في جنوب الجزائر وبلدي محتل من طرف بلد إفريقي والمواطنين في المناطق المحتلة تعيش بطشاً وسجناً وقتلا بالجماعات اخيراً تم اكتشاف مقابر جماعية عائلات كلها طمرت في التراب ولا أحد على علم لأن ماذال هناك تعتيماً إعلامياًإذا مايجري في الصحراء الغربية هو بلد إفريقياً.كما أن الجمهورية العربية الصحراوية عضو في الاتحاد الأفريقي ، مثلها مثل جميع الدول الأفريقية الأخرى التي تعيش في ظروف استثنائية وحرب وقتل ونزوح. لماذا لا تدرج بلدي في هذه القائمة؟أخيرًا ، منذ بداية افتتاح هذه الدورة لدينا ، هناك مواطنون تظاهروا كالعادة ومقموعون ، لذلك لا أرى مبررًا لغياب بلدي عن الحديث عن الوضع في الصحراء الغربية ، تمامًا كما تحدثوا. حول الوضع في البلدان الأفريقية الأخرى. أرى مبررا لغياب تقرير لجنةالعلاقات الدولية والنزاعاتالملاحظة الأخيرة التي سأدلي بها تتعلق بالترجمة إلى اللغة العربية ، فهي ليست كافية وغير كافية.شكرا سيدي الرئيس ،،HON. SUAD AL-FATIH AL BADAWI [SUDAN]:Thank you Mr President, and I also wish to thank all the presenters.Mr President, Africa is in turmoil. Conflicts are everywhere, starting with the Arab states and now Mali, Guinea Conakry, Kenya, the DRC, Madagascar, Somali and the line does not stop here. Who benefits from this instability in Africa? Once a conflict breaks out, Mr President, a foreign power comes over and, in no time, everything is over. Later, Africa comes with its missions and reports.Mr President, are we really independent? I believe that Africa is under a new and more serious colonisation. Unless we solve this problem, things will continue to become worse. Mr President, I believe that unless this Parliament becomes a legislative body, very little can be attained.Mr President, I finally propose the following:i)A serious campaign should be launched by all the Members of Parliament of the PAP to put pressure on our leaders to transform the PAP into a legislative body. I propose, here, the formation of an ad hoc committee to supervise this;ii)The AU should shoulder its main responsibility of securing peace, order and security in Africa because, without this, development will just be a lip service; andiii)The intervention of powers from outside Africa should stop whatever this is going to cost us; andiv)Finally, the ICC should be driven out of Africa because I believe we are competent enough to judge ourselves.Thank you Sir.ApplauseHON. MANCHOLU MOLEMOHI [LESOTHO]:Thank you, Mr. President and I thank the presenter.Mr. President, I am delighted and supportive of the AU’s decision to approve the creation of a military rapid reaction force to deal with military coups, rebellions or war in a move intended to reduce the continent’s reliance on foreign funds and troops for its defence, and establishment of the African standby force expected to be operational by 2015 to enable the AU to achieve its objective on peace and security Africa.Mr President, finally, it is a pleasure for the AU to address emerging sources of conflict to promote peace and stability on the continent, take ownership of African issues, provide African solutions to African problems, continue to speak with one voice and act collectively to promote our common interest in the international arena.I thank you.HON. CLAUDINE AFIAVI PRUDENCIO [BÉNIN]:Merci, Monsieur le Président.Merci à tous les intervenants pour leur brillante intervention.Monsieur le Président,À mon avis, sans paix, ni sécurité, il ne peut pas avoir de développement durable. Alors, il y a une alliance entre les notions de paix, de sécurité et développement. C’est à ce niveau que la réflexion doit être menée dans le cadre de la prévention et du règlement des confits en Afrique.Monsieur le Président,Pour moi, la trilogie « paix, sécurité, développement », suppose également la bonne gouvernance politique et par conséquent la démocratie. Le [11:01:29] citoyen des politiques publiques est aujourd’hui le meilleur outil de prévention des conflits. Les conflits armés et les guerres qui sévissent sur le continent africain, affectent le développement économique et social du continent. Et aucun pays, aucune région n’est 6 épargnée à cause des problèmes de gouvernance et de démocratie.Monsieur le Président,La mal gouvernance des ressources du sous-sol, les pressions des populations, la mauvaise répartition des richesses, l’inégal développement des régions à l’intérieur d’un même pays, sont les causes profondes qui menacent la paix et la sécurité sur le continent africain.L’Afrique du Nord qui était considérée comme une zone relativement stable, connaît actuellement des remous qui affectent toute la région du Maghreb.Les populations de cette région du continent longtemps opprimées, manifestent actuellement leurs droits à la liberté d’expression.Face à cette situation qui n’honore guère le continent africain, il nous faut redoubler d’effort à travers la prévention desdits conflits.Monsieur le Président,Avant de faire des propositions, je voudrais poser quelques questions:S’il est établi que la mal gouvernance économique et politique au sein des États est la source principale des conflits en Afrique, malgré le Mécanicisme Africain d’Évaluation par les Pairs (MAEP) auquel, presque, tous les États ont adhéré, n’est-il pas opportun de revoir ce système dans la mesure où[Temps de parole épuisé].HON. AZIZOU EL HADJ ISSA [BÉNIN]:[Micro éteint] à ce [Micro éteint] tous les membres de la transition pour les élections à venir.Celui qui accepte de faire la transition ne peut plus être candidat.Monsieur le Président,Plus fort encore, que je ne vois pas dans les recommandations, tous ceux qui ont pris les armes, une fois, contre leur peuple, il ne faut plus qu’on accepte leur candidature.Si ces deux conditions sont réunies, Monsieur le Président, je crois que la Centrafrique va sortir des problèmes. Ils peuvent soutenir d’autres candidatures, mais plus jamais eux, qui ont tiré sur leur peuple. Ils vont déposer leur candidature pour venir les diriger. Ce n’est plus possible!Monsieur le Président,Voilà les propositions que j’avais à ajouter.Je vous remercie.HON. ABDULAZIZ ABDULAHI MOHAMED [SOMALIA]:Thank you, Mr President, for allowing me to participate in this important debate on continental peace and security.Mr. President, let me start my comments by condemning the Westgate Shopping Mall attack where over 60 people, from all over the world, lost their lives and many others were injured.Mr President, I would like to send my condolences to the families of those students killed at the Agricultural College in Yobe State of Nigeria. Mr President, it is the recent attacks at the Westgate Mall in Kenya and Yobe State in Nigeria which highlight and exemplify the continent’s need for unity against extremism. Mr President, Al Shabaab is also responsible for the majority of attacks on ships passing on the Somali Coast, which is a major route for international trade.Mr President, the extremist groups have been locked in war with various states in Africa for control and ultimately create a state of chaos where the constitution and rule of law have no place at all. Mr President, it is an opportunity to thank the AMISOM forces for the sacrifices they have made for the sake of peace in Somalia.Mr President, I also express my appreciation for the military support that Somalia is receiving from Uganda, Burundi, Djibouti, Kenya, Sierra Leone, Nigeria and Ethiopia.Mr President, it is also important to know that Somali National Security Forces receive significant financial support from the Turkish Government to aid in the fight against extremism. Mr President, the security situation in Africa is alarming and, therefore, it should be monitored constantly and genuinely by the AU’s body on Peace and Security, to make sure that security, stability and the rule of law are re-established.Finally, Mr. President, in order to tackle these challenges, we need to study the background of the whole issue. It is my personal opinion, Mr President, that factors contributing to extremism in Africa are many, but I would like you to know that radicalism is one of the major factors. Mr President, there are many African countries that need continental attention and solidarity to overcome the insecurity challenges that our people face today.Mr President, the AU should have a genuine mechanism in place, to address the root causes of the conflicts and insecurity on the continent.Thank you.HON. ONYANGO KAKOBA [UGANDA]:Thank you, Mr President and I want to thank the presenters for the two presentations.Mr President, going through the two presentations, I re-affirm the challenges that Africa still faces on the issues of peace and security and when we look at situations that have been presented, on the surface, they look like internal problems. However, with further analysis, we realise that there is an element of external involvement and an influence of terrorist organisations.Mr President, these two elements are a very big factor and, as Africa, we need to come together to make sure that we tackle the issue of security and peace in our continent.Mr President, one of the ways that I think Africa can tackle this issue is to make sure that we utilise all the avenues that are available. I do recall that within the peace and security framework of Africa, there is a provision for stand-by regional brigade forces but this has not been implemented. Therefore, my appeal to the AU is that we should work this through because each of the five regions is supposed to have a stand-by force.To the best of my recollection, the Eastern Stand-by Brigade is the only one that has been put in place. This, I can say with a lot of confidence because the training took place in my constituency. Other regions also need to put that force in place and not just putting them in place but also making sure that they are utilised.Mr President, looking at specific countries, a lot of attention needs to be paid to the Central African Republic because, given the description that is in this report, it looks like, in the near future, the Central African Republic will be far worse than Somalia was and we need to handle this before it really gets out of hand.The other area that we need to look at is the issue of Somalia. Of course, Uganda, Kenya and Burundi have been involved in Somalia but, recently, there was a discussion and an agreement that the forces should be increased from 17,000 to more than 24,000. My appeal to African countries is that we must contribute to resolve the issue because Somalia is a very key area. Some of the terrorist groups that are there, especially the Al Shabab, end up infiltrating into other countries.Lastly, Mr President, I wish to say something on the issue of the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC). As neighbour of the DRC and also as someone who has been involved in the issue of the DRC through the Framework of the International Conference on the Great Lakes Region, there is a need to tackle all the negative forces in that region. We need to tackle the issue of the M23, ADF and all the other rebel groups.The final one is the issue of Hutus which we should do through negotiations first but if these fail, then, of course, we can move to the next step of intervention.I thank you, Mr President and Hon. Members, for your kind attention.HON. HENRY WILLIE YALLAH [LIBERIA]:Thank you Mr President.Mr President all that has been said here is true but, for me, I am listening and understanding with a dark mind because I am a bit confused. What are we doing with these reports? What are we doing with this information? Is it meant to just entertain us? I mean, is it just for us to listen to or what? What are we going to do with it? Is it just for us to know how people are dying on the other side of Africa? Is it for us to know how hunger has taken over all the corners of Africa? Is it for us to know that we lack the single step to make any effort to resolve it? Like one of the colleagues said, the intent and objective upon which Parliament was established is good. Until we have the power to achieve it this is just mere entertainment. This is seriously true. Without the legislative power or authority, we will not even ban anybody. Actually, for close to one year that I have been here, I have not seen anywhere or any report that came to say that what we agreed here was even implemented in any country. I have never heard. Maybe, I am misinformed. I am sorry, maybe, I am in the dark but, quickly, in my opinion, we need to impress all our leaders to allow us have this authority. Explain to them that their power will not be tampered with. Power is sweet and nobody wants to leave it. Nobody! What more the whole country? You are President and somebody says let us share the power. It is worrying, but we need to convince them so that we have power today. We need to get simple authority so that when this information comes we can come up with a resolution to help our people because tomorrow our children would say ask, "You were in the PAP, what did you do?" In fact, when we return to our homes the press come to find out what we discussed. What do we tell them? It is embarrassing, Are we afraid to take a position on this Kenya issue. Let all African leaders impress on a postponement of this trial for the Kenyan leaders because they will refuse to go. Let me thank those who have taken action on Somalia. Without any attempt to do so now Somalia could be erased if we do not intervene. Those are happy. Thank God for them, but weHON. P.C. BAI KURR KANAGBARO [SIERRA LEONE]:Thank you, Mr President. I want to thank the presenters for job well done as well as those who have spoken before me.Mr President, these documents are very important. They are very essential but, as the previous young representative from Liberia said: What do we do with these reports? Do we send them to the AU? Do we send them to the Foreign Ministers? Do we send them to the Heads of State? Do we send them to the Defence Ministers? Do we send them to the international press? You can see that most of these words are already in the press, in the media. People see for themselves there.Mr President, it is interesting for us to go over and over and over again on these reports. We have had them so many times in this hall of Parliament but, like the previous speaker said: What are we doing with this? The history of Africa is well known. It is about interference, interference and interference. Look at what happened in the Congo with the killing of Patrice Lumumba. Until now, these are the effects of the interference by the Belgian Government and the international community. It is well known but, again, when we look at all these things, we condemn the West and the international community. We say the right things but look at what is happening in Africa. It is nothing other than tribalism, ethnicity, regionalism and sectionalism. When you look at all these reports, you find out that my neighbours - I know Guinea a little. I was there as a refugee in the 1990s. I was there and saw what was going on. I am afraid that if anything happens there, Sierra Leone will be on the receiving end. Liberia will be on the receiving end. So, when we talk, the time is too short but let us see that some of these reports are published in the New York Times or the Washington Post. We have to have a PRO, a strong PRO, a liaison officer who will put together some of the documents to present to this hall of Parliament because it makes sense and for the world to know that the PAP is concerned about the welfare of people of Africa.Mr President, I beg your indulgence, with all the good work you have done, let us have a strong communication entity in the PAP that will make you and the PAP a success story. It will show the world that we are there and that our voices speak for the voiceless because if we say we talk about all these things, there is no time. We cannot even talk about Guinea that is my neighbour. So, I support this document but let us also, in the PAP, be active, proactive and promote the PAP.I thank you.HON. BINTANDING JARJU [GAMBIA]:Thank you very much, Mr President, for availing me this opportunity to say a few words on these horrible reports.I must thank the presenters for a job well done and, Mr President, sometimes you feel you are not going anywhere as a continent because when one conflict is coming down, another erupts. So, I do not know what the scenario here is.Mr President, Look at the situation of this great country, the Central African Republic. It is so pathetic. Sometimes, you wonder what the ultimate aim of the coup de etat people is. Is it for power to rule or banditry activities? You cannot understand that you can take over a country and then engage in activities that are so violent that your people are terrified from all corners. Then, what are you up to?I believe that the AU must accelerate its intervention effort in order to restore order in this country. Otherwise, it could be a failed State because we do not know who is going to talk to who. Everybody is in a different corner and is doing all sorts of banditry activities. So, I would like to thank those colleagues who went into that dangerous area to bring us this information.Our colleague from Liberia is right, but information also is power because without this information, we cannot discuss the issues surrounding this country.So, this information in itself is something else. It is an achievement. Otherwise we will have not known what is happening in that country and the other countries, too.So, I wish to thank you for allowing also a member of the Gender Committee to take part in this very important mission and I hope that in future, we will find a way out, in order to address these issues.I thank you very much.HON. FRANCISCA DOMINGOS TOMÁS [MOÇAMBIQUE]:- Muito obrigada Senhor Presidente. Primeiro, gostaria de agradecer aos intervenientes que nos reportaram as situações que estamos a viver em alguns países de África. Em segundo lugar, Senhor Presidente, gostaria de concordar com todos os intervenientes que me antecederam dizendo que, de facto, a África está a viver um momento de guerra, o que não vai permitir que possamos atingir o desenvolvimento que nós pretendemos. A guerra traz sempre consequências desastrosas, são percas de vidas humanas, violações de mulheres e crianças, são pilhagens, são violações de direitos humanos, entre outras consequências como está a acontecer na República Centro Africana.Senhor PresidenteA necessidade de priorizar o diálogo para resolver qualquer tipo de conflito em África é uma condição indispensável e sine qua non para mitigar o sofrimento do povo africano, principalmente das mulheres e crianças. Só assim é que África poderá viver em paz e obter o seu desejo de construir e desenvolver as suas actividades para o bem-estar do povo.Senhor PresidenteA União Africana deve desempenhar o seu papel na resolução de conflitos em África e aqui quero apoiar as recomendações trazidas pela missão que foi a República Centro-Africana, a necessidade urgente de organizar um diálogo inclusivo entre os actores em conflito para restabelecer rapidamente o clima de paz na República Centro Africana. Não há nenhum conflito interno que possa ser resolvido via guerra, a não ser por via de diálogo.Senhor PresidenteGostaria de terminar aqui a minha intervenção, agradecendo a todos os intervenientes e principalmente ao Deputado da Libéria que falou, que devemos dar maior importância a essas informações, a esses debates para que a África esteja em paz, para que a África construa o seu desejo de desenvolvimento.Muito obrigada senhor Presidente.AplausosHON. VINCENT DABILGOU [BURKINA FASO]:Merci, Monsieur le Président.Je voudrais, avant de parler de mon intervention de fond, dire que, je constate qu’en Afrique, lorsque nous avons du succès, lorsqu’il y a des progrès, je pense qu’il faut le noter pour l’histoire. Il faut aussi le noter pour que ces bonnes pratiques servent d’exemple à suivre.C’est pourquoi, malgré la qualité du rapport de mon cher ami, l’Honorable KEBZABO, je trouve que le PAP doit l’accepter; que le rapport salue la qualité de l’intervention des forces armées tchadiennes au Mali.Je pense qu’ils ont payé un lourd tribut [bruit du micro] et le peuple tchadien l’a payé. Il faut que le PAP le souligne, parce qu’ils l’ont payé pour la liberté et la démocratie au Mali.Je voudrais dire aussi que le rapport gagnerait à souligner le rôle de la CEDEAO dans les Accords de Ouagadougou avec le succès de la médiation du Président Blaise COMPAORE du Burkina Faso. C’est une mission qui lui a été confiée par la CEDEAO. Et nous devons pouvoir le dire parce que cela a été un succès. C’est ce succès qui a permis, comme le rapport l’a dit, les élections au Mali.Mais il faut aussi rappeler les bonnes médiations de la CEDEAO en Côte d’Ivoire qui a permis à ce pays de renouer avec la démocratie et le développement.Alors, ce sont les points de succès et je voudrais, dans un premier temps, dire que le rapport gagnerait à les mentionner clairement.Ensuite, je voudrais intervenir sur deux points. Je constate clairement que l’Afrique est une terre fertile pour les conflits armés. Et de mon point de vue, ce sont deux raisons fondamentales:La première raison, c’était hier. Il ne faut pas qu’on oublie hier. Hier, c’était les conflits inter-états sur les conséquences de la Conférence de Berlin où les 0 puissances coloniales, vous vous rappelez, se sont partagées le continent comme un gâteau. L’Organisation de l’Unité africaine (OUA) s’est évertuée à régler des conflits dans un premier temps, avant que notre Organisation devienne Union africaine (UA).Aujourd’hui, ce sont des conflits internes, des conflits armés, mais c’est interne. Vous l’avez souligné, le rapport l’a dit clairement, c’est la Centrafrique, c’est le Mali, c’est le Soudan, c’est le Soudan du Sud, c’est la Corne de l’Afrique avec la Somalie.Mais pour moi, tous ces conflits sont l’expression de la nouvelle forme d’exploitation des puissances colonisatrices d’hier, qui veulent continuer à conserver leurs marchés coloniaux; qui veulent des débouchés commerciaux; qui veulent continuer à exploiter nos ressources naturelles, notamment – j’apprécie l’intervention de notre collègue, l’Honorable de la RDC – son intervention est juste. Ce sont les richesses qui amènent les conflits sur notre continent.Monsieur le Président,Laissez-moi terminer, juste une minute.Finalement, il ne peut pas avoir de développement sans paix. Cela été dit, mais je pense qu’il faut des approches innovantes, il faut une vision stratégique et cette une vision stratégique, Monsieur le Président, n’est rien d’autre que l’instauration de la démocratie, l’instauration de l’équité et la justice dans notre façon de gouverner notre continent.Je vous remercie.(Applaudissements)HON. MOHAMED ALI FOULIEH [DJIBOUTI]:Monsieur le Président,je suis très embarrassé, parce que je ne sais finalement pas de quoi va-t-on parler?Il y a tellement de choses qui se passent en Afrique que l’on a du mal à donner une analyse juste et globale. Cependant, on peut éventuellement, à titre de réflexion personnelle, je peux diviser les différents conflits en deux: les conflits dus à des facteurs exogènes et les conflits dus à la compétition politique et aux violences engendrées par les élections.Il y a des pays tels que la Somalie, le Mali, la Centrafrique, en partie la RDC dont les conflits sont dus à des facteurs extérieurs, et d’autres pays tels que le Madagascar, le Kenya, la Guinée-Conakry qui sont dus aux violences engendrées par les élections.Cependant, il ne faut pas oublier l’Afrique du Nord. Ici, je pense qu’on doit s’y référer un peu, parce que l’Acte constitutif de l’Union africaine, et surtout du Parlement panafricain, est dû en partie aussi par le défunt Mouammar Kadhafi, le Libyen.Donc, je me tourne un peu aussi vers l’Afrique du Nord, pour voir les conséquences néfastes, et la destruction engendrée par le prétendu « printemps arabe ». Que sont devenues la Libye, la Tunisie, la grande, et notre chère Égypte qui, aujourd’hui, est à feu et à sang?Donc, nous devons également réfléchir sur ces conflits qui surviennent du fait de la démocratie, et ces conflits sont aussi les terrains de lutte des idéologies. Il y a également les tenants de la démocratie, dont les forces vives qui deviennent, en Afrique du Nord, des islamistes. Mais, lorsqu’il s’agit des islamistes, on dit finalement qu’ils n’ont pas droit au pouvoir. Ça c’est un autre problème que je ne vais pas évoquer ici.Mais, qui va décider de ce qui doit ou non accéder au pouvoir?Nous devons également réfléchir sur le désastre de la prétendue démocratie imposée par l’Occident.La Chine est-elle un pays démocratique, Monsieur le Président? Et pourtant, elle est devenue la première puissance mondiale.Avant la démocratie, je pense aux conséquences néfastes, aux guerres et aux tueries qui sont dues par des prétendus chefs qui, eux-mêmes, veulent demeurer au pouvoir.Qui a signé, Monsieur le Président, le Statut de Rome pour la Cour Pénale Internationale (CPI)?Aujourd’hui, les Africains disent qu’il ne faut pas que les Chefs d’États aillent à La Haye. Mais pourquoi ont-ils signé le Statut de la CPI?En Somalie, a-t-on utilisé tous les moyens, Monsieur le Président?Il y a un dicton de chez moi qui dit qu’une bellemère a dit à son beau-fils: « Tu es tellement fort et puissant, pourquoi tu n’as pas pu donner un enfant à ma fille? »C’est pour vous dire que, finalement, la communauté internationale dispose de tous les moyens pour que la paix [Interruption du micro].Je vous remercie, Monsieur le Président.HON. ASSOUMANA MALAM ISSA [NIGER]:Merci, Monsieur le Président.C’est un heureux hasard que je sois arrivé au moment où je dois parler. Cela me tenait à cœur de parler, particulièrement sur la situation en République centrafricaine.En effet, comme un mauvais hasard, je suivais les informations ce matin. Il y avait eu un reportage sur ce pays où une équipe de télévision a été conduite dans un village. Il est vrai que les problèmes de sécurité sont généraux en Afrique, mais je suis particulièrement choqué par ce qui se passe dans ce pays.Dans ce village, j’ai vu des images de cadavres qui sont jetés dans des fosses. Le comble, on ne sait pas qui est à la base du massacre. Est-ce la Séléka ou bien les milices?Quelques jours avant, il y avait une patrouille qui a été menée dans la ville de Bangui, et on est tombé chez le maire où on a vu quelques armes et beaucoup de véhicules dont on ignore les propriétaires. Au finish, on a dit que ces véhicules appartiennent à un général qui a déjà rejoint la brousse, et qui a promis de revenir dans quelques semaines à Bangui pour renverser le pouvoir que vous avez mis en place – l’Union africaine et la communauté internationale – pour assurer la transition.Alors, je suis en train de me demander où va l’Afrique?Où va ce pays de l’Afrique centrale qui a une position stratégique? Parce que si jamais la Centrafrique ou le Tchad ou le Cameroun s’embrase, c’est encore un autre foyer qui vient assombrir l’Afrique, avec la RDC, la Somalie et ce qui se passe au Mali.Monsieur le Président,C’est pour vous dire, qu’il est impératif et urgent que la communauté internationale et particulièrement l’Afrique, l’Union africaine et les États africains se penchent concrètement sur des solutions qui nous conduisent à régler définitivement les conflits et non à saupoudrer les situations. On ne peut pas trouver une solution juste pour quelques mois et, quelques jours après, pour qu’une autre rébellion naisse.Je crois que cela nous interpelle. On a tellement parlé qu’on se demande est-ce qu’il suffit de parler pour régler les conflits? Il faut agir!Pour finir, Monsieur le Président, je pense que le Parlement panafricain doit aider le Président OBASANJO qui avait, au cours du Sommet des Chefs d’États, en mai, fait un certain nombre de propositions pour trouver des fonds propres àl’Afrique afin de financer la prévention et le règlement [... Temps de parole épuisé].(Applaudissements)HON. MOHAMED YOUSIF ABDULLAH [SUDAN]:Thank you, Mr President.I would like to thank you and thank Hon. Saleh Kebzabo and Hon. Isaac Mabiletsa for the important reports that were presented to us.I would also like to state that as long as we are able to present these kinds of reports, the PAP is doing well.My first question, after the presentation of these two reports, is whether we are making progress towards attaining peace and development in Africa or deteriorating. Is the AU architecture of peace and security, performing well? According to these reports, I think during the years 2012/13, the situation of African security is deteriorating.If that is the case, then we are increasing the suffering of our people in Africa, especially women and children. I think this Parliament, and in this sitting, has to prevent that and tell the AU that the African architecture of peace and security is not performing well. We have to pass resolutions in this regard and call on the AU Peace and Security Committee to sit and put an end to this kind of eruption of insecurity in different parts of the continent. It is not acceptable, after putting up this architecture, to see Africa deteriorating. I think, as a Parliament, we have to show our Presidents that they are not doing well in this regard.Another area of importance is to improve in the area of taking leadership by force in any country. It is not allowed because it will definitely lead to conflicts. How can we then put an end to these sorts of activities within Africa? As intellectuals, we have to be sure that the democratic process is the best way of holding public office in the political arena. I think these are the very important resolutions that should be passed in this Parliament.Thank you, Mr President.HON. SHEKU B. B. DUMBUYA [SIERRA LEONE]:Thank you very much Mr President.Mr President, I want to agree with my colleague from Saharawi Republic that, for a long time, it would appear as if these people have been ignored. I want to suggest that henceforth attention should always be given to the suffering of the people of the Saharawi Republic and each time there is a report on peace and security in Africa they should be captured so that the international community will know what people are going through.On the question of Kenya, Mr President, our motto here is "One Africa, One Voice." Now what has happened is that our Heads of State have spoken and all of them have been in support of the Kenyan situation in the sense of deferring the case. The two people are the Head of State and his Deputy. Mr President what I cannot understand is that they were accused of post-election violence in 2007, but in the last election the people voted for them. That, to me is an expression of their confidence in them. So, I would want to feel that we should speak with one voice and urge the international community to ensure that this matter is deferred to a later date whilst they are sitting as President. In any case, their argument that they have to be physically present in their country is justified. It is valid in the sense that Kenya, after the Al Shabaab problems, is still dealing with problems. Therefore, if these people are absent at any time, anything could happen. The situation, to me, is still explosive.On the situation in Guinea Conakry, Mr President, I see that the government and the Opposition are never in agreement. They are always up in arms and what has happened is that the conflict has degenerated into a sort of ethnic one. The conflict has taken an ethnic dimension, and any ethnic problem is a serious and dangerous problem. Mr President, our experience in Rwanda should remind us that something has to be done. Something drastic and vigorous has to be done in Guinea to bring the situation under control.The Central African Republic is an intractable problem. Mr President, this should be a lesson to all of us that coups should be banned in Africa and that the army should be told that they have no business in the running of any government of a country. As long as they are coups, there will be problems and instability will continue. On the situation in Mali Mr, President, I feel that the battle has been won. A President has been sworn in but the peace....HON. NASSIROU AMADOU [NIGER]:Merci, Monsieur le Président.Monsieur le Président,Je voudrais parler par rapport à la situation sécuritaire et politique de la guerre du Congo.Monsieur le Président,Vous savez très bien que cette guerre qui date depuis près de vingt ans – aux yeux de tout le monde – nos frères africains sont tués, séquestrés et nos sœurs violées par nos propres frères.Vous savez, Monsieur le Président, pour gagner une guerre, il faut chercher d’abord les raisons et les origines.Cette guerre du Congo, Monsieur le Président, vous le savez très bien, les raisons sont plus ethniques que continentales.Le M23, Monsieur le Président, sans le soutien du Rwanda et de la communauté internationale ne peut en aucun cas faire face aux militaires congolais et encore moins à la Mission de l'Organisation des Nations-Unies pour la stabilisation en République Démocratique du Congo (MONUSCO).Alors, Monsieur le Président, arrêtons-nous de contourner la vérité, pour finir avec cette guerre du Congo. Il faut qu’on passe par le Rwanda qui est la source de cette guerre.Il faut qu’on arrête de dialoguer sur le terrain politique et qu’on arrive sur le terrain de la vérité et de la justice, car si la communauté internationale et l’ensemble de l’Afrique condamnent le Rwanda, je pense que cette guerre est depuis longtemps arrêtée.Alors, Monsieur le Président, prenons une résolution forte au niveau du PAP pour condamner le Rwanda.Merci, Monsieur le Président.(Applaudissements)HON. GALLICAN NIYONGANA [RWANDA]:Merci, Monsieur le Président, pour la parole.Monsieur le Président,Permettez-moi, d’abord, d’exprimer ma compassion et ma sympathie à l’endroit des populations éprouvées vivant dans des régions où sévissent des 3 conflits meurtriers. Compassion, oui, mais aussi lassitude!Monsieur le Président,C’est la énième fois que la Commission Permanente de la Coopération, des relations internationales et de Règlement des conflits nous sert la même recette; j’allais dire de très mauvais goût.Prenons le cas du conflit à l’Est du Congo où le Rwanda est cité. Cette région constitue depuis longtemps la terre fertile de l’insécurité où viennent s’engouffrer plusieurs groupes armés, dont les FDLR, ceux-là même qui ont commis le génocide contre les Tutsis au Rwanda, et propagent encore l’idéologie du génocide dans toute la région, et ne cessent de déstabiliser le Rwanda.Au cours de la session précédente, Monsieur le Président, nous avions salué, avec grand soulagement, les accords et les engagements issus des initiatives régionales et soutenus par l’Union africaine dont, entre autres, la mise sur pied d’une brigade d’intervention ayant pour mandat la surveillance des frontières et la neutralisation des groupes armés.Qu’en est-il aujourd’hui, Monsieur le Président?Je pense qu’il faut aller jusqu’au bout du processus! Mais aussi faut-il aller jusqu’en profondeur du problème que nos deux pays héritent de la colonisation, quand une partie du territoire rwandais s’est retrouvé au Congo? Mais, curieusement, les habitants de cette région peinent à recouvrer la nationalité congolaise à part entière.(Applaudissements)Monsieur le Président,La Conférence internationale des Pays des Grands Lacs a finalement pris le taureau par les cornes, et il faut la soutenir.Par ailleurs, je ne sais pas si le PAP, par l’intermédiaire de sa Commission, a pu travailler en intelligence avec la Conférence Internationale des Pays des Grands Lacs (ICGLR) pour créer une synergie entre les deux institutions et apporter des propositions concrètes et plus réalistes.L’ICGLR devrait constituer vis-à-vis du PAP un collaborateur politiquement fiable au lieu de se contenter des rapports des experts, dont je doute la pertinence,(Applaudissements)d’autant plus que le PAP, jusqu’à présent, n’a pas pu envoyer la mission d’information à l’Est du Congo pour s’enquérir de la situation réelle et tabler sur un rapport soutenu par des faits exacts.Ceci étant, Monsieur le Président, j’ai deux propositions:1.Envoyer la mission parlementaire d’information telle qu’elle a été recommandée ici-même.2.Inviter le Secrétaire [Interruption du micro].Permettez-moi de conclure, Monsieur le Président.Invitez le Secrétaire général de l’ICGLR pour un débat ici, en plénière, et je pense que ce cadre des discussions sera plus enrichissant.Merci, Monsieur le Président.HON. HAMAD MASAUNI [TANZANIA]:Thank you, Mr President.Mr President, I believe Africa is currently in a major economic transition and this economic transition is going to rapidly change and reshape our continent. However, Mr President, these changes will never be able to be sustained if some of the long lasting conflicts in the continent are not fully addressed. As we all know, peace and security are a prerequisite to the implementation of all development programmes and integration of our continent.Mr President, the presentation has addressed a number of conflict situations in the regions of different parts of Africa but my intervention will mainly focus on the situation in the DRC. In my opinion, Mr President, I would like to first of all commend some of the African leaders, including my President, His Excellency Jakaya Kikwete, for trying his level best to come up with a solution to the problem in the region. However, I think we must be honest with ourselves, Mr President, that the best way to address this problem is for the Rwandan Government to agree with the suggestion and recommendation by the African leaders and colleagues to come to the negotiation table with the rebels. I am sure that if the Government of Rwanda decided to sit at the table and discuss with the FDRL, the situation in the region would not be as bad. The best way to sort out problems is, first of all, to come up with a peaceful solution rather than war and conflict. So, this is my strong opinion which I would like the Rwandan Government to consider and the PAP to come up with a resolution to encourage the 4 Rwandan Government to accept sitting with the rebels in order to come up with a peaceful solution to the problems.Mr President, I would finally like to commend the professionalism of the international military input of the First Intervention Brigade (FIB) which is led by the command from the Tanzania Military Force which has been deployed in the region for the very..........HON. RACHEL SHEBESH [KENYA]:Thank you, Mr President, and thank you for the warm welcome we have received as the Kenyan Delegation.Mr President, I have listened with great admiration to the report by the Committee on International Relations on the situation in Kenya and I must congratulate the Chairperson for giving a very apt description of what is happening in Kenya. However, he has also asked us to try and give an input on the real situation so that the Committee’s work becomes relevant and I will go straight to that, Mr President.I will say this, Mr President, that, first in the Westgate attack, as a country we were wounded deeply because, Mr President, it was the first attack of its kind. Kenya has been attacked before, in 1997, during the bomb blast that was at the US Embassy which was also carried out concurrently with the one in Tanzania. However, in Westgate this time, Mr President, there were no hostages. The Al Shabaab’s intention was to kill as many Kenyans as possible so that Kenya can get scared and pull out of Somalia.The stand of the Jubilee Government and the Government of Kenya is that we will remain in Somalia until Somalia gets its peace. Mr President, on the ICC issue, it is obviously an issue that has put us at crossroads. As some speakers have said, the President and his Deputy were elected in a new Constitution, a Constitution gave the President a running mate and, so, primarily or basically, we elected the President and the Deputy President with over 6 million votes, Mr President and yet that time, yes, they were alleged suspects of crimes against humanity at the ICC.However, Mr President, we do believe and I will speak especially for the side of the coalition that I represent, that also represents the President and the Vice President, that during the elections, one of the issues that brought the President and Deputy President together - being from two big ethnic communities - was because these two ethnic communities, the Kikuyu and the Kalenjin, have been the reason for clashes in Kenya since 1997. It is the reason Uhuru Kenyatta and William Ruto stood on the same ticket for peace.Mr President, this is the first time in a long time, in Kenya, that there were no post-election clashes in Kenya. That was a sign of confidence that Kenyans want peace and they do not want to go back to tribal animosity.It is for this reason that we have put numerous requests, through all legal channels, that our President and Deputy President’s cases are either referred back to Kenya so that we deal with them like what has happened to other African countries like Rwanda or that, Mr President, they are deferred until their time as President and Deputy President is completed. I do not think that is asking for too much.As a sovereign country and a member of the AU, I do not think we are asking for too much when we are have a sitting Head of State and Deputy going to face criminal charges. What you are looking for is more conflict in that country rather than peace and so we support this and ask you to, please, send a factfinding mission to Kenya, to get the real situation on the ground and what Kenyans really want.I thank you, Mr President.HON. DR. BERNADETTE LAHAI [SIERRA LEONE]:Thank you very much, Mr President, for giving me the floor.I want to commend our colleagues who went on the fact-finding mission to the Central African Republic. They have given us very far-reaching recommendations. We only hope that these recommendations will be taken in good faith and translated into tangible actions so that the next time we are here, we get a status report on how some of those recommendations have been implemented.On the issue of peace and security in Africa, particularly Guinea which is a neighbour to Sierra Leone, we are very worried that the election results are delayed. We know the more the election results are delayed, the more speculations are being made and at the end of the day when results come out, it will make reconciliation and acceptance very difficult.I am appealing, particularly to the two neighbours of the Mano River Union, President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf as well my own President Ernest Bai Koroma, that while African countries are doing their best, being neighbours, they should also ensure that 5 these results are out and that we put the issue of Guinea behind us.On the issue of the peace-keeping mission in Somalia, Sierra Leone has contributed in peacekeeping there and we did it because, at some point in our history, we were also in need and other people contributed to putting out our own fire. Of course, we are getting a lot of threats from Al Shabaab and the country is nervous and we are all on tenterhooks but we know that justice will triumph over wrongdoing and that God will save Sierra Leone. We are a very fragile country coming war but that should not stop us from contributing to world peace.On the issue of the ICC is a very thorny one. African countries signed wrong statutes and we are now pulling out. The question is: What will be the replacement when our African Court is not yet up and running? Therefore, I want to urge that the AU tries to resource our African Court so that it is up and running and able to try our own people from within Africa. Otherwise, it seems that the ICC is running after Africans but, at the same time, we should ask ourselves as to who is taking these cases to the ICC. It is the African themselves that are taking these cases to the ICC.On the issue of the victims, these have been ignored and nobody is talking about the victims of all these atrocities. I do not think it is right, Mr President.That is my submission.I thank you.HON. DR. TAPIWA MASHAKADA [ZIMBABWE]:Thank you, Mr President, for this opportunity.First of all, allow me to thank the Committee on Cooperation International Relations and Conflict Resolution for their two outstanding reports. They exposed quite a lot of issues affecting Africa, regarding the peace and security situation.Mr President, in 2000 the Economist Magazine wrote that Africa is a hopeless continent but, over the last decade, I think, Africa had moved to become a promising continent, but the report that has just been tabled on peace and security really shows that Africa could be sliding back to that hopeless situation.In the case of Mali Mr President, yes, we have been told that peace is prevailing and that the rebels have been retreating, but as long as Mali’s soil is still not protected and as long as there are still some remnants of rebels in the north of Mali, the sovereignty of Mali will remain threatened. So, it is important that the AU moves swiftly to make sure that the territorial integrity of Mali is secured entirely, and no leave any parts outstanding. In that regard, I think, this House should note the contribution of Chad and other States in saving the Mali Situation. However, concerning Mali, again, why should we allow an external power like France to come in when the AUis there? Our brigade must be reinforced and activated so that it can operate swiftly and respond to all hot spots. I think that is the challenge the AU and the PAP will always face.I go to Guinea Conakry which is again showing a new trend in African resource nationalism and how African governments should review all mining contracts to make sure that the citizens of their countries benefit. So, I want to commend the President of Guinea for reviewing all those mining contracts which have disadvantaged that country for a long time and if all African countries could re-visit their mining concessions, I think, that can help the people of the African countries.Now, on the Kenya issue, as long as the wrong statute binds all the signatories to it, there is no way African countries can wriggle out of the ICC, but I agree that we need an alternative solution.Thank you.HON. HASNA HOUMED BILAL [DJIBOUTI]:Merci, Monsieur le Président, de m’avoir donné la parole.Tout d’abord, je voudrais féliciter les membres de la Commission du PAP qui ont eu le courage de se rendre en République Centrafricaine, en prenant le risque, et qui nous ont fourni les détails de la situation de la Centrafrique.Monsieur le Président,Concernant justement la Centrafrique, je constate l’absence d’une réaction de la part de l’Union africaine, alors que la rébellion de la Séléka sème la violence et la désolation sur l’ensemble du territoire de ce pays, des actes de toutes sortes et de violences envers la population.Monsieur le Président,Contrairement en RCA, l’Union africaine est intervenue dans plusieurs pays d’Afrique en difficulté.Alors, qu’en est-il cette fois-ci et qu’attend-elle pour réagir en République Centrafricaine?Monsieur le Président,Nous espérons que les acteurs actuels de la transition centrafricaine doivent réunir les voies et moyens pour prioriser la paix et la sécurité du pays afin de sortir de cette désolation.Enfin, je voudrais encourager les actions déjà entreprises par la Communauté économique des États de l'Afrique centrale (CEEAC) pour avoir sécurisé la capitale, et en rendant espoir à la population de la République Centrafricaine.Merci, Monsieur le Président.HON BOHUE MARTIN [CÔTE D’VOIRE]:Merci, Monsieur le Président.Mon nom, c’est « BOHUE Martin ».Monsieur le Président,J’ai écouté la brillante intervention de l’Honorable Saleh KEBZABO sur la situation sécuritaire et politique en Afrique. Il a présenté la situation dans les pays comme le Mali, le Kenya, la RDC, le Madagascar, la Somalie, et il a été suivi en cela par l’Honorable député MABILETSA qui a présenté la situation en Centrafrique.Dans la plupart de ces interventions, les conflits sont récurrents. Si en RDC, l’Honorable député KEBZABO a mis en exergue le fait que le Congo est victime de ses immenses richesses, appuyant cela par l’Honorable député NGONGO et bien d’autres, eh bien, dans les autres pays, je m’interroge.Qu’est-ce qui justifie la récurrence des conflits dans les autres pays, comme par exemple, le Madagascar, le Kenya, le Mali, la Somalie, etc. ?Je voudrais un éclairage par rapport à cela.C’est en cela que je soutiens également le fait qu’il faudrait, à l’avenir, que le Bureau du PAP envoie en mission d’information des experts sortis, si c’est possible, des rangs des députés du Parlement panafricain ou alors des experts des instituts et institutions d’études et de recherches, mais, encore faut-il qu’une feuille de route bien claire, bien précise leur soit donnée.Enfin, je voudrais terminer par une question adressée à l’Honorable KEBZABO.Cher ami, en quoi la situation qui a prévalu au Mali constitue un exemple type de mauvaise décolonisation?Je vous remercie.(Applaudissements)HON. ABDISAMAD MOHAMUD HASSAN [SOMALIA]:Thank you, Mr President, for giving me this opportunity to participate. I would also like to thank the two presenters as well as the Hon. Members who expressed their views before me.Before I start, I would like to make a correction on the report regarding to the Somali situation. Mr President, our President, Honourable Hassan Sheikh Mohamud, was elected on September 10, 2011 not August, 2012. You also see, on another page, that President Hassan Sheikh Mohamud met with Nicholas Kaye on August 6, 2010. Both Nicholas Kaye and President Hassan Sheikh Mohamud were not there in 2010. So, please, take note of those two errors.Mr President, I would like to explain more about Al Shabaab. Mr President, Al Shabaab is not a local terrorist group. They are universal terrorists and they are enemies of every nation around the world. Mr President, Africa needs to support the Somali people for them to have security and stability in different matters.Mr President, there are currently seven countries participating in Somalia but I would like to suggest that Somalia needs more African brothers to participate in the mission in Somalia. As long as we know that Al Shabaab is not a local terrorist group, it is an enemy of all African countries. So, we must unite and fight for peace and against terrorism. Mr President, I would like to suggest that the PAP Members create an ad hoc committee to visit Somalia and these other countries such as Kenya and Ethiopia who know a little bit about Al Shabaab. They should visit to study what Al Shabaab are and then report back to PAP and other African countries.I do have a good knowledge of Al Shabaab. I have served my country as the Minister of Security for the last two years and I know that Al Shabaab is more dangerous than other terrorists.Thank you..HON. JEAN D’ARC NYINAWASE [RWANDA]:Merci, Monsieur le Président, de m’avoir accordé la parole.Monsieur le Président,Les onze pays d’Afrique, dont la République Démocratique du Congo, l’Ouganda, le Rwanda, le Burundi, la Tanzanie, l’Afrique du Sud, l’Angola, le Congo-Brazzaville, la République centrafricaine, le Soudan du Sud et le Mozambique ont signé, le 24 février 2013 à Addis-Abeba, un Accord-cadre pour restaurer la paix dans l’Est de la RDC.Compte tenu de ce qui précédait, il a été demandé au gouvernement de la RDC ce qui suit:« d’accélérer la politique de décentralisation;« de développer l’économie, les infrastructures et les services sociaux de base;« de réformer les institutions de finances;et d’élaborer un agenda de réconciliation et de démocratisation ».Monsieur le Président,Comme mon frère du Rwanda l’a dit, le Rwanda n’est pas la cause de l’insécurité au Congo. Cependant, le Rwanda doit accélérer ses droits de souveraineté et de sécurité puisqu’un groupe génocidaire, FDLR – qui a tué plus d’un million de Rwandais innocents lors du génocide des Tutsis en 1994 – a toujours tendance à retourner pour achever ce qu’il n’a pas pu terminer lors du génocide des Tutsis en 1994.Monsieur le Président,Notre voisin, le Congo, n’a pas d’autorité sur toutes les parties de son territoire. C’est la raison pour laquelle il y a plus de vingt rébellions sur son territoire.Monsieur le Président, Je recommanderais, comme mon frère du Rwanda l’a dit, que le PAP envoie une mission d’information au Congo en vue de connaître la réalité de la cause de l’insécurité au Congo.Monsieur le Président, Parmi les recommandations déjà prises lors de la session précédente, on avait demandé que le PAP envoie une mission d’information au Congo.En ce qui concerne la recommandation faite au Rwanda pour négocier avec le FDLR, je me demande comment, où et quand peut-on négocier avec un génocidaire, Monsieur le Président?Pour moi, c’est impossible!Merci, Monsieur le Président.HON. MILLY ODYEMBO [KENYA]:Thank you, Mr President, and I want to just thank you for the warm welcome with which you have received us as the Kenyan Delegation.I would want to say, in regard to the Kenyan situation, Mr President, that, firstly, on the ICC situation, the AU was supportive of the Kenyan nation in 2007 when we faced the post-election violence and sent the Panel of Eminent African Personalities that helped us to come up with the negotiated peace agreement that saw us even go to elections that were peaceful.Nonetheless, Kenya, as a country, chose to go to the ICC. So, indeed it is regrettable but, as a nation, we are getting Africa to focus attention on the ICC as an enemy of Kenya when it is not. The AU should help us to deal with the simmering situation in the country because the absence of war is not the presence of peace.The President was elected through elections that were very highly contested. The matter went up to the Supreme Court and the Opposition was largely not happy with the outcome, but Kenya decided to go through the path of peace. The AU, as a whole, would help Kenya in restoring peace, reconciliation and healing which is what Kenya needs the most and also help Africa as a continent to look for alternative conflict resolution mechanisms for the continent and not look at the people who want to help us as a continent when we have problems, as the enemy.I thank you, Mr. President.HON. IGNACE NDEBO AKANDA [RÉUBLIQUE DÉMOCRATIQUE DU CONGO]:Monsieur le Président, je vous remercie pour la parole et je joins ma voix à celles de mes prédécesseurs qui ont exprimé toutes leurs reconnaissances à la Commission qui a présenté un travail de qualité.Monsieur le Président,Je vais être très bref, en dépit du fait que cette question particulièrement de la RDC, soulève de la passion en moi, puisqu’il s’agit de mon pays. La question fondamentale que je voudrais, d’abord, me poser, Monsieur le Président, c’est celle de savoir, en Afrique d’où venons-nous, où sommes-nous et où allons-nous? C’est la question fondamentale que je pose, Monsieur le Président.Et subséquemment ou complémentairement à ce qu’avait dit mon collègue dans la présentation, que nous avons neuf voisins certes, mais il nous faillait ajouter que nous avons deux fuseaux horaires en République Démocratique du Congo sur un territoire de près de deux millions quatre cent mille kilomètres carrés (2.400.000 km²) dont les plus grandes distances varient entre mille deux cent (1.200) et mille six cent (1.600) kilomètres. Nous devons bien le savoir!En ce qui concerne les causes et les origines qu’avait évoquées, tout à l’heure, mon collègue du Niger, je me réjouis, aujourd’hui, que nous venons d’en connaître la deuxième raison principale de l’agression confirmée et avérée du Rwanda sur le territoire congolais. Il s’agit notamment, outres les richesses – mais nous venons d’apprendre, Monsieur le Président, officiellement, qu’il s’agit également de la terre, c'est-à-dire de balkaniser, de « somaliser » la République Démocratique du Congo. Nous venons d’en avoir la confirmation, aujourd’hui, et nous en prenons acte.(Applaudissements)D’autre part, Monsieur le Président, nous avons lors d’une session antérieure, observé, avec beaucoup d’émotion, les images qui nous avaient été projetées sur le territoire, des exactions qui se passaient sur le territoire de la République Sahraouie Démocratique. Aujourd’hui, Monsieur le Président, si nous devons vous diffuser les images que subissent les femmes, les enfants, les fillettes, des viols, des exactions, Monsieur le Président, on ne parlera plus de génocide. On ne parlera plus de génocide, parce que c’est grave et extrêmement grave.(Applaudissements)Aujourd’hui, on nous parle de frontières! Or, dans nos têtes, dans notre imagination et dans l’intelligence de tous, de chacun et de chacune, ce problème est résolu depuis 1885; on n’était pas encore né. Même en rêve, on n’était pas encore né! Le problème était réglé depuis l’époque. Excusez-moi, Monsieur le Président, on a parlé des causes endogènes. En République Démocratique du Congo, les causes endogènes n’existent plus. Les causes endogènes n’existent pas. Elles sont réglées, elles sont vidées par les dernières concertations nationales auxquelles ont pris part, la majorité, l’opposition c’est-à-dire l’opposition politique, la société civile et toutes les autres confessions religieuses ou pas que vous pouvez vous imaginer.(Applaudissements)Pour les solutions [….]UN HONORABLE MEMBRE:Monsieur le Président! Monsieur le Président!HON. IGNACE NDEBO AKANDA [RÉUBLIQUE DÉMOCRATIQUE DU CONGO]:Excusez-moi, c’est très important, Monsieur le Président.Il y a trois pistes. Il y a la piste diplomatique et encore que dans la piste diplomatique, il y a la diplomatie classique et la diplomatie parlementaire. Nous sommes parlementaires, ici, et j’ai l’impression que nous nous retrouvons dans un prétoire où les uns accusent et les autres se défendent. Or, il ne s’agit pas de cela, Monsieur le Président. Il s’agit tout simplement de dire la vérité, car la verité nous affranchit et nous libère.La deuxième piste, c’est la piste politique et là, Monsieur le Président, autant de sommets qu’il y en a eu, la bonne foi ou la mauvaise foi est établie d’un côté comme de l’autre. Nous le savons!La troisième et dernière piste, Monsieur le Président, c’est la piste militaire. Le Congo ne se laissera plus faire.(Applaudissements)Le Congo ne se laissera plus faire, et au moment où nous parlons, les événements sont en train de nous donner raison sur le terrain.Enfin, Monsieur le Président, je voudrais dire que le PAP doit désormais prendre ses responsabilités. Il serait bon que le PAP revienne et s’investisse; je suis au PAP et membre de la Commission Permanente des Règlements, des Privilèges et de la Discipline. Il faudrait que nous revenions à nos attributions et nos pouvoirs. Je sais que le combat, c’est de recouvrer tous ses pouvoirs. Nous devons y arriver, Monsieur le Président.Enfin, je voudrais terminer par un proverbe. Je voudrais clôturer par un proverbe, Monsieur le Président: « On ne pas indéfiniment battre du tamtam sans finalement avoir mal aux doigts ».J’ai dit, Monsieur le Président, je vous remercie.(Applaudissements)HON. SALEH KEBZABO [PRÉSIDENT DE LA COMMISSION PERMANENTE DE LA COOPÉRATION, DES RELATIONS INTERNATIONALES ET DE RÈGLEMENT DES CONFLITS]:Merci, Monsieur le Président, de me permettre de réagir à certains propos qui ont été tenus. Mais je ne sais pas si je pourrais tenir, dans cinq minutes. Je vais essayer d’être bref.Je voudrais commencer par mon frère Sahraoui, pour lui dire qu’on a eu, par le passé, à faire des rapports sur la situation dans son pays, mais cette fois-ci, lui-même a vu qu’on a passé en revue plusieurs pays. C’est pour cela qu’on ne pouvait pas faire un rapport sur tous les pays, parce que s’il fallait le faire, il faudrait y ajouter l’Égypte, la Tunisie, le Soudan, le Mozambique, peut-être l’Ouganda, et pourquoi pas le Swaziland et la Libye.Donc, beaucoup de pays africains sont en crise. Je ne sais pas si, à chaque session, nous sommes en mesure de passer en revue tous les pays en crise ouverte, larvée ou latente. C’est pour cela que certains pays n’ont pas pu avoir notre développement.Monsieur le Président,Je voudrais, même en étant membre de la Commission, souligner combien j’ai apprécié le rapport sur la République centrafricaine. C’est la preuve que si nous pouvons envoyer des missions dans les pays pour y amener du matériel de première main afin de nous édifier; c’est la meilleure solution! C’est la meilleure solution que de passer par un institut qui travaille sur internet ou je ne sais sur quel autre matériel, et vient nous faire de la compilation qui ne nous apprend absolument rien.Voilà, la preuve a été faite par mon ami Isaac – qui est membre de la Commission – qui a été en RCA lui-même. Vous l’avez écouté! Vous avez été édifié et je pense que cela est suffisant pour qu’on demande que d’autres missions puissent aller dans d’autres pays.Je rappelle que ces missions que nous avons programmées, c’est pour répondre à plusieurs appels. Nous avons programmé, entre autres, d’aller au Congo. J’espère qu’avant la prochaine session cela se fera.À propos du Congo, Monsieur le Président, vous avez vu que dès qu’il s’agit du Congo, une sorte de passion emporte nos collègues pour défendre tel ou tel pays. Il ne s’agit pas de cela! Notre rôle ici, en tant que parlementaires, n’est pas d’invectiver tel ou tel pays, tel ou tel dirigeant, en se parant des attributs de ce pays-là, soit sur le plan idéologique, soit sur le plan du patriotisme.Il ne s’agit pas de cela!Il s’agit de voir avec toute la sérénité et sans la passion qui nous dirige!Il s’agit de dire exactement quelle est la situation sur le terrain!Je pense qu’en l’espèce, entre le Congo et le Rwanda, il y a des problèmes. Il y a des problèmes, et je crois que l’un des indicateurs que nous avons, ce sont les Nations-Unies. On ne peut pas accuser les Nations-Unies de partialité. Donc, on peut se référer aux conclusions des Nations-Unies pour savoir pourquoi est-ce que ce conflit perdure.(Applaudissements)Je ne suis pas partisan pour qu’on prenne des résolutions pour condamner un pays. Cela ne fait pas avancer la cause!Mon collègue a parlé, tout à l’heure, de diplomatie parlementaire. Je crois que si on doit passer par la diplomatie parlementaire, on ne condamne pas. On intervient, on essaye de concilier, de rapprocher les positions et de faire en sorte que les solutions puissent être mises en œuvre afin qu’on sorte d’un conflit.Le Congo en lui-même – nous venons de le voir – a la capacité de se remettre en cause et de voir quelles sont les dispositions à prendre pour une meilleure gouvernance du pays. C’est ce qui vient de se passer avec la concertation nationale qui a réuni toutes les composantes du pays, et a abouti à 679 propositions; pas moins!Donc, vous voyez bien que le Congo peut se remettre en cause et aller dans une bonne direction.Je pense que le prochain gouvernement de large union nationale qui va être mis en place sera, certainement, en mesure de remettre le pays sur les rails et peut-être de mieux affronter la situation à l’Est. Nous leur souhaitons en tout cas, que cette situation à l’Est du pays, qui gangrène le développement du pays, puisse être réglée au plus vite.Moi, j’ai mal!Monsieur le Président,J’ai mal au fond de moi-même – je ne suis pas Congolais – mais j’ai mal qu’un pays aussi immense, un pays aussi riche, traîne depuis des 0 années et ne puisse pas décoller. Le Congo est une puissance en devenir. Il suffit que le Congo bénéficie d’une certaine stabilité et de la paix, et que la démocratie pour laquelle nous nous battons s’instaure dans ce pays pour que le Congo soit immédiatement émergent.Il faut se battre pour cela, et ce sera à l’avantage de beaucoup de pays africains. Un pays comme le mien, qui est à quatre mille kilomètres (4.000 km) du Congo, attend que le barrage d’Inga puisse produire de l’électricité pour venir jusqu’au Tchad. C’est possible, et je pense que c’est cela la réalité que nous devons soutenir.En ce qui concerne les autres pays, je voudrais d’abord globalement remercier tous les députés qui sont intervenus pour leurs interventions qui ont été de qualité, que j’apprécie beaucoup, et qui confirment, comme je le disais au début, que nous avons ici, dans cette salle, beaucoup de valeurs sur lesquelles on peut s’appuyer pour faire avancer nos problèmes.La Somalie!La Somalie, il y a eu des erreurs qui ont été commises dans le texte qu’on a fait. Évidemment, toute œuvre ne peut pas être parfaite. J’ajoute, donc, qu’il y a d’autres pays qui sont intervenus en plus des quatre. En fait, il y en a sept. Aux quatre, il faut ajouter le Djibouti, la Sierra Leone, [Interruption du micro]. Et je joins ma parole [Interruption du micro] de mon collègue qui vient de parler pour dire, effectivement en le confirmant, que d’autres pays devraient pouvoir aider la Somalie.Le Kenya!Heureusement que notre collègue qui a fait un come back, Shebesh Rachel, est revenue sur cette question avec un argumentaire qui est convaincant.On n’a pas beaucoup parlé de la CPI!Pourquoi on n’en parle pas?Pourquoi les autres collègues n’en ont pas parlée?Est-ce qu’on va laisser la CPI continuer comme cela,à condamner des Africains?Le pendant de cette question, est-ce que les Chefs d’États africains vont se constituer en syndicat pour passer une résolution et empêcher qu’on les poursuive, pour qu’ils puissent continuer à tuer, à piller impunément?(Applaudissements)Ça aussi, c’est une question qu’on peut se poser. Et donc, un débat sur la CPI, de façon sereine et approfondie, aurait pu être instauré dans cette Assemblée, pour que les collègues donnent leur point de vue et expriment profondément leur opinion sur des problèmes de ce genre.Des questions comme celles-là, il y en a beaucoup, Monsieur le Président. Je ne peux pas répondre à tous les problèmes. J’avoue, avec celui qui m’a interpellé, qu’on doit parler de l’intervention du Tchad, mais aussi du Niger au Mali. Sans ces deux pays, la France seule, on n’aurait pas réussi.(Applaudissements)Ça c’est clair! Et le Tchad en particulier a perdu aujourd’hui une quarantaine d’hommes – quarante ou quarante et un – dans un conflit qui n’est pas le sien, à plus de deux mille kilomètres (2.000 km) de son pays. Il faut le saluer! C’est une forme de solidarité africaine active qui est payée dans le sang et sur laquelle on ne peut pas passer comme cela, sans effectivement décerner des palmes à ces pays qui aujourd’hui, au Mali, en Somalie, en RCA, interviennent pour ramener la paix et la stabilité dans les pays africains.Monsieur le Président,Je vais répondre à une question avant de conclure.Une amie, qui est devant moi ici, m’a demandé pourquoi j’ai dit que le Mali était l’exemple type d’une mauvaise décolonisation. Tout de même, Monsieur le Président, ça c’est un débat! C’est un grand débat!Nous savons tous que toutes les formes de décolonisation auxquelles on a participées, qu’on a vécues, ne sont pas bonnes. Un pays comme le Mali s’est retrouvé indépendant comme d’autres pays, avec d’autres problèmes, sans que des options de base sur la notion même d’État aient été réglées.Aujourd’hui, nous avons des États qui sont héritiers de la colonisation, alors que ce n’est peut-être pas notre culture. Ce n’est peut-être pas notre choix fondamentalement politique.Est-ce qu’aujourd’hui, l’État tel que nous le promouvons dans nos pratiques – l’État au Sénégal, l’État au Mali, l’État au Tchad, l’État au Congo, etc. – est-ce que véritablement, c’est cette formule d’État qui peut mettre les pays africains au diapason du développement mondial?Je me pose des questions!Mais je vous dis tout simplement que la décolonisation, telle que nous l’avons vécue dans la plupart de nos pays, était presqu’un cadeau empoisonné, parce que nous ne nous sommes pas bien battus, nous ne nous sommes pas bien préparés, nous n’avons pas assimilé toutes les notions de la construction d’un État au plan démocratique, de développement et autre, pour dire que nous étions outillés pour construire des États.Enfin, je voudrais finir, Monsieur le Président, avec une petite interrogation à mes amis. Je ne sais pas si la façon actuelle de travailler, c'est-à-dire des fiches par pays, et des pays uniquement en crise, est la meilleure façon d’informer le Parlement sur ce qui se passe dans nos pays. C’est vrai, on peut continuer avec ces fiches, mais, n’est-il pas bon, par exemple, que lors de la prochaine session, on instaure des débats sur des questions fondamentales de politique étrangère en Afrique?Aujourd’hui, nous savons qu’un phénomène comme celui de la religion par les islamistes, qui sont des terroristes, est en train de prendre du terrain sans qu’un débat ne s’instaure sur la question.Est-ce qu’on va assister aux Shebab, Boko-Haram, MUJAO et autres dans chaque pays, qui sont en train d’imposer leurs lois à des pays en dehors des normes démocratiques pour lesquelles nous nous battons?Est-ce que nous pouvons continuer à accepter cette situation, qu’elle perdure et qu’elle bloque définitivement l’évolution de l’Afrique?Ce sont sur des questions comme celles-là, Monsieur le Président, qu’il faut qu’on instaure un débat, qu’on puisse avoir le temps d’en débattre, et que le Parlement puisse donner son opinion sur un certain nombre de questions fondamentales pour le développement de l’Afrique.Enfin, Monsieur le Président, je vais conclure, juste, par un regret. Je ne l’ai pas fait, attendant que d’autres le fassent.Personne n’a parlé d’émigration vers l’Europe, un phénomène dans lequel de vaillants fils de l’Afrique meurent; des dizaines et des centaines d’Africains meurent dans la mer Méditerranée, dans l’océan, parce qu’ils sont en train de fuir l’Afrique pour aller chercher du travail ailleurs, et donc, en Europe.Lampedusa – je crois que c’est le nom de cette île – où ils cherchent à arriver, comme si c’est vraiment l’île du paradis sur terre, avant d’arriver en Europe.Voilà des questions comme celles-là auxquelles on assiste impuissant; on ne l’évoque pas. L’Union africaine n’en fait pas un thème pour ses débats, le Parlement panafricain non plus. Mais je pense que des questions comme celles-là méritent aussi d’être étudiées en profondeur pour que nous dégagions un certain nombre de consensus et d’orientations.Monsieur le Président, je vous remercie.(Applaudissements)HON: ISAAC STEPHEN MABILETSA [BOTSWANA]:Thank you, Mr President.I listened and took notes whilst Members spoke on both reports. In the case of the report on the Central Africa Republic (CAR), a lot of Members were noting the atrocities that are being inflicted on the people of the Central African Republic and are really calling for urgent measures to be taken. I think this is the message that I got from the report but now, the issue that I think ought to be addressed is the question asked by Hon. Henry Yala from Liberia, a good friend of mine. Thank you Hon. Member. Now that the report has been done on the Fact Finding Mission, what is next and I think the Liberian delegation ask this question consistently, and so as the other members.During our final meeting as a Mission, whilst we were already here, I asked a similar question to the Chairperson and the Secretariat that are servicing us and the answer I got was that, since we have made the recommendations, they will be extracted and forwarded in the normal procedure to the Bureau, that will now cause appropriate action to be taken.What appropriate action to be taken, I do not know because at that time I was even contemplating coming up with a motion to back up this report. So I think in that regard, all those that are having that concern, I also have it and I believe the Bureau are here and they are listening. Once extracted recommendations are received by them, I have full trust that they are going to be executed accordingly.Now, when we look at the situation of the reports that we have given, particularly of the mission, we do not write each and everything that we have been told. If you were to do that, really the report would be more than ten times the ones that you are having.But, we really sift and try to come up with very few salient points that will help you appreciate what the situation is but I want to reiterate that really, the 2 situation in the Central Africa Republic is dire, alarming and degrading.People go without medical facilities, no education for their children in every part of the country, you cannot easily travel. When you attempt to leave the capital, Bangui, to travel to the hinterland, 99 per cent of the chances are that you will come back as a dead hero. This is how dire the situation is in that country. So, it really needs urgent attention.On the issue of sanctions, Hon. Colleagues, the AU needs to be requested to urgently consider lifting the sanctions to enable the Transitional Government to raise the necessary resources that are needed; first for servicing basic infrastructure and utilities, and secondly, for enabling that Transitional Government to organise and run fair and credible elections. Also, the issue of disarmament is extremely urgent. It needs to be undertaken because without it, the security continues to deteriorate and to be compromised.I think these issues are really what I would say as emphasis on the basis of the report but I want to finally conclude by saying; I thank you Mr President for appointing us as a team to be on this fact finding mission and as a first experience for me to go on to it, that country, Central Africa Republic, is a very beautiful country. You know, better than me. When we interacted with them, they told us that they can plough and plant throughout the year, three times in a year and twelve months around the year and still have very good harvest and also, it has potential of becoming the bread basket of Africa. It really has that potential but issues of mis-governance, poor planning of elections and where elections are run in a manner that favours the incumbents, is where the problem lies. The ethnicity issue is there but not a great deal of a problem. I want to emphasise that they should have regular, well organised, free and fair elections like the rest of Africa.Really, I think, more than 90 per cent of Africa is running its elections very well like if you look at the conflict situation that was here in South Africa.Mandela came out of prison and became President.He restored peace and stability without any ethnicity retributions on the former apartheid regime. Sam Nujoma came in and we know of the Kaundas of this world, the Seretse Khamas, Kenyattas of this world and we know of many; the Nyereres and many leaders of that type who really fought and build nations within their own countries with the exception of few countries where there were conflicts. It is the greed and the selfish interests of few leaders who want power just for personal self enrichment – period. Nothing beyond that! National interest is not in their mind, community interest, not in their mind, nation building, not in their mind but just self enrichment and self aggrandisement. This is just the problem.UNE HONORABLE MEMBRE:Motion, Monsieur le Président!Motion!Motion conformément à l’article 45, alinéa 5 du Règlement intérieur du Parlement panafricain, Monsieur le Président!Je demande la motion!Monsieur le Président,En tant que parlementaire venant du Rwanda, vous tous, vous savez que le génocide rwandais est un crime international reconnu par l’ONU et l’Union africaine.Monsieur le Président,Parmi nos collègues qui viennent de nier le génocide qu’a connu le Rwanda en 1994 [...]HON. SALEH KEBZABO [TCHAD]:Une contre motion, s’il vous plaît, Monsieur le Président!Une contre motion!UNE HONORABLE MEMBRE:en le comparant avec les crimes liés à l’insécurité en RDC, je voudrais, Monsieur le Président, que l’Honorable retire sa parole, car il a tendance à renier le génocide des Tutsis que le Rwanda a connu.Nous en avons marre, nous les Rwandais!Merci, Monsieur le Président.HON. SALEH KEBZABO [TCHAD]:Une contre motion, s’il vous plaît, Monsieur le Président!Je pense qu’il faut qu’on garde la sérénité des débats.Notre ami était en train de conclure sur les interventions par rapport au rapport sur la République Centrafricaine.Notre sœur avait la latitude d’attendre la fin, même par simple politesse, qu’il finisse son propos qui n’a 3 rien à voir avec le Rwanda. Elle aurait pu demander la parole!Donc, je pense qu’i faut lui retirer la parole, Monsieur le Président.MR. PRESIDENT:Thank you very much, I will still wait to hear what her point of order was and I remember you are out of order and I do not know why you want to put a debate in a manner that is not in accordance with the rules of procedure. Yes, you may conclude, Hon. Mabiletsa.HON: ISAAC STEPHEN MABILETSA [BOTSWANA]:Thank you, Mr President. Mainly, the emphasis I was making was on a few African leaders, very few indeed, which are making Africa, appear like a very dark continent: a continent where people are so uncivilised, always fighting and killing each other. These are just very few situations and maybe up to 90 per cent or more of Africa is well run. Just a few situations are causing these conflicts and I have seen this, Mr President, in the Central African Republic, that really if you could be lucky to have among them charismatic leaders such as Mandela, Kaunda, Seretse Khama or whoever, that country could have a bright future ahead of it and free of conflict. It needs somebody that can unite that nation. Africa stands to gain a great deal from that country. It has all that it takes to make a highly successful and good country for its citizens.I thank you, Mr. President.THE PRESIDENT:Honourable Members, can we please give another round of applause to our presenters.ApplauseHon. Colleagues, the issues of peace and security on our continent continue to undermine the process of development and to impoverish the African citizens caught up in the areas of conflict. The process of conflict resolution on our continent over the years has many perspectives. Many stakeholders have continued to contribute meaningfully in resolving conflicts. We have had recent cases where the restoration of peace to countries like Liberia, Sierra Leone and the Ivory Cost has provided an enabling environment for growth and development for our citizens in these countries. Therefore, we are convinced that the work and contributions of PAP to this process of peace building and ensuring stability in our Member States cannot be trivialised by anyone.The PAP, in its years of existence, has intervened meaningfully in many conflict areas on our continent. The work that we do is very important as it contributes immensely to the process of peace building and peace building efforts on our continent.Recent examples abound such as the Mali situation. Let me put it on record that this Parliament was the first Pan African or AU institution to send a fact finding mission to Mali.ApplauseTHE PRESIDENT:Our resolutions and the output of that fact-finding mission contributed immensely in the decision that was taken by the AU in sending a multinational force to Mali to restore peace and stability.ApplauseTHE PRESIDENT:Today, we have a situation where the process of peace building in Mali is still on-going. Elections have been held and, today, a new President, His Excellency Hon. Ibrahim Bhukar Keita, has assumed office. He was a Member of this Parliament, he sat in this hall with us and his experience will be enriched by part of the contributions from the PAP experience. We will continue to support him and all others who have found themselves in positions of leadership in difficult situations. We, therefore, will continue to make our contributions to the process to make our voice loud and clear on issues of conflict on the continent.When our Members go to conflict areas on factfinding missions, they risk life and limb in difficult situations to bring to us first-hand information as to the situation in these conflict areas and based on this information, we pass resolutions and recommendations to the AU Heads of State on our proposals on the way forward. I, therefore, want to urge our colleagues not to relent in our efforts to ensure that our contributions to the process of peace building on our continent is something that posterity will remember us for.I, therefore, want to say quite clearly to our colleagues who have some doubts about the work that we do in this Parliament, that PAP though just advisory and consultative remains the only elected body on this continent that is a clear voice for the people of Africa who continue to wallow in poverty, hunger, disease and illiteracy and that the work that we do must be supported by all well meaning citizens of our continent to ensure that we provide a better future for the next generation of Africans.I thank you.ApplauseTHE PRESIDENT:Hon. Members, in accordance with Rule 37 of our Rules of Procedure, I propose that we make an amendment to our programme for today. We had slated the Youth Caucus for early in the afternoon but because we have a lot of outstanding work, I therefore, in accordance with our rules propose that we go on our lunch break and return by 2 o’clock to continue up to 4 pm after which the Youth Caucus meeting will be held from 4 pm.Honourable colleagues, we, therefore, suspend our sitting and resume by 2 pm this afternoon.Business suspended until 2 pm.THE PRESIDENT:Please, be seated Hon. Colleagues.Hon. Members, the Clerk shall read the second order of the day.THE CLERK:Thank you, Mr President.Presentation and debates on the Report of the Joint Session of the Pan African Parliament and the Parliamentarians for Global Action on the Arms Trade Treaty.THE PRESIDENT:Hon. Members, may I call the Honourable Dr. Bernadette Lahai to make her presentation.HON. DR. BERNADETTE LAHAI [SIERRA LEONE]:Good afternoon to Colleague Members of Parliament. It is my pleasure to present to you a report of the Joint Committee Session of the Pan-African Parliament and the Parliamentarians for Global Action (PGA) on the Arms Trade Treaty, that was held from 17th to the 18thof October, 2013, in the PAP, Midrand, Johannesburg, South Africa.Mr President, Hon. Members, it is no accident that this presentation is coming after the two presentations we had this morning, that is, the presentation on the situation with regards peace and security in Africa and the fact-finding mission to the CAR. I say these two presentations are linked in the sense that they share one thing in common, and that is arms. I mention arms in the sense that Africa has been destabilised by conflicts that have been fuelled and prolonged because of easy availability of arms and ammunitions and we see how the wars in Africa, maybe, will not have even started or even if they had started, would not have been prolonged had there not been illicit arms that proliferate in our countries by passing through our porous borders. It is such a situation that the Arms Trade Treaty seeks to address.There is inadequate regulation of the international arms trade that has had devastating consequences across the continents especially of Africa over the past fifty years. As a result of such situations, hundreds of thousands of lives have been lost, including properties, and citizens have been injured either permanently or on a temporary basis while tens of thousands of women and girls, particularly, have been abused through sexual rape, forced marriages and unwanted pregnancies.In recognition of this reality among African nations, a substantial role of Africa particularly was manifested during the Arms Trade Treaty Negotiations between 2006 and 2013. Kenya was one of the original seven co-sponsors of the UN General Assembly Resolution on the Arms Trade Treaty in 2006.Hon. Members, Mr President, on the 2nd of April this year, the General Assembly adopted the landmark Arms Trade Treaty regulating the international trade in conventional arms from small arms to battle tanks, combat aircraft and warships. The treaty, if well and properly implemented, will foster peace and security by putting a stop to destabilising arms flows to conflict regions. It will prevent human rights abusers and violators of the law of war from being supplied with arms. It will also help keep war lords, pirates and gangs from acquiring these deadly arms.On the 3rd of June, this year, having adopted the Arms Trade Treaty, it was open for signature at the United Nations Headquarters in New York. To date, 114 member States have signed and eight UN member States have ratified the Arms Trade Treaty.You have just been given the list of those countries that have signed and ratified. Maybe is good that you look through the list and see whether your country is among this list. Of those 114, thirty-one are from Africa that is making it a third of the countries that have signed. With those that have ratified, only one comes from Africa and that is Nigeria, our big brother.Parliamentarians have a pivotal role to play in promoting the arms trade treaty:(i)by advocating for the establishment of the arms trade treaty;(ii)advocating for the signature of the arms trade treaty; and(iii)advocating for the implementation of the Arms Trade Treaty by drafting the implementing legislation to give effect to this treaty.The PGA have been very instrumental in the negotiation of the Arms Trade Treaty. In one of the meetings in Tanzania when there was a regional workshop on sensitising the Parliamentarians for global members, I happen to have given in my way forward presentation the role that a continental body like the Pan African Parliament can do in this regard bringing together almost 245 Members of Parliament from 54 countries, Pan African Parliament is strategically placed to use its expertise in advocating for ratification of treaties to move this process further.It was in that meeting that I recommended that we have a joint session, the Parliamentarians for global action and the PAP so as to sensitise the members of these two important bodies without bringing the ATT and to see how the Pan African Parliament together with the Parliamentarians for global action can move this important treaty ahead.I am grateful that the President in his wisdom approved for this joint session hence a very successful meeting was held bringing together Parliamentarians from 10 countries who belong to the Parliamentarians for global action and members of four committees of the Pan African Parliaments, transport, human rights and justice, trade and international cooperation.The purpose of the joint session:1.Was to familiarise the Members of their respective committees with the Arms Trade Treaty and its goals.2.To heighten understanding of the key role that Members can play in making the Arms Trade Treaty a robust treaty.3.To introduce a PGA global Parliamentary Handbook on ratification and implementation of the ATT.4.To introduce the PGA Parliamentary toolkits on Arms Trade Treaty.5.To identify possible steps to be taken by Members of Parliament to facilitate early ratification and implementation of the ATT. And lastly but not the least6.To establish the PAP/PGA Group to continue the advocacy and ATT and other goals of the two institutions.The workshop was a two-day workshop and it was organised by us. The first day focused on the overview, trade and the introduction of the Arms Trade Treaty by staff of the PGA in New York. This was followed by the introduction of the participants to the PGA Handbook on the Ratification and Implementation of the Arms Trade Treaty and ended us, the PGA Members from the nine countries, giving a status report of the PGA but less importantly, on their role in taking the Arms Trade Treaty forward.The second day was devoted to the presentation of Moving Forward with the Ratification and Implementation of the Arms Trade Treaty by one of the UN experts from the United Nations General Conference for Centre for Peace and Disarmaments.Hon. Members, if you go to page 3 of the English text, the Joint Committee session was opened by no less a person than the Second Vice President who welcomed the Hon. Members and underscored the importance of this important workshop, the role of the Parliamentarians, particularly the PAP, in pushing the ratification and implementation of this important treaty and ended by underlining how, with the formation of the PGA/PAP Group in Parliament here, these two can strategically work together to push forward not only the Arms Trade Treaty but the two goals and shared visions of these two important institutions. Both of them have the goal of fostering world peace and security, democracy and sustainable development.I, that is Hon. Dr Bernadette Lahai, gave the remarks that led to the launching of the workshop. In those remarks, the efforts of the PGA in the negotiations and debates on the Arms Trade Treaty were lauded as well as the role of Parliamentarians in the signing the ratification of the treaty.This report also looks at the regional conferences that were held in Namibia and Tanzania and brought together Members of Parliament from over fifteen countries to sensitise them on the ATT and encourage them to go back to their countries and take action leading to the signing and ratification of this important treaty.Hon. Members, Mr President, with regard to the overview of the Arms Trade Treaty and the introduction to the arms trade which was delivered by Mr Peter Barcroft, he started by addressing the issue of why international treaties are drafted and explained that the international community recognises that the issue has become of such importance and urgency. Efforts must be made not only nationally and regionally but internationally to address that issue by way of a treaty, convention or protocol. He explained the lack of regulation of international arms trade and consequences such as loss of lives and serious injury and abuse of women and girls which call for the control of international arms trade, reckless and irresponsible use, and proliferation of arms which came into focus 25 to 35 years ago. Despite this, he lamented and said that it was only in 2006 that the negotiations began to develop into the Arms Trade Treaty. The treaty was agreed on, on the 2nd of April, 2013 by 154 member States and, as of today, 114 have signed, thirty-one of whom are from Africa with only seven ratifying.The PAP Parliamentarians can consult with each other regularly and easily on the different steps to be taken to adhere to arms trade treaties in our respective countries. And the beauty of this is that we are all in one place here within these walls. He entreated Members to be a true catalyst for promoting adherence to the ATT among all its members and countries as well as share different experiences in moving the ATT process forward.He suggested the establishment of an informal working group to meet on this at our future sessions of Parliament. Mr Bacroft went on to discuss the contents of the Arms Trade Treaty. We are sorry that because this presentation was slated for yesterday, the Secretariat would not finish with the printing of the Arms Trade Treaty. However, this is in effect the treaty which is a 13-page treaty with 28 articles. Mr Bacroft summarised the contents of the treaty by including the preamble and the 28 articles. The preamble sets out the aspirations of the people crafting the treaty by giving the background and rationale for the establishment of the treaty and recalls previous efforts in addressing the issue as well as the chronology of events and earlier treaties, conventions and protocols addressing issue.The principles underlined in the treaty set out the rights of the State to individual and collective self defence, sovereignty of States, legitimate interests of States in acquiring arms for peace-building operations, respect for international humanitarian law in accordance with the Geneva Convention of 1949 and implementation of the treaty in a consistent and non-discriminatory manner was explained. He then went on to look the following articles in the treaty.Article 1 states the objects of treaty which is to establish the highest international standard for regulating or improving of the international trade in conventional arms for the purposes of contributing to international, regional peace, security and stability, reducing human suffering and promoting co-operation, transparency and responsible actions by state parties in international trade in conventional arms.Article 2, 3 and 4 give the scope of the conventional arms, explaining that Africa insisted that without the inclusion of small arms and light weapons which prolong and fuel armed conflicts in Africa, the African Negotiating Team threatened to withdraw from the negotiations.Articles 5 and 6 prescribe the proper implementation and prohibitions while Articles 7, 8, 9, 10 and 11 give inscription and prescription under which conditions, export, imports, transit, trans-shipment, brokering and diversion of arms be done. Article 12, 13 are on recording and reporting while Articles 14, 15, 16, 17 to 19 are on enforcement, international cooperation and assistance, conference or state parties, Secretariat and gives peace settlement. The rest of the Articles from 21 to 28 are on the signing, ratification and entry into force, withdrawal, reservations, and provisional applications and so on and so forth. He ended by appealing to participants to encourage the signing and ratification of the treaty. After the overview of the Arms Trade Treaty, the ensuing interaction was very informative. For example, participants gave their universal acceptance of the importance of such a treaty and all expressed the hope that their respective countries would sign and ratify it as soon as possible.It was also underscored that the Speakers’ Conference could be very important as a point of not only information but also dissemination of the Arms Trade Treaty with a view to encouraging the Speakers, upon their return to their countries, to advocate for the ratification of this important treaty.There was an observation that African countries do not produce arms, and yet they have signed the treaty. Members wanted to know whether the exporters and manufacturing countries such as the European Union (EU) countries and the United States of America (USA) have signed. In response, participants were informed that both importers and producers are no exception and that 114 countries have signed, including those that produce, export, or import arms. The USA, which is the words largest exporter, has signed. The EU countries have also 7 recognised the importance of the ATT and are working towards signing and ratifying it.Members were concerned about the adherence to the ATT after ratification and cited the International Criminal Court whose effectiveness and impartiality the African Heads of State are now doubting and calling for their withdraw from this statute. The presenter cautioned that the ICC and the ATT should not be compared as they are different in that one is judicial and the other a trade treaty. He noted that the ATT enjoyed worldwide acceptance as evidenced from the large majority that agreed on its adoption.Members also saw the ATT as more of a creating than preventing document since it addresses the trading and not the production of arms. However, this position was refuted by the explanation that it addresses production as well as trade by regulating the producers and prescribing the situation under which they can produce and sell arms to state parties such as if the export of arms will lead to violations of human rights and abuses, political intimidation and election malpractices. The question of whether African countries have the in-country capacity to implement the treaty was raised as well as whether countries that have signed the treaty would approach an open door policy and willing to be monitored in terms of intra and internal arms trade was also raised.There was need for awareness raising on the ATT also in the Caribbean, African and Pacific countries by organising one such meeting in the ACP, EU, JP Assembly that sits mostly in Brussels Of course the political will was also an issue that was debated as to whether countries that have signed have the political will for the implementation.However, this notion was challenged as not true but that most of the countries were preparing the legal instruments that will allow them to sign and that in the coming weeks and months, these countries will have signed. In fact, between the last time we had the workshop and now, additional countries have already signed the treaty.The view that at least something had to be done to address international arms trade and control was appreciated. However, it was stressed that the treaty is not a panacea to armed violence and that there is need to also implement other treaties that will address issues of poverty, hunger, corruption, social exclusion and injustice which tend to trigger armed conflicts and violence in the first place.The issue of local manufacture of arms by blacksmiths behind closed doors in rural areas and in the informal sector was raised. A call was made for information and awareness raising at all levels so that such illicit activities could be brought to the attention the security apparatus and national systems working on small arms and light weapons control.The issue of demand and supply was raised and asked that we further explore this issue since there are factors that trigger supply and demand such as bad governance, dictatorship and lack of democracy which lead to conflicts and wars and hence the need for arms. The question of commitment of those that have signed the treaty was raised but the view was that we must compare the cost of not properly implementing the treaty to that of the benefits in terms of peace, security and sustainable development.The porous nature of our borders was to be looked into with regard to the proliferation of arms. To this end, women and youths, it was recommended, should be trained and involved in the advocacy work to control conventional arms and their proliferation and especially in the skills of early warning.The next session introduced the PGA Parliamentary Handbook on Ratification and Implementation of the ATT. We are sorry that, again, this document is not available today but we will make sure that, by tomorrow, the handbook will be available for all Members of Parliament. This handbook takes the Members of Parliament through stage by stage with regards to what they should do within their legislative role as law makers which provides oversight and representation in taking the arms trade treaty forward.The Parliamentary Handbook on the Ratification and Implementation of the ATT is developed to help Parliamentarians understand their role beyond the signing of the ATT. This is especially so since Parliamentarians were little involved in the negotiations leading to the adoption of the treaty and, as such, are largely ignorant of the content of the text. It has become clear that it is not enough to talk about benefits of the treaty but when the PGA works with Members of Parliament, it is from the perspective of letting us help you to help us, as Parliamentarians, given their proximity to key decision-makers in the government. They can wield considerable and constructive influence in achieving the signing and ratification as well as the implementation of the ATT.The handbook highlights, in a clear and straightforward manner, the main difference but 8 equally important ways in which Parliamentarians can act decisively to place the ATT on a continuous, positive future trajectory. The handbook discusses what the ATT is all about, its goal, which is to foster peace and security by ending the transfer of conventional arms to countries experiencing instability or conflict. This is followed by a research account of the treaty which dates back to 2006 when the UN General Assembly adopted Resolution 61/89 towards an arms trade treaty establishing common international standards for the import, export and transfer of conventional arms.In October 2006, a resolution was introduced requesting the UN Secretary General to seek the view of members States on the scope and draft parameters for the comprehensive legally binding common instruments establishing a common international standard for the import, export and transfer of conventional arms. In 2006, 153 member States voted in favour of Resolution 61/89 and, in 2009, the General Assembly adopted Resolution 64/48 which included the decision to convene a UN conference on the Arms Trade Treaty. Four preparatory committee meetings were held in July, 2012; March 2013 and April 2013 when 154 state parties voted in favour of the ATT and open the treaty for signature and for subsequent ratification.Parliamentarians can promote the ATT through advocacy to raise the issue of the ATT for discussion with Parliament; approach Speakers of Parliament to place the ATT on Order Papers for debate; ask Parliamentary questions; introduce Motions in support of the ATT; and approach relevant Ministers and officials on the status of signing and ratification as well as reach out to media services to broaden support of the ATT by the wider population. As law makers, they can agree in advance to ratify the treaty, develop implementing legislation to give effect to implementation, drafting or helping in the drafting of the actual legislation.As an oversight and accountability enforcer, Parliamentarians can also ensure that the government is complying, at all times, with the obligations under the existing national, regional and international legal instruments; submit reports on implementation; provide adequate resources for implementation; seek Parliamentary approval for the importation of arms; and conduct public hearings on clarifications and compliance. These are just some of the ways that the Parliamentarians can actually lead in the signing, ratification and implementation of ATT which has been summarised in this handbook.Mr President, Hon. Members, at the end of the presentation, several questions were also asked for clarification such as assistance in drafting the legislation from the PGA chapter such as what happens when the treaty becomes binding. The issue of the high attrition rates in Parliaments was also an issue that was greatly debated, particularly with regards to keeping institutional memory and retention and continuation of the work of the PGA Members in this Parliament.The role of the stakeholders in mobilising support for the ATT and tapping into powerful gender rights or gender activists and lobbyists was also encouraged. The involvement of the Opposition was also raised and the point on that was that the ATT should not be politicised because it can affect all people, not just one political party. The ATT is a cross cutting and global in nature.The Members of Parliament from the nine countries were asked to give a status report on their activities with regard to the ATT. These are the status reports, Hon. Members, for example:Sierra Leone signed the treaty on the 25th of September, this year, with a lot of input from the PGA. Sierra Leone has enacted several laws such as the ECOWAS Protocol on Small Arms and Light Weapons. We have now established the National Commission on Small Arms and Light Weapons by an Act of Parliament and we now have an Arms and Ammunition Act, 2012. Sierra Leone is also preparing for the ratification of the ATT. We have also acquired two marking machines to mark all the arms that are currently in use in the country. A registry has been set up that will computerise and record all arms in the country and we are also working with the Interpol to deal with international arms crime.Ghana has lobbied to get the ATT signed and the Parliamentarians from Ghana promised to lobby for the ratification and to continue to pursue peace, human rights and rule of law.Zimbabwe reported that although they had abstained from the initial moves to establish the ATT, they voted along with the 154 members in 2012. However, Zimbabwe has not yet signed the treaty. They are of the view that the ATT is a Parliamentary issue and, therefore, hoping that the Zimbabwean Parliament will accede to the signature. They promised to 9 continue advocacy on the ATT by sharing information from the June session with the Library.Tanzanian had a membership of 60 in the PGA. They were, in fact, the first among the countries to sign the ATT. A regional workshop was held in Tanzania in May this year and a declaration was made, calling on all to intensify advocacy and signing the ratification of the ATT.Kenya lamented that their porous border is actually leading to the proliferation of arms in Kenya. They are currently one or three PGA members that came after their elections and, therefore, they are yet to reconstitute their membership. Kenya has not yet signed the ATT but the Members reported that work is ongoing for the preparation of signing. Ratification is not possible for Kenya because they, as a law, must domesticate any treaty before it is ratified.Malawi also informed the meeting that a Private Members Bill will be raised to encourage Members to advocate for the signing of the ATT. They were also part of the regional workshop in Tanzania that asked for the close monitoring by Parliamentarians on the issue of the ATT.Namibia was a long-standing member of the PGA and, as a result of the passing away of their Speaker, the group has not been re-established. They are working towards an action plan for the implementation of the ATT.Uganda has not yet signed since most of the Members are currently new. The Members are currently domesticating the Rome Statute.Chad commended both the PAP and PGA for their commitment to the ATT advocacy. Work is on underway for the ratification and signing of the ATT.The second day was dedicated to the way forward because it is one thing to sign and ratify while it is another to domesticate and to prepare the different countries which will constitute the requisite institution and human capacity to implement the contents of the ATT. The way forward was given by the UN expert on arms trade from the Centre of Peace and Disarmaments under the United Nations.In his presentation, he said his work was instrumental in the four preparatory meetings that led to the negotiation and eventual adoption of the treaty by providing countries and negotiating teams with the requisite capacity to understand existing treaties relating to arms and what were the most important issues that countries needed to know the negotiation.The presentation gave a summary of the content of the treaty by paying special attention to Article 6, 7, 8, 9, and 10 since these dealt with prohibition, export, import, brokering, transport and transshipment and diversion which are particularly very important and was very topical and tended to be very divisive between countries that manufacture arms and countries that import arms. So, he stressed on these articles.He also went forward to entreat members as to what happens when you sign, ratify and implement by saying that ensuring that the treat fulfils its promises requires the widest possible adherence and implementation among states. By signing arms trade treaties states signals its intention to become a party to it in the future. Once it has signed the treaty, a state must not take any action that will undermine its objects and purpose. Signing the treaty does not make the state a party to it. Signature does not legally bind the signatory state or require it to begin to implement the provisions of the treaty. To become legally binding by a multilateral treaty, a signatory state must subsequently deposit its instruments of ratification acceptance or refusal. That state will then become a partner in accordance with entry into force provisions of the treaty in question.With regard to the way forward, we were informed that several states have committed to an ATT implementation assistant facility. That is a UN trust facility supporting coordination on arms trade relation. This is a facility provided by the UN to provide early assistance to countries wishing to ratify and implement.The UNSCAR is multi-donor flexible funding mechanism created to: one, support the preparation for ratification and implementation of the Arms Trade Treaty including through South-South cooperation, ensuring the complementarities of implantation, activities of the United Nation’s plan of action on small arms and light weapons, include effectiveness of assistance to better coordination, monitoring and matching of resources. Promote increase of sustainability through more predictable sources of funding. In principle, proposal for funding should support the implementation of the ATT and or support projects focused on implementation of the United Nations Plan of Action to combat the illicit trade in small arms and 0 light weapons as approved by the ANSCAR annual work plan.So, this a facility that has been provided and members of state can access this facility not only in the implantation but also training the staff especially in national systems responsible for tracking arms in the country in ensuring that they have a good record system, they have a good computerised system and that facility can also be obtained by state governments for Parliamentarians to improve on their understanding as well as enable them to prepare the implementing legislation for the domestication of these arms.Mr President, Hon. Members, the next session was actually the adoption of the Midrand Communiqué. What is traditional is that in most of these joint sessions, there is a communiqué at the end of the work and conferences. Communiqué is an aspiration and call to action to be carried out by workshop participants in their respective Parliaments and countries on how to take the arms trade treaty forward. Of course there was the Namibia declaration and also the Dar-es-Salaam declaration.The concern of the Members were that some participants did not want, as a result of this communiqué to cover the issue of the ICC and that it should not be part of the communiqué despite that ICC is an important aspect of the Parliamentarian or global work and against the background of the AU has issues with the ICC. Participants were informed that the ICC is not and should not be part of the ATT and that in the PGA/PAP Group there are more commonalities tan differences and we should work more to explore these commonalties. Even in our differences there is strength. We will have to develop our own plan of action and strategy to take the arms trade treaty forward as well as goals of the Parliamentarians for global action and the PAP.Hon. Members, if you look at the second to last page of your document, there is the Mindrand Communiqué. In that Midrand Communiqué, it calls on members in that meeting both the Pan African Parliamentarians Members and the PGA Members recalling the terrible legacy and loss of human lives and suffering in the African continent. Aware of the importance and urgently to take decisive step to prevent and mitigate this suffering and loss of human lives in the future, strongly welcomed the establishment of the Arms Trade Treaty at the United Nation Headquarters in Ney Yoke on the 2nd of April and its opening for signature on the 3rd of June, 2013. Take note of the large number of African countries that have already signed the ATT, recognise the importance of securing the early entry into force of the ATT on the activity work with the Pan African Parliament as well as our national Parliaments to advocate for and actively promote further signatures and early ratification of the ATT by the respective countries.Welcoming the launch of the Pan African Parliaments/PGA Group as an entity which will facilitate our ongoing actions and development to secure early entry into force of the ATT and identify optimum means to ensure its robust implementation. Undertake to communicate among ourselves as well as with the Parliamentarians secretariat on a regular basis on the decisions and discussions, initiatives we will take to promote early entry into force of the ATT and robust implementation. Express our appreciation to the Pan African Parliament for hosting this joint session on the Arms Trade Treaty and to PGA or its important support of this session. Done this day, 18thday of October, 2013 at the Pan African Parliament. This is the communiqué that emerged at the end of that workshop and we are binding to it because it is our call to action as to what we shall do in our respective Parliaments and in this Parliament to take this further. At the end of the communiqué, Members of Parliament were on page 17 we now had the opportunity to launch the PAP/PGA National Group.In the launching, it was acknowledged that the PAP and the PGA had many areas of overlap and complementarity in the sense that both of them work with Parliamentarians who are keen to harness and synergise the many shared areas of priority and concern in a way which can contribute to better addressing and promoting these shared values and priorities.The Joint Committee Session on the ATT affords a unique opportunity to set up the PAP/PGA Group which is open to all members of the Pan African Parliament that wish to join to meet during future sessions of the Pan African Parliament to discuss and identify how best to address and promote this shared concerns and priorities. PAP members present here at that launch formed the foundation members of the PGA Group by filling out their membership forms which were taken back to the headquarters in the New York.The PGA Board will meet very soon and it is our hope that the official recognition of the PAP/PGA Group will be met and accorded the requisite status in keeping with the organisation’s rules and regulations relating to a national group.Hon. Members, Mr President, this in short, is the report of the joint session and with us the recommendation, I recommend this report to the PAP plenary for adoption and to give notice that we shall be moving a motion for the endorsement of the PAP/PGA Group as well as the Midrand Communiqué.I thank you for listening.ApplauseHON. AUBIN NGONGO LUWOWO [RÉPUBLIQUE DÉMOCRATIQUE DU CONGO]:Merci, Monsieur le Président, pour la parole.Je félicite notre collègue, Madame Bernadette LAHAI, pour sa brillante prestation.J’ai entre mes mains une liste des pays qui ont déjà signé, mais je vois qu’on a écrit le Congo, je ne sais pas de quel Congo s’agit-il, parce qu’il y a deux Congo; si le Congo Démocratique fait partie de ceux qui ont signé ou c’est le Congo d’en face, celui que nous appelons Congo Brazzaville?C’est ma première préoccupation!Ma deuxième préoccupation, c’est que Madame Bernadette LAHAI a dit que les parlementaires n’étaient pas impliqués dans l’élaboration du texte. C’est pour moi l’occasion de demander qu’on mette à notre disposition ce texte afin que nous puissions mieux le pénétrer et de comprendre le texte de trente pages à propos du Traité.Enfin, j’informe les collègues que la République Démocratique du Congo, à travers son Parlement – le Sénat et l’Assemblée Nationale – que le texte a déjà été adopté au niveau du Parlement, c’est-à-dire le texte sur l’interdiction du commerce des armes légères. Il n’attend plus que la suite pour que nous puissions amorcer le travail de ratification, si toutes les conditions sont remplies.Je vous remercie.HON. AWAD HAG ALI AHMED [SUDAN]:Thank you very much, Mr President.I would also like to thank Hon. Bernadette Lahai for her excellent presentation and to declare my support for the establishment of the PGA in this Parliament and to also support the Midrand Communiqué.Concerning the trade in arms, I think there is a problem with the producers of arms in these countries. They are selling arms to rebels in Africa. They sell to Al Shabaab, Darfour, Rwanda, Congo and everywhere. These are the countries which should be concerned about this treaty and should want to make sure that the rebels have no chance to get the weapons to kill innocent people. We need to have a special session on this because this is a very important subject. We know that the rebels get the arms from somewhere. So, that needs more discussions so that we can reach some good recommendations in order to get rid of this serious problem.Thank you very much.HON. AZIZOU ELHADJ ISSA [BÉNIN]:Merci, Monsieur le Président.J’espère que je n’aurai pas de [Interruption du micro] encore cette fois-ci, parce qu’au-delà de ce que les textes disent sur les lignes, j’aimerais voir un peu les interlignes.Monsieur le Président,Voilà des gens qui nous invitent à des sessions sur le commerce des armes, mais eux, ils peuvent venir larguer partout où ils veulent en Afrique. Ils ne vendent même pas, quand ils ont des intérêts, ils larguent des avions. Aujourd’hui, on sait le problème que cela nous pose.Monsieur le Président,Je voudrais attirer l’attention de nos parlementaires du Parlement panafricain sur les textes internationaux qui ne tiennent pas compte du contexte africain. Si nous devons faire une bonne lecture, c’est toujours contre nous. Il y a toujours un piège quelque part contre les intérêts de l’Afrique.Aujourd’hui, le village s’appelle comment, Gaga, en Centrafrique?Depuis avant-hier ou hier, qu’est ce qu’on est en train de voir? Est-ce que ce sont des armes fabriquées par les Africains? Ce ne sont pas des armes fabriquées par des Africains! Au contraire, les armes fabriquées par les Africains – qui n’ont pas les mêmes perfections que les armes perfectionnées qui viennent d’ailleurs – sont malheureusement utilisées pour l’auto-défense.Mais au bout du rouleau, il y a aujourd’hui, au niveau des parlements nationaux, un lobbying de ceux qui fabriquent les armes perfectionnées pour 2 que nous étouffions les fabricants traditionnels d’armes locales. Pendant ce temps – c’est vrai que notre consœur a dit que les questions de fabrication ont été soulevées dedans – mais de quelle manière cela a été dit?Que peut faire l’Afrique?Est-il prévu que les fabricants d’armes traditionnelles soient formés et qu’ils aient les mêmes performances que de l’autre côté?Non!Monsieur le Président, Pour conclure, le Parlement doit se réveiller et faire en sorte qu’on ait un mot à dire sur les textes à venir au niveau international; qu’on lise bien sur les lignes et qu’on lise bien sur les interlignes.Je vous remercie.HON. MOHAMED YOUSIF ABDULLAH [SUDAN]:Thank you, Mr President.I would like, at the outset, to thank our sister who has presented this very important document. It is a good and important report. For us, in Africa, proliferation of arms is a big problem. Controlling the movement of these arms from place to place is very important. We want to be sure that this continent is free of conflicts. We want it to be a stable continent which is ready to take forward the steps towards the utilisation of its resources. Proliferation of arms actually hinders the progress of Africa. It hinders the development of the continent and causes a lot of problems to our sisters, daughters and children. They are really the people who are paying the cost of the proliferation of arms in the continent. That is why the role of the Parliamentarians is important in controlling the movement of arms, except for legal purposes and legal use.I believe that Parliamentarians have a right to tell the people that presence of arms in the homes of rebels, banditry groups and criminals is actually banned by the law at any country, and this is where we can support this document. Therefore the outcome of the PAP and PGA meeting was very important. Taking into consideration that Africa does not produce arms and that arms mostly come from outside Africa, it is our responsibility to stop the entrance of arms into our continent so that we safeguard the lives of our citizens and the stability of our countries. It will safeguard the peace of the continent and promote African development.In this context, I pledge my support to the outcome of the meeting taking into consideration the observations that were made regarding the ICC.I thank you Mr President.Applause HON. THABANG LINUS KHOLUMO [LESOTHO]:Thank you, Mr President, for the opportunity to make an intervention.May I also thank the presenter for the good presentation. I was part of this meeting and I want to say she has captured all that was said in that meeting or on that workshop. I also agree with her that the timing of today’s debate is well and good especially after hearing about all the atrocities orchestrated by Africans to Africans in Africa using these arms which we are talking about here.Mr President, there is an urgent need surely to control and regulate the trading of arms in the world. This is what the treaty is trying to achieve. Honestly, Mr President, this treaty runs short of controlling the origin and production of arms. This issue was raised in the workshop and the presenters tried to convince us that the treaty also addresses the production of arms but, surely, Mr President, it does not tell us in the treaty what specifically goes straight to controlling the production of arms.Some of us were concerned that the principle of demand and supply dictates that and believe that as long as the production of arms is not controlled, they will be bought. If they are there in the market, people will buy them and continue to destabilise Africa.However, Mr President, this is a good treaty. It is a good start and I would urge my fellow Members of Parliament to go back home and lobby their National Governments and National Parliaments to sign and ratify this treaty in the name of peace and security in Africa.I thank you.ApplauseApplause HON. OSCAR NSAMAN-O-LUTU [RÉPUBLIQUE DÉMOCRATIQUE DU CONGO]:Honorable le Président, je vous remercie pour la parole.En ce qui concerne ce sujet, je commencerais d’abord par féliciter les auteurs de ce rapport, et souscrire pratiquement aux conclusions y afférentes.Toutefois, il est important de relever que parler du commerce des armes en Afrique implique les débats, de gros sous, parce d’un côté ce sont les producteurs d’armes qui cherchent les marchés pour continuer à vendre ces armes, et l’autre, ce sont des acheteurs d’armes qui sont obligés de pouvoir acheter ou ne pas acheter, c’est-à-dire se retrouver devant un dilemme pour savoir s’il faut acheter des armes pour pouvoir lutter ou non?Par conséquent, ceux qui nous délivrent des armes, nous demandent de contrôler. En plus, même quand ils disent qu’il y a interdiction d’un côté, ils favorisent de l’autre. C’est pourquoi, c’est un problème extrêmement délicat.Je demanderais tout simplement aux pays africains qu’avant de pouvoir ratifier ce Traité, il faut qu’ils tournent leur langue sept fois; ne pas couper la branche sur laquelle ils sont assis pour vivre les cas de la CPI.Nous y allons, c’est une bonne idée, mais il faut le faire avec beaucoup de délicatesse.Je vous remercie, Monsieur le Président.HON. MILLY ODYAMBO [KENYA]:Thank you, Mr President.I want to thank the Hon. Bernadette Lahai for presenting this report.I was one of the people who attended the workshop and had the privilege to attend as a member of the PGA before I joined the PAP. I am glad that this report has come at a time when we have just discussed the Report on Peace and Security in Africa because they are interlinked.Due to the issue of the proliferation of small arms and light weapons, we have seen unrest in a lot of our countries and, therefore, this treaty comes at the right time. I know that when we are having this discussion, we can see from the report that there is a lot of concern and linkages with the ICC but I want to indicate that we should not create a culture of too much demonisation of international processes that help us because, indeed, when we come up with these treaties, our voices are heard and when we do not want things in the treaties we can actually put in reservations or not ratify them.However, this is one of the treaties that I think are important for us to ratify. As a person who comes from Kenya, I know that we have talked a lot about the Westgate issue and one of the issues that has been of concern to us, as Kenyans, is that of the proliferation of these arms as a consequence, especially, of our porous borders. Indeed, it is the same problem that is also affecting some of our neighbours like Somalia.I would, therefore, want to urge Hon. Members that for us to restore peace and security in Africa, we must find ways to urge our governments to ratify these treaties when we go back home.I am looking forward to that time when this House will have legislative powers so that we can come up with a customised treaty on issues of peace and security for Africa.Thank you, Mr President.HON. PETER HITJITEVI KATJAVIVI [NAMIBIA]:Thank you, Mr President and Hon. Members.Mr President, I rise to support this report before us presented by Hon. Lahai and all those who were involved in this important initiative. It is an initiative that brought together the PAP and the PGA on the Arms Trade Treaty. Mr President, the report is loud and clear on the challenges that we should address both as individual countries and collectively as Members of the AU. In this connection, I have taken note of what we should do in Namibia by way of paying particular attention to Namibia’s own role in this important initiative. There is something about issues relating to Arms Trade Treaty.With this few remarks I commend the report for full support by this House.HON. ISAAC STEPHEN MABILETSA [BOTSWANA]:Thank you, Mr President.I had the privilege to attend the workshop that has been reported by the presenter and I found that my country is one of those countries lagging behind.With great disappointment, really, I did not understand, because my country is very active in international fora and I do not see why they failed not only to ratify but sign in the first place so that they could ultimately accede and ratify. I want to say, Mr President, that really, this is a very important treaty by any stretch of imagination because Africa 4 is a poor continent. The people are suffering and hunger is a problem in most of the countries but one thing that appears to be common is the proliferation of these small arms that are destabilising peace in Africa.The topic that was discussed this morning really speaks volumes about what this treaty is advocating for because you know, if we do not manage to curb small arms of war getting into the wrong hands, that will go a long way against ensuring that there is real peace in Africa. Otherwise, if member States are not playing their role in as far as this treaty is concerned, it breeds proliferation of these arms and, consequently, it is a destabilising factor.This treaty, Mr President, is extremely important and I welcome the fact that we are going to have, within PAP, a committee that will specifically be dealing with the ratification of treaties and things like that.I personally lend my support to the idea and I am for it.I thank you, Mr President.HON. DR. BERNADETTE LAHAI [SIERRA LEONE]:Thank you very much, Mr President. I want to thank all those that have made contribution to the presentation.Mr President, I think the very reason why since the negotiation for this Arms Trade Treaty, I was very concerned…HON. MEMBER:Procedure, Mr President!HON. DR. BERNADETTE LAHAI [ SIERRA LEONE]:Sorry!LaughterPRESIDENT:Thank you very much.Laughter HON. DR. BERNADETTE LAHAI [SIERRA LEONE]:Mr President, since I came to this Parliament, I have always spoken of the PGA and the need for the PGA to have collaborative work with the PAP from the very fact that the two institutions work with Members of Parliament and a have similar vision of world peace, global stability and democracy.So, when the ATT negotiations were going on, Mr President, there was hardly any Member of Parliament there. That was of concern to me and I raised it on several occasions on the negotiating floor because, at the end of the day, it is Parliamentarians that are charged with the responsibility to ratify and, sometimes, a lot of pressure is put on Parliamentarians. Sometimes, governments even bring certificates of urgency for them to sign treaties like this. So, I was very surprised that governments of our respective countries could not bring Members of Parliament an important treaty like this so that they are part and parcel of the negotiations and so that they will know the processes and why, at the end of the day, we have the document that we have.So, it is against this background that this meeting was held. I am happy that all the Hon. Members that have spoken actually saw the importance of this treaty and the important role that Members of Parliament could play to take it further.Mr President, on the few questions that have raised, one is the DRC. The Congo is the DRC. So, I hope the Member of Parliament has taken note of that.The issue of the producers was very topical during and even after the negotiations. People that have already talked, saying that the producers are less regulated. This treaty is not so much about the producers in the sense that arms have been produced from many years ago. They have been produced for hundreds of years. What is now the concern is the effect of those arms. In the past, arms were used more for legitimate purposes and territorial protection. They were used for protection of lives and also we know that arms also have a lot of culture implications such as cultural displays. Even in our homes, arms are also used but in a very legitimate way. They found that now arms are being spoken of in terms of being regulated means that there is something wrong with the end users of the arms.So, it is not so much about the producers. Arms will be produced any way, but what is now important is that of what is produced, we must ensure that there is control. We must ensure that there are rules and regulations with regard to the movement, export, import and trans-shipment of those arms. If you look at the text itself, all those prohibitions and indicate under which condition a country can import arms. You have to meet certain conditionalities.So, we should be more concerned with when our countries are trading in arms. What are the arms for? If they are not used for proper reasons a country can stop the export of arms to that country. There is rigorous information sharing and records to show when the arms moved from one place to another.However, Mr President, we know that arms are now being used by these conflicting parties may initially have been imported legitimately but as countries are fighting, we have people with illegitimate means that get these arms. These are the types of people we are talking about.On the issue of the document itself, as I said, this presentation was to be made tomorrow. You know that this afternoon we have to look at the HIV and AIDs Response Project and, therefore, the text is being photocopied. The UN has this text in four languages and they are being photocopied. It was our wish that Hon. Members would have this text so they read and look at it so that they may come up with more questions.However, we promise that by tomorrow, after they are finish printing this text, it will be available so that Members can read it, and I agree that this is just the beginning. We should dedicate, maybe, a day. I am bringing all the experts on the ATT to this Parliament so that we can ask the right questions as to what we think should be the way forward on this.Mr President, what we have done is to actually set the pace for such a future interactive session so that Members are fully aware of what is in this document. The experts would be there to answer any questions or queries.On the issue or principle of demand and supply, what came out of the meeting was that there are factors. What triggers the demand for arms? Arms do not just get into a country apart from for legitimate uses. There are certain things that most trigger the illegitimate use of arms, and that is what we are talking about. We must also look into our governance issues.Our governance issues must be such that when we rule our people, we must provide them with all the basic social amenities which uphold their rights; their human, political and economic rights so that they are satisfied and as a result we will need arms. However, arms are mostly getting into the countries because of a breakdown in democracy and human rights abuse. So, it is a question of demand and supply. We must make sure that countries or members of countries do not demand arms by ensuring that our leaders provide good leadership.That is what I can say about the issue of demand and supply.ApplauseKenya was very important in this meeting and the African members were very instrumental in the negotiations. What Kenya said is right. We also have reservations on the treaty. If there are certain issues in the treaty that you have reservations on, you can ratify or sign with reservations. I think the Africans were very instrumental in this treaty.Nigeria led the discussion on behalf of, for example, West Africa and the issue of the small arms and light weapons was so much of an issue to the African Negotiation Group that, at one point, they threatened to leave the negotiations if the Western countries and other countries did not include the small arms because small arms are the ones that are more of killer arms in Africa. Because they are small, they can easily be smuggled through porous borders and can be easily bought.So, that was the strong stand of Africans in those negotiations. It is not that they did not understand the issue of the producers. The producers are there and they will continue to produce but when they produce, how we regulate the arms in a way that is robust and it stop them from getting into the hands of the wrong people to cause havoc.Hon. Members, Mr President, I think these are the few comments I can make and I want to thank the Members for the sentiments. We encourage Hon.Members to take this treaty to their respective Parliaments. The communiqué is also very important and membership to this PGA group is open to all. We shall provide the Members with the registration to sign so that we can send these forms to the headquarters.I thank you very much for listening.ApplauseTHE PRESIDENT:Thank you very much, Hon. Members.I now invite the Clerk to make some house-keeping announcements.ANNOUNCEMENTSTHE CLERK:Thank you, Mr President.We have meetings taking place this afternoon.1) The Committee on Monetary and Financial Affairs will meet in Committee Room 1.2) The Committee on Health, Labour and Social Affairs will meet on Committee Room 2.3) The Caucus on youth will meet in Committee Room 34) There is also a dinner organized by the South African Parliament Portfolio Committee on Energy, taking place at centurion in Pretoria where ten (10) permanent Committee Chairpersons and members of the Transport Committee are invited. Transport will be leaving from the PAP at 1630 hours.Thank you, Mr President.HON. ASSOUMANA MALAM ISSA [NIGER]:Merci, Monsieur le Président.Monsieur le Président, Il y a trop de chevauchement!Vous savez très bien que la plupart des membres du Parlement sont membres du Caucus sur la jeunesse et que nous avons une réunion à 16 heures. On ne peut pas finir la réunion en 30 minutes pour que les membres des autres Commissions, dont je fais partie, puissions aller à Pretoria.Donc, si on peut décaler vers 17 h 30, je crois que ce serait bien pour tout le monde.Merci.THE PRESIDENT:I will also be president at the Youths Caucus meeting and I encourage all other Hon. Members to please join the Caucus on Youths to discuss issues facing the Youth of Africa. That is Youth Caucus which we will hold in Committee Room 3 and I think that the youths are the future of our continent and we must do everything we can to support them.Hon. Members, we have now come to end of our business for today, and therefore this House stands adjourned until tomorrow, Tuesday 29 October, 2013 at 0900hours.I thank you.
Tuesday, 29 October, 2013
THE PRESIDENT:Please, be seated.HON. DIKGANG PHILLIP MAKGALEMELE [BOTSWANA]:Point of procedure, Mr President.I just want to appreciate whether it is proper that when you enter the House there is no announcement.THE PRESIDENT:There was an announcement, but I guess it was not as loud. Thank you very much.Hon. Members, in accordance with Rule 9 of the Rules of Procedure, we shall now swear in new Members.Hon. Dr Joram Mcdonald Gumbo [Zimbabwe]THE PRESIDENT:Hon. Members, I wish to inform you that on the 24th October 2013, I received a Written Notice of Motion from Hon. Chief Fortune Charumbira on the Resolution of the Extra-ordinary Session of the African Union held on the October the 12th, 2013 in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, to support the decision and declarations on Africa’s relationship with the international courts. The motion was 7 submitted in accordance with the provisions of Rule 60 of our Rules of Procedure and will be on the Order Paper on Thursday 31October, 2013. I now call on the Clerk to read the first order of the day.THE CLERK:Thank you, Hon. President. Presentation and adoption of the Pan African Parliament Code of Conduct for the Members of Parliament.THE PRESIDENT:Hon. Members I call upon Hon. Professor Katjavivi to please present the Code of Conduct.HON. PETER HITJITEVI KATJAVIVI [NAMIBIA]:Thank you, Mr President.Hon. Members, I suppose I need to remind the House that the Permanent Committee on Rules, Privileges and Discipline is empowered by Rule 13 of the Code Conduct that says: "In all matters, Members shall be guided, in their behaviour, by the Code of Conduct to be drafted by the Permanent Committee on Rules, Privileges and Discipline." That is the Rule that empowered our Committee to present the Code of Conduct that I am now going to present to you.Hon. Members, I believe we all had an opportunity to look at this draft document that has been with you for some time. I believe you all had the opportunity to review it and make necessary suggestions and we are now at the point where we are expected to finalise this important document.With that done, I now have the pleasure, on behalf of the Chairperson and the Committee, to present the draft Code of Conduct.On page one, as you will see, we have the Table of Contents. On page two, which is Part I, we have the Preamble, Definitions, Application and Purpose and on page three we have the Definition as well as the Application.The application says; "This Code applies to Members of the Pan African Parliament elected or designated by the respective National Parliaments or any other deliberative organs of the Member States, from among their members in terms of Article 5 of the Protocol and Rule 6 of the Rules of Procedure"On page four we have the Purpose which says; "This Code of Conduct shall define the ethical principles, standards and general rules of conduct of Members of the Pan African Parliament."On Part II we have the General Conduct Article 3 of the Protocol.On page five we have Integrity of the Pan African Parliament where it is provided that:(1)A Member must maintain and strengthen the integrity of the Pan African Parliament and refrain from any act or omission which would bring the Pan African Parliament into disrepute;(2)A Member must respect and uphold the Rules of Procedure and policies of the Pan African Parliament; and(3)A Member may not contravene a Rule of Procedure or adopted policy of the Pan African Parliament.On the same page five under Part III: Ethical Principles and Aspirations, it is provided that:In pursuing the aims and the attainment of the objectives as well as the activities of the Pan-African Parliament, Members shall be guided by the following principles and aspirations:(1)The commitment to the sanctity of human life and to a peaceful and non-violent orientation in all activities;(2)The promotion of democracy, human rights, the rule of law, good governance, as well as justice for all the peoples of Africa and it goes on. On page 6 under Financial Gain, amongst other provisions;1) A Member may not accept any fee, compensation, reward, benefit, or bribe to promote or oppose a decision or matter before the Pan-African Parliament, a Committee, or any other 8 structure of the Pan-African Parliament.2) A Member may not take a decision, or influence a decision by any structure of the Pan-African Parliament to take a decision, to gain material or other financial benefits for such Member or such Member’s family or friends.The list goes on basically telling us what not to do.On page seven, Appointment and Promotion provides that;A Member, personally, or as a member of a Committee or structure of the Pan African Parliament, must—(a)appoint or promote persons on a nonpartisan basis in accordance with the appointment or promotion policies; and(b)disclose any relationship to a person who is considered for appointment or promotion, and recuse himself or herself from such a Committees or structure.On the question of procurement of goods or services, the Code provides that;A Member, personally, or as a member of a Committee or structure of the Pan African Parliament must;(a) award contracts for the procurement of services or goods on a non-partisan basis in accordance with the procurement policies; and(c) disclose any relationship to a person or business who is considered for the contract, and recuse himself or herself from such a Committee or structure.On Conduct towards other Members, the Code provides that;(1) A Member must treat other Members with respect.(2) A Member may not hide behind parliamentary privilege, and knowingly make false or unsubstantiated accusations or allegations towards another Member or Members.On gender sensitivity, it is provided that Members must be gender sensitive in performing the duties and functions of a Member. A Member must refrain from acts constituting sexual harassment as defined in the Policy on Sexual Harassment.On page eight on Lobbying, a Member may not give or receive any remuneration, reward or benefit from any person lobbying for any cause that is or will be considered by Parliament or any of its Committees.On the Dress Code in Parliament and Committees among others, among others Rule 42 of the Rules of Procedure provides that; "All Members shall dress in a dignified manner as accepted by the national parliament or deliberative organs."On page twelve, Part IV, Enforcement of the Code, Complaints;(1) A person who wishes to file a complaint that a Member contravened this Code must submit a complaint in writing, stating the alleged contravention in sufficient detail to the President.(2) The President informs the Member and the Chairperson of the Committee on Rules, Privileges and Discipline of the complaint.The Committee on Rules, Privileges and Discipline shall follow the following procedure;(1) The Committee on Rules, Privileges and Discipline, acting on its own accord or on a complaint by a person, must investigate with due expedition 9 any alleged contravention of this Code.(2) The Rules of Procedure of the Pan African Parliament applicable to meetings and procedures are mutatis mutandis applicable to any investigation of the Committee.(3) The Committee must hear at least the complainant and the Member in respect of whom the complaint is lodged and apply the rules of natural justice.In summary, Hon. Members, after hearing the complaint, the Hon. President must report the finding to this House. These are the highlights that I thought were necessary to be presented to you along with the entire draft document.I now so submit, Mr President, this draft Code of Conduct to the House for approval.I thank you.HON MEMBER:Thank you, Mr President.May I address you on procedure, please. It is normal procedure that we receive a copy of the speakers’ list before the debate actually proceeds and because this topic was scheduled last week and then today, a revised copy of the speakers’ list is still not available. I do not think that is acceptable because it is important for us to prepare ourselves in time for this.THE PRESIDENT:Sorry, I do not understand. Is it that you did not receive the document on time or you did not indicate your interest to speak?HON. MEMBER:I did indicate my interest to speak, but the document is not available.THE PRESIDENT:On the speakers’ list, okay, Secretariat, please ensure that the speakers’ list is available to Members, to remind them about the time they need to intervene. I thank you. Yes, Hon. Oscar Laxman Oletu from the DRC. You have the Floor and you will speak for three minutes.HON. THABANG LINUS KHOLUMO [LESOTHO]:I thank you, Mr President and Hon. Members.Mr President, we are once again debating the adoption of an important document, the Code of Conduct, which is a collection of rules which are made by us. It is very important that as we strive or fight to make laws for Africa, we start first by making our own laws. It is fair for us to agree on a set of rules that makes a Member of the PAP. We have to decide what kind of people we should be as Members of this Parliament.Mr President, we are a civilised continent and it is, therefore, incumbent upon us all to abide by this set of rules that we are setting for ourselves today. Mr President, on Monday, when we opened this session, you talked strongly about the use of cellular phones in this Chamber. However, immediately after your caution, a cellular phone rang and I was embarrassed to see the person whose phone was ringing answering it in the Chamber. Surely, Mr President, this is not in order.If we want this Parliament to be respected, we should start first by respecting ourselves. In our national Parliaments, it is unacceptable to answer a phone in the hall of Parliament. At the PAP, I see colleagues, Hon. Members of Parliament just answering their phones in the Chamber. I do not think that is proper and fair to all of us because once a phone rings, it distracts attention. Members should refrain from using cellular phones inside Parliament or else one may go further to suggest that there should be punitive measures if people continue to use their phones inside Parliament.Mr President I have a few observations on the Code. One is a typographical error on page 7, Article 11(b) where we should have "committee" and not "committees". On page 9 (k), it says that female Members should not dress in a provocative...HON. BAKARY OUATTARA [CÔTE D’IVOIRE]:Merci, Monsieur le Président.Dans ce Code, la version française est vraiment truffée de fautes; d’abord les fautes d’orthographe et même les fautes de formulation de phrases. Donc, ça nécessite vraiment qu’il y ait une revue au niveau de la version française.Dans le fond, quand on part à la page 8 – LES PRINCIPES D’ÉTHIQUE ET ASPIRATIONS – je trouve que « la notion de la solidarité et d’entraide entre les peuples africains » manque. J’ai reçu ce document et j’ai fait une proposition pour ajouter un alinéa par rapport à « la solidarité et à l’entraide entre les peuples africains », mais je ne le retrouve pas. Je ne sais pas si c’est une mauvaise lecture, mais je ne retrouve pas « la notion de solidarité et d’entraide ».Ensuite, on va à la page 15 – Sanction des Membres – ça c’est une question. Concernant la suspension, quand on voit l’alinéa 3, le petit (c), c’est mis: « Pour la troisième fois au cours de la même séance, sa suspension aura effet sur les vingt-huit prochaines séances… ». Alors, je ne comprends pas parce que la session ne dure que deux semaines et comment est-ce qu’on peut obtenir les 28 séances? Ça c’est une préoccupation pour moi d’autant qu’à l’alinéa 4, c’est mis: « Nonobstant le nombre de jours auquel le Membre a été suspendu en vertu de l’article 45(3), la suspension prend fin à la fin de la session au cours de laquelle il ou elle a été suspendu(e)... ».Alors, la notion de 28 séances par rapport à la durée de la session me dérange.Merci, Monsieur le Président.HON. ELIZABETH AGYEMAN [GHANA]:Thank you, Mr. President.The first speaker has taken everything out of my mouth, and I am very happy that the item on page 9 number (k) was even said by a man. I thank that man very much.Thank you, Mr. President.ApplauseHON. NASSIROU AMADOU [NIGER]:Merci, Monsieur le Président.J’ai voulu, tout juste, intervenir par apport aux appareils cellulaires, mais étant donné qu’un de mes prédécesseurs l’a déjà pris en charge, je renonce à mon temps de parole pour ne pas retarder les débats.Je m’arrête là!Merci, Monsieur le Président.HON. KHALIFA SULEIMAN KHALIFA [TANZANIA]:Mheshimiwa Rais, nashukuru.Nitumie fursa hii kuwapongeza walioziangalia kwa kina Kanuni zetu wakazileta hapa, kwa sababu kimsingi, jambo lolote zuri lazima lisimamiwe na utaratibu.Mheshimiwa Rais, mimi nina tatizo kidogo katika kipengele cha saba tunaposema "maslahi ya umma". Hapa inakuwa nguvu sana kupata tafsiri ya "maslahi ya umma" maana yake ni nini. Watu wanaweza wakatumia fursa hii wakayachukua maslahi yao binafsi wakafanya kuwa ni maslahi ya umma. Nafikiri hapa panahitaji ufafanuzi kwa sababu hata katika Mabunge yetu tunakotoka, suala hili la maslahi ya umma...HON. MEMBER:Translation please!HON. PRESIDENT:Translation?HON. MEMBER:Yes!HON. PRESIDENT:Translation in Swahili please!HON. MEMBER:From what?HON. PRESIDENT:English!HON. KHALIFA SULEIMAN KHALIFA [TANZANIA]:Inaonekana tayari eh!Mheshimiwa Rais, nazungumzia kipengele cha saba cha maslahi ya umma. Hapa inaonekana ufafanuzi wake sio wa kutosha kwa sababu watu wanaweza kutumia fursa hii...HON. MEMBER:Not yet!HON. KHALIFA SULEIMAN KHALIFA [TANZANIA]:Mheshimiwa Rais, sasa hii inaonekana kuna tatizo ndani ya Bunge hili. Kwa nini lugha ambayo inatumika ndani ya Bunge halafu kunatokea suala la kuwa hakuna tafsiri? Maana yake ni nini hii? Haiwezekani hata kidogo, tunakuja hapa tunaambiwa lugha hii inatumika halafu tunaambiwa hakuna tafsiri. Hii maana yake ni nini, na watu wamekuja kwa kazi hiyo hapa?Mheshimiwa Rais, naomba niendelee. Nimeongelea kipengele cha saba, lakini pia nije katika kipengele kinachozungumzia mavazi.Mavazi tumeambiwa hapa kuwa siyo ruhusa watu kuvaa sare za vyama. Hivi katika Wabunge wote walioko hapa, sisi Wabunge ni rahisi kujua kuwa Mbunge kutoka nchi fulani sare ya Chama chake fulani ni hii? Inakuwa ngumu hapa! Mimi nafikiri tungesema kuwa, Waheshimiwa Wabunge 1 wanatakiwa waje na nguo zenye utaratibu, nguo za heshima, ambazo zinalinda heshima yao binafsi na heshima ya Bunge letu na heshima ya utu wetu katika Bara la Afrika.Mheshimiwa Rais, nashukuru.HON. DIKGANG PHILLIP MAKGALEMELE [BOTSWANA]:Thank you, Mr President.Firstly, I wish to congratulate the Rules Committee on coming up with this proposed Code of Conduct for Members of this Honourable Parliament. Mr President, I do have a few observations, but first I also want to congratulate them on having provided for section 15 on Gender Sensitivity. I think it was very important that they take that into consideration.In section 17 (1), Mr President, they are saying that Members shall dress in a dignified manner as accepted by their national Parliaments or deliberate organ. So, I just want to appreciate how this is going to be ascertained. For example, in the Botswana Parliament, as male Members of Parliament, we are expected to wear suits and neckties and there is also tendency that, sometimes, when we come here, because of the smart casual approach, we are also tempted to be smart casual and not follow what is practised back home. So, I just want to appreciate how that is going to be enforced.There is another point I also want to make, Mr President. I was just wondering whether, given the positive developments of ICT both in Africa and the rest of the world, this is not an opportune moment for us to allow for provision of use of ICT in the House especially iPads. I do note that on page 10, Mr. President, there is just a provision to say all mobile telephones shall be switched off, but I think there is also a positive development that we are now using some of these gadgets, especially iPads in the House.Finally, Mr President, I also just wanted to say the point on which I stood earlier on, on a point of procedure. I also feel that it is very important that we strengthen our conduct when the President enters the House and leaves the House. In the Botswana Parliament, for example, Mr President, when our Speaker enters the House, a proper announcement is made and we stand up and we bow. When we leave the House at any point, you have to bow to the Speaker and when the Speaker leaves at the end of the session, we have to stand up and also bow. However, I personally feel that in this House, really, Mr President, we do not respect the coming into the House and going out of the House by the President and I would really want that to be strengthened and included in the Code of Conduct.I thank you, Mr President.HON. SHITAYE MINALE TIZAZU [ETHIOPIA]:Thank you, Mr. President.I would like to thank the Committee on Rules and Procedures that provided this Code of Conduct. I appreciate the introduction of this Code of Conduct because it will help us to fulfil our mandate and to use our respective list in the House but I am not clear about the details regarding to the attendance.Yes, I find a lot about the presence of Members of Parliament from different progressive countries, but what does this Code of Conduct say about attendance? I believe that the presence of each member country here is more than important. We are here to raise issues and to take the issues which are dealt here back to our respective countries, bringing Africa to a very strong invigoration and a sense of belongingness.So, therefore, as Hon. Members, we contribute and influence the continent’s development, peace and security as we represent the people of Africa because this is the only reason we come to these platforms as the whole of Africa from the people that we are representing.Therefore, there are responsibilities on each Member of Parliament for our respective countries. I believe that has to say something about the attendance, like our presence. If we can be firm in the beginning, it will sometimes impact on the last days, affecting these activities as a whole and I hope, we will have to do something about this.I also strongly agree with the issue about women dressing that was raised by the colleague from Lesotho and I appreciate his concern about this.Lastly, I wonder if there are any important measures for operationalising this Code of Conduct. How can we follow the implementation of these disciplinary rules and regulations?Thank you, Mr PresidentHON. AKE CAMILLE ÉPOUSE AKOUN [CÔTE D’IVOIRE]:Merci, Monsieur le Président, de me donner la parole.Je voudrais remercier, tout d’abord, le collègue qui a défendu la cause des femmes en ce qui concerne les tenues provocantes.Je voudrais attirer l’attention des membres de cette Commission pour leur dire de regarder aussi, de contrôler sur les hommes, parce que si c’est pour parler de provocation, il existe plusieurs formes de provocations.Ensuite, je remercie la Commission d’avoir mis l’accent sur la conscience de l’égalité en genre.Monsieur le Président,Le Parlement panafricain est une Institution forte, une Institution appelée à devenir une instance de décision. Le présent Code de conduite tel qu’élaboré constitue une référence, mieux un texte contenant des règles applicables à tous.Monsieur le Président,Je voudrais, donc, exprimer mon adhésion au Code de conduite. Toutefois, Monsieur le Président, j’ai une préoccupation.Avons-nous véritablement des éléments de contrôle ou de vérification au cas où certaines dispositions ne seraient pas appliquées correctement?Par exemple, je prends le point 11 sur « LE RECRUTEMENT ET LA PROMOTION »; le point 12 sur « LA PASSATION DES MARCHÉS », pour ne citer que ces deux points.Monsieur le Président,Une chose est d’adopter le Code de conduite, une autre est de pouvoir l’appliquer.Je dois donc souligner, Monsieur le Président, qu’il serait bon de mettre un maximum de rigueur pour le respect et l’application du Code de conduite. Autrement, il serait vidé de son contenu.Merci, Monsieur le Président.HON. MASTER MOISERAELE GOYA [BOTSWANA]:Thank you very much, Mr President.Mr President, let me take this opportunity to also thank the Committee on Rules, Privileges and Discipline for having put in place the Code of Conduct for Members of Parliament. Mr President, we all come from diverse cultural backgrounds and, as such, for people to distinguish us from other people, there must be a certain behaviour that they should see amongst us, and that behaviour should be articulated in a certain document which is the Code of Conduct that has been presented in this House today.Mr President this Code of Conduct is, therefore, a fundamental document that will set out standards of behaviour, values and principles, and will, therefore, guide us in how we should behave as Members of Parliament. However, I just want to make a few observations on the document and in particular, on page 10. This observation was also made by my colleague from Botswana, Hon. Phillip Makgalemele, as regards the issue of gadgets in the House. We live in an era of technology, Mr President, and we should allow some other gadgets to be used in the House like iPads. As regards the switching off of cell phones in the House, I, for once, suggest that instead of completely switching off the cell phones, we should put them on silent mode, Mr President, because we are representatives of the people and everyday people in our constituencies need to communicate with us. So, when we are in the House they may need to send us an sms so that later we can respond to them. So, if we switch them off completely, Mr President, then we would not be in a position to address their problems.The other thing, Mr President, is that I do not think the Committee on Rules, Privileges and Discipline should be a player and at the same time be a referee. So, I suggest that complaints should be addressed to a different committee. I suggest that we set up a disciplinary committee that should hear and address issues of discipline, and will take complaints from Members and discipline those Members who actually do not comply with the Code of Conduct. I do not think it is right for the same committee that has come out with the rules to be the same committee again that addresses and acts on the complaints from the members.With those few remarks, Mr President, I thank you very much for giving me the Floor.Thank you.ApplauseHON. DR. BERNADETTE LAHAI [SIERRA LEONE]:I thank you, Mr President.The issues of the use of iPads and the switching off of mobile phones and putting them either on vibration or silent have been addressed and I hope that they will be taken in good faith. Of course, the burning issue of the females being singled out in terms of the dress code has been succinctly addressed.My concern is on Rule 52-Sanction of Members on page 11(c) which states that where on the third and any subsequent occasion during the same session shall be for the next twenty-eight sittings of the 3 House excluding the sitting in which the Member was suspended.Mr President, suspending a Member for twentyeight sittings actually means that those sittings span maybe even two ordinary sessions or an ordinary session and a committee session.I would like to know how the Member’s national legislature will know that a Member has been suspended for twenty-eight sittings. Our national Parliaments need to know, especially that they are the ones paying for us to come here. That aspect is silent and that is a cause for concern.As regards the procedures of the Committee on Rules, Privileges and Discipline on page 13, I think that for any disciplinary action, there must be room for appeal. If a Member feels that he or she has been wrongly sanctioned, there must be room for appeal. It should not be sacrosanct. The decision of that committee should not be final and sacrosanct. There must be room for appeal. I would like us to look at that aspect, Mr President.Most of the issues I wanted to raise have been raised. However, my last issue is that we were sent this document and some of us read it and sent our reactions. Why was it sent to us for our reactions only to come back here with some of the issues we raised in those reactions? I do not know why the document was sent to us for reaction. I am sure reactions were sent by many Members. I would have thought that some of these issues could have already been taken care of like the issue of females dressing provocatively and all of those things. Some of us sent reactions.I thank you.HON. AWAD HAG ALI AHMED [SUDAN]:Thank you, Mr President.This is the third time to debate this code and it seems it is very standard. It is impossible that to bring in all comments from the Members. As far as I can see, it is time to pass it and start implementing it.Thank you very much, Mr President.HON. SHEKU B. B. DUMBUYA [SIERRA LEONE]:Thank you very much, Mr President.The rules that are here before us are not strange because we have such rules in our respective national legislatures. What I want to impress on my Hon. Colleagues is that this is a supra-national Parliament. In effect, that means, if we, in our national Parliaments, do adhere to the rules that obtain there, we should be more strict in adhering to the rules that we have set for ourselves in this Parliament because it is a supra-national Parliament.The Hon. Member from Lesotho and the Hon. Member Philip from Botswana are my friends. They have made very valid points which I think should be taken into account. On the question of the iPads, it should not have any problem because it does not make any noise. I think we should be allowed to use the iPads in the Chamber, but the problem is with mobile phones. I agree with Hon. Goya that we should put them on silent because, at any time, we can get communication from our constituencies in our respective countries.Mr President, let me also say that rules are rules and they are there to be adhered to very strictly and we that are here are all adults and being adults and Members of Parliament, we are expected to be exceptionally responsible. Therefore, let us not give the cause for the President to sanction us. We should behave in a way that essentially reflects our status as Hon. Members of Parliament. The word ‘Honourable’ is a very big term.Mr President, I am very concerned about the issue on page 8, if you will allow me to make reference to it. It is on Gender Sensitivity which is Section 15(2) and states that a Member must refrain from sexual harassment as defined in the policy. I wonder why we should have this in place. We are adults here and talking about sexual harassment is, to me, an infringement on our dignity as Members of Parliament.Thank you very much.HON. SANTOSH VINITA KALYAN [SOUTH AFRICA]:Thank you, Mr President.I would like to echo Dr. Bernadette’s comments that despite the fact that some of us put objections and amendments in writing, we are still faced with the same document. I would like to go to page 8 in the English version which says "a Member must refrain from constituting sexual harassment as defined in the policy on sexual harassment." I have requested this document and, to date, it has not been forthcoming. So, does the document exist? If it does, why is it not attached as an annexure to this document so that you can cross reference? I am delighted that an Hon. Member raised the issue about female members dressing in a provocative manner. What is provocative? In the African culture, if a woman goes bare-breasted is that provocative? I think whoever drew this up was, indeed not culture nor gender sensitive. I hereby submit that we delete that entire sentence as it is adequately covered in (h).With regard to tools of trade, again, on page 9, the whole idea of IT had been addressed. So, an iPad is a tool of trade. Hopefully, one day, all Members in this House will be given iPads by the PAP. I hope it is in your budget.ApplauseIn the interest of climate change, we need to save paper. Your document needs to come to you electronically. Therefore, I think it is a must. However, may I caution that we come up with a policy on social networking. You will have to be very careful how you treat it or use Facebook information. I will give an example. In my own Parliament, last week, one of the Members took a photo on her camera of Trevor Manuel fast asleep and she twitted it. Now she faces a disciplinary conduct because she should not have done that. She should not have taken a photograph and done that.On page 10, it says "all members shall dress in a dignified manner." It is already covered in the Code of Conduct. There is no need for the repetition. And then on page 13 of the English version, as Dr. Bernadette has already said about the Right of Appeal, I concur that it is important to have it there and, of course, I think the Right of Appeal should end with the President. However, I would like to urge that once the findings have been made, the Speaker of the House from which that member comes must also be informed of the decision because, sometimes, a Member may misbehave here and they do not know what is happening back home.Thank you.HON. MOHAMED YOUSIF ABDULLAH [SUDAN]:I thank you, Mr President.This document is very comprehensive and contains many elements. However, I would like to start by looking at page 12, Part V, Enforcement of the Code of Conduct – Complaints:(1)A person who wishes to file a complaint that a Member contravened this Code must submit a complaint in writing, stating the alleged contravention in sufficient detail to the President.(2)The President informs the Member and the Chairperson of the Committee on Rules, Privileges and Discipline of the complaint.Is paragraph (1) expected to be practical? Will it work? I am posing this question to the committee that drafted the rules. I expect that this may not be the practice and I do not expect that that would happen. There is a very remote chance that such a circumstance will arise and such a complaint be brought before you. This is the weakest point of this Code of Conduct.Secondly, I also prefer that enforcement of the rules of conduct be carried out by a separate committee such as a disciplinary committee or, maybe, a subcommittee in the same committee. It is true that Parliament is the owner of these rules and not the committee that has drafted them. However, the idea of the same committee enforcing the disciplinary measures would weaken the position of this Parliament and put the Members in a bad situation. Therefore, a separate committee on disciplinary measures should be established. I propose that we have one person from the Committee of Rules and two or three other persons from other committees. That would be better and would give this document strength and order.The last comment I would like to make is that Members of the PAP should exercise an oversight role on member States. In this vein, I believe that their conduct should be better than anyone else in Africa. The conduct of Members should actually show the African people that they are responsible people. It is true that there maybe a few people who will not behave as expected. However, for us, we expect that Members of this Parliament should behave in a very responsible and exemplary manner in order to show Africa that this Parliament has a meaning and is a voice for the rest of the African people and the continent.I thank you.HON. LUHAGA JOELSON MPINA [TANZANIA]:Thank you, Hon. Mr President. I also thank the Committee that dealt with the preparation of this Code of Conduct.Mr President, my colleagues have spoken on the issues which I had prepared to contribute on, but I want now to make amendments as follows: - In 18 (g), you delete all the words after the word ‘weapon’, that is tape recorder, translator, radio or other electronic device. You delete all those words.In (h), you add new words immediately after the word ‘off’. "All mobile telephones shall be switched off or put on silent."In 18 (2) (2) delete all the words which say "all Members shall dress in the defined manner as accepted by their National Parliament or deliberative organ." Why are we deleting it? This is because it has already been covered in 17 (1).Rule 40 sub-section 2 of the Rule of Procedure: "provide that all Members shall dress in the defined manner as accepted by their national Parliament or deliberative organ." There is no need again to repeat at 18 (2) the same words.Thank you Mr President.ApplauseHON. ISAAC STEPHEN MABILETSA [BOTSWANA]:Thank you, Mr President.Mr President, when we make rules we must not view them in a manner that leaves us in doubt. I am saying this against Rule No. 17 (g) which says: "Members may not wear beach-type sandals." Now, if the banning of sandals is the banning of sandals, let us be clear and say sandals are banned. Who is going to stand here and be a monitor to say you have worn this type, you have worn country type or what? It creates that confusion. So, I believe we must delete this completely. We must just say Members will not wear sandals, sneakers, etc, etc, full stop. That is one. My second observation is on Rule 17 (i). In a similar vein, Mr President, when we say wear in a manner accepted by their national Parliaments or deliberative organ, I think we are we are leaving doubt here. Somebody may come here dressed anyhow and he will want to tell us that that is a code acceptable in their Parliament.I believe we should, like my colleague was suggesting, delete "accepted by national Parliaments". That very potion must just go out and the rule should read: Rule 42 (g) of the Rules of Procedure provides that all Members shall dress in a dignified manner, full stop. We know what it means by dignified manner. The rest of the rule explains what the dignified manner is. So, that is what I thought had to be taken into account.To my beloved friend, Hon. Dumbuya, on the issue of sexual harassment, if everybody behaves the way that we should be behaving, we should not even have any law on cleanliness or what and what. So, what we need to do, Hon. Colleague is let us just have this provision in place. All of us are honourable, but there are always situations where there is an odd one out to misbehave. It can be either a man or a woman. It is just for those situations that we have a provision like this one. I am glad I explained it to you.Thank you Mr President.HON. BOHUE MARTIN [CÔTE D’IVOIRE]:Merci, Monsieur le Président.Je voudrais présenter mes excuses aux honorables députés qui ont eu à travailler sur ce Code de conduite, pour la simple raison ou faute d’avoir reçu le document dans mon pays, il ne m’a pas été possible de mettre à leur disposition les quelques observations que j’ai pu faire.Sur ce point, je dois avouer que la traduction en français est vraiment laborieuse et nous avons fait vraiment des observations très importantes à travers tout le texte. Je vais faire l’économie de cette lecture qui paraîtrait fastidieuse à l’assistance et je me permettrais de remettre le document, tout à l’heure, à la Commission pour que la version française soit sincèrement revue.Sur le fond, je m’interroge! Je m’interroge sur un certain nombre de points qui touchent l’applicabilité de ce texte.Je voudrais remercier l’intervention de Madame AKOUN qui a touché certains des points et je ne voudrais pas y revenir. Mais, je dis simplement que le point 12 sur la « PASSATION DEMARCHÉS », comment vérifier la collusion des intérêts des membres du PAP appelés à conclure un marché avec ceux des soumissionnaires?C’est un problème!De même, comment vérifier l’effectivité de la disposition du point 16 sur le « LOBBYING » par exemple?C’est un problème!Il en est de même du point 10 sur le « GAIN FINANCIER ».Il y a un point qui a été mis sur « L’INTEGRITÉ »du Parlement. Je pense que là, on devrait peut-être mettre « L’HONORABILITÉ » du Parlement et non « l’intégrité ».Sur le point concernant « la tenue vestimentaire », je dis qu’il ne faut pas confondre des éléments de culture, l’expression des cultures avec l’exhibition bon marché et de tenues délibérément provocantes.Cela fait deux choses!Quand on va à un spectacle de culture, on est préparé moralement à voir, par exemple, une exhibition de femmes aux seins nus. On s’y est préparé.Mais est-ce que l’honorable député X qui arrive dans cette enceinte est préparé à voir, à observer contre son gré des tenues délibérément provocantes, les hommes comme les femmes, et qui n’honorent pas notre milieu?Dernier point, quelle est la sanction du manquement du parlementaire à la tenue vestimentaire?Est-ce qu’il y a une sanction?Je n’en vois pas dans le texte et ça c’est regrettable.Je vous remercie.HON. SANTOSH VINITA KALYAN [SOUTH AFRICA]:Mr President, may I address you on a point of clarity, please.I appreciate the Hon. Member who spoke previously but my question is what is provocative? If a woman wears a pair of pants, is she provocative? I say that in the context that a woman was raped by a group of men because she was wearing a pair of pants and they felt that women should not wear pants. My issue is with the word ‘provocative’ and I think to be on the safe side we should delete all references in that particular line.UN HONORABLE MEMBRE:Motion de précision, Monsieur le Président!Monsieur le Président,Le port du pantalon n’est décrié nulle part par qui que ce soit. Mais, lorsqu’une femme porte un pantalon, taille basse ou ses dessous sont vus, ce n’est pas correcte.(Rires des femmes dans la salle)Merci, Monsieur le Président.(Applaudissements)HON. SUAD AL-FATIH AL BADAWI [SUDAN]:Thank you very much, Mr President.I have a proposal but, first of all, I want to thank this Committee for such good work.My concern is on the relationship between our Hon. Members here in the PAP and the Parliaments in the rest of Africa. Very little have been done about this. So, I propose, Mr President, that each Member of this Parliament should have an assignment. We do not know how they should solve it between themselves, but they should practice advocacy and tell the people in their countries. The national Parliaments know very little about the PAP. Even people in our countries know very little about the PAP and we repeat that this is the time to go and say this and this and do something about it because very little has been done.I propose that each group should do something about the PAP to advocate all that we are doing here and to tell the people about our activities and then come back to report here to the PAP. Let us just have one session where we have to debate on this. It is very good for us here to know what each country is doing about what they get from the PAP and, at the same time, this is a very short-cut way for people in Africa to know something about that.I have two other minor proposals, Mr President. I think that these meetings and debates are for discussing the issues of the PAP. So, no Member should be distracted by anything such as a telephone or any other thing. All the attention should be dedicated to what is being said and, lastly, I also propose if we can change our passports to smaller and cheaper ones.I was about to be sent back to my country because the passport control in one of these Gulf countries refused to accept it.Thank you, Mr President.HON. PROFESSOR PETER HITJITEVI KATJAVIVI [NAMIBIA]:I thank you very much, Mr President.On behalf of the Committee, I wish to, first of all, thank the Members who participated actively by way of responding to the draft Code of Conduct. A number of issues have been touched on that require responses from us. I will endeavour to do that and hope that I will be able to do justice to some of these 7 burning questions. Of course, I have to do this against time constrain.A number of issues came up relating to the comments that were sent in to the Committee to amend the draft document. I have to be honest and upfront with Hon. Members that, indeed, we received those amendments. Most of them were absolutely acceptable and enriched the document. We did not have any reservation to integrate them. However, the reason you do not see them integrated in the document before you is simply because we were not able to meet as a Committee to formally approve those amendments so that they could be integrated. It is not because of any ideological reason or disagreement. No! We took them on board. In fact, we regarded them as being constructive. They enriched our document. That is the only reason and nothing else.Secondly, I will not be able to deal with all the comments from each contributor. However, I will run through my list now.On the issue of provocative dress, even I, personally, had difficulty with that. I thought that we had done away with that. However, for some reason, like in a democracy, you cannot do these things all by yourself. It has to be done according to the system and this means formally through the Committee. We will do something about that and I think that most of you have spoken loud and clear and the message to the Committee is clear. We will definitely do away with that.I am not going to deal with the question of cell phones. That has been adequately addressed. We do not allow phone calls even in our national Parliaments. There is a way to deal with that and I think that one or two colleagues have addressed that adequately.Yes, we take on board the question of ICT. I think that the time has come for the PAP to embrace that as well. That is something that would enhance our work and we will go along with that.As regards the question of national dress, we all come from our national Parliaments and accept the fact that what is acceptable at our national Parliaments is more or less alright here. However, if there are some serious concerns and someone could demonstrate to us that a particular national Parliament in Africa does not allow people to dress in a dignified manner, then that could be an issue. However, for now, colleagues, let us go forward accepting what we do at our national Parliaments and actually abide by that here when we are at the PAP. Let us make a beginning. Rules are made and amended from time to time and I hope that we can do precisely that as time goes on. If things are not working, we have the liberty to go back to the drawing board and amend a particular clause or article that might not be in line with our expectations.The issue of our Committee being the one that is putting up the rules and sitting in judgment of some of these cases is an issue that we will have to address. If there is such a concern and you feel that we should not be the ones to implement this as time goes on, we could revisit that formally and address it. However, for now, colleagues, I would like to underline the fact that that is our mandate. We are not imposing ourselves, but that is what we are required to do. However, if you can tell us that our mandate does not extend to that, then obviously, we will look into it.On the question of attendance, I thought that that is an issue for all of us whether be it our Committee or, indeed, any other Committee. All of us are collectively concerned about the question of the lack of quorum from time to time and that affects the work of our various committees. It is something that we have to address over and above this particular Code of Conduct.Mr President, I am rushing through this. There are some useful comments basically supporting the document. As regards the question of enforcing the Code of Conduct, the rules that we have are also very explicit as to what the Code of Conduct is expected to do and I think that we will be able to deal with that within the mandate given to the Committee.Interruptions!Yes, I think that, on the whole, this has been a very positive intervention. Constructive views were expressed sharing the concerns of the Committee itself and they will basically be taken on board. In completing my responses, let me simply refer you, Hon. Members, to Rule 92: Amendments of Rules."Any Member may propose amendments to these rules, including the appendices by forwarding such proposal to the Bureau which shall consider and refer it to the Permanent Committee on Rules Privileges and Discipline for reporting to Parliament."So we will be guided by that as we take forward the various amendment suggestions that we have taken on board and work within the framework of Rule 92.Mr President, I beg to commend, once again, the document and move for the adoption of the Code of Conduct of PAP.I thank you.THE PRESIDENT:Thank you very much for that, but I doubt if we can move for adoption without finalising the document. I, therefore, refer the Code of Conduct document back to the Rules and Procedures Committee to take into consideration all the issues and recommendations made by our Hon. Members during this debate. I will present the final document for adoption to the plenary.I thank you.Hon. Members, I call on the Clerk to read the Second Order of the day.THE CLERK:Thank you, Mr President.Presentation and Debate on the Report on the Pan African Parliamentary Dialogue on Strengthening the AIDS Response in Africa.THE PRESIDENT:Hon. Members, may I now call Hon. Ashebir Gayo, Chairperson of the Permanent Committee on Health, Labour and Social Affairs to, please, make his presentation.HON. ASHEBIR WOLDEGIORGIS GAYO [CHAIRPERSON OF THE PERMANENT COMMITTEE ON HEALTH, LABOUR AND SOCIAL AFFAIRS]:Hon. President, Bethel Amadi, Vice-President, Hon. Members of the Pan African Parliament, Mr Clerk, on behalf of the Committee on Health, Labour and Social Affairs, let me take this opportunity to thank you all for allowing us to present a summary of the Report on the Pan African Parliament Dialogue on Strengthening the AIDS Response in Africa, held from the 15th to 16th March, 2013, at the Hilton Hotel, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.Mr President, Hon. Members, the AIDS epidemic remains a major challenge facing the African continent. Two thirds of the 34 million people living with HIV globally live in Africa, and infection rates exceed 10 per cent of the adult population in all countries in Southern Africa. Approximately 90 per cent of all global infections in children occur in 22 countries and 21 of these are in Africa. AIDS has and is destroying not only the hard-fought-for gains in health, but also industry, education, mining, agriculture, and the very social fabric of African communities.African leaders have demonstrated much commitment to fighting the AIDS epidemic resulting in progress in the continental AIDS response.As the legislative organ of the African Union, the Pan African Parliament (PAP) presents a crucial platform for advocacy, legislative, and policy dialogue on strengthening the sustainability of the AIDS response, advancing the human rights of those affected and at risk, and access to services for people living with HIV. In 2012, the PAP signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with UNAIDS in which, amongst other Articles, the two parties pledged to organise joint sessions aimed at imparting and equipping Parliamentarians with up to date information on the AIDS response; organise training sessions for effective budgeting for AIDS response; conduct training on legislative issues relating to AIDS response; and equip Parliamentarians with tools to monitor the AIDS response in national and regional activities, budget allocations, laws and policies that impact on the AIDS response.It is in this context, that UNAIDS, in collaboration with the Government of New Zealand, convened a two-day dialogue to engage Members of the PAP to establish understanding of the AIDS response, the guiding commitments, and how Parliamentarians can leverage their comparative advantage to strengthen the AIDS response.Hon. Members, the Parliamentary Dialogue organised by UNAIDS and the government of New Zealand was held at the Hilton Hotel, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia on March 15 and 16, 2013. Participants included representatives of UNAIDS, the African Union Commission Department of Social Affairs and Members of PAP drawn mainly from the Permanent Committees on Finance, Health, Gender, Trade and Justice.The general objective of the forum was to facilitate exchange of experiences, sensitize and engage Pan African Parliament in the AIDS response at the continental, regional, national and sub-national levels, and develop a common agenda by which Parliamentarians could strengthen the AIDS response. The specific objectives were:(i)Enhance understanding of budgeting role of Parliaments in the context of sustainable financing for the AIDS response;(ii)Discuss the legislative role of Parliaments in the context of drafting and passing protective laws to address key human rights issues and challenges related to the HIV response in Africa;(iii)Discuss the legislative and regulatory role of Parliaments in the context of securing access to medicines and using the full flexibilities of the TRIPS (Trade Related Intellectual Property Rights) agreement; and(iv)Discuss leadership and oversight roles of Parliaments with respect to monitoring the implementation of global, continental and regional commitments, as well as fostering accountability among different stakeholders in the national AIDS responses.It was expected that at the end of the two-day dialogue, participants would:(i)Have a stronger understanding of the role of Parliaments in strengthening the AIDS response at the continental, regional and national level;(ii)Increase their understanding of how Parliament’s roles in budgeting, legislation and leadership/oversight can be leveraged to address specific needs in AIDS response; and(iii)Develop a common agenda for the PAP the AIDS response.The dialogue was opened by the PAP President, His Excellency Bethel Amadi, and different dignitaries addressed that dialogue.The presentations were made in different sessions:Session 1: Update on the HIV epidemic, the AIDS response in Africa and global and continental commitmentsIn this session the Public Relations Manager of the Network of People Living with HIV in Ethiopia also gave testimony as a person living with HIV and shared the work and experiences of the network of people living with HIV Plus in Ethiopia to show cases how people living with HIV can support and collaborate with governments and political leaders to enhance the AIDS response.Session 2: Special Role of Parliaments in the AIDS responseThe Session provided an opportunity to discuss practical examples of how the role of Parliamentarians could be augmented for sustainable AIDS response.Session 3a: Parliamentary role in leadership, governance and oversight focusing on the implementation of global, continental and regional commitments as well as fostering accountability among different stakeholdersThe presentation focused on the Parliamentary roles in leadership, governance and oversight on the implementation of global, continental and regional commitments, as well as fostering accountability among different stakeholders.Session 3b: Parliamentary legislative role in the context of protective laws to address key human rights challenges related to the HIV response in Africa, including gender issues.The following two presentations were received in this session.1) Overview of the Role of Law in the AIDS response: Key Human Rights Challenges (Women, Young People, Other Key Populations at Risk); and2) The focus of the presentation was on the human rights dimension of HIV/AIDS and the role of Parliamentarians to develop norms and standards from a human rights perspective in this area.Presentation on HIV and GenderThe presentation focused on the relation between HIV and Gender and the international and regional frameworks in relation to gender.Session 4: Parliamentary, legislative and regulatory role of Parliaments in the context of security to accessing medicines and trips, accessing to medicines through local production and regulatory harmonisations The presentation focused on medicines security on the continent and Parliamentary roles in ensuring access to medicines.Session 5: Parliamentary budgeting role in the context of sustainable financing for the AIDS response.The presentation focused on the current situation on financing the AIDS response on the continent and targets for 2015.In Session 6, the two-day dialogue recognised that the existing Memorandum of Understanding between the PAP and UNAIDS formed a solid foundation for continued engagement and collaboration between the two institutions and recommended key decisions and priorities to support the AIDS response in the following key areas:Advocacy and Political MobilisationPAP Members agreed to:1.Continue playing key roles in the following areas:(i)To ensure HIV remains a key priority in continental and national agenda;(ii)As lawmakers, continue to design, adopt and oversee the implementation of legislation that protects human rights and advances (rather than hinders) effective HIV prevention, care and treatment programmes;(iii)Be overseers of government activities and ensure that government commitments to HIV are respected; and(iv)Be overseers of national budget appropriations and advocate for adequate and cost-effective funding to be provided to both national and international AIDS programmes.2.Develop a Continental Model Law on HIV building on regional experiences of SADC, EAC and ECOWAS.3.Develop an African HIV Charter in collaboration with the African Union.4.Advocate for and support the following:(i)Development of regional hubs for drugs production in Africa;(ii)Continued investment in research on HIV vaccines and improvement of African Research capacity;(iii)Universal treatment on the continent; and(iv)Innovative financing for HIV within the continent and promote intercountry/ region learning of the same.Capacity Building PAP secretariat and UNAIDS agreed to support the following capacity building efforts:1.To develop the Parliamentarians Hand Book on AIDS for Africa;2.To create a continuous information sharing medium to support learning and continuous information flow;3.To develop a concrete action-plan to operationalise Memorandum of Understanding;4.To organise a leadership session during ICASA 2013 in Cape Town whose primary audience would be regional Parliaments and Partner Parliamentarians of the continent. The purpose of the session is skills building and will be an opportunity to review the implementation of the AU Roadmap on Shares Responsibilities and plan next steps;5.To build capacity of PAP Members to understand drug production and pharmaceutical issues including TRIPS;6.To establish a PAP Members network on HIV to enhance networking and exchange of experiences;7.To encourage male Parliamentarians to play a leading role in the HIV response; and8.To harmonise and strengthen the capacity of the African Parliamentary Committees involved in HIV response.Monitoring, Accountability and Oversight1.PAP Members agreed to monitor the implementation of continental commitments including the AU roadmap on Shared Responsibilities; and2.UNAIDS and PAP Secretariat to develop country score cards that specifically include gender and HIV indicators for use by Parliamentarians. The cards will provide status of country HIV epidemic and response including implementation of the continental and global commitments.Hon. Members, we, Parliamentarians, as elected representatives of our continent, have a critical role to play to strengthen the AIDS response in Africa by ensuring the development of more diversified, balanced and sustainable finance; ensuring access to medicines through local production and regulatory harmonisation; and providing leadership, governance, oversight and sustainability.Hon. Members, Mr President, I thank you for your attention and submit the report for adoption.I thank you.ApplauseHON. P.C. BAI KURR KANAGBARO [SIERRA LEONE]:Thank you, Mr President.First of all, I have to congratulate the Committee and the presenter for a job well done.Again, Sir, I emphasise this when I have the opportunity to address this noble House that we are doing a very good job of bringing out issues that affect the African continent and the world at large. Do we have follow-ups or how are we going to manage the great resources that we have here to make a difference in terms of serving the African people?I cannot add anything new from what the Members have written in the Committee of this Parliament because the entire issue is that of Health for All by the year 2015, and when we look at the MDGs, health is one of the sectors that affect the African continent.When we begin to look at the Human Development Index (HDI), health and education are the issues raised. Therefore we, as Members of the PAP and of our national Parliaments, should advocate for increased funding for the health sector if we are to attain the recommendations that we are going to adopt here.We should also advocate for the governments of our different countries to increase the training of doctors. In certain areas in Africa, there is one doctor for over five hundred thousand people while in Cuba, where even people leave the United States of America to get medication, there is one doctor for five or six hundred people.We have to address some of these things well. The document is well written, it addresses major issues that have to be included but how are we going to achieve these recommendations? How are we going to advocate for our people? Therefore, as a Parliament, we should be able to produce such a document internationally, locally and nationally to show that we are working and we are bringing out issues that will make Africa a better place for mankind to survive.While we have one doctor for two or three hundred people while some countries have less than two hundred doctors for the whole country, there is a problem.We even talk of producing drugs but do we have the energy, manpower or resources to do it? These are some of the things we have to look at as African people. These are the issues we have to contribute to towards the development of Africa.Therefore, my appeal is for us to continue to work hard, Mr President. What I am saying is that these are good recommendations but we must make them belong to the international world so that they know that the PAP is a serious place where we debate serious issues that affect mankind.I thank you.HON. BALA SARATOU BOUKARI [NIGER]:Merci, Monsieur le Président.Je vais commencer par supporter la présentation du Dr Ashebir Woldegiorgis GAYO et permettez-moi d’appuyer ce que vient de dire mon collègue de Sierra-Léone. Il va falloir qu’on réagisse pour imposer certaines choses à nos parlements, ne seraitce que faire respecter les Objectifs du Millénaire pour le Développement (OMD) concernant la santé, qui exigent que les États mettent 15 % de leur budget dans la santé, ce qui va améliorer les conditions de vie de nos populations.En ce qui concerne la situation du VIH, elle est réellement préoccupante en Afrique et la tendance de l’épidémie du SIDA en Afrique met en exergue l’exclusion sociale, la vulnérabilité structurelle et l’impossibilité de faire des choix libres, notamment pour les femmes.Beaucoup de débats ont été faits sur le SIDA, ici dans le Parlement, et je pense qu’il est temps d’évoluer et de réagir par des actions concrètes, notamment, à travers ce que nous concède l’article 11(3) du Protocole au Traité instituant la Communauté économique africaine relatif au Parlement panafricain, qui stipule:« Œuvrer à l’harmonisation ou à la coordination des lois des États membres ».C’est dans ce sens que je pense qu’une loi-type continentale serait un bon cadre pour protéger les droits fondamentaux des populations en favorisant, d’une part, l’accès universelle aux services de prévention, de traitement, de soins et de prise en charge du VIH et, d’autre part, le droit à la non discrimination.Des lois-types, comme l’a dit Dr GAYO, ont été instaurées dans la région. Il y a eu la loi-type de Ndjamena en 2004, qui a été présentée par des parlementaires de l’Afrique de l’Ouest et du Nord; il y a eu la loi-type de la Communauté de développement d'Afrique australe (SADC), qui a été présentée en 2008 par des parlementaires également. Toutes ces lois-types présentent des lacunes en ce qui concerne l’angle des droits humains.Je pense qu’il serait bon pour le PAP, de prendre l’initiative d’harmoniser ces deux lois-types régionales, celle de la SADC et celle de Ndjamena et de la porter au niveau de nos pays.Le PAP pourra même adopter un plan d’actions, avec suivi, pour la transposition dans le droit interne de nos États. Le Parlement panafricain assurera le leadership de la mise en œuvre de ce plan d’actions au niveau national.Je suis convaincue, Monsieur le Président, qu’avec l’Accord signé avec l’ONUSIDA, cette possibilité existe.Je terminerai en rappelant ce qu’a dit mon prédécesseur: « deux tiers des personnes vivant avec le VIH-SIDA dans le monde, se trouvent en Afrique ».Nous devons savoir aussi que dans ce lot de personnes infectées, les femmes sont, du fait des formes de violences dont elles sont victimes, les personnes les plus exposées à l’infection au VIH. À travers ces femmes, ce sont les enfants qu’elles mettent au monde qui sont infestés par la transmission de la mère à l’enfant.Nous devons donc agir, Monsieur le Président, pour permettre l’accès universel à la prévention, au traitement, aux soins et à la prise en charge du VIH.Je vous remercie.(Applaudissements)HON. TSEPO MONETHI [LESOTHO]:Mr President, I thank you for allowing me to say these few words on this global problem which is mostly affecting our continent, Africa. This epidemic still remains a threat and a major challenge even after this report that has been perfectly made by Dr Gayo.Two-thirds of people living with HIV globally are in Africa. The infection rate exceeds 10 per cent of the adult population in all countries in Southern Africa where I come from. That clearly shows that if you are not infected, you are affected. That, in itself, tells me that it is our solemn responsibility to make sure that we enhance the responsibility to strengthen the AIDS response in Africa because it is also said that about 90 per cent of all infections in children occur in twenty-two countries of which twenty-one are in Africa.Mr President, this is of great concern to me because those children are the future Members of this very Parliament, Presidents, Prime Ministers and Ministers of this lovely continent. However, one has to say that, indeed, the African leaders have shown and demonstrated the much-needed commitment in fighting the epidemic. One good example is the 2001 African Heads of State commitment to the Abuja Declaration on HIV/AIDS, TB and Other related infectious diseases.Mr President, to show concern and seriousness, in 2006, there was an adoption of the Abuja Call for 3 Accelerated Action towards the Universal Access to HIV/AIDS, TB and Malaria Services in Africa. As if that was not enough, in 2012, the Heads of State adopted the African Union Roadmap on Shared Responsibility and Global Solidarity for TB, Malaria and AIDS Responses in Africa.As a result of these African leaders’ initiatives, the continent has begun to see results in less than a decade. About 6.2 million people are on treatment in Sub-Saharan Africa.Let me finish by saying that the rate of infections has declined by 25 per cent in the last decade. Indeed, we are saying that we are in the right direction. All we need is to make sure that we support this even at our national levels.I thank you.HON. BAKARY OUATTARA [CÔTE D’IVOIRE]:Merci, Monsieur le Président.Ce que j’avais à dire, a été véritablement dit par tous les orateurs qui sont intervenus avant moi.Mais, permettez-moi quand même que j’insiste, parce qu’on dit que la répétition est pédagogique; juste pour appuyer certains points qui me semblent assez importants.Le problème du SIDA, je pense est assez connu, et la seule difficulté, à mon avis, qui persiste actuellement, c’est l’application des mesures de prise en charge. C’est vrai qu’il y a certains pays qui ont fait des efforts, et d’autres non, mais ce que nous devons savoir, c’est que les pays africains ne fonctionnent pas en vase clos. Les gens se déplacent d’un pays à un autre. Donc, il faut en tenir compte! C’est pour cela que je vous dis qu’il faut harmoniser les protocoles de prise en charge au niveau de la prévention, au niveau de tout ce qu’il y a à faire comme actes concernant cette infection, parce que c’est une maladie infectieuse.Si nous n’harmonisons pas la prise en charge et que la population se déplace d’un État à un autre, l’infection est entretenue si dans votre pays vous êtes parvenus à amoindrir cette infection et que dans l’autre pays l’infection est toujours existante, c’est comme si nous n’avions rien fait.Donc, si l’Afrique veut vraiment combattre cette infection, cette affection, il faut que nous harmonisions la prise en charge, aussi bien au niveau de la prévention qu’au niveau du traitement.C’est pour cela que je suis d’accord avec le Dr Bala qui dit qu’il faut prendre une loi-type, et vraiment l’uniformiser au niveau de nos pays africains.Je vous remercie.HON. DR. BERNADETTE LAHAI [SIERRA LEONE]:Thank you very much, Mr President. I also want to thank the presenter for presenting this document.Mr President, this meeting was held in Addis Ababa and some of us were fortunate enough to have stayed behind to attend this very important workshop. The deliberations were very good. We were given a lot of literature on recent prevalence rates and the many high level meetings that have been held. We were given literature on the financing of the pandemic and we were also given a lot of literature which calls on Parliamentarians with regards to what to do to help address this scourge.It is a fact that HIV and AIDS has a woman’s face because when we look at the rate of prevalence of women and girls, particularly between the ages of 14 and 24, they are highly infected. In addressing the issue of HIV and AIDS, we must also not forget the issue of culture which is also exposing a lot of women and girls to this scourge. We still have prevalence, on the African Continent, of early marriages and marriage of young girls as young as 15 years to men who are as old as, maybe, 80 years old or even older than their grandparents.The issue of women’s poor economic empowerment affects their negotiation when it comes to negotiating for sex with regards to when and with whom and whether, in fact, they shall engage in safer sex. This is still a problem. In some of our countries, we have passed laws on early child marriage. We have passed laws on HIV and AIDS but we need to actually see how these laws are being implemented because, in our countries, we still are seeing young girls who are so poor and vulnerable marrying older men and cannot even negotiate the issue of sex. Of course, because of poverty, especially for those coming from war, we have cases where these young girls are now becoming the bread winners for the families and, therefore, they are in a very disadvantaged state to negotiate about sex.So, these are the issues we need to talk about. Of course, financing is very important. We know that the Health Ministers have agreed on financing the health sector from our national budgets to be up to 20 per cent, but how much of this percentage is 4 actually devoted to HIV and AIDS? This is where we, the Members of Parliament, should come in and insist that of the 20 per cent national budget to health, a figure of this percentage should be devoted to addressing the issue of HIV and AIDS. If we do that then we will be ensuring that we have our constituents, who are mostly women and young girls, vote for us to continue to exist in Parliament.I thank you very much.HON. AWAD HAG ALI AHMED [SUDAN]:Thank you very much Mr President.As indicated by my colleagues, many of us had a very valuable discussion at that workshop. It was good to see the number of infections being reduced up to 25 per cent and the transmission rate reduced by 60 per cent. It means that we are moving in the right direction and we need to enhance the efforts and to request the international community for more support and this report has now to be adopted by this House in order to also be adopted by National Parliaments. That is why we need to adopt the results of this workshop.Thank you very much.HON. MOHAMED ALI FOULIEH [DJIBOUTI]:Merci, Monsieur le Président, de m’avoir donné la parole.Je félicite, d’abord, les organisateurs ainsi que les personnes qui ont participé à ce dialogue parlementaire.Je voudrais relever quelques éléments, mais avant, féliciter la brillante intervention de l’Honorable Bala Saratou Boukari, qui a pris en charge ce que j’ai bien voulu dire, notamment sur le fait qu’on peut intervenir au niveau de la législation.Il paraît qu’il y a deux projets de lois-types présentées par des organisations régionales. On peut éventuellement jouer sur l’harmonisation!Donc, pour ne pas être trop long, j’appuis l’intervention de Madame BOUKARI.Je vous remercie, Monsieur le Président.HON. ELIZABETH AGYEMAN [GHANA]:Mr President, I thank you for giving me this opportunity to debate. I also want to thank the presenter for his concise presentation.I want to go back and look at the statistics given to us from this conference. We are being told that the global statistics stand at about thirty-four million affected people. Of these thirty-four million, twothirds are from the continent of Africa. We are also being told that there are twenty-two countries with infected children and out of this, twenty-one are African. That means twenty-one countries are affected with HIV/AIDS on our continent. I would say that this continent is actually under siege because it has children affected in twenty-one countries. These children are going to grow to become our future and if they are all affected by HIV/AIDS, then it makes our situation very dangerous.As Parliamentarians, we have been selected by our people from our countries to represent them. Therefore, this gives us the biggest task because stopping HIV/ AIDS is one of the MDGs. These statistics were given to you just last March and, very soon, we are going to enter 2015. I am wondering how we are going to deal with this problem by 2015.We must, as Parliamentarians, ensure that this war is won. We play a very critical role in this achievement. We are there for the people. What are we going to do? How are we going to tackle this issue? I know that we are making progress but I am thinking of the number of years left to get to 2015. Nevertheless, I know that we are going to succeed if we keep on trying.Mr President, I thank you very much for listening.HON. SHEKU B. B. DUMBUYA [SIERRA LEONE]:Thank you very much, Mr President.Mr President, AIDS has been a sore concern not only in Africa, but in the world. However, the good news is that, formerly, people were not taking it very seriously but now the response is very good and, perhaps, this explains why the rate of infection has been gradually reducing in some countries, particularly my own country.Mr President, as it has been suggested here, we need to pass laws on AIDS and as it has been highlighted, and very clearly, in our Parliament, we have done this. Mr President, we enacted a law and the Motion came, initially, from a Member of the Opposition and now we have a law on AIDS.As we all know, laws not normally emanate from the Government but in the case of the AIDS law, it came from a Member of Parliament which, in fact, is an 5 indication of the fact that the Parliament of Sierra Leone takes the AIDS issue very seriously.As part of our representational duties, you would also like to know that we take the message to the people when we go to our respective constituencies and this is one reason there has been a systematic reduction in the rate of AIDS infections.I would, therefore, want to appeal to my colleagues here that they do the same in the countries so that this will become a thing of the past. The good news is that the rate of infections is now reducing gradually.Thank you very much.HON. MASTER GOYA [BOTSWANA]:Thank you, Mr President, for this opportunity and let me thank my colleagues who have thanked the Chairperson of the Health Committee. Let me also thank him for his presentation.Mr President, I want to start by saying that as long as the cure for HIV and AIDS remains a challenge, then we are going to echo a slogan for one international bank which says, "here for good". I would like to also say that as long as we have not found a cure for HIV and AIDS, AIDS is here for good. It is here to stay. What boggles my mind, Mr President, is that the rigour and vigour as well as the tenacity that was applied by our governments, our civil society organisations some twenty years back, seems to be dwindling. It is slowly fading away as if we have found a cure. I do not know what should be done now. People are just relaxed but, everyday, we continue to receive reports that there are some new infections. Mr President, this is worrisome.Further, Mr President, we seem to be living in a world where reality and idealism seem to be far apart from each other. Take, for instance, the fact that there are some people who go to prison without HIV and AIDS and when they come back, we hear reports that they have been infected by HIV and AIDS, but our governments are refusing to supply prisons with condoms. Why? Of course it is ideal not to supply prisons with condoms. However, the reality is that people are getting infected in prisons. The prisoners are not immune to sexual intercourse. They do it.Even in our homes here, as parents, we take care of our daughters, making sure that we protect them from being pregnant, but all of a sudden, when they wake up, you notice that they are pregnant. Even when we have been guarding these daughters from morning to evening, they still fall pregnant.So, Mr President, I think we should talk to our governments to provide condoms in our prisons.Unless we do that, we are going to continue seeing or receiving reports that people in prisons are infected and, when they come out, they are going to spread the disease. They are obviously going to spread the disease. Mr President, if you just allow me one minute, I want to associate myself with one of the recommendations that came out from this report and I wish to quote it. It says, on page 11, that:"as law makers, Parliamentarians can design, adopt and oversee the implementation of legislation that protects human rights and advances effective HIVprevention, care and treatment programmes."Mr President, even prisoners need our protection. We need to come out with regulations that protect them because they are human beings. We should protect them as well.Thank you very much, Mr President for this opportunity.HON. SANTOSH VINITA KALYAN [SOUTH AFRICA]:Thank you, Mr President.As you can see before you, there is a very comprehensive report and there are specific recommendations that we, as PAP Members, should be doing.I would just like to relay to you what the Parliament of South Africa has done. On Tuesday, last week, we launched the National HIV Counselling and Testing Programme. It is part of our National Strategy to deal with HIV/AIDS.We, in South Africa, have moved away from the dark terrible days of AIDS denial under Mbeki’s his rule and ARVs have been rolled out with speed and urgency.The Global community signed the historical UN MDGs in 2000 and a broader agreement that a collective effective response to the pandemic was needed. Now, the 2015 deadline for the MGDs is close and near. It is only 942 days away. There are many countries in Africa that are not going to reach the deadline of these goals. What we, as the PAP, should be doing is buying into the post-2015 Agenda and make our voice heard about the 2015 Agenda. There is no use having regrets and recriminations when countries can meet the goals.One of the ways you, as the PAP, can help us, is to take this Committee Report and give it to the Health Committee in your Parliament. Give it to your Minister of Health and say, this is what we at the PAP have done.We had the privilege to interact with members of the Health Committee of South Africa yesterday and I must tell you, colleagues, that even though South Africa is the host country of the PAP, I am ashamed to tell you that many of those colleagues who attended yesterday, do not know what the PAP is all about.I spent a good part of that session telling them what we do. Nevertheless, the outcome of that meeting was very good and we set up a structure with two members from that Committee and two members from our Committee to network.Colleagues, we can make history. One of the recommendations in this report is to develop an African Charter on HIV/AIDS and I urge every single one of you that is sitting here to make an input and send it to Hon. Dr. Bala Bukadi. She is the Chair of the Sub-Committee on Health.We can make history, but your input is needed. We need active participation from you.I thank you.HON. ARNOLD TJIHUIKO [NAMIBIA]:Thank you, Mr President. In fact, I want to make a contribution on the next presentation, not this one, if I may.Thank you, Mr President.THE PRESIDENT:Thank you very much. I have exhausted my list of speakers. May I now invite our presenter to respond to the comments.HON. ASHEBIR WOLDEGIORGIS GAYO [CHAIRPERSON OF THE PERMANENT COMMITTEE ON HEALTH, LABOUR AND SOCIAL AFFAIRS]:Thank you, Mr President and Hon. Members. As Chairperson of this Committee, I will only an say we have gained a lot from Honourable Members. We have got big lesson and I have duly taken note of all those that have spoken.Having said this, I would like to ask Members to concentrate on three issues. The first one is on ensuring that there is diversified and sustainable funding of this area. Secondly, there is need to ensure access to medicine, maybe, through domestic production and regulatory harmonisation of the issue of the government’s leadership. The MDG that was meant for health is not yet fully implemented in Africa. It is still remaining on maternity and child disease. This is a major global challenge in Africa.In this regard, this is not time to wait for our Western partners to finance Africans. It is not the time. They have their own crises. They have their own problems. Now, as a continental agenda, we should mobilise and concentrate on mobilising domestic resources. There is no other way. We should not depend on charity funding from abroad. No aid or assistance is coming any more. Africa, as the colleague from Sierra Leone said, should concentrate on our own resources. That is the only way for us to exit from the crisis.The secondly issue has to do with ensuring access to medicine. We know that Africa has a lot of resources. As you know, we export raw materials. Many medicinal plants are from Africa. These medicinal plants are exported by us and then, later, we cannot afford to buy these medicines. In this regard, as a national agenda, as a Parliament, we should concentrate on domestic manufacturing activities. If we work on the exemption of tax, the investors who are engaged in this area can be more encouraged and these medicinal plants will stay at home and will be accessible to our patients. We also know that there are so many drug control authorities in our regions and countries. These vary from country to country. We need to harmonise the controls in order to stop drug smuggling and to ensure that we provide safe and efficacious drugs to African nations. That is the only way to challenge the global epidemic of HIV.Having said that, Mr President, leadership in governance is also very important. If there is no accountability and transparency, we will not achieve the development which we need. This also depends on the political will of our political authorities. As law makers, Parliamentarian can at least enact modern laws on HIV to stop stigma which can affect the victims.Mr President, as I said at the beginning, we have got a lot from this debate and we have taken note and also, as a condition, I would like to urge our Parliamentarians, the Hon. Members, to sensitise and advocate this idea. I also wish to urge the Members, today, to adopt this report.I thank you, Mr. President.THE PRESIDENT:Thank you very much. Will the Clerk read the second Order of the day.THE CLERK:Thank you, Hon. President.Presentation and Debate on the Report of the Regional Parliamentary Meeting on the African Governance Platform and Promotion of African Union Legal Instruments held on 17 to 20 September 2013 in Mozambique.HON. PATRICK MWALULA MUCHELEKA [ZAMBIA]:Mr President, on behalf of the Southern Caucus of the PAP, let me thank you for giving me the opportunity to give a summary report of the regional Parliamentary Meeting of the Southern Caucus of the PAP on African Governance Platform and Promotion of the African Union Legal instruments which was held in Maputo, Mozambique from the 17th to 25th of September, 2013.Mr President, Hon. Members, through the joint collaboration between the PAP, the Parliament of Mozambique and partners such as GIZ, ACBF, OSISA and UNDP, a regional consultative meeting on African Governance Platform and Promotion of African Union Legal instruments was held on 17-20 September 2013, in Maputo, Mozambique. The Parliamentary meeting was preceded by a dialogue with civil society on African Union Instruments and the role of civil society in monitoring their ratification.The objectives of the regional Parliamentary Meeting and the African Union Instruments were the following:To develop a strategy for accelerating the prioritisation and ratification of the African Union instruments;To discuss mechanisms to establish national inter-ministerial and stakeholder working committees. These committees could bring together all stakeholders to review national progress and coordinate sensitisation and implementation of key policy frameworks and instruments;Discuss a monitoring and an annual reporting mechanism on the progress of the policy frameworks and instruments and related sectors; andDiscuss mechanisms to work with national Parliaments, relevant parliamentary committees and national Members of the Pan African Parliament to regularly debate in decisions taken at the AU and take the follow up actions required.At a civil society level, the objective was that civil society will:Immediately sensitise and mobilise society around the importance of the African Union instruments at national level;Inform and strengthen the capacity of the public to claim these standards and rights encapsulated in the African Union instruments;To support Parliaments through committees to expand their capability to guide other Ministries, to align with AU decisions adopted by the Heads of State on behalf of their Governments;To work with Parliaments to monitor progress, hold Governments accountable and assist them to deliver on the promise of the African Union policy standards and legal instruments; andTo urgently establish an official monitoring mechanism that holds individual Member States collectively accountable for the delivery of the key African Union policy frameworks and instruments.The meeting further discussed the slow pace of the ratification and domestication of our African Union instruments, the African Governance Architecture Platform, the ACDEG, the African Charter on Public Service, the Trade Policy in Southern Africa and the need for Parliamentary oversight of natural resources extraction processes, contracts, benefits and policies.The observations and conclusions of the meeting were captured in the communiqué which was adopted and read on the 19th of September and these were as follows:COMMUNIQUÉREGIONAL CONSULTATIVE MEETING ON THE AFRICAN GOVERNANCE ARCHITECTURE AND THE RATIFICATION OF AFRICAN UNION LEGAL INSTRUMENTS.PreambleThe members of the Pan African Parliament (Southern Caucus) meeting in Maputo - Mozambique, from the 18thto the 19th of September 2013 on the Ratification and the Domestication of African legal Instruments:The meeting took note of the slow pace of ratification of the African Union legal instruments and how this is hampering the political and economical integration process. The slow rate of ratification, domestication and implementation of the African Union decisions undermines the credibility of the African Union organs including the Pan African Parliament and denies millions of African citizens the effective protection of their rights and fundamental freedoms;The meeting further acknowledged that democratic governance is a fundamental pre-condition for peace, security, political stability and the necessary pre-condition for equitable economic development and transformation;The meeting further acknowledged the challenges encountered in the ratification process which include administrative lethargy, poor bureaucratic coordination and co-operation among the branches of government, lack of the technical and institutional capacity, changes in government, issues of national sovereignty, lack of political commitment, cumbersome constitutional and legal procedures, challenges related to domestication and implementation of instruments;The meeting further recognised that different African States in the Southern Region have different ratification and domestication procedures informed by different constitutional and legal traditions inherited from the colonial powers;Reiterating the role of the PAP as required by Article 3 (1 and 3) of the Protocol establishing the PAP to facilitate the effective implementation of the policies and objectives of the AU; encourage good governance, transparency and accountability in member states;The meeting applauded the African Governance Architecture and the role of the PAP in the African Governance Architecture (AGA) and called upon the PAP to claim a leadership role and insist on timeframes for ratification and implementation of all the African Union Instruments;Desirous of fulfilling the objectives of the Protocol establishing the PAP, the meeting called on all Southern African Parliaments to work with National Governments to speedily sign, ratify and domesticate all AU legislation in recognition of the calls for revival of African Renaissance and Pan Africanism, as Africa celebrates the OAU/AU Golden Jubilee.The meeting agreed as follows:1.On the ratification, domestication and implementation of the African Charter on Democracy, Elections and Governance;a)The PAP should take a leadership role in ensuring the ratification, domestication, implementation of AU instruments in all Southern African Parliaments now that the African Charter on Democracy, Elections and Governance is in force;b)Having noted that out of the 20 ratifications on the African Charter on Democracy, only 4 ratifications have been signed from the Southern Africa Region and that is Lesotho, Malawi, South Africa and Zambia. The remaining six South African states should ratify the Charter by August 2014, especially those whose Heads of State and Government have already signed. The aim is to achieve universal ratification of the Charter by the 54 member states of the African Union. 45 states have already signed;c)Taking a cue from the African Union, each has institutionalised the practice of biennial reporting system on all AU instruments; and the PAP should receive annual reports on the state of ratification, domestication and implementation by its member Parliaments;d)The PAP in conjunction with the civil society and partners should undertake a comprehensive audit of all AU instruments with a view to update the Compendium of every instrument and both the Compendium and Audit Reports should be sent to national Parliaments;e)The PAP in conjunction with Partners should develop the capacity of Parliaments to ratify and domesticate AU instruments; and the capacity of civil society to track domestication and implementation. In this regard, there is a need to develop regional ratification and domestication toolkits to ensure that national Parliaments are aware of the required ratification, domestication and implementation processes. Further, there is need for multistakeholder capacity building workshops at national level for Members of Parliaments, civil society and Members of the Executive on ratification and domestication procedures and also on reporting requirements for those countries that have ratified the Charter; andf)The PAP must encourage all the 20 AU member states that have ratified the African Charter to on Democracy, Elections and Governance to submit the reports in 2014.2.On The African Charter On The Values And Principles Of Public Service And Administration;The meeting having noted that the vision of the Charter is to build capable democratic and developmental States in Africa over the long term and it seeks to reorient Public Administration towards serving citizens effectively, efficiently, impartially and to achieve sustainable human development.; and Further noting that the African Charter on the values and Principles of Public Service and Administration is experiencing several challenges which include very low rates of signing and ratification despite its noncontroversial nature; and the fact that understanding of the Charter is relatively weak, and that the African Public Service Charter has been signed by twenty-six countries and ratified only by 6 and that in the Southern Africa Region, only two countries have ratified and that is Namibia and Mozambique.The meeting agreed as follows:That the ratification and domestication of the Charter is crucial to the successful implementation of regional normative frameworks and that the domestication of the Charter will ensure effective service delivery to all the citizens in the region;That sustainable human development can only be inclusive if the Public Administration is re-oriented towards serving citizens effectively, efficiently and impartially;That the standards within the Public Service Charter give everyday meaning to the aspirations in the AU Shared Values Instruments, including the African Charter on Democracy, Elections and Governance (ACDEG);That the provision or non-provision of quality public services determines the levels of public trust/confidence and by parity of reasoning the stability of a government; andThat Public servants perform best when there is a system to manage their performance and guarantees regarding the work conditions.The following actions were therefore recommended:a)For countries that have ratified and deposited the instruments of ratification (Namibia and Mozambique) to domesticate and implement the Charter;b)Lesotho, South Africa and Angola have started the process of ratification. These countries were urged to deposit the instruments with the African Union before the end of 2014;c)Swaziland and Zimbabwe have expressed interest in signing and 0 ratifying the African Public Service Charter. These countries were urged to sign and ratify the Charter before the end of 2014; andd)For countries like Botswana, Zambia and Malawi that have not commenced the process of signing nor ratification, the recommendation was that they must be made aware of the significance of the Charter in eradicating poverty and ensuring effective and efficient service deliver.3.On the issue of Natural Resources Governance in Southern Africa;The meeting noted that despite the abundance of natural resources and the opportunities they present for socio-economic development, transparency and accountability in the mining sector remains a challenge. The oversight role of Parliament on the contracting process, utilisation and exploitation of the mineral resources is not recognised.The meeting, therefore, took note of the existence of the Natural Resources Barometer and encouraged MPs to familiarise themselves with the Barometer. The meeting further exhorted Southern African States to comply with the principles contained in the Barometer.The meeting recommended as follows:a)That the national Parliaments should advocate for the formulation and implementation of laws to govern the extraction of natural resources;b)That SADC national Parliaments should advocate for the enhancement of the rule of law and good governance and ensure that companies respect and comply with national policies;c)That SADC countries should put in place a monitoring and oversight mechanism involving government, Parliaments and civil society to review performance of Corporate Social Responsibility; andd)The SADC-PF to present the Barometer during the Third Ordinary Session in October, 2013.4.On the Issue of Regional Intra-African Trade;The meeting noted that the level of intra-African trade is low and that there is need to increase volumes of intra-African Trade to achieve the objectives of regional integration as spelt out in the SADCTreaty of 1992. While SADC established a Free Trade Area in 2008, the region does not have a Customs Union and a Common Market as in other regions such as East Africa.The meeting therefore recommended as follows:a)The MPs from the region should advocate for the ratification, domestication (changing national legislation) and implementation of regional trade instruments;b)Develop regional instruments that facilitate effective movements of people, goods and services as in the case of the West African region;c)Advocate for the establishment of One-Border stops in countries which share borders such as South Africa and Zimbabwe; Zambia and Malawi, Mozambique and Swaziland;d)Advocate for the establishment of joint infrastructure and energy projects to facilitate the 1 movement of people, goods and services; ande)Advocate for the establishment of a regional Business Council and Regional Fund on Trade.The meeting, Mr President and Hon. Members, was unanimous that the Pan African Parliament must make concerted efforts to ensure effective implementation of all the above recommendations by all Southern African States. Mr President, Hon. Members, I submit and I thank you for the opportunity to allow me on behalf of the Southern Africa Caucus to present this report for your consideration.I thank you.HON. OSCAR NSAMAN-O-LUTU [RÉPUBLIQUE DÉMOCRATIQUE DU CONGO]:Honorable Président, je crois que je ne peux que féliciter ceux qui ont rédigé ce rapport, mais quelle que soit la situation, en ce qui concerne les termes utilisés « gouvernance », j’ai quand même un point de vue à émettre.Je crois que chaque fois que l’on parle, on utilise des termes tels que « gouvernance », ce sont des termes flous. Il faut nécessairement qu’on puisse préciser cela pour une meilleure compréhension, pour que nous ne puissions pas nous faire prendre dans les pièges.En d’autres termes, quels sont les critères de la gouvernance?On peut parler de la gouvernance mondiale, si nous l’adoptons comme tel, d’ici peu, on va nous imposer l’homosexualité comme étant un des critères de la gouvernance, alors que c’est ce que nous refusons.(Applaudissements)C’est pourquoi, nous devons faire attention!Mais quant à nous, en ce qui concerne le PAP, je crois qu’il y a des termes qui sont reconnus et qui méritent une explicitation. Par exemple, quand on parle de « concertation », il y a une confusion entre « concertation » et « dialogue ».Pour nous, en République Démocratique du Congo, quand on a parlé de dialogue, il y avait beaucoup de discussions et nous avons préféré « concertation », c'est-à-dire mettre ensemble la Majorité, l’Opposition, la Société civile et toutes les forces vives pour discuter des problèmes qui concernent notre pays, à tous. En cela, je crois que nous sommes arrivés à quelque chose de très valable qui a dégagé plus de 650 recommandations.Dans ce cadre précis, quand on parle de « gouvernance », nous supposons qu’en termes de la démocratie, ça signifie: « essayer de mettre en exécution toutes les recommandations que nous avons arrêtées ensemble ».Ensemble, nous voyons si le gouvernement est en train d’exécuter ces recommandations que nous avons arrêtées, tous.Je crois que c’est la meilleure façon de pouvoir parler de la « gouvernance » et savoir que la « gouvernance », au niveau global, ne doit pas nécessairement être « gouvernance [Microphone éteint] ».Je conclue, en disant que je fais une recommandation pour que le PAP puisse recommander aux pays africains d’engager des concertations annuelles de façon que même ceux qui ne sont pas au Parlement, aient l’opportunité d’émettre un avis sur la façon dont le gouvernement est en train de conduire le programme du pays.Voilà, ce que je peux faire comme recommandation.Je m’arrête là!Merci.HON. DIKGANG PHILLIP MAKGALEMELE [BOTSWANA]:Thank you, Madam President.Madam President, I want to associate myself with the report and the recommendations. I happen to come from this particular region and I also had the privilege and honour to attend this conference.Madam President, I think as a cross cutting recommendation, and looking at a variety of AU instruments which need to be promoted and domesticated in our respective countries, I think it is important that we must look at our comparative advantages as the Pan African Parliament.I strongly believe that we normally find comfort in saying that the fact that we are not legislative is a disadvantage. I agree, Madam President, it is a disadvantage which we should fight but I still feel that even before legislation, we must look at our comparative advantages.Madam President, how many times do we, as Members of the PAP, present a report of the PAP to our respective Parliaments? How many times, Madam President, do we, as Members of the PAP, lobby Portfolio Committees of our respective countries?Right now, we are talking of an instrument on the Public Service and Administration. In the context of Botswana, for example, Madam President, we have a committee responsible for the Public Service.Have we ever lobbied for this particular instrument for discussion at that Portfolio Committee?I strongly want to recommend that we should step back and develop a list of comparative advantages and strengths of this Parliament even before legislative powers are conferred on the PAP.Madam President, within what I have just argued, I believe that we should also look at the issue of our oversight function as Members of this Parliament, within our respective Parliaments. Indeed, we do not have legislative powers as I have indicated but we do have legislative powers within our Parliaments, Madam President. To what extent do we take advantage of those legislative powers which we have in our respective Parliaments?Therefore, I strongly believe that, as Members of the Pan African Parliament, we have a big role to play in ensuring that all these instruments actually get implemented but we are not doing enough.Madam President, I also want us to, really, look at the issue of partnerships in our respective parliaments and partnerships even within Committees of this particular Parliament. If we can look at strategies of how we can move forward and comparative advantages even before legislative powers, I am confident, Madam President, that we will be able to achieve the dream of ensuring that all these instruments get implemented in our respective countries.I thank you.HON. TAPIWA MASHAKADA [ZIMBABWE]:I thank you, Madam President.Firstly, I want to thank the Chairperson of the Southern African Caucus (SAC) for his presentation and elaboration of the issues centred around the governance and AU instruments I want to add my voice and associate myself with the views expressed on the issue of natural resources governance.Madam President, the issue of natural resources governance is a topical issue in Africa. There is a nomenclature called the natural resources case.Africa is rich in mineral and natural resources but has nothing to show for it. Natural resources endowment has not led to the transformation of the peoples of Africa because the resources which are underground have not been valued. There is no information on the quantum and value of the resources that are in the sub-soil of African countries. Therefore, it is important that Africa should invest in exploration so that it can quantify and value the resources that are beneath the ground.It is only when we have got the value of our resources that we can be able to engage investors and pledge our resources as equity so that whatever returns are gotten from the investments will benefit the rest of our citizens.The other problem associated with natural resource governance has to do with the practice, in Africa, of securitising our minerals. In most cases, African countries are doing forward pledges and advanced sales of their minerals to western countries for a song because those minerals are not well valued.The other problem centered around the issue of natural resource governance is that Africa has been exporting natural raw materials and minerals. There is need for Africa to move towards the beneficiation of its mineral resources. Therefore, I think that African Parliaments have an oversight role to play to make sure that this particular AU instrument on natural resources governance is actually implemented by all African countries because it will ensure that we address the resource case that is affecting Africa.There are also other sister organisations that are working on...HON. AWAD HAJ ALI [SUDAN]:Thank you very much, Madam President.Firstly, I wish to congratulate the Chairperson of the Southern Caucus on this excellent presentation.Before that I was thanking you for giving me the chance to participate in this useful workshop as Chairperson of the Eastern Caucus. All recommendations are very important but I want to concentrate on the case of the natural resources governance especially the protocols being presented there and experience of the Southern African countries on this issue.I suggest that this matter be passed to the Committee on Trade in order to be considered by many African countries like Sudan and other countries that are now involved in the mining industry. It is very a important experience. It is very important to see how effective it in other African countries, especially with regard to how do to deal with local communities and their rights and also in how to deal with contracts. These are very important parameters and that is why it is important to be studied and brought back to this Chamber.Thank you very much, Madam President.HON. VINCENT DABILGOU [BURKINA FASO]:Merci beaucoup, Madame la Présidente.Je voudrais aussi joindre ma voie à celles de ceux qui m’ont précédé, pour remercier le Président de la Commission pour la qualité de son exposé sur cette grande question des instruments juridiques de notre organisation continentale, et surtout sur la problématique de la gouvernance.En parlant de gouvernance, je pense qu’il y a des termes simples que l’on doit employer, parce que parler de « gouvernance » dans un pays, dans un continent, c’est de chercher à savoir est-ce que nous avons les bonnes personnes qui nous gouvernent?Est-ce que ces personnes nous gouvernent suivant des bonnes pratiques?Est-ce que la façon dont elles nous gouvernent, c’est dans l’intérêt bien compris de nos peuples?Quand on pose la question de cette façon et qu’on regarde le faible taux de ratification de l’ensemble de nos instruments, on a des questions qu’on doit se poser intérieurement.C’est vrai que dans le rapport [...] – je suis très content que l’on veuille donner à notre organisation, le PAP, cette grande tâche de promouvoir la gouvernance et surtout d’aider les parlements nationaux à ratifier l’ensemble des instruments non encore ratifiés – mais, je pense que cette tâche doit aller jusqu’au bout, parce que si on nous demande de faire un travail, il faut qu’on nous regarde nousmêmes. Nous avons besoin, nous-mêmes, d’avoir la possibilité d’être un organe législatif.Je pense que c’est cela qui doit être fondamental.Je voudrais dire que c’est vrai, nous devions exercer cette tâche avec beaucoup de force. Je voudrais inviter l’ensemble des collègues ici, à le faire, parce que je pense qu’à la fin de cet exercice, c’est ce qui doit, peut-être, nous amener à avoir ce que nous attendons tous, le pouvoir législatif au niveau du Parlement panafricain.Je voudrais dire que nous sommes à la phase réelle de la mondialisation et ce sont les grands ensembles qui gagnent la mondialisation. Notre continent, nos grands ensembles régionaux, si nous continuons à ne pas ratifier nos textes, à ne pas avoir un mouvement d’ensemble harmonieux de textes de gouvernance, nous perdons la mondialisation parce que nous allons perdre notre souveraineté continentale, nous allons perdre notre souveraineté régionale, nous allons perdre notre souveraineté nationale.C’est parce que nous n’avons pas d’instruments, au niveau continental, suffisamment forts, suffisamment ratifiés.La communauté internationale traîne nos présidents dans des cours dites des cours de justices internationales. Nous devions apprendre à être nousmêmes, Madame la Présidente.Je pense que la mondialisation ne nous permet pas de gagner si nos pays n’arrivent pas [Temps de parole épuisé].Merci beaucoup, Madame la Présidente, je suis désolé.HON. ASSOUMANA MALAM ISSA [NIGER]:Merci, Madame la Présidente.Je voudrais féliciter l’Honorable Patrick pour la clarté et la richesse de son rapport; richesse en informations, dois-je dire.Madame la Présidente,Je voudrais focaliser mon intervention sur un seul point. Il s’agit de cette question de signature, de ratification des instruments de l’Union africaine.L’atelier qu’ils ont tenu à Maputo, nous l’avons déjàtenu l’année passée à Port Harcourt au Nigeria, et un autre caucus régional l’a déjà fait aussi.Je crois qu’il faut qu’on s’arrête pour dire quelle est l’efficacité de ce système de réunions. Pour cela, je voudrais faire une seule proposition.Premièrement:En tant que Président du Bureau du PAP, que vous instruisez le secrétariat pour qu’il y ait un recensement exhaustif de tous les instruments de l’Union africaine qui ne sont pas ratifiés ou qui ne 4 sont pas mis en œuvre. En ce moment, nous allons avoir une idée claire, parce qu’on va dire par instrument, voilà les pays qui ont signé! Voilà les pays qui ont ratifié et voilà les pays qui ne l’ont pas fait.Deuxième étape:Vous instruisez tous les groupes par pays. Que chaque pays rentre chez lui avec ce travail de recensement qui est déjà fait par votre secrétariat, et qu’on organise pour cela – je propose soit la date du 14 décembre, soit la date du 11 janvier –que dans tous les pays d’Afrique, chaque groupe national organise une journée du PAP sur la question des ratifications de ces instruments, avec comme background le document que vous aurez déjà fait produire par le secrétariat.Je sais que vous n’avez pas d’argent, et c’est pour cela que j’ai proposé que ce soit dans les pays parce que nos parlements nationaux peuvent contribuer. Cela ne coûte pratiquement rien d’organiser une journée. C’est juste une salle de location, les médias, pas plus! Les parlements nationaux pourraient être disponibles à financer ces activités de chaque pays. Et on choisit un jour. Le même jour, dans tous les pays, la même activité est organisée par les groupes nationaux: le 14 décembre ou le 11 janvier.Troisième étape:Que chaque groupe national fasse un rapport des contacts qu’il aurait pris avec la société civile, avec les médias et surtout avec les membres du gouvernement qui ont en charge les domaines dans lesquels ces chartes ne sont pas ratifiées.Et on vient, au cours de la session spéciale de mars, faire un rapport exhaustif et développer un plaidoyer commun afin que lorsqu’on retournera dans notre pays, on continue dans le même processus, pour qu’en fin 2014, on ait une idée et qu’on puisse avoir des résultats concrets sur la signature et la ratification des instruments de l’Union africaine.Mais sinon, je remarque quand même qu’on a trop traîné, Madame la Présidente [Temps de parole épuisé].(Applaudissements)HON. ISAAC STEPHEN MABILETSA [BOTSWANA]:Thank you, Madam President.I thank you for this opportunity. I am just rising to associate myself with this report which I believe is a very good report indicating the activities of the Southern Caucus and I want to commend the leadership of this caucus for always carrying forward the activities that all Members of the caucus should participate in.You know, Madam President, corroborative effort between member States, particularly within the region and within Africa as a whole, is such an important thing that can make the regions themselves and Africa as a continent a very economically progressive continent that is full of opportunities. However, if for example, a simple thing like the African Charter on Democracy, Governance and Elections is not ratified and when Southern Africa is meant to be one of the players in the continent that regularly holds the elections, we wonder whether it all because they undermine the architect of the protocol or not because in our particular situation, back home in Botswana, recently the President of PAP visited that country and he spoke to the President. The President gave him the assurance that he was going look into that process.Previously, also as the delegation of Botswana, we have met the Minister for International Affairs and Co-operation about the whole thing and things appear to have been working well because I know Botswana has not signed, but they have already kick-started the process. But now, funny enough, as we are still trying to follow this through just office enquiries, we are only baffled to see that the official who was charged with pioneering this project was now assigned to a diplomatic mission in Mozambique and as he left, nobody appears to be now taking the lead in that regard and that is really a source of concern, Madam President. But we do have a lot of resources be they minerals, forest, and so on, where we can have a number of opportunities to benefit the people whom we represent.I thank you, Madam President.HON. ARNOLD TJIHUIKO [NAMIBIA]:Thank you very much, Madam President, for the opportunity to make a contribution.Madam President, I am very impressed by the report and I have also noticed that the enthusiasm of the report is basically on ratification and domestication of AU Legal Instruments. Madam President, I believe that we fall short of one very important issue here.Ratification and domestication are the easiest things for countries to do. Once countries have ratified and domesticated legal instruments, what should they do? They have a legal commitment to the AU wherein they commit that what they have ratified is being implemented.As long as we have a situation where countries ratify and domesticate but do not meet those requirements, we will have a problem. A problem that we have created for ourselves is that there is financial commitment that is expected from those countries that have ratified and domesticated AU legal instruments.We are not meeting that commitment so we expose ourselves in a way that even if we look at the report, the institutions that are supporting Africa like GIZ, UNDP and other western oriented institutions have their own interests. So, whenever we are trying to take decisions that are in the interest of Africa, we have a problem that those who are funding our meetings supporting the AU because we are not making any contribution for the AU, are those that we are saying, they are not competitors or enemies but I do not know the right english word because I am not an english man.Madam President, I believe that it is very important and a call on us that once we have ratified these instruments, we should meet the legal commitments that we have ratified and make the AU financially stronger, in order for us as the Pan African Parliament to benefit from that sound financial base position of the AU so that we can get more budget allocation to meet our requirements With that, Madam President, I rest my case.Thank you.HON. P.C. BAI KURR KANAKBARO [SIERRA LEONE]:Thank you, Madam President.I think, if we have to be honest with ourselves, we have to take these protocols and charters very seriously. From my own research, up to now, we have forty-three protocols and the charters. Some countries have not even ratified more than fifteen. I have all the countries. Well, we cannot blame some countries which are new like South Sudan but for countries that were initial signatories to the OAU Charter in 1963 not to ratify is something we have to consider seriously.Madam President, I will propose to this noble House that let the PAP Secretariat do their own research and send in those that have not been verified to the different Clerks of these fifty-four countries. They should tell them that your National Parliament has failed to ratify so many of these protocols. You can get them very easily from the website. They are there and they will tell you the countries that have ratified this.I can assure you that, without even knowing it, we, in Sierra Leone, have already made known to our Government, through the leadership of the House, that, the Leader of the House and the Minority Leader, Dr. Bernadette Lahai, are now engaging the Attorney-General seriously for them to bring this Instrument to Parliament for ratification. And we done it last month and I am sure the government is working on them now.So, I am expecting and I recommend, to this noble House, proposals that will make the Secretariat of PAP to send in to all Parliaments the charters and protocols that have not been ratified so that they will know that we have to ratify them. I am sure when they get them, they will pass them to PAP Members and the Members will be instrumental in pushing for the ratification of these. I will also recommend that the PAP should also stand up here and tell us the countries that have no ratified protocols by name calling. They will call Sierra Leone and tell what we have not ratified. They will go on to Botswana, South Africa and so on and so forth. That will make it very essential for us to go back to our countries and say we are getting pressure from the PAP for you to ratify this document.I thank you very much.HON. SHITAYE MINALE TIZAZU [ETHIOPIA]:Thank you, Madam President.I would like to say congratulations onr the discussions and recommendations you have made.I think this is the best and proper thing that the Southern Region did, and through this practical gathering that the integration of the region in particular and that of the continent as a whole comes through. I believe that if we come together, tentatively, that is proper for making our inside problems’ solutions and the like. It is a very good beginning especially with regard concentrating on the follow-ups on ratification and domestication of AU Instruments.As stated by the presenter, it is the responsibility of each country to ensure serious follow-ups. This experience has to be scaled up to the rest of the four regions, which brings us a holistic approach for bringing home the major role that the PAP has to play as stated by the presenter.Secondly, I would like to say something about the civil society. Including the civil society in governing is a very smart strategy that I believe brings accessibility of these Instruments to the people.However, my concern is that instead of simply advocating, they have to look at each individual country’s real situation, and in order to domesticate, we have to be clear in terms of the strategy. How can we make it? There is also need for a serious followup on the progress and not only ratification and domestication. Its implementation is a serious issue that benefits the people of the continent and brings Africa to sustainable development.Thank you.HON. MOHAMED YOUSIF ABDULLAH [SUDAN]:Thank you very much, Madam President.I would like to associate myself clearly to the report that has been presented to us and I would like to say that the Assembly of Heads of State and Government of the AU is aware of this problem.They devoted their 16th Session on this issue and requested a report from the Commission. That report has come with a very clear proposal that the member States and the AU institutions work together to accelerate the process of ratification of the instruments and then at the end they put a platform for governments.Now, for us, our role here, as the PAP, and being one of the institutions that is charged with the responsibility of accelerating the process of ratification, I think that, first, we have to start by auditing the ratifications. We must take stock of the situation and then we work with the AU member States and the AU Commission organs. We must work with the regional commissions and come up with a plan of action accordingly.Therefore, Madam, this is the priority. I believe that we have to pass a resolution before the end of this session so that we take stock of the situation and audit the situation and then start by a plan of action to make sure that Instruments are ratified within the specified plan that we can agree upon.Therefore, I stop here with a clear proposal. I hope this proposal will be taken by the House and go forward in the process of accelerating the process of the integration of the African continent.I thank you very muchApplauseHON. SAM OTADA AMOTI [UGANDA]:Thank you very much, Madam President. I would also want to thank the Chairperson and congratulate all the stakeholders who participated in this very important meeting.Madam President, of course, and colleagues, it is important to underscore the fact that ratification of Instruments is really at the core of our mandate in that we should put all our energies in making sure that happens. Looking at page 2 of this report, Madam President, you realise that you will get struck again by one challenge that we continue to encounter which is a challenge of a top-bottom approach to issues when it comes to Africans dealing with issues.You will realise that consultations and sensitisation are not coming into play at this stage and yet this is what really should have taken place as we develop these protocols and charters before putting them in place. So, now we are exercising a top-bottom approach in dealing with the challenge which is an issue that we still have to grapple with.Madam President, I want to congratulate this meeting especially for the communiqué that they came out with at the end of the day because when you look at page 4 of this report, it really expouses the spirit of setting deadlines to some of these things and I think this is the way to go, Madam President, if we are to get this work out of the way.I want to applaud the caucus, the Southern Caucus, for this great initiative and all the recommendations that were brought to the fold and I want to say that this is a challenge to the other caucuses to follow suit. The idea of compiling a compendium of AU instruments and audits to be submitted to the national Parliaments should be done and I would like to urge that this should be sent to national Parliaments not only of the SADC region but all other Parliaments to create a challenge to them.Madam President, in conclusion, when you look at the African Charter on Values and Principles of Public Service and Administration, it is not controversial. It is for pro-people and there is no politics in it. It is very clear. You still wonder why there are cold feet in our member States to have this pro-people protocol ratified. You could, maybe, understand the cold feet that our member States develop when it comes to ratifying protocols such as the African Charter on Governments, Elections and Democracy but this straight forward - I beg your indulgence for just a minute - pro-people charter, I do not understand. It baffles my mind. because the civil servants are the ones who really make things 7 behind happen behind the scenes. We politicians will come and go, and I thought that building the capacity of civil servants so that they serve us with the institutional memory would be really something that should go without saying.Finally, the Southern African Region really must ensure that the Customs Union to go with the free trade area arrangement that they put in place is also in place. They must ensure that they support and that they buttress that with the Customs Union and Common Market Protocol. That is the only way it can work because it has worked for us in the Eastern African Community.I thank you.HON. EVELYN NAWASES [NAMIBIA]:I thank you, Madam President. Mine is to congratulate my brother, the presenter, for a job well done. What Iwanted to say has been largely covered. However, I will attempt to still air my views on this very important report.Madam President, I, really, do not know what the problem is with us, Africans. Generally, we have a problem when it comes to the signing, ratification and domestication of charters. As it was rightly outlined by the presenter, the procedure is very cumbersome. In most instances, the very important organs of the State are not involved in the initial stages. It is the Executive organ of the State that is involved and yet the charters or treaties are brought to Parliament for ratification by Parliamentarians who, in some instances, are not well informed on them but are expected to ratify them on behalf of member States. That is exactly where I have a problem.Madam President, in many instances, instead of us being given enough time to popularise or ensure more awareness, important charters are rushed through Parliament for adoption or ratification. As a result, even the people that will be affected at the end of the day are not even aware or well informed on the decisions that we are taking at this level.Therefore, I call for very serious work on this one and for our Executive members to be sensitised to do their homework properly and allow us enough time to educate our people on such types of very important Instruments that we need to pass through our Parliaments.I commend those countries, especially mine, that have ratified this Charter. As I said, I was not aware that we had even ratified it until I attended this workshop. I encourage those countries which have not done so to follow suit.That is my submission and I thank you, Madam President.HON. CECILIA ATIM-OGWAL [UGANDA]:I thank you Madam President. I am sorry that I came in late today. I have been fighting the common enemy of Africa which is called malaria. However, I have more or less defeated it.ApplauseFirst of all, allow me to congratulate the Southern African Caucus (SAC). I appreciate that the PAP is a people-driven institution. We represent the people of the continent and, therefore, the issues that you discussed are pertinent to the people of Africa. They are cross-cutting issues. Not only are they relevant to the Southern African region but all the regions including East Africa, where I come from.Madam President, allow me to say that it is very difficult for this PAP to say that we take the lead in popularising the AU Instruments as regards their domestication and ratification. How can we imagine that the PAP can carry on this role when there appears to be no good will in giving it full powers to carry out its duty as a fully fledged Parliament?Madam President, unless Parliament is given the Instrument to not only make resolutions but the power to enforce and sanction countries that do not obey, we will talk and talk and remain on the Hansard of Parliament.Madam President, I want to plead with Members of the Southern Africa Caucus on two issues that I think are missing in this document. I went though it very quickly. The issue of empowering women and increasing women’s participation in leadership is missing. Maybe, that is why we find that representation of women in this Parliament seems to get lower and lower from Southern Africa. I want to congratulate the people of Eastern Africa because Uganda and Rwanda sent three women out of five Members, respectively. This is a good example. We want more women to come up in politics.Madam President, finally, the issue of involving the youth in gainful employment is important. Unless we focus on that, armed conflict tends to absorb our youth. Also, it is important for Africa to come up with a common position on homosexuality. People say that it is a private practice. It is true that it is a private practice. You can sleep with a dog or your mother but it is very important that we come up with a position on the issue of homosexuality as Africans.ApplauseThis is the time we must speak with one voice because our people are being exploited. The youth who are unemployed are being used for commercial purposes. It is not a question of instinct. It is a question of our people being exploited. Madam President, we must, as Africans, speak with one voice. We are not going to be forced to adopt other people’s cultures because we are poor and can be manipulated.Madam President, I thank you for giving me this opportunity.HON. SAM OTADA AMOTI [UGANDA]:Point of procedure. Thank you, Madam President.My name is Hon. Otada Amoti from Uganda. I am rising on a point of procedure because I have a list of speakers that includes my name and I have already spoken. I thank you for that. The list I have is for eight Members and I realise that two of our Hon. Colleagues from Kenya - I do not know whether they are here or not - and I am raising this because these are new Members, and I do not want them to feel that this Parliament disenfranchises new Members, have not spoken, the two ladies, and yet the list I have includes their names.I just wanted to seek clarification on whether or not we are proceeding well, Madam President.THE THIRD VICE-PRESIDENT:Thank you for your concern about the Hon. Colleagues from Kenya. I was informed that there is a legal procedural problem concerning their confirmation and I was told that they are aware of that concern.Please, bear with us.I will now allow the last speaker on the list.HON. MEMBER [KENYA]:Thank you, Madam President.Madam President, I thank you for the indulgence and, indeed, I want to verify that we have been speaking with the President on this issue. It is an issue of concern actually and we have been sitting here patiently and you will notice that one of my colleagues has left. We also have another of our delegation from Kenya who has come here but has not been sworn in, understandably because we have an issue arising from our new Constitution based on the two Chambers of Parliament.Nonetheless, I would want that even as you direct us, as countries trying to sort out this issue, that you make reference to Part (iii), Rule 6 of the basic document of the Pan African Parliament. Madam Speaker, I want to make reference to Part (iv) under sub-rule 3 that talks of reference of this matter to the Privileges and Discipline Committee for verification in accordance with the provisions of Article 4 of the Protocol.The reason I am raising this, Madam Speaker, is that two of us have been sworn in and I have looked at the documents and the Articles there is absolutely nothing that is stopping the two of us that have been sworn from participating. So, even as Kenya is proceeding, Madam President, if you could kindly direct that the two of us who have been sworn be allowed to participate until such a time that this matter is sorted out by the Privileges and Discipline Committee.I thank you.THE THIRD VICE-PRESIDENT:I am made to believe that the President of the PAP is aware of this dilemma and the matter is being considered. It has been referred the Committee on Rules and Procedure. Up until they make their pronouncement, can you bear with us. I am in the same dilemma.HON. P.C. BAI KUR KANAGBARO:Yes, on a point of procedure, this morning, when came in, the Secretariat, on this particular debate we are having, number one on the list was my name or is my name but they produced another list on the same topic where Hon. Oscar from DRC was on top of the list. We had two lists here but although I have spoken others who have not spoken on the other list where my name was on top should be allowed to contribute. I do not know on that one. I had two lists here and I can pass them to you.THE THIRD VICE-PRESIDENT:Yes, I have the list. The list where you, Paramount Chief, is, is number two. The list where Hon. Oscar is, is number one. Please, this is just a small procedural matter which should not disturb us. Can you bear with us so that we do not involve in other legal battles. So, I will now allow the last person who asked, Honourable Patrick from Zambia, to take the floor.HON. [RÉPUBLIQUE DÉMOCRATIQUE DU CONGO]:Madame la Présidente, merci de la parole que vous m’accordez.Je fais miennes toutes les recommandations qui ont été formulées par les collègues qui m’ont précédé, surtout les propositions pertinentes proposées par mon collègue du Niger et du collègue qui vient de me précéder, de la Sierra Leone, à propos des différentes propositions qu’ils ont données pour que nous soyons beaucoup plus pratiques.Madame la Présidente,Concernant la ratification des instruments juridiques de l’Union africaine, je vous proposerais, comme l’ont dit mes prédécesseurs, qu’à l’issue de cette réunion que nous ayons tous – les délégations de chaque pays membre du Parlement panafricain – une lettre du Secrétariat pour remettre à nos parlements respectifs afin de relever les différents instruments qui ne sont pas encore ratifiés.Deuxièmement, je propose que le Bureau du Parlement panafricain fasse une tournée africaine auprès des pays qui n’ont pas encore ratifié ces instruments et beaucoup d’autres encore, qui ne sont pas membres du Parlement panafricain. Vous savez, notre pays vient de participer maintenant, pourtant le Parlement panafricain fonctionne depuis plusieurs années.Enfin, Madame la Présidente, je proposerais aussi qu’à l’issue de cette tournée, qu’à l’issue de ce lobbying que nous, députés, parlementaires panafricains ferons auprès de nos parlements respectifs, et une fois que ces instruments auront été ratifiés, qu’il y ait maintenant un travail du Secrétariat du Parlement panafricain faisant une étude comparative et de voir le degré d’exécution ou de la mise en œuvre de ces instruments auprès de nos pays respectifs.Cela permettra rapidement à nos pays de s’intégrer sur le plan commercial, sur le plan politique et beaucoup d’autres plans, notamment en ce qui concerne notre souci de développement.Je vous remercie.HON. PATRICK MWALULA MUCHELEKA [ZAMBIA]:Madam President, I thank you for the opportunity, once again, on behalf of the SAC of the PAP.I would like to appreciate the sixteen Members of Parliament that have made contributions on this report through their debate. I also want to assure you that you have made very valid recommendations that will have to be considered.Madam President, I would like to say that one of the issues that has come out from the debate of the Members of Parliament is the need to audit and take stock of member States’ positions as regards different protocols and charters that have been signed. There is need to take stock of how many have been signed, ratified, and implemented by which countries. There is also need for a feedback mechanism as has been talked about.Madam President, the issue of instruments does not only concern Southern Africa. It concerns the entire continent. In my view, our niche and relevance as the PAP lies in how we can help to formulate laws arising from those instruments that have been signed at any level and how we can, as PAP, lead the process of formulating model bye-laws to move our continent forward.Another issue that came out clearly is the need for proper governance of natural resources. It is, indeed, a paradox that whilst we boast of natural resources in the form of minerals and oil, our people continue to wallow in abject poverty. Therefore, Members are saying that we need to improve the governance architecture for our people to benefit from these resources.On the issue of governance, I think that the Charter on Democracy, Elections and Governance, as well as the Charter on the Civil Service, has been debated by the Members. They have given feedback.Madam President, I just want to assure the Hon. Members that we have taken note of the recommendations arising from the presentation that we made as the SAC and I believe that the Secretariat has taken note of all the issues that were raised.Madam President, I thank you for the opportunity and thank all those Hon. Members who debated.THE THIRD VICE-PRESIDENT:I think the report, with the relevant recommendations, is so approved.I have to thank all of us today for, at least, our time management. We have managed the time reasonably well.HON. MOHAMED YOUSIF ABDULLAH:Chairperson, clarification.200 THE THIRD VICE-PRESIDENT:Hon. Member from Sudan.HON. MOHAMED YOUSIF ABDULLAH [SUDAN]:Thank you very much.Madam President, I presented a proposal but as way to accelerate the process of the implementation of the AU Instruments, I placed a request upon this House and you undertaking the recommendations. Shall I take it that my recommendation will be taken as part of the report and come back to us and be part of the resolutions and the decisions that will be taken at the end of this session? This is very clear. I requested three things: That you instruct the Secretariat to provide an audit of AU Instruments which are supposed to be ratified; then to push member States, through their Hon. Members of the PAP, to accelerate the process of ratification; and place the issue of ratification in each session as a matter of priority in this House.Is this going to be part of the outcome?Thank you very much.THE THIRD VICE-PRESIDENT:I should think this is what the Hon. Presenter has stated, that there is no harm in that it will just enrich the report at the end. I will kindly request the Hon. Member to forward those particular recommendations to him so that at the end it could form part and parcel of the resolutions and recommendations. I should think.Thank you.Now I give the Floor to the Secretariat.UN HONORABLE MEMBRE:S’il vous plaît, Madame la Présidente!C’est pour tout juste apporter un éclaircissement par rapport à l’adoption du texte. Les gens ont proposé que le Secrétariat du Parlement adresse des lettres à nos parlements, c’est une bonne chose. Mais je pense que le travail du Secrétariat doit plutôt se limiter à un travail administratif. C’est seulement le Bureau du PAP qui doit se charger d’adresser des lettres à nos différents parlements.Donc, il ne faudrait pas qu’on fasse cette confusion.(Applaudissements)THE THIRD VICE-PRESIDENT:I can think the element of the Secretariat is just the element where they are the people who are supposed to bring up and finalise the whole thing, but I should think the recommendation and the resolution should read that the PAP hereby resolve or recommend. I should think so.With that understanding, may I give the floor to the Clerk to make some announcements?ApplauseANNOUNCEMENTSTHE DEPUTY CLERK:Madam President, there is an announcement from the Clerk of Parliament. The announcement is for the candidatures for the election of the Office of the Fourth Vice-President of the Pan African Parliament. The Eastern African Caucus has submitted to the Clerk candidatures for election to the Office of Fourth Vice President of the Pan African Parliament representing the region the following names.(1) Hon. Juliana Kantengwa from Rwanda;and(2) Hon. Dr. Ashebir Woldegiorgis Gayo from Ethiopia.This is signed by Advocate Zwelethu Madasa, the Clerk of Pan African Parliament. I thank you.Another announcement relates to the meetings of Committees. All of them are meeting this afternoon at 2:30 pm as follows;i)The Committee on the Rural Economy, Agriculture, Natural Resources and Environment, meeting in Committee Room No. 1;ii)The Committee on Co-operation, International Relations and Conflict Resolutions, in the Committee Room No. 2;iii)The Committee on Health, Labour and Social Affairs will meet in Committee Room No. 3;iv)The Committee on Gender, Family, Youth and People with Disabilities in Committee Room No. 4; and v) The Committee on Transport, Industry, Communications, 1 Energy and Technology in Committee Room No. 5.I thank you, Madam President.THE THIRD VICE-PRESIDENT:Thank you. I still want to remind Hon. Member from Sierra Leone to, please, take the floor. I was just about to remind the Hon. Members to take note that the election will take place tomorrow 14:30. Is that correct?THE DEPUTY CLERK:Yes!THE THIRD VICE-PRESIDENT:Yes, 14:30.Please, ensure that all of us are here to elect the candidate of a…HON. MEMBER:Point of order!HON. VICE PRESIDENT:Yes, Hon. Member?HON. MEMBER:Thank you, Madam Chairperson. As the Chairperson of the Committee on Health, Labour and Social Affairs, I wish to say that we do not have an agenda for today’s meeting. Who asked for this meeting? I do not know about it and we do not have a meeting today.I thank you.THE THIRD VICE-PRESIDENT:Please, Deputy Clerk, elaborate on that.THE DEPUTY CLERK:Yes, Madam President.We were requested to have all meetings of Committees that have elections. There are supposed to be meetings for all those Committees in which they have vacancies so that they conduct the elections for the Office bearers in their Committees.Thank you.HON. MEMBER:Procedure Madam, President!THE THIRD VICE-PRESIDENT:Yes?HON. MEMBER:Madam President, I am a bit concerned on the procedural matters in this PAP, because, to me, if a Committee is supposed to sit, then there must be a consultation between the Clerk of that Committee and the leadership of that Committee so that when the meeting is scheduled then the Committee and the Clerk are moving together. This business of coming to announce Committee meetings on the floor of the House when Members are not ready, and then go to just read minutes of the previous meeting and adjourn is a waste of time and has no value for money. We are here and we are spending a lot of taxpayers’ money.Secondly, if it is about filling vacancies for Committees, I am aware that I belong to the Committee on Agriculture, Rural Economy, Natural Resources and Environment, but our Committee does not yet have a leadership. Why then, if that is the justification for calling for meeting this afternoon, is the Committee on Agriculture and Rural Economy not mentioned?I thank you Madam President.Applause.THE THIRD VICE-PRESIDENT:Can you respond to that valid concern? Secretariat, can you respond on that?THE DEPUTY CLERK:Madam President, the Committee on Agriculture, Rural Economy, Natural Resources and Environment was the first Committee I mentioned, which is meeting in Committee Room No. 1.HON. MEMBER:Procedure! Kuhusu ufafanuzi!HON. VICE PRESIDENT:If you are raising a procedural point of order...HON. MEMBER:Yes, procedure!PRESIDENT:I recognise that Paramount Chief.HON. P. C. BAI KUR KANAGBARO:Madam, this is very important on the issue of meetings of the Committees. What is done in PAP is very clear. At the PAP, when you come in the morning, you know the Order Paper, and you know as to who are going to be the speakers and who are going to respond. However, when it comes to Committees, there is no co-ordination as far as I am concerned.I have been here from 2008. There is no coordination between the Bureau and the Clerks of these Committees. Either they are very few or they are not there. When you go in there, you have different Clerks of the Committees. There are always different people. In one meeting, you will have one Clerk and a different one in another meeting. So, the continuity is not even there. The minutes sometimes are not even available.So, we are appealing to the Clerk of this institution and also to the PAP to co-ordinate the activities so that when going to a meeting, we know the agenda and what is to be discussed. That means the Bureau 2 in that Committee should co-ordinate. Sometimes, you could even find that the Chairperson, Deputy and the Rapporteur are not even there because there is no co-ordination. That is why we have these Bureaus. It is for them to co-ordinate with the management and the staff of the PAP for them to give us a good record. They call too many meetings, and yet we do not even get the results.There are some times when we have to sit for half an hour or even two hours for you to get, what we call...THE THIRD VICE-PRESIDENT:Alright, we will think about that, but I now give the floor to Hon. Kebzabo.HON. SALEH KEBZABO [TCHAD]:Merci, Madame la Présidente.Je voudrais parler en demandant, vraiment, à mes collègues de se calmer. Il faut revenir au Règlement intérieur!L’article 32 du Règlement intérieur précise les horaires de nos travaux. On a tendance de plus en plus à violer cette règle et ce n’est pas normal.Je vais vous la lire:« Article 32: Horaires des séances:1) Durant la période des sessions, les séances se déroulent sauf avis contraire du Bureau:a) du Lundi au Jeudi, de 09h00 à 18h00, avec deux heures de pause déjeuner ».Cela veut dire qu’on a l’habitude d’arrêter nos travaux à 12h30. Il est déjà 13h00 Madame!On a pris trente minutes sur notre programme!Hier c’était la même chose, avant-hier la même chose!On est en train de violer tous les jours le programme, ce n’est pas normal, parce qu’après, on n’a pas le temps de faire ce que nous devons faire entre deux réunions.Il faut donc nous libérer et à 14h30!Les commissions se réunissent.Je vous remercie.(Applaudissements)THE THIRD VICE-PRESIDENT:Let us now attend to lunch.Thank you.Applause
Wednesday, 30 October, 2013
MR PRESIDENT:Hon. Members, I will now allow for an opportunity for silent prayer and meditation.Please, be seated.Hon. Members, on the 25th of October, 2013, I received a communication from the Office of the Speaker of the National Assembly of Kenya and it reads as follows:Appointment of Members of Parliament to the Pan African Parliament.Mr President, greetings from Nairobi, Kenya.Pursuant to the Article 5 of the Protocol to the Treaty establishing the African Economic Community relating to the African Parliament, the National Assembly of Kenya, by way of a motion on Thursday, 24th October, 2013 approved the following Members of Parliament as its representatives to the Pan African Parliament. They include the Hon. Zakhaya Chilati, MP, the Hon. Lesho Wamba Shabosh, MP, the Hon. Miligres Akutsu Odiambo Mabhna, MP; the Hon. Shukran Hussein Gure, MP and the Hon. Senator Kitshumba Mac Man, MP.These are therefore the four above names. Please accept the assurances of our highest contribution.Based on this communication, the Secretariat of the Pan African Parliament advised that two Members from this delegation were available for swearing in and they were sworn in as Members of the Pan African Parliament.On 28thof October 2013, I received another communication from the Office of the Speaker of the Senate of Kenya and I read:Dear Mr President, Amendment of appointments of Members of the Kenyan Parliament to the Pan African Parliament.I am informed you received a letter by the Speaker of the National Assembly dated the 25th of October by which the list of names of the Members of Parliament to the Pan African Parliament, as approved by the National Assembly, has been forwarded to the Pan African Parliament.This is contrary to the Constitution of Kenya, Standing Orders of both Houses, Protocol to the Treaty establishing the Pan African Parliament and the internal arrangements between both Houses in the management of Parliamentary decisions as will be outlined below:As you are aware Mr President, following the promulgation of the Constitution of Kenya in 2010, Kenya now has a bicameral Parliament established under Article 93 of the Constitution consisting of the National Assembly and the Senate.The Parliament of Kenya has been in the process of nominating and approving the appointment of its Members to the Pan African Parliament and this matter is yet to be concluded.We, therefore, seek the indulgence of the Pan African Parliament on account of the delay in the submission of our names and we are making effort to conclude the matter at the earliest opportunity.The letter continues and it says - it is a very long one.It is a four page letter:The offshoot of these matters is that the nomination and approval process has not been concluded and will be concluded when the Senate has sat and concurred with the message of the National Assembly of the 25th of October 2013.If the Senate does not concur, the Senate shall send a message to the National Assembly. It, therefore, follows that there is not, at present, despite the communication to you by the Speaker of the National Assembly viz-a-viz the letter of 25th of October 2013, any validly designated or elected representative of the Parliament of Kenya and as such, no person should be sworn in and no further privileges or recognition can at the present time be extended to any person purporting to be a Member of the Pan African Parliament representing Kenya as the requirements of our Constitution, Standing Orders of both Houses and the Protocol establishing the Pan African Parliament have not been met.Hon. Colleagues, subsequent to this letter, I invited the two Members of Parliament from Kenya to my office and informed them of the developments and I also referred the matter to the Committee on Rules and Privileges to get advice, late yesterday.Hon. Members, pending the outcome of the meetings going on presently between the National Assembly of Kenya and the Senate, and pending the advice of the Rules Committee, we will maintain the status quo and members that have been sworn in can participate in PAP activities pending the outcome of all the various negotiations. I so rule.Hon. Members, the Clerk shall read the 1st Order of the day. Mr Clerk.THE CLERK:Thank you, Hon. President:Presentation and debate on "The Report on making agricultural investment work for Africa: A Parliamentarian’s response to the land rush".HON. PRESIDENT:Hon Members, may I now call the Hon. Allan James Chiyembekeza, Chairperson of the Committee on the Rural Economy, Agriculture, Natural Resources and Environment to present the Committee’s report.HON. ALLAN JAMES CHIYEMBEKEZA [CHAIRPERSON OF THE COMMITTEE ON RURAL ECONOMY, AGRICULTURE, NATURAL RESOURCES AND ENVIRONMENT]:Thank you very much, Mr President, for giving me the opportunity to present this report on behalf of the Committee on Rural Economy, Agriculture, Natural Resources and Environment.Let me, at the outset, inform the gathering that I was only elected as Chairperson for this Committee yesterday and I got this report to present this morning. So, I hope you excuse me if, in some places, I do not come out clearly.Let me also thank Members of the Committee for their commitment to work and for coming up with this report that I am hereby presenting. This report is on the Seminar that was conducted on: Making Agricultural Investment Work for Africa: A Parliamentarian Response to the Land Rush.It is a fairly long report and I do not intend to read the whole document. I will simply highlight the most important features of the report.Mr President and Members of this House, the buying or leasing of large pieces of land in developing countries has taken unprecedented scale following the 2007-2008 world food price crises. Initially hailed by investors and some developing countries as a new pathway towards agricultural development, investment in land has recently been criticised by a number of civil society, governmental, and multinational actors who argue that it has had a negative impact on land communities. The lack of transparency surrounding the land deals and the huge size of lands allocated to foreign investors are alarming, and communities fear for the loss of their communal land and land-based rights.Most African countries remain highly dependent on agriculture and suffer from food insecurity therefore governments are seeing the rush of Foreign investment in their agricultural sector as an opportunity. Through attractive land deals, they hope to create rural infrastructure, boost agricultural productivity, create employment and improve the livelihood of the rural people.Challenges or opportunities?African decision-makers have to look for foreign direct investment for the benefit of the population by sensitising negotiators of investment contracts, government and local communities.The Pan African Parliament, through its Permanent Committee on Agriculture, Rural Economy, Natural Resources and Environment, decided in 2011 to organise campaigns of sensitisation for Parliamentarians within the economic regions of Africa. This process is, by itself, a great endeavour. Indeed, by its inclusive process, the seminar has facilitated a dialogue between members of Parliament, civil society, international organisations and research institutions.Secondly, the process has promoted bilateral and multilateral co-operation among Parliamentarians in Africa and Europe and contributed to bring closer the PAP to local challenges.The Kigali meeting was an opportunity for the PAP, the East African Legislative Assembly and the Parliament of Rwanda to better understand the challenges and response the East Africa Community is bringing up through a vibrant civil society and Members of Parliament. Considering how investments should work for African agricultural development, the debate questioned the responsibility of decision-makers and civil society to create more sustainable agriculture development rules without marginalising the land rights of African communities.While we are discussing, we should have in mind that a concrete policy that take into consideration the AU Framework and Guidelines on land policy in Africa (F&G), the Maputo Declaration, FAO-led Voluntary Guidelines Initiative on responsible governance of tenure of land, fisheries and forests among others. It is our expectation that these campaigns of sensitization will focus on the creation of a model law for the African Community.IntroductionAt the end of April 2013, eighty Parliamentarians from across Africa met in Kigali, Rwanda, to discuss how to make agricultural investment work for Africa. The Pan African Parliament (PAP), East African Legislative Assembly (EALA) and National Parliament of Rwanda hosted the seminar. Regional Parliaments from CEMAC and ECOWAS sent delegations. It was supported by the African Union, European Parliamentarians with Africa (AWEPA), Oxfam and the International Institute for Sustainable Development (IISD).The seminar was notable because of the high-level participation including the Hon. Juliana Kantengwa, The former 4th Vice-President of the PAP; Rt. Hon. Margaret N. Zziwa, Speaker of the EALA; Dr. Agnes Kalibata, Rwandan Minister of Agriculture and Animal Resources; Hon. Rose Mukantambana, Speaker of the Chamber of Deputies of Rwanda; and Hon. Vincent Mavoungou, President of CEMAC Parliament.Fifteen experts on agriculture, food security, land, water and investment presented findings from current research. They came from civil society, the private sector and international organisations, mostly from East Africa. They provided a mix of hard data and community perspectives on the issue of foreign investment in agriculture.The seminar is the third of its kind across Africa over the past two years and will continue through 2015. The PAP initiated the project as a response of African Parliamentarians to the frenetic pace of speculation and investment in African farmland and the impact of this investment for rural development on the continent. An advisory group consists of IISD, African Union, NEPAD/CAADP, LPI, AWEPA, GIZ, Oxfam International, International Land Coalition (ILC), University of Pretoria, CIRAD, Africa Forum and PLAAS support the initiative. For further information, including speaker’s presentations please see:http://www.iisd.org/investment/research/ag_worksh ops_africa.aspx Emerging Themes There were plenary debates that ensued at this meeting. There were also Best Practices and Inclusive Business Models that were presented and there were also Working Groups which came up with outcomes and the way forward and finally there was a declaration and conclusions that were made at this gathering.Mr President, let me talk about the Emerging Themes in the plenary debates:Participants, Mr President, were seized with the urgency of the issues presented during the two-day conference and generally expressed outrage at the current state of affairs, including their own lack of information. They were enthusiastic to find immediate solutions to reverse current trends and block any future land deals pending a comprehensive revision and establishment of mutually beneficial criteria for foreign investment.The following issues were of key concern:Gaps in Knowledge and Access to InformationThe lack of information accessible to parliamentarians was a source of frustration for all that were present. This is considered one of the single largest obstacles for parliamentarians to take action and/or protect their electorates. For example, some Parliamentarians said the bilateral investment treaties and other investment agreements should be discussed in Parliament before they are presented for ratification. Representatives from the African Union and other international organisations agreed to better communicate their activities and available resources to Parliamentarians and other branches of national governments in order to reduce knowledge gaps. Parliamentarians should be more active in global forums and platforms to ensure information flows.Many participants mentioned that local communities are also unaware of their rights, and in this way they are easily persuaded by investors to give away their natural resources. Participants were particularly concerned by testimonies from civil society groups in Uganda and Tanzania and local pastoralist communities in Kenya. It is the role of civil society, as well as national governments, to provide reliable, accessible information in local languages to communities who may be victims of land grabs. Many are unaware of the market value of their land and are willing to sell it for below-market rates.Ownership and VoiceAcross the board, the issue of ownership of land, government policies and decisions that affect people was raised on numerous occasions. There was concern about the relatively weak response by parliamentarians and governments with respect to large-scale land-based investments in East African countries. One participant said: "As leaders, it is our role to determine which land is open for foreign direct investment (FDI), how much of it, and what are the best mutually beneficial uses for it." There was also a strong feeling that existing investment policies should be revised to ensure they benefit local communities as well as the investor, and that they do not jeopardize gain in social development nor deplete natural resources.Land tenure regimes in the region are notoriously weak, and this can be detrimental if not catastrophic for smallholder farmers confronted with an investor who just signed a legal contract with the government. Parliamentarians should look at the sources of weakness in land tenure systems in their country with a view to strengthening them, as well as protecting the rights of vulnerable groups, in particular women.Governments, including regional parliamentary bodies, should develop and implement a strategy to respond to the land rush in their countries. NGOs and other independent international and national organizations should be working in line with a proscribed policy and strategy, and should consider national governments as an ally as opposed to a constraint in accomplishing their goals and objectives.Long-term development goals vs. short-term needsParticipants saw investment as an issue that will affect the ability of future generations to live and prosper in their native countries. The impulse to respond to immediately economic needs should be balanced with future implications of current land deals. One participant said: "Our eagerness for FDI should not blind our long-term view to plan for future generations. At the end of the day, the entire continent will be sold to foreigners and our children will have no voice. They will be living under absentee landlords. We should look at the future implications of our decisions, and the impact of tomorrow’s generation."Need for Consensus or Common ApproachParticipants felt it would be difficult to make progress if Parliamentarians only work among themselves. The NGOs, elected officials and other stakeholders should craft a common response strategy. They called for a harmonisation of terminology, shared analysis of the problem and common recommendations for action in East Africa.Participants also supported the creation of model laws and model investment agreements to serve as guidance for countries within the region. If laws and criteria for FDI in agriculture were harmonized, East African countries would be in a better negotiating position vis-à-vis foreign investors.Being proactiveParticipants felt that governments in the region should do a better job of assessing their land and water resources to determine the type of investment needed to achieve national development goals.Investment can then be directed towards national defined priorities. Contracts with investors should be bound by national laws which define what investors can and cannot do, where they can invest or exploit, and what protections they are granted.Parliamentarians should seek out and attract responsible and equitable foreign investment and ensure land is used to its full potential. This includes ensuring an equitable distribution of investment returns and mutual benefits. It requires better parliamentary oversight, robust legislative frameworks, consistent monitoring, and transparent communication and information dissemination on activities and resources.There was consensus to put the Maputo targets and agricultural development firmly on the agenda. A few participants called for a moratorium on investments until parliamentarians are better equipped to respond. This was a topic of heated debate where some participants felt that such action should not be taken hastily. While others felt that too much is at stake to risk any additional deals being signed without having proper legislative frameworks in place. Some participants however, argued that enough information is already available to begin work on such legislation and parliamentarians should be confident in their ability to respond immediately to this problem.There was also a discussion on Best Practices and Inclusive Business Models from Tanzania, Uganda, Liberia and Rwanda. I just present the Tanzanian Model and also the Rwandan Model, you can read the others.1. Tanzania: The Role of Civil SocietyTanzania has a robust legislative framework to protect small-holder farmers. However, the government has also launched an initiative with the private sector to promote large-scale industrial farming, with potentially devastating results for smallholder farmers. Civil society groups have responded with a comprehensive sensitization and community-led monitoring campaign. They are engaging with local and national government structures to support village-level land-use plans; build awareness of land rights; build the capacity of community leaders and farmers to defend themselves against land-grabs; and establish an information centre as well as an SMS-based monitoring system. In this way, villagers can send information on problems they are experiencing via free text message to a switchboard who is in turn responsible for researching the issue and working directly with the community to find legally-based solutions.2. Rwanda: National Agriculture Development StrategyThe Rwandan Minister of Agriculture and Animal Resources, Dr. Agnes Kalibata, presented the situation of agriculture in Rwanda. She presented Rwanda’s strategy for increasing public and private investment through improvements in crop and livestock production, irrigation, post-harvest facilities, research & development and promoting exports and high-value crops.I also present Mr. President outcomes from the Working Groups and the way forward from the deliberations.WORKING GROUP OUTCOMES: THE WAY FORWARDAt the end of the first day of the conference, participants were divided into three working groups to develop a plan of action. They committed to work on the following issues:Support the Implementation of the Nairobi Action Plan of the Land Policy Initiative: This includes: approving the report on large-scale landbased investments; organising public hearings; developing partnerships with key African institutions; drafting legislation on large-scale land investments; and monitoring and evaluation of investment projects.Improve Laws on Transparency: Explore the possibility for a model law on transparency for investment in land. The first step is to prepare an overview of existing transparency laws in Africa and then propose a draft that builds on current policy and practice.Improve Laws on Investment, Land, Agriculture and Natural Resources: Identify gaps in existing laws and propose new laws. Strengthen laws for vulnerable groups (women, pastoralists, etc.). Collect examples of good practices and existing domestic laws, particularly on acquisition and distribution of arable land. Parliamentarians also identified a need to explore tools to support communities around the issues of relocation and compensation for lost land.Develop a Model Investment Contract: Review existing investment contracts for agriculture in Africa and develop a model contract that can be adopted by individual countries or regional economic organisations.Conduct Environmental and Social Impact Assessments: There was a call for preliminary environmental and social impact assessments before projects are approved in order to highlight key issues that may arise.Consider Alternative Business Models for Agriculture: Each business model is context specific but some guiding principles for good business models include: inclusion of communities, mitigation risk for the investor, be in line with national development objectives, involve technology transfer and support shared ownership of productive resources between investors and the community. Parliamentarians can play an oversight role but more information is needed on good practices, current trends and development needs.Build Capacity on Parliamentarians: Partner organisations should help build the capacity of parliamentarians to understand the key issues, and to negotiate and engage in the investment process. Break-out groups to discuss the below topics. The embedded links are the outcomes of these discussions.Comments that came from the Plenary on Working Groups:1) The Land Policy Initiative (LPI) is working with ECOWAS to build convergence among fourteen countries in the region with respect to introducing a framework to harmonize land policies.Participants were interested in the initiative and felt that it may serve as an example for a regional approach to land policy focused on integration and co-operation.2) Participants highlighted the need to emphasise the importance of local investors. Rwanda’s success is based on the recognition of partners and partnership with civil society and other stakeholders. In addition, the government of Rwanda addressed the issue of land grabbing 8 directly. Although not a huge issue in Rwanda, where it did exist, the government was able to redistribute the land, with farmers taking center stage.DECLARATION AND CONCLUSIONSAt the end of the seminar, as is usually the case, the Parliamentarians issued a declaration to reinforce their plan of action. This is also presented in the document. They reiterated the points above on transparency, strengthening existing laws and adopting new laws on all aspects of investment in land, water and other natural resources. They emphasised the need for attracting investment that contributes to poverty reduction, food security, increased employment, infrastructure, technology transfer and protection of the environment. They requested governments to implement legally binding and enforceable obligations on investors to ensure that investment contributes to the local economy and well-being of society. They also called for consultations with local communities and other affected people, prior to concluding land deals and based on free, prior and informed consent. They advocated the creation of a network of parliamentarians on responsible governance of investment and land.Mr Chairman, in brief these are the contents of the report that I was requested to present. I beg to submit.Thank you, Mr Chairman.ApplauseAnnex I: FINAL DECLARATIONWe, Parliamentarians from the Pan-African Parliament, East African Legislative Assembly, ECOWAS Parliament, CEMACParliament and the Parliament of Rwanda, having met in Kigali, Rwanda, on 26-27 April 2013, on the invitation of the Pan-African Parliament and East African Legislative Assembly, to attend the Parliamentary Workshop on "Making Agricultural Investment Work for Africa: A Parliamentarian’s response to the land rush";Conscious of the need to invest in the development of Africa, in particular in the agricultural sector and the rural areas;Noting with great concern the recent increase in land grabs as well as the impact of direct foreign and local investments on land, water resources and related natural resources;Concerned about the negative impact of land grabbing on human rights, in particular on the vulnerable populations and women;Preoccupied with the guarantee of access to land for all users in order to improve agricultural production and the living conditions of the populations;Reaffirming our commitment in favour of sustainable development and determined to uphold human dignity for all;Cognisant of the importance of attaining the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) and acknowledging that eradication of poverty, hunger and malnutrition, and protection of natural resources is essential for sustainable development;Recognising the importance of defending and promoting the principles of equality and equity among our peoples;Recognising the AU Declaration on Land Issues and Challenges in Africa, the Protocol to the African Charter on Human and People’s Rights on the Rights of Women in Africa, the Solemn Declaration on Gender Equality in Africa, the Framework and Guidelines on Land Policy and the Nairobi Action Plan;Acknowledging the importance of the Maputo Declaration of 2003 on Agriculture and Food Security in Africa, in particular the commitment to devote 10 per cent of the national budget to the implementation of agricultural and rural development policies;Acknowledging that AU and partners have put in place the Grow Africa initiative to promote and guide private investments in agriculture in member-States;We do hereby request that:1)Member States of the African Union, signatories of the 2003 Maputo Declaration on Agriculture and food security in Africa, and the AU Declaration on Land Issues and Challenges in Africa, honour their commitments;2)Member States improve transparency on the process of acquiring and distributing arable land;3)Member States of the African Union to develop and implement land use master plan to guide investments;4)Member States initiate, review and implement legislation on direct foreign and local investments relating to land, water and other natural resources, which guarantees the benefits of the investment to the African peoples and for sustainable development. This implies inter alia:a)The legally binding and enforceable obligation for the investor to contribute to the local economy and the well-being of society;b)Poverty reduction, the improvement of food security, protection of the environment;c)The increase in employment in both quantitative and qualitative levels;d)Capacity-building, improvement of infrastructure and technology transfer;e)Prior consultations with local communities and people affected by investment projects and approval of investment deals as a result of free, prior and informed consent from the communities concerned.5)Member States to create awareness on existing laws on land investments and on the value of lands; and6)Governments to facilitate the access to contracts on land investments by publishing them in the official gazette and tabling them in Parliament;We commit to:1)Work towards transparency of all investment contracts and treaties, whether by local or foreign investors, by making them available to the public in a timely manner;2)Mobilise public opinion and governments on the question of land grabs and raise awareness among citizens through public campaigns and special Parliamentary debates;3)Strengthen existing laws at the national and regional level and harmonise them with the Framework and Guidelines on Land Policy and other international good practices;4)Adopt new laws that are appropriate and adapted to all aspects of investment in agricultural land, water and related natural resources;5)Advocate at national and international level, with a view to mobilising resources to promote agriculture in Africa, and at each National Parliament level, during the study and voting of the budget in order to secure the implementation of the 2003 Maputo Declaration;6)Advocate for the creation of a network of Parliamentarians on responsible governance of investment and land, under the auspices of the Pan African Parliament, East African Legislative Assembly, West African Economic and Monetary Union (UEMOA) - Parliament, Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) - Parliament, Economic Community of Central African States (CEMAC) - Parliament, Southern African Development Community (SADC) – Parliamentary Forum, and European Parliamentarians with Africa (AWEPA);7)Establish a joint Committee of Parliamentarians and Development Partners to monitor implementation of investment policies and laws on lands;8)Call on the African Union and all other African regional institutions and organisations to support the implementation of this programme of making investments in agriculture work for Africa; and9)Make this declaration public by publishing it in the agenda of our national and regional Parliaments.Kigali, 27 April, 2013HON. PATRICK MWALULA MUCHELEKA [ZAMBIA]:I thank you, Mr President.Let me join you in congratulating Hon. Allan Chiyembekeza, from Malawi, on his election as Chairperson of the Committee on Rural Economy, Agriculture, Natural Resources and Environment.May I also congratulate him on the wonderful presentation that he has made on short notice of just twenty-four hours on the job.Mr President, I would like to associate myself with the report that has been presented because I am a Member of that Committee. Mr President, the issue of land is very critical to the livelihood of our people.We appreciate the investment in land in the Sub-Saharan Africa that adds value to the livelihood our people as well as give them a stake. However, this is the time that we have to be very alert as Africans and Parliamentarians in particular. We have to take our rightful positions in ensuring that only investment on land that adds value to the livelihood of our people is encouraged. We have to ensure that we protect their wider interests.Mr President, land is a major aspect of the lives of our people in Africa. That is the only asset that they have, especially those that live in rural areas. If we are not careful, we may end up with a situation where the all the land in Africa is taken away. In certain countries, it is possible to see huge tracts of land that have been given to investors with the full consent of the Government and part of that land is not even being used for anything. Instead, it is lying idle and being used for speculative purposes. In the meantime, our people are being displaced.Mr President, the challenge that we have is to ensure that we push for the formulation and adoption of land tenure systems that will protect the interests of our people and secure their land rights. Otherwise, we may end up losing our land only to be recolonised through land grabbing.I would like to sincerely support the report that has been presented and state that issues of land should be considered under the natural resource governance system that we have been advocating for as the PAP.I thank you ApplauseHON. DR. BERNADETTE LAHAI [SIERRA LEONE]:Thank you, Mr President.I want to thank the Chairperson of the Committee for his presentation.Mr President, Hon. Members, there are several factors of production and land is one of the most important. It is so important that without it, the other factors of production such as labour, capital and entrepreneurship cannot be employed. Land is very important. It is even more important for the African farmers or African communities because it is the single property that most of our people, especially in the rural area, have.They also have cultural and spiritual relationship with the land as land that has been passed on to them from their ancestors. Therefore, land has several implications, especially in the traditional African setting.What has been happening in the last thirty or forty years is the rush for land by big investment companies especially with the advent of bio-energy.In Sierra Leone, we have many companies that are now operating and producing oil palm or sugar cane for bio-energy.Maybe, in the initial stages, we thought this was a very fast way of encouraging the FDI but what has happened in the recent past is that there has been a lot of unrest in those communities because they now feel that, maybe, the negotiations were rushed. They had little understanding of what they were going into and having been paid for their land, they are now dispossessed and, in fact, some of these communities are now suffering with regard to food self sufficiency because they have little or no land on which to produce food for their families.This is a very serious situation which is causing a lot of unrest in many African countries and therefore we need to look at this land situation very critically.I agree with the Working Group’s outcome that we need to come up with alternative business models for agriculture while, of course, and realising that contexts are different but there must be some underlying principles that cut across all those land dealing contracts such as the community involvement which is very important.I want to identify with this important workshop and its conclusions. We must safeguard our land so that at the end of the day, when we shall have passed away, we do not risk the livelihood of our children because we will have sold all the land and left them with nothing.Thank you.HON. VINCENT DABILGOU [BURKINA FASO]:Merci Beaucoup, Monsieur le Président.Je voudrais, à mon tour, remercier le nouveau Président de cette importante Commission, pour la qualité du rapport rendu.Dans ce rapport, on constate aisément et si on veut faire un schéma, on voit qu’en Afrique, non, je veux commencer plutôt par l’Amérique, l’Europe et même dans le Golfe, les gens n’ont plus de terres là-bas. Ils ont plutôt l’argent et nous en Afrique, nous 1 avons des terres abondantes inexploitées mais nous n’avons pas de ressources financières pour les exploiter correctement.Alors, cela semble être comme un mariage parfait!Mais, Monsieur le Président, nous devons faire beaucoup attention parce que les gens qui ont de l’argent nous imposent des réformes agraires. Dans tous nos pays, chacun de nous est engagé dans une sorte de réforme agraire et foncière. On nous dit qu’il faut faire de titrages! On nous dit qu’il faut des enregistrements pour les terres. On nous impose de nouveaux modes de cession, de vente, d’emprunt de la terre sous des prétextes que nos terres sont inexploitées, que c’est la circulation libre des capitaux ou alors que ce sont des changements climatiques, on a besoin de biocarburant.En Afrique, la terre et en particulier – moi je suis originaire de l’Afrique de l’Ouest – la terre a trois propriétaires chez nous:d’abord, la terre appartient aux morts, c'est-à-dire aux ancêtres;ensuite, la terre appartient à nous autres, nous tous qui sommes là, les vivants;enfin, la terre appartient à ceux qui doivent naître, l’avenir.Alors, je pense que la terre, telle que les réformes sont en train de s’engager en Afrique, ces réformes doivent être revues. Quant aux députés, en tout cas au sein du PAP, nous devrons nous engager fortement pour faire en sorte que nous puissions affirmer, comme le disait tout à l’heure l’Honorable Dr LAHAI, que la terre est un bien culturel aussi.Si nos réformes aboutissent à la vente de l’ensemble dans nos terres, finalement nous allons vendre nos âmes, notre culture.Je pense qu’il est grand temps pour nous, en tout cas au niveau du PAP, que nous puissions, chacun de nos pays, arriver à faire en sorte que nous puissions avoir un cadre législatif indicateur pour l’ensemble de nos pays, un cadre qui soit suffisamment clair, suffisamment transparent, qui prend suffisamment en compte l’agriculture familiale, mais aussi les petits exploitants et qui soit suffisamment encré dans nos cultures, dans nos traditions.Merci Beaucoup, Monsieur le Président.(Applaudissements)HON. AWAD HAG ALI AHMED [SUDAN]:Thank you, Mr President.Yesterday, we heard a very useful output of the workshop of Southern Caucus and today also we have had a very useful presentation from the Committee on Rural Economy, Agriculture, Natural Resources and Environment. Today, we are also going to see the presentation of the Committee on Energy. So, Committees and Caucuses in this Parliament are holding many workshops of very high value. The outcomes of these workshops and their recommendations are of great use in our countries. Therefore, we must look for a good way to pass on these recommendations to our countries. For example, these reports and outcomes of these workshops could be published in the form of a book.That could be an annual book of the PAP.That book could be available to our national Parliaments, civil society and local communities because the recommendations and outcomes of these workshops are defending and protecting all these stakeholders. Therefore, that is my recommendation and I hope that it will be accepted by the Leader of this Parliament.Thank you very much.[HON. MOHAMED YOUSIF ABDULLAH SUDAN]:Thank you, Mr President.I am glad to be present here today and make my contribution on this very important issue.The issue is not only on investment in agriculture but it is the Land Use Policy in Africa. The land in Africa contains valuable underground and overground resources. We do not have enough data about these resources in our lands as yet.As a matter of priority, before going to pass laws and rules, I think the priority should be to evaluate what we have underground. At least four or five areas should be given priority. The first has to do with the underground resources that we have in each area. This will be easily done by using new technologies such as aerial sensing. We can evaluate what we have in any part of our countries. We should produce geological maps on minerals that are available underground.We can also produce data on water which is available in that particular area. We can also produce data on the oil which is available underground as well as the availability of other valuable resources that are used in new technologies other than gold or oil.My suggestion for this Parliament is that the Hon. President sends a letter to all his colleagues in the national Parliaments telling them that the National Land Policy should be given priority. It is not only on agriculture but land contains many other aspects which are very important to us.The second issue, thereafter, is to carry out feasibility studies and go to the level of getting underground certificates which can be taken as collateral to provide finance for Africans. We are now facing difficulties because we do not have finance but when we have underground certificates, they may become collateral for our land utilisation and land use plans. Therefore, this is another point that the Hon. President can put in the letter to national Parliaments.The third one which I feel is also important, after doing both the land use plans and the feasibility studies, is land utilisation depending on whether it is for agriculture or any other use. When we make contracts, they should not only contain the overground activities but also include underground usage. Therefore, there will be conditions that if land is given for agriculture and at any time when there are other resources available then the government would get back the land. Land owners will, therefore, be the government and the people who will use it as an asset to be used when they want to get financial assistance.Therefore, these are the areas which I think are important and if the Hon. Presidents starts this process of sending letters on the importance of land, it would be very good.Thank you very much, Mr President.HON. LUHAGA JOELSON MPINA [TANZANIA]:I thank you, Mr President. I also thank the presenter for the presentation.Mr President, as the situation stands, the huge inflow of foreign investors is marginalising the land rights of African communities. We have to take bold measures quickly to come up with new laws either by amending or revising the existing ones.Our laws and regulations should permit the peasants or villagers to be shareholders in land deals when their land falls within the designated sites for investment. They also have to be consulted during investment. Our laws and regulations should state clearly that selling of land or leasing of huge pieces of land to foreign investor is null and void. Instead, local communities and the public should invest together with foreign investors. As we have been told, even in practice, our people do not know exactly the market value of their land.Laws and regulations should state clearly that the decision on the application for investment in the land should start with the village assemblies to the next stages such as the district council, regional and national levels instead of the Heads of State, Ministers of Land or Agriculture to decide alone.Again, our people’s land should be safeguarded by constitutions and existing land laws to make sure that no land will be confiscated. Again, investment in agriculture should not be dependent on foreigners.As I said last time, we have to come up with strong public financial institutions to provide loans and grants to farmers and peasants. This is the only way we can be independent in agriculture. It is my request that rather than depend on commercial banks, every country on our continent should establish its own strong public financial institutions that will...HON. RACHEL SHEBESH [KENYA]:Thank you, Mr President, and I want to apologise for the confusion in the Kenyan status of the PAP and also wish to thank you for your wise counsel.Mr President, I want to congratulate the Committee for their report on agriculture investment for Africa and my contribution on the same is as follows:Mr President, the African continent has hardly exploited its potential. In terms of agriculture and the land that sits in Africa, we have hardly reached reached 30 per cent of the potential and, therefore, it is obvious that we do need investment, but how must this investment work? Mr President, my take is that, first and foremost, investors’ conditions must be spelt out clearly. Conditions for investors taking up land in Africa must be debated within Parliaments. It is no longer feasible that we can be hearing over the radio or television about a big investment in a certain region and yet the local leadership, the local community, of that area were not part and parcel of the arrangement.Secondly, Mr President, I believe that the local community should also not lose out. If, for example, there is big investment in a rice growing area, like there is in Kenya, the small-scale farmers should be incorporated into the project to be part of the suppliers into that big project rather than to be elbowed out which, unfortunately, is the case in Kenya and some areas where big agricultural investments are being done. The small-scale farmers who were doing that particular investment before are being elbowed out and that cannot be allowed to continue.Mr President, the displacement of people creating internally displaced persons (IDPs) because of investment is also something that cannot be tenable. It will be also unfortunate to see a whole community moved out to live in another region because taken over for Investment and there are not fully compensated. So, we are looking for also for compensation where investment in a region must be done for agricultural purposes.Lastly, Mr President, the young people of Africa do not understand agriculture. They are not interested in being farmers. We must demystify agriculture in a way so that the young people who are 70 per cent of our population are interested in agriculture. Then we will would not need investors coming from afar to invest in our countries. I, therefore, would ask the Committee on Rural Economy, Agriculture, Natural Resources and Environment because this is a very brilliant report to pass it on to our Parliaments to be tabled within our various National Assemblies.I thank you, Mr. Speaker.HON. VINCENT DABILGOU [BURKINA FASO]:Merci Beaucoup, Monsieur le Président.Je voudrais, à mon tour, remercier le nouveau Président de cette importante Commission, pour la qualité du rapport rendu.Dans ce rapport, on constate aisément et si on veut faire un schéma, on voit qu’en Afrique, non, je veux commencer plutôt par l’Amérique, l’Europe et même dans le Golfe, les gens n’ont plus de terres là-bas. Ils ont plutôt l’argent et nous en Afrique, nous avons des terres abondantes inexploitées mais nous n’avons pas de ressources financières pour les exploiter correctement.Alors, cela semble être comme un mariage parfait!Mais, Monsieur le Président, nous devons faire beaucoup attention parce que les gens qui ont de l’argent nous imposent des réformes agraires. Dans tous nos pays, chacun de nous est engagé dans une sorte de réforme agraire et foncière. On nous dit qu’il faut faire de titrages! On nous dit qu’il faut des enregistrements pour les terres. On nous impose de nouveaux modes de cession, de vente, d’emprunt de la terre sous des prétextes que nos terres sont inexploitées, que c’est la circulation libre des capitaux ou alors que ce sont des changements climatiques, on a besoin de biocarburant.En Afrique, la terre et en particulier – moi je suis originaire de l’Afrique de l’Ouest – la terre a trois propriétaires chez nous:d’abord, la terre appartient aux morts, c'est-à-dire aux ancêtres;ensuite, la terre appartient à nous autres, nous tous qui sommes là, les vivants;enfin, la terre appartient à ceux qui doivent naître, l’avenir.Alors, je pense que la terre, telle que les réformes sont en train de s’engager en Afrique, ces réformes doivent être revues. Quant aux députés, en tout cas au sein du PAP, nous devrons nous engager fortement pour faire en sorte que nous puissions affirmer, comme le disait tout à l’heure l’Honorable Dr LAHAI, que la terre est un bien culturel aussi.Si nos réformes aboutissent à la vente de l’ensemble dans nos terres, finalement nous allons vendre nosâmes, notre culture.Je pense qu’il est grand temps pour nous, en tout cas au niveau du PAP, que nous puissions, chacun de nos pays, arriver à faire en sorte que nous puissions avoir un cadre législatif indicateur pour l’ensemble de nos pays, un cadre qui soit suffisamment clair, suffisamment transparent, qui prend suffisamment en compte l’agriculture familiale, mais aussi les petits exploitants et qui soit suffisamment encré dans nos cultures, dans nos traditions.Merci Beaucoup, Monsieur le Président.(Applaudissements)HON. MUNTAKA MOHAMMED-MUBARAK [GHANA]:Thank you Mr President.Mr President, I also want to take the opportunity to congratulate the Committee and its Chairperson for the wonderful presentation and I hope that this report will find its way to almost all our Parliaments and, probably, even be debated.Mr President, not to repeat the sentiments raised by my colleagues earlier but, just for emphasis, I just want to associate very much with my Hon. Colleague from Tanzania, Hon. Luhaga, when he said that we need to encourage the local people and the owners to have their land as shares. For example, MTN or the banks do not belong to one person but to a lot of people with some owning 10 per cent, others 1 per cent and the others only 0.5 per cent and yet they are all owners.In Africa, we need to be careful. The next most likely violence to happen - I am sorry to say that and I do not want to be a prophet of doom - will be in Africa if we are not careful. The family heads can choose to sell the land but when the children grow up in future, they will resist and fight. When that happens, Africans will end up killing each other and destroying the communities that have been left for us. The sad thing is that because Africa is endowed with so many natural resources, we are in a rush to tap all of them. Who said that because we have too much of something then you much tap all of it? If our ancestors were in a rush to tap everything, we would not have been left with anything.In our presentations we all keep talking about foreign investors. Are we being frank with ourselves? How many of us are now holding land that is not in use and we are preventing people from cultivating it? We must have a general policy in Africa that land is not for sale. It must only be for lease hold and if it is going to be leased, it should not be leased for more that fifteen years so that there will be an opportunity for re-negotiation.Instead we sell it outright as the family head today and, usually, with due respect, it is the men who are in a rush to sell. Very few women are willing to sell their land because they know that their children and grandchildren will come but men are in a rush because there is some money. They sell it and enslave the whole generation after them.Mr President, I want to plead that, as Africa, we must have a common policy that will be able to protect the land in Africa and save our generation from chaos. We have suffered more than enough from slavery and colonialism, and we should not push ourselves into an arena where we will further...HON. CHEN CHENHAMO. C. CHIMUTENGWENDE [ZIMBABWE]:I thank you Mr President.I also wish to support the view that land and all other natural resources in Africa should not be allocated to foreign investors under arrangements in which Africa is the loser. We know who the foreign investors are, their power and their dishonourable objectives. They are usually so powerful, corrupt, unfair and manipulative. There will be no win-win partnership in Africa, and Africa, as usual, will be the loser.Our Governments in Africa should not just prioritise agriculture on paper but should have the political will to provide adequate loans for farmers. Farming is business. Without loans, farmers, as businessmen, will not succeed. It is certainly not true that Africa cannot fund its farmers through its own resources. It depends on what our priorities are.I also agree that the PAP should come up with appropriate agricultural models in which manipulation and bribery by foreign investors will be impossible.Thank you.HON. SUAD AL-FATIH AL BADAWI [SUDAN]:Thank you, Mr President.Because of time I just want to get straight to my responses. Mr President, every time we speak of investment, we think of firms from outside Africa.My first response is that African land is for Africans. Mr President, my second response is that unemployment and poverty are the real challenges in Africa. I want to share with you about a project. It is a partnership between the Government, the NGOs, the schools and the universities.The NGOs provide the working guidance especially to the young people. Men, women and their families go to the land and have small pieces of land to be cultivated. They build their homes inside these farms and live there.The Government should have the task of granting them loans and marketing the produce. The schools should take the task of awareness and the university should take on the task of research because it is very important that the Government has the technology and the right information.In this way, we will get out of poverty by cultivating our land and putting awareness into our children in schools and, most of all, our land is there and it will be in our hands. Marketing should be for the Government and cultivating of the land, should be for the whole family while the schools and universities should also play their roles. This one project will help in remedying so many problems and disbanding family problems.Thank you, Mr President.HON. RABIA ISSA BINEGDE [ETHIOPIA]:Thank you, Mr President. I also thank the presenter.Mr President, land is very important to all of us. Agriculture investment is also very important. Mr President, 18 per cent of the African people live lives based on agriculture but our agriculture is not 5 improved by technology. We use backward cultivating systems. If we want to improve our agricultural systems, we must focus on the land under small-scale farmers.We need improve the cultivating system with technology and support them to increase their productivity. When I say this, I am not saying agricultural investment is not important. It is very important but it must be managed properly, and be transferred to our farmers through agricultural technology and support them to increase their productivity.My country, Ethiopia, has a good experience with this. Our farmers used agricultural technology and in the end increased their productivity. When they become millionaires, and investors, they also play an important role in our development. This is because our Government gives special attention to small scale farmers.Some intellectuals say there is land grabbing in Ethiopia but this is not true. We have land policy which manages our land and they give out land legally. The land is then prepared for agricultural investment. Generally, as I suggest agricultural investment is important for us. We should also give a special attention to our small-scale farmers to improve their productivity and manage our land properly.Thank you, Mr. President.HON. SULAIMAN M. SISAY [SIERRA LEONE]:Thank you, Mr President.I thank the presenter, Dr. Allen James Chiyembekeza, who happens to be the Chairperson of the Committee on Rural Economy, Agriculture, Natural Resources and Environment.A former American Speaker in the House of Representatives from Massachusetts, Phillip O’Neill once said, "All politics is local". To this I say, land politics in Africa is local. It is a matter for local people and local communities.Mr President, I am happy to note that the PAP is taking an active role in this land grabbing issue. During the 1800s, the white men came to Africa with a Bible and a gun. They took our land, and then took our men and women into slavery. Today, they are coming back in the form of investors, employers and food security.Mr President, I have my doubts. Africa must be wary and very careful with what we are doing in terms of our land. Mr President, maybe, these land investors might just be another Trojan Horse. Let us be careful.Few States have land policies but most are still in the process of developing them. A number of States are using inherited outdated colonial policies and legislation. Continental bodies such as the PAP should make inclusive land governance a priority.In 2003, the AU made the Maputo Declaration on Agriculture and Food Security in Africa which says that countries should devote 20 per cent of their budget on agriculture. How many countries have done that? No wonder some of us are asking where the 10 per cent is in terms of investment or in terms of reaping the rewards of the 10 per cent investment. Some African countries are still importing their staple food such as rice.Mr President, there are weak monitoring and evaluation systems. There are capacity gaps at all levels of implementation of the AU Declaration. I suggest that we involve the PAP in monitoring and evaluating these AU policies.I thank you.HON. WONDIMU GEZAHEGN GEBREMICHAEL [ETHIOPIA]:I thank you, Mr President. It is difficult to pronounce my name. It is Gebremichel and not Gebremichael. I would also like to thank the presenter of the report.The topic of land is a very touchy one for Africans. It is touchy because we have three things that are sources of worry and these are land, labour and capital. As Africans, we only have two things and these are land and labour. If we lose this land, we lose everything. We lose economically as well as politically. This is the same thing that we are seeing in Zimbabwe. The land is occupied by other people while the indigenous people are suffering for land. This is very true of many areas in Africa. If we lose land, we lose our economy. If we lose our economy, we lose political rights and power. Therefore, we have to be serious on the issue of land.How can we make fair distribution of the land because in most countries, in Africa, land is owned by individuals who are foreigners? They have big tracts of land in their hands. How can we distribute this land fairly to our farmers? This is my question.I thank you.HON. BERNADETA KASABAGO MUSHASHU [TANZANIA]:Thank you, Mr President. Thank you very much for allowing me to contribute to this important debate. I also commend the presenter.Land rush, which is sometimes known as land grab, is a new wave of investment in African land. It was triggered on in 2008 due to growing demand of biofuels in Europe or North America or due to the increase in world prices and the world economic crisis. They rushed to Africa because it was perceived that you can get big, cheap and empty land in Africa. However, there is no empty land in Africa. The land which seems to be empty is the land which is used by pastoralists. It is the land our people get medicines from, farmers farm on and where our people get firewood. These investors target countries with poor land laws. They come to Africa and go to our leaders to make deals behind closed doors and the contracts made are not made available. They are not transparent. Sometimes, investors go directly to the rural areas. They negotiate with these farmers who lack negotiation and contract making skills. They lease their land for between 33 to 99 years, but they get almost nothing out of it. The investors make promises but once they get that land, they use it in big banks to get big loans and they invest elsewhere, not in Africa. These people do not get the promised employment or infrastructure improvement.Hon. Members of Parliament, Africa has a big population of around 830 million people. We have about 70 per cent of the people living in the rural areas and rural farmers. A lot of people are unemployed. A good number of our people live on under $1 a day. So, the only tangible thing we have as a property in Africa, is our land. As Members of Parliament, we need to protect this land for our people and our future generations. It should be given out wisely.As Members of Parliament, we need to ensure that our countries have good land and investment laws to ensure that the contracts which are entered into are transparent. We need to empower our youth and smaller farmers to invest in our land and agriculture in order to improve productivity before we dish out land to foreign investors which investment does not benefit Africa much. I am not anti-investors, but we just need to be careful.Thank you, Mr President.HON. DELWA KASSIRE COUMAKOYE NOURADINE [TCHAD]:Merci, Monsieur le Président.Je fais partie de la Commission qui vient de présenter le rapport. Avant de choisir d’aller participer au fonctionnement de cette Commission, j’avais choisi d’abord la Commission Permanente de la Coopération, des relations internationales et de Règlement des conflits. Mais le temps que j’ai mis m’avait déçu. Je pensais que l’Afrique allait avoir une politique étrangère commune, mais en fin de compte, l’Union n’a servi à rien.J’ai décidé d’aller à la Commission Permanente de l’Économie rurale et de l’agriculture, des ressources naturelles et de l’environnement. Là, encore, on est sur une mauvaise pente. Je commence à être déçu, parce que lorsqu’on fait des recherches, lorsqu’on veut progresser dans la vie, il faut avoir en soi les déterminants. L’exposé ici, est pareil; il n’y a pas de déterminants.Quelques uns de mes collègues ont dit ce que je voulais dire en détail.À qui appartient la terre africaine?Toute la question est là!La terre appartenait à nos ancêtres; nos colonisateurs se sont accaparés de notre terre au prix parfois du sang, on a libéré ces terres.Malheureusement, pour nous, notre décolonisation a consisté purement et simplement à la recolonisation de l’Afrique par les Africains.(Applaudissements)J’ai suivi vos débats!J’ai participé depuis 1971, à la gestion de l’État. La différence entre ce que nos colons faisaient et ce que nous faisons, c’est le temps. Tout à l’heure, on demandait que les investisseurs, non, ces investisseurs étrangers sont le porte-parole de nos gouvernants! [Interruption du micro].Les États africains décolonisés se comportent exactement comme les colonisateurs vis-à-vis de leur terre, vis-à-vis de leur peuple.À qui appartient la terre?La terre n’appartient plus à nos ancêtres, ni aux descendants de nos ancêtres!Aujourd’hui, à l’heure où je parle, dans tous nos États – parce que je souris quand quelques uns parlent – la terre appartient à nos chefs d’États et leurs familles, à ceux qui gouvernent!Elle n’appartient plus à la population, puisque les lois qui sont faites, sont en leur faveur!Ils ont colonisé, recolonisé toutes nos terres!Aucun citoyen n’a aujourd’hui la terre!On peut venir vous chasser de votre terre, construire la route!Personne ne peut parler!Ce sont des représentants qui reprennent les mêmes erreurs!J’ai peur de l’avenir!Vous devrez être directs!Le peuple tchadien n’a plus la terre!Ce sont les gouvernants!On parle de la bonne gouvernance!Je souris parfois!Donc, je pense, à mon avis, que les États coloniaux ont fait la place aux États nationaux qui continuent avec le même élan.Pire encore, même les marigots de nos ancêtres sont récupérés par l’État!Les rivières sont récupérées par l’État.Les forêts, ce sont les forêts de nos parents, et sont récupérées par l’État!Mais c’est un État colonial qui continue!Vous parlez, on vous arrête!Vous déconnez, on vous tue!Nous vivons cette réalité encore en Afrique!Alors, nous sommes les représentants de ces genslà!C’est nous qui contribuons au malheur de nos peuples, nous, les représentants, censés les représenter!Mes chers frères et sœurs, prenons nos responsabilités!Restituons ces terres à leurs propriétaires qui sont les populations!Ce qui veut dire que toutes les lois foncières africaines aujourd’hui seront purement et simplement annulées, si vous voulez la vérité.En dehors de ce qui a un caractère de distraction, je vous demande de tenir compte de mes idées hautement africaines.HON. ERNESTO JOAQUIM MULATO [ANGOLA]:- Muito obrigado Senhor Presidente.Também vou-me associar a todos os colegas que felicitaram a Comissão de Economia Rural e ao apresentador. Muita coisa já foi dita sobre este tema e que eu estou totalmente de acordo. Eu gostaria de dizer que temos que primar não por culpabilizar o colonizador. Tudo que se passa hoje no nosso continente amputemos a responsabilidade a nós próprios africanos porque o colonizador que saiu não nos força a fazer aquilo que estamos a fazer. E sobre esse aspecto, penso que me associo a todos os outros que, realmente, o problema de terra poderá, no futuro, trazer conflitos sociais nos nossos países e, por isso, penso eu, que este nosso parlamento deve fazer um grande esforço de levar ao conhecimento não só dos nossos países as nossas posições, mas também junto das nossas próprias populações, o que significa voltamos àquilo que já foi dito há três ou quatro dias, de que é preciso publicitar aquilo que se passa nesta casa para que as populações também se associem ao esforço do Parlamento Pan-Africano.Quando falamos de investimento no campo agrícola, nós estamos a olhar para o estrangeiro, também já foi dito, mas devia ser investimento dos nossos próprios governos, porque há condições em muitos países nossos neste capítulo. Mas como não há prioridade em apoiar as populações, então os investimentos para este campo, nos nossos orçamentos, são sempre mínimos e reduzidos.Por último, também quando falamos da agricultura, um país pode ter agricultura de exportação, mas que tenha população faminta. Eu não considero, neste entretanto, que esse país está a desenvolver-se "agriculturalmente", quando o seu povo morre de fome. É tudo que eu tinha a dizer.Muito obrigado.HON. MANCHOLU MOLEMOHI [LESOTHO]:I thank you Hon. Mr President and I thank the presenter.Mr President, we acknowledge the use of best practices and inclusive business models in East Africa where the Government is attracting private foreign investors while ensuring that local farmers are employed by the investment scheme, protecting and enhancing their livelihoods, creating equitable growth and social economic development for the community involved.Mr President, I need clarity on how local farmers will be empowered by the investment schemes because I am scared about foreign investment in Africa which is not by Africans.I thank you.HON. OSCAR NSAMAN-O-LUTU [RÉPUBLIQUE DÉMOCRATIQUE DU CONGO]:Monsieur le Président, merci pour la parole.La première fois que je suis là, je n’ai peut-être pas encore eu l’opportunité de m’exprimer, comme il se doit. Quelle que soit la situation, permettez-moi de dire un mot en ce qui concerne le sujet de ce jour parce qu’il est important.Monsieur le Président,Nous cherchons l’intégration africaine, mais en fait, l’intégration africaine a été déjà réalisée par le colonisateur, par le fait qu’ils ont dit que nous nous appelons « continent africain ». Mais, il s’est fait qu’après l’indépendance, il est certain qu’à l’intérieur de cette Afrique, les colonialistes se sont divisé des portions de terres.La lutte que nous menons maintenant, c’est juste pour éviter cela et récupérer nos droits.Pour aller plus vite, la République Démocratique du Congo, notre pays, a statué sur la question par la loi « Bakajika » qui a dit que les sols et les sous-sols de la République Démocratique du Congo appartiennent à l’État. Les chefs coutumiers et les autorités locales ne sont que des gardiens. Ce qui fait que, pour tout Congolais, il ne peut pas hypothéquer un centimètre carré de sa terre, c'est-à-dire de la République Démocratique du Congo.Mais avec l’évolution, il y a eu la grande politique, c'est-à-dire la loi sur la politique de gestion des terres. Cette loi a consisté, c’est une expérience, dans la politique que nous avions appelée la « modernisation des villages ». On a dû regrouper les villages par ethnie, par affinité pour que ces villages deviennent gardiens de leurs portions de terres. C’est ce qui justifie le fait que quiconque qui n’a pas de racine sur cet espace de terres, quand il s’amène, c’est le début des problèmes.C’est pourquoi, nous disons que tous les pays africains doivent protéger leurs terres.Mais il y a un problème réel en ce moment, ce que nous devons rechercher. C’est dans le cadre de que faire pour que l’Afrique puisse aller de l’avant en ce qui concerne la politique agricole.La modernisation! Nous allons alors souhaiter que premièrement, tous les parlementaires, dès qu’ils rentrent dans leur pays, qu’ils regardent dans des magasins d’alimentations et inventorier les produits qu’ils contiennent, voir quels sont les produits qui sont des produits locaux qui proviennent de chez eux, en dehors de ceux qui viennent de l’Europe. Il y en a combien? Il n’y a même pas un dixième.Dans ce cadre, des grandes suggestions pour les parlementaires, c’est premièrement, de lutter fort pour la création des institutions financières en rapport avec le développement agricole.Lutter fort pour les investissements en ce qui concerne la transformation des produits agricoles pour leur plus-value.Enfin, lutter fermement pour rendre les locaux responsables de leurs terres.Quiconque qui vient s’infiltrer doit être dénoncé.C’est pourquoi, une fois de plus, si l’Afrique s’occupe de l’échange en termes de commerce, de l’échange en termes de l’éducation, nous irons loin et l’intégration sera à réaliser à partir de la politique de la terre.Je vous remercie.(Applaudissements)HON. AZIZOU EL HADJ ISSA [BÉNIN]:Merci, Monsieur le Président.À mon tour, je vais remercier le Président de la Commission Permanente de l’Économie rurale et de l’agriculture, des ressources naturelles et de l’environnement, fraichement élu.Monsieur le Président,J’étais à l’atelier de Kigali et je crois que le rapport qu’il a présenté a été très fidèle. Je voudrais, toutefois, rappeler un point.Ici, nous avons parlé de lois qu’on devait prendre au niveau de tous les pays. Je voudrais rappeler qu’on s’était dit qu’il fallait remonter dans les pays où c’est possible au niveau de la Constitution.Certains collègues ont parlé de la bioénergie. Vous voyez, au moment où nos paysans n’ont pas trois repas dans la journée, nous laissons des terres qui vont produire de l’énergie pour d’autres continents.C’est presque un crime!Si on monte au niveau de nos constitutions, on pourrait peut-être barrer la route à ces genres de choses, sinon d’autres ont parlé de 10 %. Les 10 % sur les investissements que les décideurs vont prendre ne permettront jamais de bloquer ces genres d’investissements qui n’aident pas le développement de nos populations.Je crois que si on remonte également au niveau de nos constitutions, il y a autre possibilité.Aujourd’hui, nous produisons mais rien n’impose aux décideurs, aux gouvernants de faire la transformation sur place. Donc les valeurs ajoutées sont réservées plutôt pour les autres continents au lieu du continent africain. Il faudrait que nos constitutions imposent ces genres de choses.Pour finir, Monsieur le Président, j’ai écouté mon collègue de la Commission, du Tchad, je voudrais lui proposer et pas seulement à la Commission Permanente de l’Économie rurale et de l’agriculture, des ressources naturelles et de l’environnement, à toutes les commissions du PAP, il faut qu’on avance d’un cran.Je crois qu’il y a des chantiers ici.Maintenant, pour la Commission Permanente de l’Économie rurale et de l’agriculture, des ressources naturelles et de l’environnement, c’est possible qu’on initie des canevas de lois-types ou même pourquoi pas des lois agricoles ou des lois foncières pour des pays qui n’ont pas encore eu l’initiative.Cela est faisable!Je crois que si dans ce Parlement, nous voulons et que le Président d’une commission est là pour présenter dans un domaine donné une loi-type ou un canevas de lois-types, qu’on pourrait proposer à nos dirigeants, on aurait fait quelque chose de mieux en attendant le statut de législateur qu’on attend du Parlement panafricain.Voilà par où je voudrais finir, Monsieur le Président.Je vous remercie.HON.ISAAC STEPHEN MABILETSA [BOTSWANA]:Thank you, Mr President.I congratulate the Chairperson of the Committee, firstly, on his election and secondly for presenting one of the best reports given in this House.Mr President, land is a finite resource. It does not multiply. When we had colonial masters ruling Africa, they made legislations that made sure that their wealthy few benefited a great deal in grabbing land from the local people. We currently have regimes within Africa that have made losses that are so user friendly even to investors to the extent that acquisition of land that it is impossible for the local people becomes an easy acquisition for foreign investors.Mr President, one would suggest, like there is a suggestion in the country, that land can be used by people, not to sell it but to develop projects and empower themselves by building houses for government employees to occupy. When people are trying to do that, they are told that there is no government policy that allows government officials to lease from private people and yet foreign investors are utilising the land at leisure with government being their biggest tenant.Mr President, the land problem is a big issue in Africa both in the historical perspectives and in the present regimes.In the case of Zimbabwe, when the State wanted to take land back to their people, they went on serious fire because foreign wealthy investors who had grabbed the land were not going to take that lying down. They made so much noise that Zimbabwe even had to face some form of punitive sanctions because of those people that were not willing to let the land go to the people of Zimbabwe.The problem of saying that land can be acquired on a free market platform poses a very serious problem to the indigenous people because it is only those who have monetary power who are able to grab such land.I will give an example of my country where there is one investor who, alone, managed to secure 800 pieces of land when, at the same time, there is a hue and cry for first home owners to acquire a simple plot for development of the first home for themselves.This problem, Mr President, is so rampant to the extent that some who have money are buying land, particularly within the peri-urban area of Gaborone and Francistown, which are commercial centres in my country, Mr President, just so that they develop it for themselves and give it at cheap prices to the local people. They especially buy land that is meant for agricultural production. People who are hungry and have no means for survival become victims.I thank you, Mr President.HON. SAM OTADA AMOOTI [UGANDA]:I thank you Mr President. I also want to thank the presenter for this good report.Mr President, there is a common saying which is true that the three pressures of the world will be food, fuel and finances, the three Fs, which will be exacting serious pressure on mankind in this generation. Obviously, Mr President, the food aspect of it has a nexus with land. Land being a factor of production, there is no doubt that we are caught up in a very difficult situation to decide on whether we should use it as a factor of production or sit on it because of suspicion.Mr President, I want to thank the presenter because when you read the declaration and the conclusion of that seminar, it is informed of the fact that we do not have to use suspicion in dealing with the land question but play our roles as Members of Parliament in making sure that as we protect our people and our land, we also encourage growth and development and the use of land as a factor of production.Mr President, there is no doubt that land grab is an issue. However, the fact that we can have our people own chunks and chunks of land and yet still wallow in poverty is a matter that should baffle our minds.It has a close nexus with our people who are nomads and have large herds of cattle but still walk naked and poor. That is something that is really disturbing.Mr President, how do we strike the balance? I think that the seminar and the conclusion of the declaration provides a clear way forward.Mr President, the other issue of concern is that we have different land tenure systems in our countries and the most dominant is the customary tenure. The customary tenure obviously gives rights and ownership to our local people. One thing that is disturbing is that while we invite the foreign investors to come and invest in this land which is under customary tenure, we do not encourage our people to enter into lease agreements. We encourage our people to sell and yet in our different countries, like Uganda, for example, the law is very clear that customary land should never be bought. In any case, a foreigner should never buy land but lease it.Therefore, the way forward for us is that customary owned land should be leased and not purchased by the foreigners.Mr President, I beg your indulgence for just a minute to wind up. On the issue of investment in agriculture, the Maputo Protocol is still outstanding. In some of our countries we have made resolutions to invest in agriculture in vein and I think that this borders around the political will by our different countries to make sure that our people, who are predominantly agriculturalist, get out of poverty.Finally, I would like to state that the issue of land is a matter of national security. We all know that the cause of the world wars and conflict in our countries has been premised around issues of land. I would like to commend the conclusion and the declaration that was arrived at at the seminar. I think that we should, as Members of Parliament, continue to strengthen our laws to take care of both protecting our land and using the land for production by attracting investors.Mr President, I thank you.HON. PRISCAH MUPFUMIRA [ZIMBABWE]:Thank you, Mr President.Allow me to congratulate the Chairman of the Committee on Rural Economy, Agriculture, Natural Resources and Environment for presenting a brilliant report and I want to thank all the speakers for their interventions.Land is the single most important resource we have in Africa. The issue of land grab or rush, if not managed properly, could easily turn into another partition of Africa or another new way of recolonisation. The land belongs to our ancestors and the people, even biblically, in the story of Naboth, the land is for the ancestors and for the people, not for individuals.The Government of Zimbabwe under the visionary leadership of Comrade Robert Gabriel Mugabe embarked on an aggressive land redistribution programme which sought to address the land imbalances caused by the colonisation. Of course, this resulted in the punitive sanctions under which my country is, up to now, by the western countries.This is a temporary setback which our government is managing. The agrarian reform has benefited over 300,000 families. Ordinary grassroots people have been empowered economically, thus enhancing their livelihood and given them dignity. The Government has enlarged targeted farming programmes for small scale farmers.There is need for a Pan African agriculture bank to manage the funding of agriculture. Parliamentarians must have oversight of only partnership that must benefit communities, not individuals. Land ownership must remain and belong to the State. We 1 must guard against new colonisation through the form of agriculture investment by foreigners.The Maputo Protocol must be enforced by all governments. Africa should come up with policies for agriculture which cover issues such as funding, technology, marketing and, I hope, an agriculture development bank for the African continent.I thank you.HON. ABDO SIKIEH DIRIEH [DJIBOUTI]:Merci, Monsieur le Président.Je voudrais, tout d’abord, remercier le Président de cette Commission qui nous a présenté brillamment son rapport. Je ne peux donc pas revenir sur ce qui a été dit, mais je voudrais dire que les investisseurs étrangers qui investissent sur la terre africaine ont des intérêts économiques avec la complicité de nos dirigeants africains.En tant que parlementaires, nous nous devons de barrer la route à ces investisseurs étrangers.Je vous donne, Monsieur le Président, un exemple de notre pays qui a mis en place plusieurs projets d’infrastructures dans le domaine agricole, parmi lesquels l’exploitation des terres arables dans les pays voisins qui sont l’Éthiopie et le Soudan. Ces deux pays nous ont donné des terres sans nous les louer. Nous les remercions beaucoup.Enfin, Monsieur le Président, je dois dire que l’Afrique doit travailler dans nos sous-sols et diversifier les expériences.Merci.(Applaudissements)HON. IBRAHIM BELLO [NIGERIA]:Thank you, Mr President and Hon. Colleagues.I must congratulate the Chairperson of the Committee for giving this very intellectual input and I also have some the kind of observation even though most of what I intended to say has been mentioned by other contributors, but I have a little to say here.After analysis, all that I wanted to say has been said but, I think, we, as Africans, also have to be very careful because it is so abnormal to look to foreigners to collaborate with the leadership of our countries to purchase this kind of land and, at the same time, this is mere neo-colonisation.However, the only way have to develop Africa is to give priority to agriculture and we must also give priority to our natural resources so that we can develop agriculture as a matter of priority. This is possible if we can formalise and harmonise all our internal policy strategies in Africa. We must act immediately.Basing on that, one of my colleagues has already stated, here, the issue of Zimbabwe where the leadership has already taken its action. It is my belief if that that action by Robert Mugabe was not so acceptable, they would not have elected him once again. So, we need to be very careful when we assess these kinds of policies because we need leaders that can take desperate measures when we are making decisions of this nature.Thank you, Mr President, for giving me the opportunity.HON. PATRICK MUYOMBE [RÉPUBLIQUE DÉMOCRATIQUE DU CONGO]:Monsieur le Président, merci pour la parole que vous m’accordez.Je joins ma voix à celles de ceux qui ont félicité le nouveau Président de la Commission pour son élection et surtout pour le rapport qu’il vient de présenter, un rapport combien clair.Monsieur le Président,Comme mon prédécesseur de la RDC l’a dit, chez nous au Congo, la terre appartient à l’État. Nousmêmes, Congolais, qui travaillons sur la terre, nous sommes des locataires parce qu’il y a un délai et c’est renouvelable.Il existe une loi chez nous qui est en élaboration pour essayer de clarifier la situation.Qu’est-ce qui s’est passé?La loi ancienne qui régit le pays, jusqu’aujourd’hui, fait que la terre appartient à l’État. Mais l’État doit disposer d’une partie des terres à donner aux communautés locales et l’autre partie il peut la céder aux investisseurs. Toutefois, l’État n’a jamais pris d’ordonnance pour séparer les deux terres, les terres des communautés locales et les terres qu’on pouvait mettre à la disposition des investisseurs.Qu’est-ce qui se passe sur le terrain?Quand un investisseur vient, ceux qui s’opposent les premiers, ce sont des chefs coutumiers. Ce qui fait que les investisseurs étrangers ne viennent pas souvent investir chez nous dans le domaine agricole. Nous avons des terres arables qui sont là qui ne tournent pas.Contrairement aux pays de l’Afrique australe dont le Zimbabwe, dont on a parlé, les étrangers s’étaient accaparés de la terre. Mais chez nous, nous avons encore de l’espace. Il y a une loi qui est en pleine élaboration et je crois que lors de la prochaine session nous aurons à vous dire si elle est déjà adoptée.C’est vraiment une réforme agraire chez nous qui permettra aux pays africains qui sont ici, présents, s’ils sont des investisseurs dans le domaine agricole et qu’ils ne trouvent pas de terre chez eux, chez nous au Congo il y a suffisamment d’espace. Les gens peuvent venir cultiver la terre toujours en respectant la loi selon qu’une partie reste aux communautés locales et l’autre à l’État qui peut la mettre à la disposition des investisseurs.Je vous remercie.(Applaudissements)HON. ALLAN JAMES CHIYEMBEKEZA [CHAIRPERSON OF THE COMMITTEE ON RURAL ECONOMY, AGRICULTURE, NATURAL RESOURCES AND ENVIRONMENT]:Thank you very much, Mr President, for, once again, giving me an opportunity to respond to concerns from Hon. Members on the debate on this important topic.A lot has been said and I do not think I will be in a position to summarise each and every speech that has been presented but rather to emphasise the point that land is the single most important resource that Africa has.Mr President, let me, at the outset, thank my Hon. Colleagues that have spoken on this report. I do not intend to summarise each presentation as far as the responses are concerned. One thing that is very clear is that land is the most important resource that Africa has and it has to be guarded jealously. There has been a tendency, of course, of multi-nationals coming into Africa to buy land and that has created a lot of problems. I think it is important, as my Hon. Colleagues have indicated, that Africa should have a common land policy that will guard against this kind of tendency because if we lose the land today, the future of our countries will be obsolete.It is also important to learn from other African countries and I think Zimbabwe has been mentioned.They have done a lot in this area. As a Committee on Rural Economy, Agriculture, Natural Resources and Environment, it would be a country that we would probably want to visit so that we can learn as to how Zimbabwe has handled the land issue.Mr President, I think the Hon. Member from Sudan has summarised the whole presentation well when she said that African land is for Africa and it should remain as such. When we develop policies, we should all have it in mind that this land belongs to us.Finally, Mr President, I think it is important, as one of my Hon. Colleagues has said that we need to have a way of making this information available to the Parliaments we have in Africa. This is useful and it will help in trying to find best ways of managing our land.Mr President that is all I have to say.Thank you, once again, Hon. Colleagues for your comments.THE PRESIDENT/CLERK [.......]:Thank you very much for those contributions. I, therefore, call on the Clerk to read the second Order of the day.THE CLERK:I thank you Mr President:Presentation and debate on the Report on Improvement of the Energy Industry in Africa for Sustainable Development – The Role of Parliaments.THE PRESIDENT:Hon. Members, on your behalf, I call upon Hon. Dr Bernadette Lahai, Chairperson of the Permanent Committee on Transport Industry, Communication, Energy, Science and Technology to present the Committee’s report.HON. DR. BERNADETTE LAHAI [SIERRA LEONE]:Thank you, Mr President.Hon. Members, it is a pleasure for me, on behalf of Pan African Committee on Transport, Industry, Communication, Energy, Science and Technology and the South African Parliament Portfolio Committee on Energy to present the Report of the Joint Workshop on Improvement of Energy Industry in African for Sustainable Development, the Role of Parliaments.Mr President, Hon. Members, from the 10th to the 12th of August, 2013, at Midrand Conference Centre in Johannesburg, the Pan African Committee on Transport, Industry, Energy, Communication, Science and Technology in collaboration with the South African Parliament Portfolio Committee on Energy, held a joint workshop on the theme: Improvements of the Energy Industry in Africa for Sustainable Development and Role of Parliaments.The two Committees decided to initiate a cooperation project or partnership which discussion has started as early as 2012 with the following aims and objective:To establish a PAP South Africa Parliament Energy initiative which we call (PAPSAE);From time to time PAPSAE will engage the NEPAD energy units on issues of mutual interest and concern;Campaign for energy efficiency in Africa;Engage on the continental and regional power pooling programmes linked to regional energy trading;Integrated energy planning with emphasis inter alia on energy mix strategies with a strong focus on clean and renewable energy; andFocus on rural mini and micro grid, small scale energy systems as well as empowerment of public representations including Parliamentarians and councillors with a view to also engaging and harmonisation and rationalisation of energy policies, laws and programmes.Mr President, Hon. Members, the first day of the workshop focused on briefings from South African companies working in the energy sector. The briefings were followed by a study tour. The members of the two committees visited three energy projects in the Gauteng Area. The second day of the workshop focused on presentations, discussions and adoptions of recommendations and way forward on the energy situation in Africa.On the briefings by the energy utilities in South Africa, we had presentations from four energy utilities:the Central Energy Fund;the Petroleum Oil and Gas Corporation of South Africa (PetroSA);South African National Energy Development Institute (SANED); andNational Energy Regulator for South Africa (NERSA)In brief, the Central Energy Fund is a group of companies that is mandated to finance and promote the acquisition, exploitation, manufacture and marketing of energy. The intent of the CEF is to provide energy resources for national energy security, while minimising environmental impact and in pursuit of the Government’s policies. The CEF has only one objective which is to contribute to national energy security in the country.With regard to PetroSA, it is the South African National Oil Company which is the Third World’s largest natural gas transportation fuel plant. The company is the largest contributor to most of the economy and the community. PetroSA was formed in 2003 through the merger of Moss Gas Limited, SUCCOR Limited and part of the Strategic Fuel Fund Association. PetroSA products are the following:liquid fuels,speciality chemicals,speciality gasesand crude oil.With regard to the South Africa National Energy Development Institute, the vision of this institute is to serve as a catalyst for sustainable energy innovation, transformation and technology diversion in support of South Africa’s sustainable development and benefits the nation.The strategic pillars of SANED are to enable well informed and high confidence energy planning, decision making, and policy development to contribute to the transformation, to a less energy and carbon intensive economy and to foster a culture of greater efficiencies and more rational use of energy.NERSA is the National Energy Regulator of South Africa. And what is important to note is that NERSA’s mission is to regulate the energy industry in accordance with the Government laws and policies, standards and international best practices in support of sustainable development. NERSA is the current chair and member of the Executive Committee of Regional Electricity Regulatory Associations of Southern Africa (RERA). RERA’s objective includes:Capacity building and information sharing;Facilitation of ESI policy, legislation and regulations; andRegional regulatory co-operation.NERSA is a member of the African Forum for Utility Regulators (AFUR), an energy sector committee. AFUR focuses on issues related to the regulation of the energy, telecommunication, transport, water and sanitation sectors. NERSA recognises the need for regional co-ordination and integration to support social economic development. NERSA is, therefore, an active member of both RERA and AFUR.Hon. Members, Mr President, after that overview, we then went for a field visit to three energy projects in the Gauteng Area. We visited the Johannesburg Metro Municipality Landfill Gas to Energy Project.This project is a notably clean development mechanism project generating substantial carbon credits which the metropolitan municipality can then use for trading. Actually, this project is sourcing energy from the refuse that is collected all over the municipality of Gauteng.The Members of the Committee were informed that Metro has a primary aim of the project in the purpose of harvesting methane gas from Landfill sites which could be used for generating power and to produce carbon credits for trading.We also visited two other projects, the MTN Megawatts Tri-generation Plant Megawatts Trial Generation Plant and also the ABSA Tower West Energy Centre Project. Both of these projects are established to supplement energy produced by the city power. These two projects arose as a result of the frequent outage of power in South Africa, especially from 2007 to date. Given that this power outage actually affected productivity of these two industries, they decided to also produce power, using coal generation of energy so that when ESKOM power is out, this could be used to continue the productivity of these two industries.The ABSA Tower West Energy Centre Project produces 11.2 megawatts of power and, at the same time, they are not only using power but the residual is also used for lighting, cooling and heating of the campuses of these two institutions.Hon. Members, Mr President, after this site visit, the stage was set for the remaining two days of the workshop in which presentations were made on various topics on the energy situation in Africa. The first presentation was an overview of the energy sector and design energy policy which was done by the International Energy Agency that is headquartered in France. In this presentation, it was noted that the global village energy map is changing and that will affect more than just energy economies and pricing. For most European consumers, energy prices have remained stubbornly high acting as a brake on economic recovery This presentation highlighted a need to have an energy policy that will suit the national context and have the necessary ingredients for political consensus, clear long-term vision, stable institutions, leadership and stakeholder agreement.The presentation also mentioned the challenges in the designing of the energy policy such as, for example, the energy security and resource constraints, sustainability and low CFC omissions.In most cases, there is a common weakness in energy policies because there is a lack of political consensus, incremental approach, short-term policies replacing long time policies, weak coordination within the government and the stakeholders are not necessarily involved. A sustainable energy policy needs properly-designed climate change policies and good efficient competing incentives for renewable energies.The presentation on the dynamics of legislative, regulatory framework and policy environment on energy sector in Africa was done by the African Institute of South Africa that highlighted that Africa still relies heavily on technologies that have been developed elsewhere. These often carry the burden of cost and a lack of understanding by local communities and, therefore, often get rejected.The impact of this is that the technologies fail to have the desired effect of alleviating energy scarcity. As a result, Africa continues to be the world’s most deprived continent.Africa has the advantage that it is endowed with abundant resources of renewable energy which needs to be fully exploited. The full exploitable valuable energy sources that African countries should develop include:Internal market policies and guidelines,Cost-of-service policies and guidelines,Utilities financial planning policies and guidelines,Cross-border energy trade guidelines,Transmission and distribution utilities benchmarking programmes,Strengthening regulatory agencies capacities,Policies that will promote the participation of small and medium enterprises in the energy sector; andPolicies and guidelines that will promote green economies.The presentation also noted that Africa is facing a great challenge in the shortage of energy. With the current production availability, about thirty countries are experiencing chronic black-outs. So, power shortages in Africa are adversely affecting the continent’s economic growth. Poor planning, which is directly linked to outdated infrastructure, technologies and insufficient expertise and skills to manage the existing infrastructure, is the main cause. Solving these problems will require adequate planning, investment, efficient use of resources and policy direction. For the continent to migrate to its current state of economic development, its energy supplies will have to increase by at least four-fold by 2025.The Overview of Energy programmes in Africa: The use of hydrocarbons, renewable energy, rural energy and nuclear energyThis was presented the Head of Energy Programmes of NEPAD. He highlighted that Africa has abundant energy resources which are very underutilised. He further mentioned that Africa has the highest solar radiation in the world. Despite all these resources, energy access is very low in Africa. He noted that 70 per cent of the African population, on average, has no access to modern and clean means of energy. Energy access varies widely over Africa from between 90 per cent in the north, to as low as 6 per cent in some countries.The Programme for Infrastructure Development in Africa (PIDA) of the Africa Union is a programme that covers energy, transport, water and ICT sectors. The PIDA Energy Programme will help to develop energy outlooks up to the year 2040. NEPAD is working on different energy programmes which cover the following:Renewable Energy Programme;Energy Efficiency Programme; andProgramme of Utilisation of Energy Experts in African universities.We then had a presentation on the role of municipalities in the electricity sector in Africa by the South African Local Government Association.The presenter noted that in the status of the electricity sector in State-owned electricity entities in Africa, they traditionally enjoy a monopolistic hold over the national electricity industry.There is a growing consensus that the monopoly can contribute to the under performance in the delivery of electricity services particularly to the majority of low-income groups. Electricity sector institutions are mainly characterised by unreliability of electricity supply, low capacity utilisation and availability factors, deficient maintenance, poor procurement of spare parts and high transmission and distribution losses, among other things.Consequently the performance of the electricity sector is perceived as being unsustainable which has led to reforms in the Africa electricity sector.The presentation was also followed by another presentation by Hon. S. Njikelana who is my counterpart in the South African Parliament on what Parliamentarians can do as a contribution to the improvement of the energy situation in Africa. In his presentation, he highlighted that the current objectives of most Parliaments are to process legislation, conduct oversight over the Executive to facilitate public participation and engage in international relations.According to him, the primary focus of Parliamentarians should be enhancement of legislative duties. National Parliaments should fit into regional Parliaments such as the Economic Community of West Africa and the Southern Africa Development Community, and these regional Parliaments fit into the continental Parliament with regards to the issue on energy.On the enhancement of working relationships, he said that what will be critical is the working relationship between the PAP and regional Parliaments, including regional economic communities as well as global Parliamentary institutions. He further went on to focus the relationship between the two committees with regard to the joint initiative by engaging, organised civil society, the AU, business organisations, research institutions, cities and local governments of Africa, the United Nations and its agencies, a partnership between the Pan African Parliament and the United National Economic Community in Africa.One of the initiatives currently undertaken by the PAP is that of having an advisory and consultative role. He emphasised that regional focus must be addressed as well as the fact that there must be regional integration which relates to politics and economics. Continental focus must be on joint initiatives on oversight, harmonisation of legislation, regional summits, workshops, seminars as well as continental summits, workshops and seminars. Other initiatives that Parliaments could take include commissioning research and peer support through sharing of information and joint training.Hon. Members, Mr President, having had this overview, there was a very lively discussion and based on these discussions, and some issues were raised.It was agreed that the Government should ensure universal access in each African country when it comes to energy-related matters. Tariffs are huge in the energy sector and immediate solution towards that problem is for all Parliaments to ensure that energy-related programmes do benefit all citizens. There is a necessity for the African countries to urgently address the high tariffs of energy in order to increase the number of people who have access to energy.It was recognised that the private sector was also key in the provision of energy particularly under the public-private (PPP) laws. The Department of Energy, ESKOM and NECSA will appear to make presentations before the PAP Committee since they are leading companies not only in South Africa but in the African continent as a whole when it comes to matters of energy.A strategy on nuclear energy is important to be taken care of. This was solely because it was seen as a vehicle to energy sustainability in Africa. The exploitation of energy in African should be made a priority matter particularly by the foreign companies. There is also a need to have regulations or Acts that will give parameters to those foreign companies.Mr President, the discussion further underscored the new demand on the global energy demand which was important and that there is need for efficient policy measures to ensure the availability of energy as far as it concerns the share of Africa which is not often included in the share of global energy.Africa is rich in uranium resources and has a big role to play in international energy trade. Africa has diverse energy sources and has to play crucial role in energy supply. There is a need for a continental energy conference within Africa.The transport sector contributes significantly to carbon emissions but energy policies often fail to address this sector. Renewable energy and carbon emissions are a major concern and, therefore, there is need to factor such into energy plans. However, social costs also need to be factored in as well.Information is needed on energy trade in Africa with regard to how it is being traded and what the outcomes of such trade are. The information will assist to address and liberalise the trade to ensure Africa benefits from this trade.Additional points to consider in energy planning included population growth and movement trends. Hence transport also features in energy planning. In terms of energy production, the potential for energy generation is very high. For example, Africa has access to solar, oil, gas, uranium and yet Africa is poor and has the least access to energy. Africa needs to look at what natural resources are being supplied to Europe and China and ensure that this trade results in Africa gaining further access to electricity as a counter balance to supplying its raw materials.The workshop also noted that Africa needs to look at energy efficiency. This applies to transport, building, etc., in an integrated transport system as required in African countries so as to ensure more efficient utilisation of energy resources.In terms of investment into Africa, it was noted that a political and regulatory environment to attract private investors to invest into Africa is crucial. The International Energy Agency (IAE) projections show that the United States will become the largest global producer of both oil and gas by the end of this decade. That is a development that was all but unthinkable a few years ago. When it comes to natural gas, the unconventional revolution in America has helped to drive significant regional price differences. This divergence is unprecedented according to the IAE.Mr President, Hon. Members, with these and many other discussions that ensued, the following were the way forward or proposed programme of action that the two Parliaments were to take:1.Harmonisation of policies, legislation and regulations on NEPAD priority energy projects as a matter of urgency.2.Building joint programmes on the following be explored:ITEMSITEM (i)Focus on NEPAD on its energy programmes across Africa;ITEM (ii)Capacity building and empowerment of national parliaments and Parliamentarians in order to play their expected role and contribution on energy programmes optimally;ITEM (iii)Adequate and empowering access to data on energy issues;ITEM (iv)Appropriate access to requisite resources for national Parliaments to attend to energy issues; andITEM (v)Strengthening of State institutions in order to drive energy programmes optimally.3.Building partnerships in specific areas such as:(i)In harmonising PAP initiatives with the NEPAD energy projects, forging and building partnerships will be a key factor in its success. One of these partnerships may include building partnerships with the Power Institute for East and Southern Africa through the MOU to build capacity among regional power utilities.(ii)Research on different energy sources and carriers as well as technology options in Africa to be commissioned. The research papers will assist PAP to develop policy framework for localisation by various member states.(iii)A continental energy policy framework through, initially auditing of existing energy policies in Africa to be formulated.(iv)PAP should explore setting up mechanisms to address the challenge of policy deficiencies regarding ratification of national contracts/agreements. Such will further help in addressing the challenges of poor or lack of accountability by governments to Parliaments as well as compromise oversight by parliaments.(v)A Continental Energy Conference in Africa that will include all stakeholders should be explored.(vi)PAP must ensure that focus should shift to electrification of rural areas.(vii)PAP to encourage national Parliaments to ensure access to information – especially national contracts that are negotiated – from the initial stages of negotiations by governments and must focus on oversight function i.e. robust oversight must be conducted.(viii)PAP and the African Union Commission should investigate establishment of mechanisms for peer support, example laws that govern publicprivate partnerships. Further there has to be access to information and a mechanism set up where countries learn from each other.(ix)PAP to encourage national parliaments to pay close attention on:4.Good governance and values that guide handling and negotiations of energy contracts/investments(i)Parliaments to be empowered to endorse such contracts/agree ments before their implementation;(ii)Fair share of services by various communities; and(iii)Attention on environmental impact due to supply of energy(iv)Follow-up on continental energy treaties, charters and agreements for ratification through a stronger role of PAP in ensuring implementation of treaties/agreem ents/charters that are related to energy issues be promoted.Both the Chairs, myself and Hon. Njikelana will take responsibility for:a.Compilation of the workshop report; andb.Reporting to principals, that is, PAP and SA Parliament; andc.Facilitation of Post-Endorsement Implementation Workshop particularly refining the endorsed joint programme.In conclusion, Mr President, Hon. Members, the three-day workshop, the presentations by the South African Government energy entities, the site visits and the actual workshop have set a solid base for an enhanced role and contribution of the PAP on continental energy programmes and the proposed PAP-SA Initiative. in advancing the African Agenda for a better life for all in Africa.The presentations undoubtedly affirmed the need for all State institutions, including PAP and national Parliaments, to ensure sustainable development through, inter alia, enhanced energy industry. The issues on the way forward are an outcome of elaborate discussions among the Parliamentarians and experts who were seized with moulding the best ideals that will guide the PAP in realising one of its potential programmes.It is with great hope that the rest of the Parliamentarians will identify with the issues raised in the way forward above in keeping with policies and programmes of their own countries.Recommendation The Committee, therefore, recommends that this august House endorses this report and ensures appropriate and adequate mobilisation of resources for the implementation of activities arising out of it.I thank you very much, Hon. Members for listening.ApplauseHON. SHITAYE MINALE TIZAZU [ETHIOPIA]:Thank you, Madam President.I would like to thank the presenter who is the Chairperson for the Committee. After saying this, I wish to state that Africa is a fast growing continent with its manpower and rich natural resources as we have discussed continuously in the past few days.Africa is not only fast growing but it has the potential to increase or sustain its growth because for the future, we face serious challenges which are coming with our development. The development brings with it some serious challenges and one of the serious challenges is energy because energy is a primary requirement to sustain our fast growth.Therefore, to transform our economy and the reactions of successful industry, it is always linked with the availability of resources such as energy. I believe that the level and capacity of each country to produce and find energy cannot be the same but they have their own potential for application, management and accessibility of this energy.Energy is a crucial issue not only in development but it is also vital for the life and welfare of our people. Since at this time, the greater part of our continent does not have access to electricity, it is a shame for us, the representatives of the African continent in the 21st Century, that a lot of our people have no have access to electricity. Countries in Africa have to develop a policy with regard to energy production based on their own potential, either on renewable or non-renewable energy. Each country has the potential.I can take my own country, Ethiopia. For the production of hydro-electric power, we have huge potential on this renewable energy that is based on the availability of water. As such, the country has a very great commitment to invest in the energy sector.Secondly, the investment on energy and infrastructure by itself is not a solution but the issue of effective usage and maintenance is crucial. On the other hand, stability, peace and security are a critical issues for energy investment and there has to be mutual understanding and benefit within African countries and we, Parliamentarians, have to work for the unity and integration of the continent.We, the African countries, have to work for the benefit of ourselves. Lastly, I would like to suggest that we make a serious follow-up on the issues which have been forwarded by the Committee for us to have sustainable development.I thank you.HON. TAPIWA MASHAKADA [ZIMBABWE]:Thank you, Madam President.Energy is at the centre of any development strategy, Madam President. However, it is clear that Africa suffers a serious deficit in energy.Statistics estimate that the total energy deficit for the whole of Africa runs close to about US$ 80 billion. Therefore, isolated national initiatives will not help African countries to resolve the energy crisis.Madam President, it is high time Africa pooled its resources together and concentrated on regional energy projects which have the potential to increase the generation, transmission and distribution of energy. In this regard, energy projects in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) and Ethiopia have the potential to power the rest of Africa. The solution, therefore, must be a Pan African solution.The other dimension is that Africa should move towards solar energy and bio-fuels in line with the UN goal of sustainable development. After all, Africa is blessed with the sun and the land to grow and harness these bio-fuels.I thank you, Madam President.HON. BALA SARATOU BOUKARI [NIGER]:Merci, Madame la Présidente.Je remercie et supporte la présentation de l’Honorable Bernadette, et je persiste à dire que les gouvernements doivent garantir l’accès universel à tout ce qui est lié à la question d’énergie, car cela est indispensable pour le développement.Pour certains pays producteurs d’uranium, par exemple, le problème se situe dès le départ dans les contrats que les gouvernements signent avec les partenaires.En effet, je ne peux pas comprendre qu’une ancienne puissance coloniale hypothèque l’uranium d’un pays africain depuis plus de quarante-cinq ans, afin de fournir de l’énergie nucléaire à son propre pays, qu’est la France, car l’uranium du Niger assure, au bas mot, 20 % de l’énergie nucléaire utilisée par les Français, alors que de notre côté, c'est-à-dire au Niger, les populations ne profitent nullement de cette industrie extractive. Elles n’ont, en retour, que le dessèchement de la nappe phréatique et la pollution qui est source de maladie. Même les bénéfices tirés de cette exploitation ne participent qu’à hauteur de 5 % au budget national depuis quarante-cinq ans.L’uranium du Niger donne de l’énergie au peuple français. Nous, au Niger, c’est le Nigeria qui nous alimente en grande partie, en électricité. La couverture totale du Niger est très loin d’atteindre les besoins pour le développement.Pourquoi ne pas voir, donc, la possibilité d’une centrale nucléaire au Nigeria, avec l’uranium du Niger qui alimenterait toute la partie ouest de l’Afrique?Les parlementaires doivent avoir, en amont, un œil, sinon les deux, sur les codes minier et pétrolier qu’ils adoptent et qui hypothèquent nos pays et les populations sur plusieurs années, sans possibilité de diversifier des partenaires, ce qui aurait favorisé un partenariat donnant-donnant.Je soutiens l’Honorable Bernadette qui dit qu’il faut organiser une conférence internationale sur l’énergie en Afrique. Je la supporte aussi pour tout son rapport.Merci.(Applaudissements)HON. PRITHVIRAJSING ROOPUN [MAURITIUS]:I thank you Madam President. As a member of this Committee, I wish to fully support and endorse the contents of this brilliant report.Madam President, we all realise the importance of energy as an engine for development. As the continent develops, there is need for greater demand for sustainable development. There is growing pressure from consumers be they urban or rural and yet we are all too familiar with chronic black-outs in various parts of the continent while vast regions, rural essentially, are yet to be provided with the very basic forms of energy.There is a crying need to develop clear strategies but it cannot be a one size fits all policy. On the one hand, there is need to develop small grids for remote regions while on the other, there is a crying need for economies of scale and pooling of resources which transcend national borders.One matter of concern is that contracts are being concluded in an atmosphere or capacity which, invariably, is a breeding ground for corruption where more often than not, there are clauses of non disclosure. We should develop clear models to ensure that Parliament, as a watchdog to the Executive, is given the responsibility to oversee what is being done in terms of energy. However, at the same time, there is need for decoupling between service providers and regulators to ensure that there is competition. I am grateful that in this Committee, we have been able to develop a new model of collaboration with the South African Parliament and hope that this new collaboration will be a breeding ground for further development with other Parliaments.I thank you.HON. VINCENT DABILGOU [BURKINO FASO]:Merci, Madame la Présidente.Je voudrais aussi, en tant que membre de cette Commission, féliciter Madame l’Honorable LAHAIpour la qualité de son rendu, mais surtout soutenir les propositions et les recommandations qui sont contenues dans le rapport.Je voudrais aussi saisir l’occasion pour féliciter le Gouvernement de la République Sud Africaine, mais également le Parlement panafricain pour leur leadership en matière d’énergie en Afrique et aussi pour leur volonté de faire du PAP un partenaire sûr pour l’émergence d’une énergie pour tous, sur notre continent.C’est vrai, le rapport dit clairement que notre continent a un grand défi en matière de pénurie d’énergie.Nous avons, Madame la Présidente, deux ressources et l’Honorable Madame Saratou BOUKARI du Niger venait de le dire. Il y a des ressources, l’uranium du Niger, mais il y a aussi le gaz, le pétrole. Nous avons beaucoup de ressources mais nous n’avons pas les ressources nécessaires pour les transformer. Nous n’avons même pas la démarche finale intégrative régionale pour harmoniser nos lois afin de pouvoir exploiter ces ressources en commun.C’est pour cela, Madame la Présidente, que je voudrais revenir sur les grandes étapes, les actions urgentes, les actions à moyen terme et long termes du Plan d’Actions contenu dans notre rapport.Pour moi, les actions urgentes, Madame la Présidente, Honorables membres du PAP, je voudrais tout simplement inviter nos pays à maitriser ce qui est simple, parce que le Seigneur, Dieu, nous a donné le soleil; le soleil est abondant dans tous nos pays.Nous avons des technologies, par exemple l’énergie solaire thermique pour la cuisine et l’eau chaude.Nous avons les plaques solaires photovoltaïques pour l’éclairage de nos villes et de nos maisons.Nous avons le stockage des batteries à plomb ou à nickel qui sont des ressources qui existent dans notre continent.Je pense que, les députés que nous sommes, nous avons un rôle à jouer pour libérer simplement l’importation de ces plaques solaires et même pour les transformer, permettre à des industries de les fabriquer chez nous, parce que les matières premières de ces plaques sont des matières premières africaines.Je pense que ce sont là des questions urgentes, parce que c’est cela qui va transformer le monde rural, c’est cela qui va nous libérer.Alors, je pense que ce sont des questions urgentes et, Madame la Présidente, je voudrais qu’il y ait une recommandation sur cela, parce que ce sont des choses qui sont à portée de main.Merci beaucoup, Madame la Présidente.HON. AWAD HAG ALI AHHMED [SUDAN]:Thank you very much, Madam President and thanks to Hon. Lahai for her excellent presentation.Madam President, energy in Africa is a very complex case. African countries are countries of wide areas with no populations. We note in Africa wide spaces and remote settlements of populations.Therefore, it is impossible in many African countries to get a network which includes all villages.Therefore, the use of solar energy in rural sources is a necessity. It is not for green environment only, but because it is impossible to get all these villages included as a network.Many African countries are subsidising all electricity and that means they are supporting the regions of high income, as it is, while those poor people in the countryside get nothing.Governance, fairness and justice necessitate the support of all people and the countryside not only for their welfare but also for them to use that energy for agriculture and small industries.Thus, our role here, as Parliamentarians, is to look for fairness and fair share of resources and to support the use of solar energies in the small villages in the countryside.Thank you very much, Madam President.HON. VICE PRESIDENT:Thank you. I still want to remind the time-keeper to give each Speaker three minutes and I am no longer going to get an additional list because we have to prepare ourselves for the elections at 14:30.Next is Hon. Mohamed Ali Foulieh from Djibouti.He is not here. Then Hon. Mohamed Yousif Abdullah from Sudan, you have the floor.HON. MOHAMED YOUSIF ABDULLAH [SUDAN]:Thank you very much, Madam President.I am highly pleased to associate myself with the report of the Committee and I wish to congratulate Madam Lahai for having this excellent presentation.To start with, I would like to appreciate what they have said about the abundance of energy generation resources in Africa and I would like to make a few comments. One comment is that despite this abundance of energy resources, we have a challenge of getting the right technology to exploit the resources. The second issue is to mobilise the resources for utilising the resources which are available in the country.I would like to suggest that we have a few areas where we can have some sort of co-operation to strengthen regional co-operation between the African countries to mobilise resources for inter-State grids. Where we have excess energy, that energy can be transferred to another country. Sometimes, in one region you may get abundant energy in a particular country while you do not have that in some countries. For example, in the relationship between Sudan and Ethiopia in the area of hydro-electric energy, it is possible that Sudan can buy from Ethiopia the abundant resources of energy that are available. We have the DRC which also has hydro-electric generation power and water resources. African countries around the DRC can cooperate and establish stations of hydro-electric power generation.Then there can be co-operation among South countries. Just last week, I saw that China will build a power generation station in the United Kingdom (UK). This means that China is doing well in the area of energy generation. Co-operation between South countries is also important in the area of technology.I would like to thank you very much, Madam and I thank the presenter of the report.Applause HON. LUHAGA JOELSON MPINA [TANZANIA]:Mheshimiwa Rais, nakushukuru sana kwa kunipa nafasi.Mheshimiwa Rais, kama ambavyo wamesema wenzangu kwamba tunavyo vyanzo vingi vya nishati ya umeme; tunayo maji, gesi, uranium, nguvu za atom na makaa ya mawe, tatizo letu sasa ni kujenga miundombinu ya kuzalisha umeme huu.Ndiyo tatizo kubwa! Tatizo letu kubwa...HON. MEMBER:Translation!HON. LUHAGA JOELSON MPINA [TANZANIA]:Translation!PRESIDENT:Translation please for English, I don’t get it.HON. LUHAGA JOELSON MPINA [TANZANIA]:Unanipata sasa? Naweza kuendelea? Endeleeni kutafuta. Hallow! Mmeipata sasa?PRESIDENT:She cannot get you on what you have said in the floor. Please translation, can we try?HON. LUHAGA JOELSON MPINA [TANZANIA]:Are you getting me now? Is it okay! Yah! Mheshimiwa Mwenyekiti, sasa naomba…PRESIDENT:Sorry! Can you sit down please!She is saying that she cannot get what you are saying, whether it is a technology problem I don’t know. Honourable member, can you try again loudly?HON. LUHAGA JOELSON MPINA [TANZANIA]:Mheshimiwa Rais, naomba sasa muda wangu uanze upya kwa sababu tayari ulikuwa umeshatumika.HON. MEMBERS:Order!HON. LUHAGA JOELSON MPINA [TANZANIA]:Tatizo la translation kutokuwepo ni nini?HON. MEMBER:Can you try this microphone!HON. LUHAGA JOELSON MPINA [TANZANIA]:Hapa mnanipata?HON. MEMBER:Speak English.HON. LUHAGA JOELSON MPINA [TANZANIA]:No. Is it okay now!PRESIDENT:Yah!HON. MEMBER:Speak English.HON. LUHAGA JOELSON MPINA [TANZANIA]:Hapana, msinilazimishe kuongea lugha nyingine. Lugha niliyochagua sasa hivi ni Kiswahili. (Kicheko) Mheshimiwa Mwenyekiti, muda wangu naomba uanze moja. Kwanza…HON. MEMBERS:Not heard! You can speak English.HON. MEMBER:It is okay.HON. LUHAGA JOELSON MPINA [TANZANIA]:Is it okay now?HON. MEMBER:Yah!HON. LUHAGA JOELSON MPINA [TANZANIA]:Sasa hivi naweza kuongea?HON. MEMBER:It is fine.HON. LUHAGA JOELSON MPINA [TANZANIA]:Haya naendelea sasa.Mheshimiwa Rais, vyanzo vya nishati ya umeme tunavyo vingi sana hapa Afrika. Tatizo la kutokuwa na umeme wa uhakika halijulikani nini sababu yake. Kwa sababu vyanzo vya umeme tunavyo vingi sana hapa Afrika na Mwenyezi Mungu katujaalia. Tuna gesi, tuna makaa ya mawe, tuna uranium na tuna nguvu za atom. Vyote hivi vinaweza kabisa kutufanya kuwa na umeme wa uhakika na wa bei nafuu. Lakini bahati mbaya sana umeme huu Waafrika tulionao hautoshi hata nchi moja tu ya Ulaya wa Bara zima hili la Afrika. Hautoshi hata nchi moja tu ya Ulaya, nchi zenye Megawatt nyingi kabisa.Sasa changamoto yetu ni nini? Changamoto yetu kubwa ni kutenga fedha za kutosha kwa ajili ya kujenga miundombinu hii ya umeme. Hiyo ndiyo changamoto kubwa tuliyonayo. Sasa ni lazima tuamue kwa dhati kabisa, tutenge fedha za kutosha kwa ajili ya kutengeneza hii miundombinu ya umeme ili tuhakikishe kwamba Bara letu limepata umeme wa uhakika.La pili, tuhakikishe kwamba tunapeleka wataalam wa kutosha wanaokwenda kusomea masomo haya ya nishati ili mwisho wa siku tuwe na wataalam wanaoweza kutosheleza uanzishaji wa miradi hii.Mheshimiwa Rais, tunapozungumzia umeme, tunazungumzia kila kitu. Kukosekana kwa umeme kunatuchelewesha sana kupiga hatua. Kutokufikia malengo ya millennium kumesababishwa na kiwango kikubwa sana na ukosekanaji wa umeme wa uhakika. Kwa hiyo, lazima tuamue kwa dhati, kwa mfano, tunapozungumzia suala la kuongeza thamani bidhaa zetu, tusipokuwa na umeme wa uhakika haiwezekani. Hata tunapokuwa na umeme wetu huu mdogo tulionao, bado nao ni wa bei ya ghali kama ambavyo ripoti imesema.Sasa ni lazima tuamue kuwekeza kwenye umeme ambao utakuwa ni wa bei nafuu, utakaotuwezesha kuzalisha bidhaa zenye bei nafuu ambazo zitashindana na bidhaa nyingine zinazouzwa kokote duniani ili tuweze kushindana nao kwa dhati na vile vile ongezeko la thamani liweze kuwasaidia wananchi wetu na wakulima wetu.Suala la umeme huu kama ripoti ilivyozungumza, unapokuwa wa gharama kubwa katika ku...PRESIDENT:Thank you Honourable Luhaga. We would like once more to remind the members of Rules Committee who are here to join their colleague in room No. 3. Please, if there are some members here who belong to Rules Committee, go and join the other colleagues. Thank you.The next is Honourable Rachel Shebesh from Kenya. You have the floor.HON. RACHEL SHEBESH [KENYA]:Madam President, I thank you and the Committee for this report. I am especially happy to see that it is talking about energy for sustainable development. We have had, in Africa, energy that is not sustainable.Madam President, we cannot talk about sustainable development and energy if we do not talk about climate change. Unfortunately, the topic of climate change always seems to be in the air with the elite and the technocrats. We, as Parliamentarians, have not taken our role to understand that for us to have sustainable energy, which really is not for domestic use but industrial growth, we must address climate change.Madam President, in terms of climate change adaptation, many suggestions have been given but the most important thing for Africa to realise is that hydro-power fueled by big rivers and waters cannot be sustainable in Africa anymore. In Kenya, for example, because of the deforestation that has happened in the Mau area, we have, through our actions in the Mau as Kenyans, affected the whole region in terms of water supply.The same problem is in Central Africa where, because of the depletion of the forest in the Central African region, lakes like Lake Chad are under threat of disappearing. Therefore, we cannot talk about hydro-power any more. We must embrace new technology.Madam President, I want to speak about geothermal. Geo-thermal is simply a lot of steam that is underground that can be used for energy. Solar, wind and bio are the energies that we must become conversant with.Madam President, the PAP had earlier on, when I was in this Parliament, taken climate change and the issue of renewable energy very seriously. We need Hon. Members to understand renewable energy so that they take that aspect back home because we cannot go hydro-power anymore and neither can we go to expensive energy that our people cannot afford.HON. MUNTAKA MOHAMMED-MUBARAK [GHANA]:Thank you, Madam President.Madam, let me also congratulate the Chairperson and the Committee for the presentation. I wish to associate myself with most of the comments that have been made by my Hon. Colleagues earlier.I just wish to say that most of these issues that we are all talking about are not new. We have been hearing them, we will be repeating them and we have been saying them time and time again. The challenge that we have, as Africans, is that we do not trust each other. We just do not trust each other. We prefer to deal with people who are far away than those who are near us. That is the challenge.Tell me, for how long has Sudan been drilling oil? We still say Sudan does not have the expertise. For how long has Nigeria been drilling oil? We are still saying that Nigeria does not have the expertise.Ghana has had a dam for over 50 years, and we are saying they do not know how to manage hydro dams. Every country in Africa is thinking with the same mind and everybody will always be on his own as if his neighbor is going to eat him up.In West Africa, we have the West African Gas Pipeline. The gas that is being flared in Nigeria into the air, free, could give energy right from Cameroon up to Mauritania and yet when we try to start the West African Gas Pipeline that runs from Nigeria, Benin, Togo, Ghana and Cote D’lvoire, look at the challenges that we have. The challenges that we have are artificial because the multi-nationals who are in Nigeria and Ghana will continue to make sure that it does not work.It is up to us. I surely wonder what our leaders talk about when they meet. We are here and all repeating and saying things but why should Sierra Leone be struggling to build a line when they rely on the West African Gas Pipeline that could run from Nigeria up to Dakar and be able to power all?The basic rule is that, we must not say Ghana alone should build its thermal plant and we will buy from them. Let us, West Africans, as regional caucuses or Africa invest. We know that Nigeria has the potential. Let us put our money together and invest in Nigeria and then the property becomes for all of us. That is the only way forward rather than that you trying to put in ten million dollars and it does not finish. I try to put fifty million dollars and it will not finish. This one will also put in ten million dollars and it will not finish, and all of us will continue to be struggling. Go to the European countries and see.It is not all of them that are producing. We need to separate generation from distribution and transmission. That is the only way we can develop Africa. Other than that, all these valuable documents that we are talking about will not lead us anywhere unless we trust each other and work with each other.Thank you Madam President.HON. RABIA ISSA BINEGDE [ETHIOPIA]:Thank You, Madam President and I also thank the presenter.The energy industry is very important for every system of our development in our continent.Ensuring energy security among African countries and partnership among legislatures is critical in order to have a common understanding on the African Energy Agenda.We, Africans, are rich with natural resources but poor with technology. We have many rivers for hydro-power which are not used.Some African countries have already started building dams for hydro-power on rivers and this is a good indicator to the development of our continent but there is no strong partnership among African countries. They must work as common beneficiaries. We must have good partnerships among us.For an example, my country, Ethiopia, has started to build a big dam on the Nile River. When this dam is finished, it will generate about 60,000 Mega Watts of power. This will be a good opportunity for East African countries. The dam will not impact on the natural flow of the Nile River and there will be no problem for the East African countries with regard to the down flow.It will also protect the environment. So, all East African countries and all African countries can support us by giving good and constructive ideas and imitating us.On behalf of my country, I thank the Eastern African countries for supporting us when we started building the dam.African must have a common agenda on economic development. We must discuss and have consensus on it.Lastly, I support the recommendations given by the Committee.Thank you, Madam PresidentHON. BERNADETA KASABAGO MUSHASHU [TANZANIA]:Mheshimiwa Rais, nakushukuru kwa kunipa nafasi niweze kuchangia kwenye mjadala uliopo mbele yetu unaozungumzia mambo ya nishati kwa ajili ya maendeleo ya Afrika.Kwanza napenda kumshukuru na kumpongeza Mheshimiwa Dr. Bernadette kwa kuwasilisha vizuri sana ripoti yake.Mheshimiwa Rais, nishati ni muhimu sana katika maendeleo ya Afrika. Nchi nyingi za Afrika zina matatizo ya upatikanaji wa nishati na huo upatikanaji mdogo unasababisha kudumaza uchumi wetu katika nchi zetu.Vile vile kuna tatizo kubwa la miundombinu mibovu, kukosekana kwa wataalamu na kukosekana kwa teknolojia ya kisasa ya kuweza kuendeleza Sekta ya Nishati.Mheshimiwa Rais, wote tumeshuhudia, kwa sababu ya mabadiliko ya tabia nchi, watu waliokuwa wanatumia nishati ya maji, mito ilikauka, basi wakapata matatizo makubwa kwa sababu umeme ilibidi uwe unakatikakatika kwa sababu maji yalikuwa yamepungua. Inatubidi sasa tuwe na mipango mikubwa ya kutumia vyanzo vya nishati tofauti na vile tulivyozoea vya fossil fuel kwa sababu hivi vinaongeza hewa ukaa katika mazingira na kusababisha mabadiliko ya tabia nchi.Mheshimiwa Rais, nashauri tuongeze matumizi ya renewable energy au nishati jadidifu kwenye mipango yetu ya nishati katika nchi nikiwa na maana ya energy mix. Lazima tubadilishe, tutumie nishati jadidifu zaidi.Mheshimiwa Rais, inawezekana. Nimekwenda Morocco juzi, nimekuta wanatengeneza mpango na watakuwa wana-export hata umeme kutoka kwenye renewable energy kupeleka nje. Hata Ujerumani wamefanikiwa sana. Kwa hiyo, hata na sisi Afrika tunaweza tukafanya tukafanikiwa.Vile vile nashauri tuwekeze katika umeme wa jua (solar) kwani katika nchi zetu hapa tuna jua la kutosha. Pengine nguvu ya jua inakwenda mpaka Watts 200 per square meter per hour. Pia tuwekeze kwenye geothermal, tunayo, hatujafanya research ya kutosha lakini tunayo; tuwekeze katika nishati ya upepo (wind) kwa sababu kwenye nchi nyingi za kiafrika zina upepo wenye nguvu kati ya 7 – 10 meters per second. Lakini vile vile tuboreshe feeding tariffs ili kuweza kuwashawishi watu binafsi waweze kuwekeza katika nishati jadidifu.Mheshimiwa Rais, naendelea kukushukuru kwamba umenipa nafasi niweze kuchangia kwenye hiki kitu muhimu. Tukiwa na vyanzo vidogo vidogo vya namna hii kwa maana ya mini grid za umeme wa maji, biomass, solar, geothermal and wind, tunaweza kuwafikia watu wengi wakapata umeme, wale walio mbali na main grid.Ahsante Mheshimiwa Rais.PRESIDENT:Thank you Honourable. Next is Honourable Delwa Nouradine from Chad. Is not here. Next is Honourable Ibrahim Bello from Nigeria.HON. IBRAHIM BELLO [NIGERIA]:I thank you, Madam President, for giving me this opportunity to give my intervention.I appreciate the previous foundation made by the Chairperson of this Committee. It is a good and highly commendable job.However, in my observation, the only way we have left to develop our industry in Africa is to make energy available and affordable to both rural and urban areas. This will definitely enhance our initiatives for industrial development.Presently, most African countries are seeking unilateral solutions in respect to their energy problems. However, the idea is for us to cling together as one Africa and one family. We must integrate and look for a whole global solution as energy is a fundamental element of development. The African continent must come together for a unique solution for its sustainable energy.Madam President, I appreciate and support the initiators who proposed this programme. This programme must be recognised and be acceptable to all African countries.Also, we must give priority to renewable energy initiatives. It is cheaper and provides the efficacies of our actions in climate change and other hazardous hurdles and so on.In my conclusion, I appreciate all the proposed programmes buttressed by the Committee.I thank you.HON. AZIZOU EL HADJ ISSA [BÉNIN]:Merci, Madame la Présidente.Je vais, à mon tour, remercier notre collègue qui a présenté le très bon travail fait par sa Commission.Madame la Présidente,Nos collègues ont parlé d’actions isolées de nos pays. D’autres sont revenus sur la colonisation énergétique des pays du Nord. Ce sont des réalités! La conséquence est que nos peuples continuent de souffrir, et tout ce que nous produisons, par exemple, au plan agricole ou les ressources naturelles que Dieu nous a données, malheureusement sur le continent, nous transformons un faible taux à cause de ce problème énergétique.Madame la Présidente,Je crois sincèrement que les commissions permanentes du Parlement panafricain peuvent aller un peu plus loin. Je l’avais déjà dit, mais je reviens encore sur le cas de la Commission Permanente des Transports, de l’industrie, des communications, de l’énergie, des sciences et de la technologie. Je voudrais proposer, qu’à l’issue de l’atelier – je ne sais pas comment on l’a appelé – de la grande réunion qui va se tenir, en tant que législateurs, même si on n’a pas encore le statut, qu’on essaie d’aller un peu plus loin pour proposer un cadre législatif qui va permettre aux décideurs – peut-être, aujourd’hui, les Présidents, les Chefs d’États qui sont là ne vont pas en tenir compte, mais qui sait parmi nous, peut-être dans cinq ans, dans dix ans, il va y avoir des Chefs d’États qui vont retrouver les mêmes textes qu’ils ont proposés et les appliquer à leur tour.Voilà ce que je voudrais proposer. Je crois qu’on a du travail à faire et qu’on peut le faire. Il n’y a que nous pour le faire! Aujourd’hui, tous les problèmes qui ont été posés par le rapport, on peut les transformer en articles d’une loi que le continent peut utiliser.Je vous remercie, Madame la Présidente.(Applaudissements)HON. ISAAC STEPHEN MABILETSA [BOTSWANA]:Thank you, Madam President.Like my colleagues, I start by commending the Chairperson for a very good report and continue to say, Madam President, energy is really a vital resource for the successful economic development of each and every country in the world. Africa, in particular, deserves very good energy resources and it is endowed with those, both from the rivers, the sun and the fossil energy such as coal, you name it. We have all the resources that can make Africa an illuminated continent.We do have that but I realise that one of the biggest problems that we appear to be facing is the lack of a unity of purpose by African leaders, particularly those that are in power because much as we are endowed with all these resources, what appears to be happening, in the majority of, if not all African countries, is that while we have a strength like in oil or in whatever product, we do not use it in Africa. We just take it as raw as it is and ship it abroad where it create jobs for other people. When it comes back as finished product, it is very expensive and beyond the reach of many people.If we take petroleum prices nowadays, because we are selling African oil to the developed countries where prices are already high, when it is refined there and comes back to Africa, the costs are so colossal and make the standards of living very unbearable for ordinary people.I think we need to ask our leaders to have a common unity of purpose on energy because we do have the resources and I do not see why Africa is not trading within itself more than it trades with overseas countries. I do not say those overseas countries are bad but I am saying the starting place should really be Africa itself before it starts looking outwards. We need to work together, Madam President.Finally, Madam President, normally when we open our Parliament here, we invite all sorts of leaders, including those from the African Union Commission. I wonder whether on their Summit of the Heads of State, our Bureau also gets an opportunity to be invited so that all these issues that we are articulating on the floor of Parliament can be heard from a representative of this Parliament live, not through a report. I wonder how many times we get invited.Thank youHON. ASSOUMANA MALAM ISSA [NIGER]:Merci, Madame la Présidente.J’ai un certain nombre d’exemples à dire et puis quelques propositions à faire. Mais avant, je dois relever le leadership de Mme LAHAI et son Bureau– parce que j’appartiens à la Commission – qui ont 7 réussi à faire en sorte que ce projet d’atelier avec le Parlement sud-africain puisse être une réalité, parce que c’est un vieux projet de deux ans. Quand elle a pris la Commission, heureusement pour nous, le projet s’est réalisé. Donc, félicitations à Mme LAHAI et aux membres du Bureau de la Commission Permanente des Transports, de l’industrie, des communications, de l’énergie, des sciences et de la technologie.(Applaudissements)Madame la Présidente, Je ne reviens pas sur ce que les uns et autres ont dit. Mais, je vais prendre un certain nombre d’exemples pour vous permettre d’apprécier la gravité et en même temps l’importance de cette question sur d’énergie.L’Algérie est un grand producteur de gaz. L’Algérie vend du gaz à l’Europe et la Tunisie achète du gaz algérien en Europe. Quelle aberration!Deuxième exemple, Madame Bala Saratou l’a dit, le Niger produit depuis 50 ans de l’uranium.50 % de l’énergie de Paris, de d’éclairage de Paris et l’utilisation de l’énergie à Paris se fait à base de l’uranium du Niger!33 % de l’énergie de la France est fait à base de l’uranium du Niger. Mais on a à peine quatre à cinq mois de pleine énergie par an: des coupures d’électricité, des industries qui ne fonctionnent pas!Le prix du kilowattheure (kWh) n’est pas à la portée du paysan! Une seconde aberration!Un Sénégalais m’a dit – il nous a dit dans cet hémicycle, ce n’est pas un Congolais de RDC qui m’a dit – le Sénégalais a dit que si on arrive à mette en œuvre le barrage d’Inga, toute l’Afrique sera autonome en matière d’énergie.(Applaudissements)Qu’est-ce que nous attendons?(Applaudissements)Pour qu’on puise aider la RDC à mettre en place ce barrage et qu’on mette un mécanisme de partage africain qui puisse nous permettre de ne pas être là, à tendre la main à l’Europe et aux États-Unis?Je fais mes propositions, Madame la Présidente.La première proposition:Je voudrais dire qu’il faut que l’Afrique fasse le point de tous les potentiels énergiques qu’elle a, y comprit les énergies renouvelables et que sur cette base on fasse des propositions d’actions concrètes.La seconde proposition:Je voudrais qu’on organise une rencontre du Parlement panafricain avec les parlements régionaux et les parlements nationaux pour qu’on échange sur les propositions d’actions législatives, allant dans le sens d’assurer concrètement ce partage d’énergie.La dernière proposition:Madame la Présidente,Je propose que la Commission Permanente des Transports, de l’industrie, des communications, de l’énergie, des sciences et de la technologie, envisage une visite du barrage d’Inga.En voyant, à visu, la pertinence et l’importance de ce projet, je crois qu’on ne prendra plus [Temps de parole épuisé].HON. PRITHVIRAJSING ROOPUN [MAURITIUS]:Madam President, I thank you for giving me the floor to intervene on this presentation.Allow me at the every outset to congratulate the presenter of this joint report who is also the Chairperson of the Committee and the Committee for bringing to this House this important report which, I have read, emanates from a joint workshop between the PAP Committee and the South African Parliament Portfolio Committee on Energy.Madam President, this report comes at a very appropriate time and shows how interaction between Members of our Parliament and stakeholders of the energy sector can bring concrete results. The joint report covers a wide range of topics related to the energy sector.Although, the African continent faces enormous challenges in the energy sector, it is yet to unleash its full potential especially in the energy sector.We have been told that three factors hinder that possibility. The first one which has been mentioned is access to technology. The second one is elaboration of policies and the third one is that of investment opportunities. All the three factors, Madam President, impact directly on the price of electricity. Tariffs are high in the energy sector. So, it is our primary role as Members of this Parliament 8 to ensure that electricity tariffs remain affordable to the common man.With regard to policies, Madam President, it is important that we come forward with a legal framework to ensure that private local companies invest in the energy sector. We should come forward with regulatory bodies so that we can attract serious potential investors.One concern which has been raised which I think is of utmost importance that we talk about is with regard to the signing of contracts and agreements. It is proposed, here, Madam President, that such contracts and agreements should come to Parliament for ratification. I support this proposal, Madam President.Another issue is with regard to the formulation of a continental energy policy framework which will be beneficial for the continent.In my humble opinion, I feel that we should come up with such a framework.Thank you, Madam President.HON. CECILIA ATIM-OGWAL [UGANDA]:Thank you, Madam President, and thank you that, today, you have changed your style from being a very gentle humble lady to being militant. I think, sometimes, we need that kind of militarism.Madam President, I was extremely impressed by the very well articulated report by Hon. Bernadette Lahai. I always feel proud when a product of that quality comes from a lady. The people feel that women cannot produce quality work but you can see that this report is holistic, all embracing and has touched on all the sources of energy in Africa. Madam Lahai, I want to congratulate you and your team.Second, Madam President, when people talk about energy, we talk about development of energy for industries and for big things but we forget that 80 per cent of the population in Africa lives in rural areas and it is important that we must focus as we develop a common policy framework. We must ensure that investment is directed towards developing cheap, affordable and accessible energy for our rural population particularly the women. The women know that when they wake up in the morning they go and collect firewood and they come and produce food for the family. However, now we are talking about energy-saving stoves, but when you go to buy the energy-saving stove, it is too expensive for the rural person to afford. So, let us combine the effort. Let us take care of the 80 per cent of the population that lives in the rural areas.Madam, I have seen on page 4 that there are about 30 countries and so many countries which are suffering from darkness in Africa. Really, God is not going to come down to help us and show us what to do in order to develop ourselves. We have already got the sun, knowledge and scientists in Africa and, still, when we discover oil or gas in our countries, we look to foreign countries to come and exploit it for us. We should know that when they come, they have their own agenda. The agenda is not for you, the agenda is to make money.HON. DR. BERNADETTE LAHAI [SIERRA LEONE]:I thank you, Madam President. I want to thank all those that have contributed and those who would have liked to contribute but did not have the chance.I am happy that the report has been accepted by everybody. Of course, the issue of energy is an issue of life because life on earth cannot continue without access to energy in whatever form. Madam Cecilia just spoke about the energy which men and women use in rural areas, the charcoal fuel. That is an energy source. In fact, that is the most common energy that Africa uses for lighting and cooking. However, we are also talking of energy for development.I agree that the issues covered in this energy paper are not new. However, what is new about what we have done is to start to develop Parliamentary initiatives to take the issues and challenges of African energy as being in the hands, not only of policy makers, but lawmakers as well.I agree that we have all these resources. However, the issue is how do we, either at regional or continental level, maximise these resources by engaging in big continental projects? I know that under the PIDA in the energy sector, we have continental, regional and sub-regional projects. The Inga project is one such. We also have developed, at our regional levels, various power pool arrangements. One Hon. Member spoke about the gas pipeline in West Africa. We are also thinking of a solar system in the Sahara Desert. So, I agree that we cannot do it alone because, sometimes, the cost of individual countries developing these resources is high but that countries that share different borders that have different energy resources should come together and see the resources that they have in energy which if exploited can serve that sub-region.I wholly agree with the suggestion that Africa does not have all the data with regards to the potential of all its energy sources. While some countries have done their own research, others are yet to have upto-date information on the energy resources available. This is a must. However, most importantly, we must start putting together a continental framework on energy. We have individual frameworks but the problem has always been the uncoordinated policies not only in the sector of energy but transport, environment and climate change. Energy is one of those sectors that cut across all the other sectors. All the other sectors have implications for energy. You cannot do agriculture without energy especially for post harvesting. When we talk of transportation, we are talking of energy. Therefore, we need to look at the continental level with a view to coming up with a framework.Honourable Members, I have only five minutes to wind up, but let me say that we are looking forward to organising a continental conference on energy bringing together all the continental, regional and national Parliaments to see how we can take the issue of energy forward especially from the framework of having one legislation.The issue of agreements and contracts is also a very thorny one. Most times, when these contracts come to Parliament, they come with all the urgency that these ministers can come up with. It is as if, without signing the contract the next day, the investors will go away. Therefore, we do not have time, as Members of Parliament, to study these contracts and understand what they are about or take them to our communities for further elaboration. I think that we must take the issue of contracts into consideration.However, my issue is that contract understanding and assessment is an issue of skill. Therefore, we must ensure that we build our skills in assessing what good contracts are. We should not just have contracts for contracts’ sake. There are certain guidelines, principles and merits of what a good contract is. So, I think that capacity building is also important for us in Parliament especially when year in and year out Parliamentarians come and go. The energy committees in Parliaments need to build their skills and repertoire on how to interpret good contracts.Hon. Members, with these few interventions, I would like to thank everybody for participating. We look forward to the PAP giving us the necessary support so as to implement some of the recommendations that are in this report. We also want to thank the Government of South Africa and the facilities that we have worked with. They are willing and ready to work with us. We thank the Department of Energy and my counterpart in the South African Parliament for having encouraged this initiative.I thank you.HON. VICE PRESIDENT:The report is hereby adopted. Thank you.We have an announcement from the Secretariat.THE CLERK:Thank you, Madam President.Hon Members, a mobile phone has been picked up in the ladies’ bathroom at the back of the Chamber. Please, contact Mr. Akibati or Mr Issa if you have misplaced a gadget like that.Thank you.THE PRESIDENT:Thank You.With that, we can now break for lunch and come back at 1430 hours for the electionS.Thank you.THE PRESIDENT:Hon. Members, please, be seated.The Clerk shall read the Third Order of the day. Mr. Clerk.THE CLERK:Election of the Fourth Vice President of the Pan African Parliament.THE PRESIDENT:The House shall now proceed to the election of the 4th Vice President in accordance with Rule 16 of our Rules of Procedure. We will begin by calling on each one of the candidates to present themselves and thereafter call on the Clerk to explain the voting procedure and then voting takes place. Then we will announce the results of the ballot and then call up the winner to extend gratitude to the electorate and then the winner will be sworn in by the President. So, Mr Clerk, please invite each one of the candidates to present themselves for five minutes.HON. SALEH KEBZABO [TCHAD]:Question de clarification, Monsieur le Président!THE PRESIDENT:Yes.240 HON. SALEH KEBZABO [TCHAD]:Oui, Monsieur le Président!Je voudrais savoir si dans la procédure de l’élection des membres du Bureau, il est prévu qu’il y ait des interventions de soutien à chacun des candidats. En d’autres termes, est-ce que vous avez prévu qu’un ou deux députés peuvent intervenir pour soutenir telle ou telle candidature?Merci.(Murmures dans la salle)MR PRESIDENT:Thank you very much. We have not seen it in our Rules of Procedure or practice but I am sure that you can support them by the campaign that they have had already.THE CLERK:Thank you, Mr President, we shall call upon...UN HONORABLE MEMBRE:En attendant, Monsieur le Président, s’il vous plaît!Monsieur le Président,Le communiqué du Secrétaire général nous annonce que le Groupe régional de l’Afrique orientale, plutôt australe lui a soumis les noms des candidats.Je crois qu’on devrait corriger la version française en parlant de l’Afrique australe.On a parlé de l’Afrique australe, c’est la partie Sud de l’Afrique.Or, les candidats viennent de la partie orientale, Afrique de l’Est.C’est une précision dans le communiqué en français.(Applaudissements)THE PRESIDENT:Thank you very much.Secretariat, please take note of that correction of a missing word.THE CLERK:Thank you, Mr President. We shall call on Hon. Dr. Ashebir Woldegiorgis Gayo.HON. ASHEBIR WOLDEGIORGIS GAYO [ETHIOPIA]:Hon. Bethel Amadi, my President and President for the PAP, the Hon. Vice-Presidents, Hon. Members of the PAP, Hon. Juliana, my sister and good friend, Mr Clerk and Deputy Clerk of the PAP, allow me to take this opportunity to thank you all for giving me this opportunity to address you to justify my reasons for seeking your vote and support.Hon. Colleagues, as you all know, today, we are going for elections because the mandate of the former Fourth Vice-President of the PAP is over according to Article 9 (2) of the Rules of Procedure of the PAP.Mr President and Hon. Members, we should not speak or act against our own Rules of Procedure. I hope that you all agree that the term of the former Fourth Vice President is over and, therefore, this agenda for elections is legitimate.Mr President and Hon. Members, since we are not posing the question of legitimacy, let me justify why I seek your support for the position of Fourth Vice-President of the Bureau.My Name is Dr Ashebir Woldegiorgis Gayo. I was born in 1963. I am a doctor of medical science. I am a Prosthodontist. I am managing director and owner of my hospital, chain of clinics and pharmaceutical companies.Dr Gayo, who is seeking your vote, is a politician, businessman and leader of many international and national administrations. I was President of the Ethiopian Football Federation and Vice-President of Eastern and Central African Football Council (CECAFA). I was an executive member of the Ethiopian Olympic Committee, a member of the Federation of International Football Associations (FIFA) and a member of the Confederation of African Football (CAF) General Assembly and a member of the Tournament Organising Committee of the African Confederation.Currently, I am President of the Ethiopian Dental Institutions’ Owners’ Association. In my political career, I am the only independent Parliamentarian of the House of People’s Representatives of the Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia. The House has 547 Members. Can you imagine that I am the only independent Member out of 507?ApplauseHON. ASHEBIR WOLDEGIORGIS GAYO:At the same time, I am the Vice Chairperson of the Committee on Science Technology and Communications at my national Parliament. Hon. Members, I am also the Chairperson of the Standing Committee on Health, Labour and Social Affairs at the PAP.Mr President and Hon. Members, I seek your vote to serve you and be your voice in the Bureau of the PAP as well as in the AU where we have many challenges. I commit myself to work and to listen to my President, His Excellency President Bethel Amadi, and other Bureau Members. I respect and will continue respecting my President and the Bureau. I urge you to vote for Dr Gayo and take advantage of my close connection to the AU Headquarters. As you know, I am an Ethiopian national and the headquarters of the AU is just five minutes away from my house.ApplauseWith the permission and instruction of my President, the Bureau and this august House, I can be your Permanent Representative of the PAP at the AU. I can serve you. Currently, you fly to Addis Ababa, to the headquarters, three or four times in a year. However, I am in Addis Ababa everyday. We have many challenges such as the issue of the transformation of the PAP into a legislative body which need permanent dialogue, discussion, sensitisation and advocacy which I can make using the advantage of my position as an Ethiopian where the AU is located.ApplauseHon. Members, I can perform these missions at no cost. At no cost I can perform these duties.ApplauseMr President and Honourable Members, it is disappointing to see Hon. Members travel Economy Class while junior staff from the AU travel Business Class. It is humiliating that junior staff from the AU are chairing meetings of election observer missions.It is unacceptable. The PAP is not heading or coheading these elections observer missions. It is unacceptable. The PAP is not heading or co-heading these election observer missions. Together with my President and Bureau, I will, therefore, ask our political authorities to respect the people of Africa and the rights given by our African taxpayers.Silence is not in my nature especially when Hon. Members are not respected.ApplauseMaybe, the Hon. Members who were in the Zimbabwe Election Observer Mission witnessed the challenges we faced and how I handled them.ApplauseVote for me. I will work on your behalf. Today, when you make your decision to vote, the entire Africa will see the level of maturity where the PAP has reached. It will be a big lesson for those who were planning to change or amend existing Articles or Rules of Procedure to stay in office.Mr President and Hon. Members, I believe that all Members who are present in this august House are capable or deserve to be leaders of the PAP. The leadership should rotate like our AU Heads of State and the European Union (EU) leaders. Once we finish our term, let us give chance to others. Let us respect other countries that have not held these positions. The term may be short or long. It is up to us Members to decide to go for either a long or short term.ApplauseIf I stand for another term after finishing my seventeen months mandate - I know that this time, I am going for seventeen months and not three years - this august House should not vote for me.ApplauseVoting for me is demonstrating the spirit of mutual respect and understanding. It shows the commitment of the PAP to building democratic administration. I know and am sure that this august House is working in the best interests of the PAP and, as usual, will stick to the fundamental principles.Mr President and Hon. Members, I will say that I was lucky when I was a student in medical university, especially in the tutorial class. I was the only gentleman out of thirteen students. The rest were ladies. Can you imagine what hospitality and care I enjoyed?ApplauseHowever, my sisters from my group were not happy. They were always asking about gender balance.Hon. Members, today, at the PAP, we should consider gender balance.ApplauseHon. President, Vice-President, Hon. Members of the PAP and Mr Clerk, I would like to conclude by saying that let us vote for Dr Gayo to inspire the fundamental principles of the PAP. Let us give chance to all and accelerate our activities by electing Dr Ashebir Woldegiorgis Gayo of Ethiopia.One Africa, one voice.I thank you. Merci boucou, Obligador, Shoklan, Asante.ApplauseJULIANA KANTANGWA [RWANDA]:Your Excellency Mr President, Hon. Dr Amadi, my dear sister Hon. Kasingo the Third Vice President whom I have had the honour to work with for a long time, Hon. Colleagues, great men and women of Africa, I salute you in the name of God, the most merciful.I believe you know why I am here. I am not in a Court of Law. I am not good at the interpretation of Rules, which we leave to the Committee on Rules. Anyhow, a few things need some clarification.My elementary knowledge of gender balance and as approved by Hon. Members in our reviewed Protocol which is ongoing, we state that we shall have two of either gender meaning any two of either sex. So, gender balance does not mean one being better than the other but we said two of either gender. Thank you, very much.I also wanted to remind the House that in its wisdom it voted for a period of a three-year mandate, not seventeen months. In deciding on a three-year mandate, that was the minimum time that the House felt any reasonable Bureau would make an impact. If we are going to change the rules to go for seventeen months, I am afraid it will be a very short time.Anyhow, Mr President, dear Hon. Colleagues, I wish to congratulate you all for the giant strides that the PAP has undertaken since its inception.I was especially happy that last week you applauded the Activity Report of your Hon. President which he presented on behalf of the Bureau that you elected in May, 2012 and I was inclusive and was part and parcel of that Activity Report.ApplauseLet me remind you of a few of the highlights of this Activity Report that you applauded.1.The staff structure has been approved for the first time. Since 2004, we have been operating without a staff structure. It was approved by the AU.2.There is an audit compliance trend which was highlighted for the first time that we have a positive report by the EC.3.Several advocacy missions that our Hon. President has carried out to consult with different Heads of State. Let me remind you, Hon. Colleagues, that our different State parties, the Heads of State, do not reside in Addis Ababa.4.A Forum of African Ambassadors based in Pretoria which we always consult before beginning the Session which is a new innovation of the current Bureau.5.An expanded donor base. Hon. Colleagues, especially the female Members of the PAP, know that, last year, we did not have full funding for our Women’s Conference this year. This time around, we have full funding for it.6.The much coveted medical cover for all Members of Parliament...aroundApplauseThese are some of the few achievements that I am able to highlight that were carried out by the Bureau in the short time that it has been in office and you applauded this report meaning that was a vote of confidence in your Bureau, meaning that you were asking them to please continue with the same speed. Hon Members, was I not here? Was I not part of this Bureau? Did you not vote me in last time? I have been part and parcel of this Bureau and part and parcel of the achievements of this Bureau only up to yesterday and because we have to concur with our Rules of Procedure, I had to step down - for I have come from an election - and follow the Rules of Procedure as interpreted to date. Is that a crime?I think it is no reason to give me a vote of no confidence by singling me out of these Hon. Members who are performing all the work on your behalf and then you say, "Juliana, come out" before the end of the three-year mandate that you gave them.Hon. Members, I stand here to request for your vote. I beseech you. There is no reason I should not be voted back to finish the mandate together with my Colleagues in the Bureau because I have been performing with them. I surely deserve your vote.Hon. Members, concerning my educational background, I studied at Makerere University in Uganda, Nairobi University and Reading University in the United Kingdom (UK). I studied Veterinary Medicine and I also did Livestock Economics.Dear Hon. Colleagues, I have sufficient and relevant experience as well as the required skills to continue in the Bureau and afford ourselves to reach greater heights.We have been talking about the transformation of PAP for a long time. We have already set in motion different processes and I believe they will soon be bearing fruit. That is why I am here to ask for your vote and by voting for me, I will continue supporting my Hon. Colleagues like I have been doing in a team spirit so that we are able to achieve even greater heights than we have had.I have already highlighted a few of the elements that captivated you in the Hon. President’s Activity Report. I believe that given more consolidation we can achieve greater heights. Please, vote for me. I beg you and request you and I thank you for that.Thank you very much.THE PRESIDENT:Hon. Members, now that we have heard from the candidates, I now call on the Clerk to explain the voting procedures.THE CLERK:Thank you, Mr President. Hon. Members, the process is based on the rules. The fundamental rule is that the outcome is determined by the Hon. Members’ presence and voting. So, that is what is going to determine the outcome: Members who are present and voting. So, the ultimate winner will be counted or calculated from the total of the Members present and voting. Members will register their names and then we will call them one by one and then they will register and vote. Then, we will put the vote in the transparent box in that order and then eventually we will count the votes. So, now we are going to count the number of Hon Members present and voting so that we have that total against which we will determine the outcome.THE PRESIDENT:Hon, Members, I crave your indulgence that we close the doors of the Chamber but Hon. Members who are still coming after we have started can still be accredited and only Hon. Members should be let into the hall during the voting. Now that we have seen and heard from the Clerk on the voting procedure, I think I still need to emphasise that the ballot paper contains only two candidates. Please tick only one box so that you do not invalidate your vote. We will now begin the process. The Secretariat should, please, take a tally of those Hon. Members present in the Chamber and, also, after a tally has been taken, it will be announced and then we will begin to vote, one after the other.THE CLERK:I thank you, Hon. Members. The total number of Hon. Members present and voting is 113. We are going to start on the left hand side to call the Members, starting with the Vice President.We would like to show you the ballot paper.HON. MEMBER:Procedure!HON. MEMBERS:Stand up HON. MEMBER: I am here.THE CLERK:There is no Presiding Officer. I cannot preside. These are ballot papers. We would like to open them.HON. MEMBER:I just wanted to work as…InterruptionsHON. MEMBER:I am of the view that we use the attendance list. Whoever goes there ticks against their name. It may save us time.THE CLERK:Hon. Members, when you come to the desk, you will tick your name before you get your ballot paper. Here, you will sign your name and then you take the ballot paper.Thank you.THE CLERK:Hon. Members, please be seated. We are counting the number of votes cast.The votes were counted loudly before the MembersTHE CLERK: Now, we go straight ahead to announce the outcome of the vote.French [16:03:01 – 16:03:06]HON. SALEH KEBZABO [TCHAD]:Vous devez compter le nombre de gens qui ont signé, et les membres doivent correspondre au nombre de bulletins!THE CLERK:Hon. Members, the headcount was 113. The number of signatures is 113. The number of votes cast is 113. Everything corresponds exactly.ApplauseTHE CLERK:Thank you.The President has advised that the candidates nominate people to observe the count. Honourable Gayo, is there anybody that you will nominate to come and observe?Agents were nominatedTHE CLERK:Will the two agents for the two candidates go across to announce the votes as they have been cast?Votes cast were announced name by name as castTHE CLERK:Now, I am going to announce the votes for each of the candidates, one after the other. We will start with Honourable Gayo.The votes cast for Hon. Gayo were counted loudly before the Members.THE CLERK:Hon. Gayo has seventy-three votes. We are now going to count Honourable Kantangwa’s votes.ApplauseThe votes cast for Hon. Kantangwa were counted loudly before the Members.THE CLERK:Honourable Kantangwa has forty votes and Hon. Gayo has seventy-three votes. Seventy-three plus forty is 113.ApplauseTHE PRESIDENT:Hon. Members, I have received, from the Clerk, the tally of votes from the election. I, hereby, announce the results as follows:Hon. Juliana Kantangwa, 40 votes; Hon. Dr. Gayo, 73 votes.ApplauseTHE PRESIDENT:I, hereby, declare Honourable Dr. Gayo the winner. He is elected Fourth Vice President of the PAP.ApplauseTHE PRESIDENT:Let me also invite the winner to express his gratitude to the Hon. Members.Honourable Dr. Gayo, please.ApplauseHON. ASHEBIR WOLDEGIORGIS GAYO [ETHIOPIA]:Hon. Mr President of the PAP, Dr Amadi, Hon. Vice Presidents, Hon. Members of the PAP and Hon. Juliana Kantangwa, my sister.I would like to take this opportunity to thank you all for voting for me and also for voting for Hon. Juliana.Today, we witnessed and reflected on how we are living in the spirit of democracy. This lesson will be taken as a good lesson and everybody here will be in this position. We will support each other. We will go table by table for this position. As witnessed today, tomorrow I will also vote for one of you.Hon. Mr President, I would like to promise that I will listen to you and be committed to your instructions, the Bureau and will work together for the best interest of the PAP.Depending on instructions, I will be at your disposal to work at the AU where we have big challenges and big problems. We would like, as we started very well, to proceed to do that and we will work together.I thank you for your support.God bless the PAP.THE CLERK:I now call on Honourable Ashebir Woldergiorgis Gayo to come forward for the swearing in.ApplauseThe following Member was sworn in as Fourth Vice President:Hon. Dr Ashebir Woldergiorgis Gayo - EthiopiaApplauseTHE PRESIDENT:Hon. Members, we, as a House during the session, held a special session in honour of our late former President, His Excellency Hon. Dr Idriss Ndele Moussa based on the Motion moved by Hon. Cecilia Atim-Ogwal from Uganda. We agreed that Hon. Members could make contributions and we, therefore, just want to announce that we still require Hon. Members to make these contributions to Hon. Cecilia Atim-Ogwal who can also receive from the various regions because, by tomorrow, most Hon. Members might be leaving. So, this is just a reminder, Hon. Members.HON. CECILIA ATIM-OGWAL:Thank you, Mr President. It has been a bit problematic to approach people individually. So, I had requested if collections could be done through the Chairpersons of the Regional Caucuses so that the Regional Caucuses can meet tomorrow because tomorrow is our last day of the session of Parliament. Whatever collection we would have made, we can bring them over to the Office of the President. Can, I therefore, request the Chairpersons of the various Regional Caucuses to, please, meet after this so that we can agree on what we have really done so far. I have already got collections from some Hon. Members, not only from Eastern Caucus, even from others who have given me individually, but I am aware that there are some Regional Caucuses that have also collected some money.So, we can find a way of putting them together. I thank you your Excellency and I would also like to add if you can give me this opportunity that we feel that Parliament should be able to nominate a person to hand over this money to the family on our behalf. I think in our African culture, it may not be right for us to delegate the Chairperson of the Central Caucus to hand over this money. It will not carry that spirit. It would be like they are doing what they have already done. I believe the Central Caucus had already paid their tribute of visiting the family but now we feel that if there was a way we could sponsor one person to team up with the Central Caucus and personally hand over our contributions to the family.So this is my personal request.I thank you, Mr President.ApplauseTHE PRESIDENT:Thank you very much, Hon. Members.Hon. Members, we have now come to the end of our business for today. Therefore, this House stands adjourned until tomorrow, Thursday, 31 October, 2013 at 9:00 a.m.
Thursday, 31 October, 2013
THE PRESIDENT:I will now allow an opportunity for silent prayer and meditationHon. Members had a moment of silence.Please be seated.Hon. Members, let me now invite the Clerk to read the First Order of the day.THE CLERK:Thank you Hon. President:Presentation and debate of the Report of the Committee on Administration and Financial Evaluation.THE PRESIDENT:May I call upon the Hon. Chief Fortune Charumbira, Chairperson of the Committee on Administration and Financial Evaluation to present the Committee’s Report.HON. MEMBER:Point of Order Mr. President.THE PRESIDENT:Yes, Hon. Member.HON. MEMBER:Mr President, I thought you announced the day before yesterday that the ICC Motion would be brought today and, as I can see, it is not in the business. Thank you.HON. CHIEF FORTUNE CHARUMBIRA [ZIMBABWE]:Mr President, I thank you for the opportunity to present this report. Hon. Members, good morning. This is a report of the Committee on Administration and Financial Evaluation (CAFE).IntroductionThis report highlights the status of implementation of recommendations emanating from the CAFE final report of May, 2012 and the recommendations of the Special Assignment Report for October, 2012. The report focuses on the deliverables that were considered as quick wins and prioritised for urgent implementation in compliance with the recommendations stipulated in both reports namely the Special Assignment Report for October, 2012 and CAFÉ final report of May, 2012.The areas covered include Value Added Tax (VAT) recovery, PAP Trust Fund, Adoption of the International Public Sector Accounting Standards (IPSAS), Pastel and SAP Usage, PAP Procedure Manuals, PAP Approved Organisational Structure and the Composition of the Appointment, Promotion Recruitment Board (APRB) among others.Furthermore, the PAP underwent recent internal and external audits. However, due to time constraints, CAFE was unable to review the External Board of Auditors Report of 2013, the Internal Auditor Report of 2012 and EC External Auditor Report of 2013. CAFÉ undertakes to report on the said reports in the next 2014 report.The preparation of this report was consultative and involved the review of key documents submitted to CAFE by the secretariat and thesis and briefing from the Clerk of Parliament and Members of Staff of the Secretariat and interface with the PAP Bureau with a view to solicit input from its members.Hon. Members, you know that CAFE was unable to submit a report during the May Plenary due to erratic attendance of meetings and frequent replacement of members of the committee. Attaining a quorum became problematic, especially with the prolonged political situations, elections and financial constraints to fund Members’ attendance in some countries. In fact, some Members have not been able to attend. However, CAFE is pleased to report that eight out of ten Members attended the October meeting.BackgroundCAFE was reconstituted through a PAP plenary resolution adopted on the 16th of May, 2012, with an expanded scope to include financial audit functions and other performance operational functions to ensure accountability, efficiency and effectiveness in the management in the administration of the PAP. Specifically, CAFE was expected to probe and suggest solutions on matters related to the institutional administrative and financial shortcomings identified in the PAP. In effect, the lifespan of CAFE was extended to the end of this third Parliament.CAFE is composed of 10 PAP Members on the basis of two designated Members by each region. The membership of CAFÉ is indicated in the report but I will not read the table showing the composition of the membership of CAFE.In August, 2012, the joint meeting of the PAP Bureau and Committee Bureaus that was held in Pretoria, South Africa decided to give Cafe a special assignment. That assignment was a result of the briefing by the PAP President, Hon. Bethel Amadi on the observations and recommendations of the Ernest and Young Four Pillar Institutional Assessment of 2012 which was a follow-up to a similar exercise that was done in 2010. The 7 objective of the Ernest and Young Assessment was to determine the readiness of PAP to:(a)Carry out the tasks in the joint management mode in accordance with the financial regulations applicable to the 10th European Development Fund (EDF); and(b)Evaluate the status of implementation of the recommendations made during the 2010 institutional assessment with regard to accounting, auditing, internal control, internal audit, procurement standards and procedures which would help to determine whether the PAP had complied with the four pillar requirements.The 2012 Report disclosed a disturbing shortfall in the areas of budgeting, auditing, internal controls and procurement systems. By implication, the PAP will not be eligible to mobilise adequate financial resources to implement programmatic activities. In addition, this implies that PAP will continue to obtain its funding through the AUC instead of getting direct support through joint management with the EC.If PAP applies the requisite standards in accounting, audit, internal control and procurement procedures, it will offer guarantees equivalent to internationally accepted standards. PAP should, therefore, endeavour to improve its standards and meet the requirements set by the EC under the four Pillar Assessment frameworks.After hearing this briefing, the joint meeting of the PAP Bureau and Committee Bureaus mandated CAFE with a Special Assignment under the following terms:(a)Carry out investigations into the irregularities contained in the PAP Special Audit Report of 2004-2008 and the Ernest and Young Institutional Assessment Reports of 2010 and 2012 and the External Audit Report of 2009, 2010 and 2011 on PAP;(b)Recommend remedial procedures to prevent the recurrence of the irregularities found in the above mentioned reports;(c)Identify individuals, groups of persons or units whose actions or inactions are directly or indirectly responsible or have contributed to the poor performance and irregularities contained in the report and to recommend appropriate sanctions; and(d)Develop a work plan to guide the implementation of some of the recommendations found in the above stated Audit Reports.CAFE carried out the Special Assignment and reported its findings to the PAP Ordinary Session held on 16th October, 2012. Due to the confidentiality of the contents of the report, it was presented in a closed session of the plenary.The Special Assignment Report specifically proposed a turn-around roadmap for the PAP that should be applied for over six months. In that roadmap, issues were split into three components. There were quick wins, those matters that must have been addressed within three months and those that required six months.CAFE met from 8th to 12th April, 2013, to follow up the implementation and developments related to the recommendations of the CAFE Report of May, 2012, and the recommendations of the Special Assignment Report. On the basis of the findings obtained during this sitting of the Committee, it compiled an interim report that was submitted to the plenary consistent with the provisions of the resolution establishing CAFE that states that the Committee should submit a report to the Plenary every six months. Also, the terms of reference for the Special Assignment instructed CAFE to monitor and evaluate the implementation of the recommendations of the special assignment.Updates on Status of Implementation of Cafe RecommendationsGovernance at PAPBoth the 2010 and 2012 Ernest and Young Assessment Reports and other reports have noted problems of governance in the PAP system. The Protocol establishing the PAP bestows the President 8 of the PAP and the Vice Presidents with political and administrative responsibilities in the day-to-day operations of the institution. The Clerk of Parliament, who is the head of administration, takes instructions from the Bureau. The notion of the Executive Bureau as spelled out in the PAP Protocol recognises members of the Bureau as officers of the PAP. The implication is that the Bureau has functional administrative responsibilities over and above the political roles they play as stipulated in the Protocol Article 12 (5) and (6) and PAP Rules of Procedure, Rule 17(a).RecommendationCAFE recommends that the Protocol and the rules should be complied with to ensure that the Bureau is the management authority until such a time that the amended Protocol is in place.International Public Sector Accounting Standards (IPSAS)The Special Report of CAFE recommended the adaptation of International Public Sector Accounting Standards issued by the board of IPSAS. The adaptation of these standards was meant to assist PAP with using accounting standards that are transparent and can form a reference point for international donors who may wish to finance the activities of the PAP.The Committee was informed that PAP could not implement the IPSAS ahead of other organs of the AU. The AU is currently in the process of implementing IPSAS in all its organs and the PAP is already part of this process and is a member of the technical task force since September, 2013. The AUC has received an amount of US$ 1.5 million from the European Commission (EC) to facilitate the implementation of IPSAS. In January, 2014, PAP will commence the implementation of IPSAS.RecommendationCAFE will continue to follow up on the implementation of the IPSAS to ensure that the PAP is in compliance.Implementation Of Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP)-SAPThe Ernest & Young Four Pillar Assessment Report recommended that the PAP should adopt the use of PASTEL Evolution as opposed to SAP for Accounting, Procurement and Human Resource Management. Following this recommendation, the PAP went on to cancel the subscription and contract it had with SAP in October, 2012.The PAP Secretariat appointed a committee headed by the Internal Auditor to explore the different versions of PASTEL available and recommend a version that could meet the needs of PAP. The committee has since completed its work and recommended the adoption of PASTEL Evolution.The PAP has bought all the software and licences required to implement PASTEL. However this has been stopped. At the time of compiling this report, the PAP had not implemented PASTEL Evolution because it is in the process of implementing IPSAS. The AUC recommended that all organs should use SAP hosted by the AUC. This is meant to ensure standardisation and facilitate the consolidation of financial reports for all AU organs.The migration from PASTEL to SAP will commence in January, 2014. This process will entail installation of the equipment and training of all staff, including the internal IT staff for the effective use of SAP. It should be reported that the IT Unit has been enhanced with the recruitment of an IT Administrator, supported by an IT Assistant.Furthermore, the PAP has already initiated the process for the implementation of SAP by contacting the AUC for the hosting of the SAP system which they agreed to.RecommendationPAP Secretariat should conduct a due diligence on the advantages and disadvantages of having AUC to host the SAP on behalf of PAP by using an independent technical advice before going that route.Secondly, PAP staff involved in the implementation and usage of SAP must be trained to enable them possess competencies and skills required to effectively use SAP.In future, a project of this kind should be costed and properly planned to understand the full budgetary implications.Excessive Liquidity/Handling of Petty Cash Several Audit Reports have noted that the PAP is usually in possession of excessive amounts of cash.The handling of large amounts is a cost to PAP as 9 well as a risk to both PAP and the officers who handle the cash. CAFE, during its interface with Heads of the Finance and the Internal Audit Departments, was informed that the current cost paid to security companies to handle and transfer cash to PAP is 10 per cent. This cost sounded outrageous to CAFE and efforts to obtain physical proof from both the Internal Audit and Finance Department could not bear fruit. CAFE will follow up on this issue in the next report.The reason for handling excessive cash is that the PAP usually conducts missions in places that do not have well-established banking facilities and some recipients of payments from PAP prefer to be paid in cash, especially MPs and staff travelling on missions.The Secretariat has committed itself to reducing the amount of cash handled by the PAP and to use bank transfers as the most preferred method of carrying out payments. In some instances, the Secretariat has resorted to paying for services through the usage of bank transfers and ensuring that those who travel on missions are paid before departure.The Secretariat has also initiated discussions with some banks about the possibility of opening a Bureau De Change within the PAP premises to service Members of Parliament during sessions.Generally, the Secretariat has resolved not to pay in cash for services unless that service qualifies for such payment under the AU Financial Rules and Regulations, Article 83. The payment of salaries of staff and support staff during committees and sessions are done through bank transfers. Following a Bureau directive, the PAP has made a lot of progress which has reduced cash on hand balances from US$ 3,187,101 at the end of October, 2012, to US$ 1,338,508 of the same period in the current financial year which constitutes a 58 per cent reduction. The volume of cash has been reduced. Interpreters will be paid through bank transfers. For missions, payments of per diems are usually paid by cash.RecommendationThe Secretariat should pursue talks with banks on the possibility of providing mobile banking services during sessions or any other solution to this challenge. In line with the Bureau directive, no staff salary is to be paid in cashRetirement of ImprestFrom various audit reports, CAFÉ noted several instances of non retirement of imprest advances to staff on missions despite the AU rules clearly providing guidance on the timely retirement of imprest upon returning to the station. Despite a directive by the Bureau that all undisputed outstanding imprest accounts must be recovered from staff salaries, staff are still not complying with this directive.RecommendationThe rule that guides the recovery of non-retired imprest from staff salary must be implemented immediately.To avoid loss to the PAP, the amounts must be recovered with interest that the PAP would have earned if these monies had been in an interest account.All staff members who have failed to retire such imprest must be issued with the necessary sanctions provided for in the AU Staff Rules and Regulations.Value Added Tax (VAT) Recovery The Special Audit Report of CAFE noted that the PAP continues to lose a lot of money through the failure to file for tax rebates. Particularly, the PAP had not filled for some of the rebates associated with VAT. This failure was inexcusable more so that the PAP is a diplomatic mission in South Africa and is entitled to seeking VAT rebates.The PAP has experienced problems with recovering VAT for services that took place prior to 2011 because some of the records are not available. Also, some companies are not VAT listed. However, since the publication of the CAFE special report, PAP has been able to recover 90 percent of the VAT rebates for the year 2011 and 2012. For the year 2011, US$18, 464 was recovered, while US$ 52, 384 was recovered for 2012.As of December, 2012, the VAT due to the PAP was US$ 88,842.65. A reconciliation of the VAT receivable amounts for the period 2007-2012 revealed that US$ 37,061.15 was posted to the VAT receivable account. The effect is reduction in the VAT balance. Furthermore, a VAT refund of US$ 12,660.66 relating to 2012 was received from the South African Revenue Services (SARS) in September, 2013, which in effect, reduced the VAT 0 refund balance. Based on the above, the VAT balance was reduced by US$ 49,721.81 and the current balance of US$ 39, 120.84 is the cumulative amount of rejected VAT claims from 2007 to 2012.RecommendationThe PAP must make it a policy to transact business only with companies that have up-to-date VAT certification. This provision must be incorporated in the PAP Procurement Plan that is being formulated by the PAP Procurement Department. The Bureau directive on this issue must be implemented.Trust FundThe PAP engaged a lawyer to assist with resolving the issue of the Trust Fund. The lawyer has since advised the PAP that the way in which the trust deed was drafted does not favour the PAP. According to the lawyer, it appears as if the formation of the Trust Fund was a well orchestrated scam meant to defraud the PAP. The relationship between the PAP and the trustees is not very clear and does not clearly state that the trustees are accountable to the PAP for the transactions they carry out in the Trust Fund. As such, the lawyer has indicated that it may not be easy for the PAP to bring these trustees to justice.The lawyer advised that it is more feasible for the PAP to pursue Nedbank on account of the fact that some of the withdrawals carried out violated the agreement between the bank and the Trust Fund. There is evidence that some of the withdrawals were approved by the bank despite the fact that they were not signed by two office bearers or trustees as per the agreement between the trust fund and the bank.Following the advice from the lawyer, the Bureau of the PAP has written a letter to Nedbank requesting an explanation and demanding a refund of all the transactions that were conducted unprocedurally. Nedbank has not yet accepted liability or complicity to the violation of the rules for withdrawing money from the Trust Account they administered. The position of Nedbank is that it is not answerable to the PAP on matters related to the management of the Trust Fund Account. They can only answer to the trustees of the account.Meanwhile, Nedbank recently wrote to the PAP informing it about the charges that are being accumulated by the dormant Trust Fund Account and advising the PAP to close the account if it does not intend to keep the account active. In response, the President of the PAP Bureau directed the Clerk of Parliament to remind the bank that the PAP has got no authority over the administration of that account.Also, the Bureau has instructed the Clerk to write the Zambian Government querying the conduct of one of the trustees, Mr Chiti, who has since been deployed as an Ambassador by the Zambian Government. The records of the Trust Fund Account demonstrate that most of the transactions effected on the account where done by Mr Chiti. At the time of compiling this report, the Zambian Government had not yet responded to the letter from the PAP.RecommendationThe Committee does not concur with the opinion averred by the legal expert who was engaged by the PAP regarding the ambiguity of the trust deed. The Committee is of the opinion that the trust deed recognises the PAP as the final authority on all transactions conducted by the trust fund and its trustees. As such, it is recommended that diplomatic actions must be taken to bring unco-operating trustees to justice. The PAP should specifically seek the intervention and assistance of the governments of the concerned trustees in this matter by way of writing to the Heads of State and Ministers of Foreign Affairs stating the transgression committed by the concerned persons.The PAP should pursue the bank and sue it for conspiring with the trustees to carry out illegal transactions in the PAP Trust Fund Account.Pap Programme Versus Operational CostsCAFE noted that there was a serious problem with the budget of the PAP because most of the resources allocated to the PAP in the operational budget are diverted towards administrative costs and less resources are allocated to the core operational duties of the institution. Administrative costs take up almost 60 per cent of the budget allocation while both statutory and non-statutory Parliamentary meetings and Bureau meetings take less than 30 per cent of the budget allocation.In spite of the fact that there are only fifty-three staff members in the PAP, thirty-two of which fall in the professional level category, CAFE observed that in the budget of 2013 and 2014, USD$ 300,000 and US$ 420,000 respectively was spent on the health of staff. Also, education allowance was US$ 490,000 1 in 2013 and US$ 750,000 in the 2014. This clearly demonstrates that there are areas which must be identified to cut costs in the PAP without compromising the quality of work.RecommendationParliament must seriously address the disparity between the budget allocated to administrative costs and Parliamentary activities by looking at areas in which costs can be cut without compromising the quality of work in the PAP. Future budgeting must take cognisance of this disparity.CAFE recommends that the PAP budget should not be submitted to the AUC without the prior approval of the Bureau.Implementation of Pap Approved StructureFollowing the Executive Decision of EX.CL/720(xx) the PAP Structure was adopted in 2012, upon which the PAP was directed to commence its implementation in 2012, and stagger the recruitment process, due to budgetary constraints, to the end of 2016. In 2012, the PAP was expected to recruit staff equivalent to 40 per cent of the total budget allocated for the recruitment process and then 15 per cent every year for the next four years to fill a total of 74 positions approved in the structure. The PAP is also directed to advertise all positions.CAFE engaged the PAP Staff Association (PAPSA) on the implementation of the structure and took note of their concerns. To kick-start the implementation of the structure, the Bureau of the PAP adopted a participatory approach to involve staff in the process through the establishment of the PAP Structure Implementation Plan (PSIP) Committee. The PAP further engaged an external consultant with funding support from the GIZ.RecommendationThe Committee notes the Executive Decision on the PAP Structure. However, the Committee advises the Bureau to take note of the following in implementing the structure:(i)For the first phases of the recruitment process, the Bureau must include those positions that are currently vacant; and(ii)the PAP must develop a policy on staff distribution using the model that is used by the AUC. The policy should place emphasis on staff competence and regional distribution.Performance Management of StaffThe Special Assignment Report noted that the PAP has serious performance related shortcomings within the Secretariat. It was also noted by the Bureau as well as the Ernest and Young Four Pillar Assessment Report that the current performance appraisal system is not effective. The report noted instances of laxity and poor work orientation by some staff members. The report recommended that the PAP must develop and implement a performance management tool that would assist the Secretariat to improve its performance.In view of the above, the PAP management intends to adopt a result-based performance evaluation system which is widely used at the AUC headquarters, AU regional and Liaison offices effective January, 2014. As part of this process, a training session for all PAP Staff is being planned to be conducted in November, 2013. The objective of this training is to orient staff on the new system before it is implemented. It should be reported that the implementation of the Performance Management System will go hand-in-hand with the implementation of the PAP New Structure.Appointment, Promotion and Recruitment Board (APROB)The Bureau has appointed a new Appointments, Promotions and Recruitment Board (APROB) that has since started working. This Committee was reconstituted after the Ernest and Young Assessment Report queried the composition of APROB. There were two Members of Parliament and two members of the Bureau.The current committee was reconstituted to accommodate one member of the Bureau as Chairperson, the Clerk of Parliament, two Deputy Clerks, Director of the Bureau, two staff representatives and human resources officer. The Deputy Clerk of Finance, Administration and International Relations is a non-voting member of APROB. In addition to these members, APROB may co-opt the services of an external human resource person to assist the board, where necessary.It is important to note that the composition of APROB is guided by the Staff Rules and Regulations of the AU. The main challenge with adhering to this rule is that it was specifically tailored for the AUC and did not take into consideration the peculiarities of the different organs of the union. For instance, the rule requires that one of the members of APROB must be from the Directorate of Women, Gender and Development, which does not exist at PAP. In addition, the frequencies of APROB meetings are constrained by the fact that the chairperson of APROB is not full time in the PAP Secretariat.RecommendationAt all material times, persons serving under APROB should endeavour to ensure fairness, equity and impartiality in the recruitment of staff.Even though PAP does not have a gender department in its structure, APROB should always have a representative of gender. One of the staff representatives should be of the opposite gender.PAP Policy and Procedure ManualThe Ernest & Young Four Pillar Assessment Report recommended, in addition to several Bureau decisions, the development and customisation of manuals in the PAP. These manuals will enable PAP to maintain consistent application of rules and procedures. The PAP, however, is governed by the policies and procedure manuals of the AUC. Most of these manuals such as the Financial Rules and Regulations, Staff Rules and the Procurement Manual are currently under review within the AU facilitated by the AUC in collaboration with the other AU organs. It should further be reported that the development of resource mobilisation, monitoring and evaluation manuals will be done concurrently with the development of the PAP 2014-2017 Strategic Plan which is in progress.CAFE notes that while the Code of Conduct for MPs has been developed and presented to Parliament, the Code of Conduct for staff is yet to be developed.RecommendationIn view of the concerns expressed by CAFE, the Secretariat should make efforts to have the Code of Conduct for staff developed.The development of a Code of Conduct would go a long way to improve the relationship and attitude between staff and Members of Parliament.Travelling Arrangements of MPs on AU Missions. In order to save time, I am aware that this issue of travelling on missions has already been well debated, except to say that the Members of Parliament continue to travel in classes that are inferior such as the Economy Class and that AUC rules should be amended to make sure that there is recognition of the status of the PAP Members. We should continue to press this with the AU. Mr President, with your permission, I move to documentation.DocumentationThe previous CAFE reports had highlighted queries about the availability of documents during PAP meetings. Indications are that this situation has tremendously improved as there are usually very few cases of document shortage that are reported.The Documentation Department still has a challenge with the equipment that they are using because some of the machines are old and their maintenance plans have expired. If these machines break down, it usually takes a while before they are repaired. The process and technician fees for repairing them are also expensive because they are not on a maintenance plan.To curb the high expenses associated with repairing old equipment, the PAP Secretariat has since welcomed a recommendation from the Committee on Monetary and Financial Affairs which advised the Secretariat to resort to hiring some of the documentation equipment, especially during sessions when large volumes of documents are handled. Furthermore, the new PAP Structure has a provision for the recruitment of a technician who will assist with maintaining the equipment.RecommendationUrgent attention must be given to the recruitment of technicians who will assist with the maintenance of printing equipment.Attendance and Participation of Pap Activities by MPsAgain, with your indulgence, can I simply state that the issue of attendance has been problematic during sessions, especially in the second week like now where the numbers are very low. I think that is an issue that we have, in our recommendation on page 18, said that the PAP must lobby the AU and make a case for the improvement of the benefits, entitlements and privileges accorded to the PAP Members of Parliament. If these were improved, Members of Parliament would find it more appealing to attend and participate. The Code of Conduct for Members of Parliament should assist in that.PAP BuildingsThe South African Government has offered to construct a building to house the PAP and other organs of the AU. In fact, this commitment was contained in the Host Country Agreement signed between the PAP and the South African Government. As of now, the South African Government has not yet started constructing this facility. The delay in initiating the construction has been caused by the fact that the South African Government has not yet identified a suitable location to construct the facility. A site that was earmarked for this building in Centurion, Pretoria, was ruled to be inappropriate by a court due to environmental reasons. To date, no new site has been located.While discussing the review of the Host Country Agreement with PAP, the South African Government officials reiterated their government’s commitment to ensuring that this facility is erected but could not give time lines of when it will be complete.Internal AuditThe Ernest and Young Assessment Report noted that the Internal Audit Department of the PAP was not operating optimally and could not sufficiently assist the PAP to comply with administrative and accounting requirements. It was noted that the department is understaffed, did not have a plan that guides its work and the PAP did not have an Audit Committee that receives audit reports.To address some of the queries that were raised by the Ernest and Young Assessment Report, PAP recruited another auditor in March, 2013, to assist the Senior Internal Auditor through EC funding. As a result of the enhancement of the capacity of the Office of the Internal Audit (OIA), it has been able to undertake several audits including the following:(i)Review of procurement systems and management of stores;(ii)Review of payment of installation allowance to staff;(iii)Examining and reporting on the financial statements of the PAP for the year ended 31st December, 2012; and(iv)Review and certification of EC expenditure from October, 2012, to December 2012, among others.CAFE, however, emphasises that there are delays in the submission of the January-June audit reports. The Office of the Internal Auditor has assured CAFE that the report will be submitted before the end of November, 2013.Subsequent to the establishment of CAFE, the plenary resolved that CAFE should establish an audit sub-committee in which it should perform the functions of audit. Taking note that there are only ten members of CAFE and being essentially a performance and financial audit body, it resolved that the functions of audit are already embedded with its functions. Therefore, for the purpose of audit, Cafe is, in fact, an audit committee. In respect of this audit function, the Senior Internal Auditor (SIA) has drafted an Audit Charter of the PAP, which is yet to be adopted, to guide Cafe to carry out its audit functions.RecommendationCAFE recommends that we continue with the current arrangements in which it performs the audit functions as has always been the case since 2009. As such, the PAP will preserve resources and time to enable CAFE to effectively carry out the additional mandate of audit.Case of The Former Clerk, Deputy Clerk-Lb and Director Of The BureauThe cases of these three persons were filed with the AU Tribunal and are still pending. Therefore, I will not take too much time on that except to remind Members that the first Clerk, Mr Werunga, the then Deputy Clerk for Legislative Business, Dr Mbozo, and the Director of the Bureau who, we are aware, had their contracts terminated with the PAP, approached the AUC Tribunal to seek recourse from that side. At the moment, the former Director of the Bureau, Martha Uleka, has been contesting her dismissal in court. There is a default judgment against the PAP. However, the PAP has since filed an appeal. Our recommendation is that the PAP Bureau should approach the leadership of the AU to register its concern about the dormancy of the AU Tribunal and that the PAP must upscale efforts to rescind the default judgment that was issued in favour of the former Director of the Bureau.Mr President, this ends the report and I commend it to Members.I thank you very much.HON. SALEH KEBZABO [TCHAD]:Merci, Monsieur le Président, de me donner la parole.Je voudrais commencer mon propos en m’adressant à mes anciens camarades de la Commission de l’Évaluation Administrative et Financière (CAFE), pour leur adresser toutes mes félicitations pour la qualité du rapport.Tout le monde a noté, en fait, que ce rapport est concis. Il est complet et comporte les recommandations qu’il faut.Je voudrais néanmoins demander aux membres de la CAFE, du moins au Président, de nous situer un peu plus sur le fonds qu’on a appelé ici, « d’affectation spéciale » dont le nom, en français, varie souvent et qui est le fonds dont j’ai voulu parler lorsque j’ai pris la parole sur la discussion du rapport du Président, mais que je n’ai pas pu expliquer.Donc, je souhaiterais que le Président de la CAFE explique aux députés ce que c’est que le Trust Fund dont je disais qu’il a été constitué lors d’une cérémonie spéciale ici, je crois en 2007, en présence du Président MANDELA, dont on a abusé, je crois, de la disponibilité à ce moment là.Comme cela ressort ici, et pas clairement, les fonds ont été dilapidés par les membres du PAP, et je ne suis pas satisfait par ce qui est écrit jusqu’ici, parce que toutes les justifications ne sont pas données.C’est pour cela que je voudrais demander au Président CHARUMBIRA de s’adresser directement à ses collègues, pour leur dire exactement de quoi il s’agit! Quels sont les montants qui sont en jeux et quelles sont les personnes qui sont concernées?Tel que rédigé, on ne comprend pas même quelqu’un comme moi qui connais le problème, trouve qu’il y a des lacunes et je pense que ce n’est pas bon.Il faut que l’Assemblée soit pleinement informée sur cette question et en particulier les nouveaux membres qui ne savent pas comment cela s’est passé, qui ne savent pas ce qu’est le Trust Fund et qui voudraient certainement comprendre ce que cela veut dire exactement, et qu’est-ce qui a été spolié? Comment on a été spolié? Et comment est-ce que le PAP, nonobstant tous les obstacles juridiques qu’on nous dresse, compte rentrer dans ses fonds, parce que ce sont des sommes importantes qui ont été mises en jeu, et que cela nous a décrédibilisé sérieusement vis-à-vis de nos partenaires qui nous ont souvent aidés?C’est tout ce que je voulais dire, Monsieur le Président.Je vous remercie.HON. SHEBESH RACHEL [KENYA]:Thank you, Mr President.Mr President, I want to start by congratulating the Committee, the Chairperson and his team who have done what I believe, also, is an excellent exposé of our financial status as the PAP.However, Mr President, I must say almost what my Hon. Colleague has said before me that I wish that the Chairperson and his Committee will take the bull by the horns and stop embarrassing this noble House once and for all because all the recommendations surrounding the issue of the Trust Fund and the issue of money/cash transit have been discussed in this House before. We cannot continue saying the same thing about the same issues and giving recommendations, and yet we have the final authority.I am especially cognisant of the recommendation by the Committee and I agree with them 100 per cent that the Bureau must take full control and responsibility of our affairs. We do not want blame games and shifting of responsibility. We have elected a bureau whose terms and reference are clearly spelt out and we do expect, Mr President, led by you that the Bureau takes full control of what happens in the PAP so that our dignity, Mr President, is guaranteed in this House.It is a shame to hear that money is carried in cash. Anything that is carried in cash is fraud. It is encouragement of corruption. We do not want the PAP to be associated with any form of corruption. If anything, Mr President, we are expected to be those who will help stem corruption in Africa. Therefore, many of the recommendations by this Committee, to me are insinuating that there are levels of fraud going on in different sectors which need to be curbed. I am asking, as a resolution, that we do not make it lip service any more. We must give the authority to this Committee, Mr Speaker, which we have been given through the Protocol and the Rules of Procedure, that they go ahead and go further. Who has this money? Where is the Trust Fund? For these individuals who are being mentioned here, their governments are not the ones who negotiated their inclusion to the Trust Fund. Let them be looked at as individuals, Mr President. Let us go for the bull. Let us get the bull by the horns and kill this once and for all.I support this report, Mr Speaker.HON. AZIZOU ELHADJ ISSA [BÉNIN]:Merci, Monsieur le Président.À mon tour, je vais remercier la Commission de l’Évaluation Administrative et Financière (CAFE) et son Président qui a brillamment présenté le rapport.Monsieur le Président,J’ai trois préoccupations plus une question.J’ai été satisfait de noter que le rapport demande à ce que l’autorisation de la gestion du PAP passe par le Bureau. Suite à cela, vous nous avez informés que la rotation du Bureau, du Président bien entendu, et de ses vice-présidents, au niveau PAP, se fera. Je crois que c’est une très bonne chose. Comme cela, le Bureau va prendre les devants des choses.Monsieur le Président,Ma deuxième préoccupation, c’est le manuel des procédures. Le rapport dit que c’est toujours sous projet. Je voudrais vous prier d’aller assez vite, surtout au niveau des procédures comptables et financières.L’impunité est la troisième préoccupation.L’impunité qui règne au PAP, c’est comme si nous venions en touristes ici. Fonds fudiciaire, personnel, avec fonds de scolarité, dispositions au niveau de l’assurance santé, tout, tout, tout! Des gens prennent des avances, mais ne remboursent pas. Et bientôt, le recrutement va reprendre encore!Non, Monsieur le Président! Je crois qu’il faut prier ce personnel, s’il aime cette maison, s’il nous aime! Nous mettons tout en jeu pour être ici: notre santé, notre temps, nos préoccupations, nos familles, on ne va pas venir assister à ce qui se passe aujourd’hui. La moindre des choses, que ceux qui ont eu des avances, je voudrais les prier de rembourser. Et je crois que le Président – c’est parce qu’il est peut-être avocat – il est trop gentil!Moi, j’ai dirigé durant trente ans, de pareil personnel ne pourrait plus venir au service. C’est clair! Il ne pourrait plus mettre pieds dans le service. Donc, on voudrait vous prier – je vous en prie – de rembourser ce que vous devez.Dernière préoccupation, Monsieur le Président, c’est une question.J’ai été écœuré – je crois que c’est à la page 13 – de savoir que le budget du PAP peut être envoyé à la Commission de l’Union africaine sans l’avis du Bureau. Mais après qui va être responsable de l’exécution et des malversations qui vont se faire? À partir de là, on va avoir une rotation ici. Un des membres du Bureau va y être. On a plusieurs manières de communication: les e-mails! Quoi d’autres encore? On peut se concerter par e-mails; chacun envoie son avis, et puis celui qui assure la permanence ici fait la synthèse, rend compte au Président et le Président donne son aval, et on envoie à la Commission de l’Union africaine.Pourquoi envoyer un budget d’une institution sans que l’avis de la tête soit pris? C’est dangereux! C’est très dangereux! C’est une porte ouverte encore aux malversations.Je vous remercie, Monsieur le Président.HON. MASTER MOISERAELE GOYA [BOTSWANA]:Thank you very much Mr President for giving me the floor.Let me also thank the Chairperson of the CAFE Committee, Hon. Chief Fortune Charumbira, for his elaborate report.I just want to make a few observations on this report, Mr President. First is the issue of the mandate of this Committee. I will keep talking about this because I happen to be a Member of the Finance and Monetary Affairs Committee of the Pan African Parliament but, time and again, Mr President, I realise that the mandate of CAFE, somehow, seems to be same as the mandate of the Finance Committee. I want to crave for the indulgence of this House, Mr President, that I think we need to sit down and decide on the mandate of these two committees so that we differentiate their tasks such that there is no interference in the duties that they are doing.Take for instance, Mr President, when the CAFE talks about the budget. I think it is on page 12 of the report under the topic PAP Programme Versus Operational Costs. We have addressed all these things as the Finance Committee but they have also come in the CAFE Report. That is the reason I am saying that we need to sit down and decide on the mandates of these two committees.Another issue that I would like the Chairperson of this Committee to address, Mr President, when he responds to our contributions, is the issue of the Host Agreement. He says the Host Agreement is between the PAP and the South African Government. Is that so? I thought the agreement should be between the AU and the South African Government. If this agreement has been drafted to the effect that it should be between the PAP and the South African Government, I do not think it is right. I think we need to review this such that it is the AU and the South African Government that should sign this agreement, and not the PAP and the South African Government.I am saying, because the PAP is just an organ of the AU, the agreement should between our mother body which is the AU and the South African Government, Mr President.Another issue Mr President that I would like the Chairperson to address is on the Appointment, Promotion and Recruitment Board. I want to find out, from him, as to what the role of this board is in as far as the implementation of the PAP restructuring is concerned because I want to understand that their role should be to deal with matters relating to recruitment, appointment, promotion, review and staff development. In the CAFE Repot, it does not explicitly come out as to what the role of APRB is in as far as the implementation of the PAP restructuring is concerned. I would like the Chairperson to address this issue, Mr President.The other issue Mr President that I would like him to address is in regard to an issue in the report, I think it is on page 14, where he says; "…as part of this process a training session for all PAP staff is being planned to be conducted in November 2013." How do we plan for a training programme when we are in the process of recruiting new staff? I think it is better for us to shelve the training so that we deal with the issue of recruitment and once we have the staff in place, then we can embark on training, Mr President.I think it is not right that we can do these simultaneously, Mr President.Finally, Mr President, the CAFE Committee has been in existence for far too long and in terms of the Rules, this is an ad hoc Committee and it should have been assigned a role with a date within which that should be done such as, maybe, a period of three or six months and be dissolved thereafter. If there is an issue, another Committee would be elected. We do not want to have the same Committee doing all these duties for a prolonged period of time. I think we need to make sure that we appoint this Committee on an ad hoc basis as the Rules stipulate.I thank you very much, Mr President, for giving me this floor.Thank you.HON. PATRICK MWALULA MUCHELEKA [ZAMBIA]:Thank you, Your Excellency, for giving me this opportunity.Very quickly I want to appreciate the report that has been presented by CAFE through His Royal Highness Hon. Chief Fortune Charumbira. It is straightforward, concise and, indeed, it tells you exactly what should be looked at.Your Excellency, let me draw your attention to page 6 of the report, on the governance of the PAP. Yes, a recommendation has been made by CAFE that for, the time being, we need to continue to respect the Protocol and Rules of Procedure with the regard to the governance. However, I also want to say that, Your Excellency, even for us, as the PAP, we do not have to wait until this particular amendment is made.We also need to be proactive by doing it in such a way that we initiate amendments if at all there is need to do so and I believe, indeed, that there is need to do so, given that this particular rule or protocol, perhaps might have worked at the time. But I want to say that the PAP is a dynamic institution and, therefore, it needs to move with change. This is a clause that, perhaps, causes challenges between or, if you like, if I put it bluntly, a bit of a fight between the Bureau and the day-to-day administration led by the Clerk. I would like to see a situation where we have very clear good corporate governance by clear separation of functions. So, my understanding would be that the Bureau is more or less like Board of Directors if it was in the corporate entity and then they are supposed to provide oversight on the management because if you leave it this way, you are actually creating an environment for clear friction between the Bureau and the management. I would have thought, perhaps, that CAFE had gone further to recommend for an amendment of this particular rule.Now talking about CAFE, I want to also join my colleague, Hon. Master Goya, who has made that concern. It is also my concern. We need to make a decision with regard to what really CAFE is? Is it going to be a permanent committee? We need to make a decision because I see an element of overlap between the Finance Committee and CAFE. So, we need to make that decision.Lastly, Your Excellency let me touch on the issue of the Trust Fund. Let me declare interest. I am a Zambian and the person that is being mentioned is a Zambian like myself and, therefore, I am constrained with what I can say. However, my concerns are: Is he alone? Did he act alone? Who kept the records? Was he going to the bank alone, carrying the cheque book and keeping it in Zambia? So, those are the questions that I would like to, perhaps, find out, but it still comes back to the issue of governance. If the systems were in place, I think, these trustees would not have been allowed to behave in the manner that they did. This is why, perhaps, we, indeed, need to strengthen this particular institution. There might be a time when people might use their position, because of that particular rule, to hijack the whole PAP and get into all sorts of fraudulent activities. That should not be allowed.Finally, Mr President, there is the issue of strengthening internal controls. I think this is a serious matter and I want to commend the PAP for the recommendation that I made with regard to how best we can strengthen the systems. The strengthening of systems and internal controls is also linked to the issue of strengthening the governance structure.I thank you, Mr President.HON. MOHAMMED-MUBARAK MUNTAKA [GHANA]:Thank you Mr President.I want to thank colleagues, and especially the Committee of which I am also a member, for the stress that we went through to enable us to produce this report within a very short period of time.Mr President, I want to urge all of us through our regional caucuses to be interested in the role our various members play at the CAFE. Mr President, you will realise that in the report, there were challenges with regards to erratic meetings and attendance. For obvious reasons, people bid for elections and the tendency for others to come back or not to come back or even have to wait for your swearing in will definitely happen but if the various caucuses are interested in what is happening at CAFE, the moment we know in the West African Caucus that say, Sierra Leone will be going to the elections in the next two or three months and it is going to take time to the next sitting before they get sworn-in, the caucus should be pro-active, if they have a Member from Sierra Leone serving on CAFE, to change that person to suit the work of CAFE. I do not want us to continue to have the challenge that we had or CAFÉ have had before now. So, I appeal to the regional caucus leaders to lead us in a very dispassionate manner and look at these issues to make sure that CAFE gets the required numbers to be able to transact its business.Mr President, as a member of the Committee, I think that in all fairness to our Secretariat, if we look at page 12 paragraph 3.8, of the report, I believe that we did not intend to use this word and I will be very happy if the Chairperson will make this correction because I think I raised it but it has still found its way still into the report. Where it says, in paragraph 9.3, that PAP, "funds in the official budget are diverted", we did not intend to use the word ‘diverted’ because when you say diverted, it implies criminality. It is as if funding was provided and somebody diverted it.The word there should be ‘allocated’. The allocation comes with emphasis on administration instead of, maybe, the activities but the moment you say diverted, it is as if the budget made provision and the Secretariat sat and diverted the money and I do not think that is what happens. So, I think in finance, we need to correct that.Mr President, in finance, I want to believe that our colleagues who doubted the work of CAFE as to whether it is now running the Finance Committee, I want all of us to avert our minds to what is happening in our various countries. We have a Finance Committee and we have a Public Accounts Committee and I am sure you all know that committees everywhere in Parliament, PAP not exclusive, overlap. There is a starting point and a point of overlap. The Finance Committee will look at the budget allocations but CAFE has every right to look at how the allocations are done and then be able to comment and inform Members. That does not mean that it is taking the work of the Finance Committee. Let us see each other as complementing each other and not antagonising because, when we take that position, I want to believe that we may not be co-operating with each other to enable us to carry the mandate that the PAP is supposed to do.Lastly, Mr President, this plenary, gave CAFE a mandate precisely on the 16th of May, 2012 and I want all Members to avert their minds to that because when the plenary approves something, and then when we come to the discussion people raise the issue that we must give them limited time. We should have done that when we wanted to give them the mandate but we gave them the mandate to last to the end of the Third Parliament. So, if we think that we do not want it any more, we all here know that you need to come with a substantive motion. When you come with a motion, if the Members agree, it will be voted for and then we revert, but let us not talk because, sometimes, it discourages members in CAFE and I believe it does not just auger well for the work that we do.Mr President, I thank you very much for the opportunity.HON. BERNADETTE LAHAI [SIERRA LEONE]:Thank you very much, Mr. President.Let me thank CAFE for the very good work. I witnessed them working very hard in Committee Room 5 to the extent that they even had to exile the Committee on Transport to another committee room. They did a very good job. I agree with most of the recommendations that CAFÉ has made in their report.On the issue of the Trust Fund, Mr President, when I came to this Parliament in 2009, the issue of the Trust Fund was topical. It is still topical. I think we have to have cut-off point. We hope that, maybe, next time when we discuss the issue of the Trust Fund we will be told that all our monies have been recovered and the culprits or those who are responsible have been adequately sanctioned so that we close this topic.On the issue of the operational budget, whether it is allocation or diversion, I think, we cannot have an institution where administrative costs far exceed the operational costs. For me, 60 per cent is too much. We need to know what that 60 per cent is spent on because, at the end of the day, what do we really have to carry out our programmes? I think it should be revisited.The issue of the participation in the PAP, I think, is going to be a recurring issue until and unless the PAP becomes a transformed institution where in our Rules, like we suggested the last time, the Parliamentarians can become full time accredited PAP Members so that all the attention and their work is towards the PAP. Until and unless that happens and as long as we are being shared between our national Parliaments and this Parliament, this issue is going to continue. So, I only hope that we can do something about the transformation faster.Then on the lifespan of the CAFE and the overlap with the Finance Committee, I think, Mr President, these committees in Parliament have all overlapping roles and I do not see anything wrong if CAFE is discussing things that fall under the mandate of the Finance Committee. Why can they not have a joint session? After all, in this Parliament, Agriculture and Energy have had joint sessions because the topics are overlapping. Education, Agriculture and the other committees have had joint meetings because their mandates are overlapping. I do not think any one committee should claim total monopoly over the issues that we discuss in this Parliament. This is my submission, I thank you, Mr President.HON. PETER HITJITEVI KATJAVIVI [NAMIBIA]:Thank you, Mr President, for giving me the floor on this important topic dealing with the CAFE Report.I must say, from the very outset, that the intervention by the Hon. Master Goya took a number of issues that I wanted to deal with and, therefore, I am going to move rapidly to cover some of those issues that he left out.I wish to thank the Hon. Chief Charumbira, the Chairperson of the CAFE Committee. He has, indeed, given us a progress report in a number of areas covered in that important report. Of course, there are areas, as he has also indicated, that will still require the attention of CAFE and, indeed, this House as time goes on.Mr President, I would very much like the Hon. Chief Charumbira to elaborate on the question of recruitment of staff. I am saying this because without an adequate number of men and women to serve this Parliament, we cannot do our work. It is an issue that must be addressed head-on because without that we will not be able to make progress.We will basically continue repeating some of the issues that we have been dealing with in the past. Therefore, it is very important that we give confidence to those men and women who serve this Parliament.Otherwise, I welcome this report and thank you Mr President.HON. AWAD HAG ALI AHMED [SUDAN]:Thank you very much, Mr President.I would like first to congratulate CAFE for its informative report and the efforts they made to improve the administrative and finance performance of the PAP. CAFE still has a lot to do as a follow up these recommendations. There is a need to make more efforts for the implementation of their recommendations and for that reason I support this Committee to complete this job.Mr President, we talk about governance and we know that Ernest and Young has recommended the PAP should adopt the use of PASTEL Evolution Software as opposed to SAP for accountancy. The Secretariat of the PAP followed all the right procedures to buy the recommended version of PASTEL Evolution Software and licences but before starting the implementation of the software, the AUC recommended the use of SAP which was previously not recommended by Ernest and Young. Look at that confusion brought by the AUC. Mr President, as an IT expert, I will tell you that Ernest and Young’s recommendation that PASTEL Evolution is more suitable than SAP for accounting was correct. SAP is an ERP software used for enterprise resources planning and is mainly for commercial companies. Now, if I want to ask, are we going to throw out the money spent on buying the other software and licences? I see there is a lot of confusion coming from the AUC and they are wrong for recommending SAP. That is why I say the AUC are not following good governance.Thank you, very much.ApplauseHON. ISAAC STEPHEN MABILETSA [BOTSWANA]:Thank you, Mr President, and I want to applaud the Bureau for conferring upon me and honorary citizenship of Burkina Faso and I am looking forward to taking up that citizenship. Thank you, Mr President.Mr President, this report of CAFE is a very rich report. It has a lot of content in it. This richness over emphasises the need for having CAFE continue to perform the function that it is currently performing. I just want to underline that because if we really need to improve operational systems here, CAFE operating more or less like a Public Accounts Committee, which, I think is prevalent in all our Parliaments, is very essential here because, mostly, it is not dealing with budgets that are to come but rather with the after effects of the budget that has been agree upon and implemented. Therefore, let us all see that and I would recommend, Mr President that we should change our Rules and actually include CAFE as a permanent committee because I think it is a very important committee for this House of Parliament.Now, having said that, Mr President, I believe in the separation of powers and duties. The fact that the Rules indicate that the role of the political group of the Bureau often include administrative responsibilities, to me I think is going to lead to some element of confusion. I think administration is the work of the professionals and we should leave the work of the professionals to the professionals to undertake it. The Bureau, as a political head, must play its political role and most of that is even an oversight over the administrative head. I think they should do that so that it is clear...Again, Mr President, reading between the lines why we are failing to achieve and even while we have said funds have been diverted or vired and, to me, really, they are vired. I am reading between the lines that there is a problem of the budget, not in the way that it is administered, but the way that it is allocated to this Parliament. I believe we are not being allocated enough resources. If that was the case, we would not been having this problem of virements. This is where I think the problem lies, Mr President.This report, as I am saying, is rich and has issues therein. The issue of retirement of imprest, to me, is non negotiable. At the end of two weeks and the staff has not retired imprest, a deduction from the salary must take place immediately. This becomes the responsibility of the administration because here we are compromising professionalism instead of doing the work.Finally, Mr President, because there are so many issues, I wish to talk about the Trust Fund. I believe that we need, really, a special session or, maybe, a closed session, where a lot can come out for the better understanding of the Hon. Members. Otherwise, we have been talking about it for sessions after sessions without any results being achieved. The issue of lip servicing then will arise, as has already been raised by an Hon. Colleague from Kenya. I think time for action is now. Let us stop lip servicing. I thank you although I still have a lot to discuss on this report.I thank you, Chair.HON. PATRICK MAYOMBE [RÉPUBLIQUE DÉMOCRATIQUE DU CONGO]:Monsieur le Président, je vous remercie de la parole que vous m’accordez.Avant toute chose, je remercie la Commission pour la clarté du rapport qui nous a été présenté.En lisant ce rapport à la page 10, concernant le recouvrement de la Taxe sur la Valeur Ajoutée, je me suis fait une idée quelque part. Là où la Commission écrit, je le lis: « Le PAP est une mission diplomatique en Afrique du Sud et a le droit de demander des abattements sur la TVA ».Comme je suis nouveau, peut-être que c’est une pratique que vous avez déjà mise en œuvre, mais estce que les députés, les parlementaires que nous sommes, en venant ici aux sessions du PAP, ne pouvons-nous pas bénéficier de ce statut de diplomate pour avoir accès aux magasins des diplomates qu’on appelle Duty Free?C’est la question que je pose.Je vous remercie.Si c’est le cas, est-ce que le PAP ne peut pas entrer en contact direct avec le gouvernement sud-africain pour que nous puissions bénéficier de ce statut et de ces avantages parce que c’est là où il n’y a pas de TVA?Je vous remercie.HON. DELWA KASSIRE COUMAKOYE NOURADINE [TCHAD]:Merci, Monsieur le Président.Vous n’avez pas fini d’appeler mon nom! Vous l’avez appelé à moitié, mais ce n’est pas important!La première question que je voudrais poser, vient d’être faite par mon frère de la RDC. Est-ce que votre TVA – je le dis bien puisqu’on a jamais réussi à délibérer sur la question – est simplement de l’Afrique du Sud ou du ressort de tout le Tchad, de toute l’Afrique plutôt? Si c’est pour toute l’Afrique, il faut que nous, les membres du PAP, soyons au courant.Deuxièmement:Je suis vraiment écœuré, très écœuré de nous retrouver dans cette situation. Il y a un problème de fonctionnement de ce fonds, de son utilisation.Vous dites qu’en fait, c’est le Secrétaire général du PAP qui dirige, qui gère, qui est ordonnateur alors que le Bureau se manifeste par son absence. Il y a un problème de l’ordonnateur de ce fonds qui se pose. Qui est ordonnateur, c’est le Secrétaire général ou le Président?Le problème se pose à ce niveau!Troisièmement:J’aurais souhaité, je soutiens « le CAFE » ou « le THÉ » ici!J’aurais souhaité que les frais de mission – ou ce que vous appelez « perdiems » des parlementaires africains – soient au même niveau que ceux des présidents des commissions permanentes de l’Union africaine parce que dans certains États, c’est le cas du nôtre, les parlementaires ont le même taux de frais de missions que les membres du gouvernement.Je souhaite – la question a déjà été soulevée – que vous en teniez compte!Enfin, vous avez ce qu’on appelle la Questure ici, mais il faut quand même son adjoint! Il faut son adjoint parce qu’il n’est pas interdit au Questeur titulaire d’être malade. Il n’est pas interdit par nous! C’est la volonté des faits, donc il faut nommer un Questeur adjoint [Temps de parole épuisé].HON. IGNACE NDEBO AKANDA [RÉPUBLIQUE DÉMOCRATIQUE DU CONGO]:Merci, Monsieur le Président.Je voudrais dire que j’ai trois volets dans mon intervention: j’ai une inquiétude, j’ai une question et j’ai une préoccupation très importante.Le rapport sous examen par la Commission CAFE nous renseigne qu’il y a effectivement beaucoup d’anomalies, notamment dans la passation des marchés et dans le Fonds fiduciaire.Les recommandations pertinentes de cette même Commission m’agréent. Cependant, mon inquiétude est la suivante:En version française, à la page 5, il est renseigné et je le lis: « Que le PAP ne pourra pas mobiliser les ressources financières suffisantes pour mettre en œuvre son programme d’activités ».Monsieur le Président,C’est une crainte et c’est une peur pour moi parce que compte tenu de cette étroitesse de moyens financiers, nonobstant le fait – et c’est l’adage public reconnu de tous – que « l’argent est le nerf de la guerre », mais aussi et surtout « le nerf de la paix »,« le nerf de la justice », « le nerf de l’équité » et donc subséquemment « le nerf du développement ».Alors, incidemment c’est la question qui suit: si le PAP ne pourrait pas mobiliser les moyens financiers pour réaliser son programme, qu’est-ce que dans ce même programme le PAP pourra réaliser et qu’estce que dans ce même programme le PAP ne pourra pas réaliser, compte tenu des moyens qui sont vraiment réduits?J’en arrive donc à ma préoccupation qui est certainement, je présume, celle de tous les collègues puisque le Bureau nous a annoncé ici, avec joie, avec ferveur qu’il y a un contrat d’assurance qui avait été passé avec une formation de la place concernant les soins médicaux. Mais si aujourd’hui nous disons que le PAP n’a pas les moyens de mobiliser les fonds, cela veut dire qu’à terme, ce contrat va tomber en désuétude du fait qu’on ne pourra pas continuer à payer, ni à suivre.Suggestion, Monsieur le Président!Il s’agit de finances! En matière de finances, la gestion pour les finances est rigoureuse, elle est stricte, elle est sans appel.C’est pourquoi, je suggérerais, Monsieur le Président, qu’à l’avenir...Excusez-moi, je suis en train de conclure de toutes les façons, qu’à l’avenir nous puissions, sur les comptes du PAP ouvrir un examen en vue de pouvoir préparer ou décider de la reddition du bilan pour l’exercice antérieur et ouvrir un autre examen en ce qui concerne l’exercice qui pourra suivre. En ce moment là, les parlementaires que nous sommes, nous nous sentirons concernés dans la gestion du PAP en matière financière.Monsieur le Président, je vous remercie.HON. SAID MTANDA [TANZANIA]:Mheshimiwa Rais, ahsante sana. Kwanza nianze kwa kuipongeza Kamati ya CAFE kwa kazi nzuri ambayo wameifanya. Wamefanya kazi nzuri na tuna hakika Chifu Charumbira na wenzie wakiendelea hivi, mambo yatakuwa mazuri sana.Mheshimiwa Rais, ukisoma hii ripoti ya CAFE, miongoni mwa mambo ambayo yamejadiliwa kwa kina hapa ukurasa wa 20 katika taarifa hii ya Kiswahili ambayo ninayo, na page 19 of the English Report, liko suala moja linalohusu watumishi ambao walijitoa kwa muda mrefu kufanya kazi ya kutumikia Bunge hili katika nafasi mbalimbali lakini hatimaye mikataba yao ikasitishwa kinyume na taratibu za ajira. Watumishi hao wameipeleka PAP Mahakamani na hatimaye wengine wameshinda kesi. Lakini ripoti hii inasema kwamba Mahakama ambayo imetoa uamuzi huo, ni uamuzi wa upendeleo, ni uamuzi ambao PAP tunashawishiwa hapa tuone kwamba haukuzingatia haki kwa upande wa PAP.Mheshimiwa Rais, nataka nishawishike kusema kwamba, Mahakama siyo vyombo vya kisiasa. Mahakama ni vyombo vya kisheria na wanafanya kazi kwa mujibu wa taratibu ambazo zipo na Mahakama haziwezi kuendeshwa kisiasa.Mheshimiwa Rais, miongoni mwa watu ambao wamekuwa wakisumbua sana Bunge hili kuhusu suala la hawa watu ambao wameishitaki PAP ni pamoja na sisi Tanzania. Niseme wazi tu kwamba miongoni mwa watu ambao waliachishwa kazi kinyume cha Mkataba ni Mtanzania ambaye amefanya kazi kubwa sana katika Bunge hili la Afrika. Leo anadai haki yake, Bunge hili badala ya kutoa haki kwa sababu tunaamini Bunge hili ni chombo cha kusimamia haki ya wananchi wote katika Bara hili la Afrika, lakini leo Bunge hili linataka kuwa chombo cha kukandamiza haki ya baadhi ya Waafrika. Hii haiwezi kuwa sawa hata kidogo!Mheshimiwa Rais, endapo sisi PAP haturidhiki na hukumu iliyotolewa na Mahakama; na hata ukisoma hii ripoti inaonesha kwamba sisi tulipopelekwa Mahakamani hata Wanasheria wa PAP walikuwa hawaendi Mahakamani. Mtanzania yule ameshinda kesi yake, alipwe haki zake. Hatutaki kumlipa haki yake, tunasema kwamba hukumu ile ilikuwa ni ya upendeleo. Hiyo haiwezi kukubalika! Wanaostahili kuulizwa hapa ni Wanasheria wa PAP: Kwa nini walikuwa hawaendi Mahakamani? Lakini jambo hili linawaondoa nguvu wafanyakazi wanaofanya kazi hapa PAP.Mheshimiwa Rais, leo imetokea kwa Watanzania, kesho itatokea kwa wafanyakazi kutoka nchi mbalimbali. Endapo hatutachukua hatua za makusudi, jambo hili litakuwa ni jambo baya, na sisi kama Bunge la Afrika tutakuwa hatuoneshi mfano mzuri.Kwa hiyo, napendekeza Bunge hili lichukue hatua za makusudi za kukutana na hao watu ambao wamekuwa wakitushitaki Mahakamani, wameshinda kesi zao ili kuweza kulimaliza jambo hili katika njia muafaka badala ya kuwazungusha;mnasema waende katika Mahakama ya Afrika, Mahakama ambayo haijakutana kwa zaidi ya miaka kumi. Unahitaji watu hawa waendelee kuwa na 2 subira ya miaka zaidi ya kumi katika haki yao? Haiwezi kuwa jambo sahihi hata kidogo!Kwa hiyo, naishauri CAFE na Bunge hili kupitia uamuzi, kama wanastahili haki zao, kama Bunge hili liliondoa mikataba yao kinyume na taratibu za kisheria ya mikataba, basi watu hawa walipwe haki zao mara moja kwa sababu wanastahili kupata kile kilicho chao kutokana na kutumikia Bunge hili vizuri katika kipindi ambacho walikuwa madarakani.Mheshimiwa Rais, huo ulikuwa ni mchango wangu. Naomba tuwatendee haki watu hawa wapate stahili zao.Mheshimiwa Rais, pia ripoti hii inataja watu wanne, lakini ripoti yote inaeleza juu ya mtu mmoja. Kwa sababu ukisoma hapa inaonesha, suala la aliyekuwa Katibu, Naibu Katibu na Mkurugenzi wa Bunge. Lakini maandishi yote haya yanamhusu aliyekuwa Mkurugenzi wa Bunge lakini suala linamhusu aliyekuwa Katibu, hakuna. Kwa hiyo, hatuelewi progress, nini kimetokea kwa hawa wengine.Kwa hiyo, naomba Bunge hili litende haki kwa wafanyakazi ambao wamekuwa wakitoa muda wa kulitumikia Bunge hili, unapofika mwisho wa kazi zao, wapewe haki zao. Siyo jambo bora na sio utawala bora kukatisha mikataba kinyume na taratibu na kuwaondoa watu hawa ambao ni Waafrika wenzetu na tuko hapa kujadili haki za Waafrika wenzetu.Mheshimiwa Rais, naomba kuwasilisha.(Makofi)PRESIDENT:Thank you. I exhausted list of speakers, now I call upon Honourable Chief Fortune Charumbira, Chairperson for the Committee on Administration and Financial Evaluation to respond.HON. CHIEF FORTUNE CHARUMBIRA [TANZANIA]:Thank you, Mr President.May I thank all the Hon. Members who have raised issues. Some of them made comments, some of them were complimentary of the work we are doing while some were asking for more information and still some of them querying our work, and I want to compliment all of them.The first question is the issue of the Trust Fund and we are being asked as to what happened. Who was involved? What was spent? We are going to take the bull by the horn on this issue. I just want to remind Hon. Members that the CAFE Committee has reported previously in much more detail than we did this time on this particular issue of the Trust Fund.Probably, in every report since 2009, the issue of the Trust Fund has always found some space because it remains unresolved and we think we cannot stop reporting on the issue since it has not been formally closed. The details as to what happened, I think, would take much time just to say and I know Hon. Kebzabo, who raised this issue, was once a member and part of the authoring of the previous CAFE reports on the Trust Fund.Essentially, that PAP set up a Trust Fund with the initiative of this Chamber and the then President Gertrude Mongella. When that was set up monies went into that account. We wanted to refresh our memories in the last three days and we asked staff to give us the actual amounts of what went in.Unfortunately, up to yesterday, our staff could not give us that information. However, we all remember that, I think, the monies at one point went as high as US$12 million. Part of that money, about R120 million was given to the PAP itself, for some activities of the PAP. In the account, more than R2 million remained when the account was to be closed on the instructions of the AU. The Heads of State ruled that the account should be closed because some irregularities have been identified, but when it was directed that the account be closed for a while until investigations were made, that R2 million plus disappeared from the account. What I mean by disappeared is that it was withdrawn. At one point, the lawyer, who is around here in Johannesburg, appeared before the CAFE Committee. He was not as a trustee. He was just a lawyer. So, when the PAP did summon the trustees, the late President Idriss was heading PAP. We wrote to the trustees. One was a Zambian, Mr Bwalya Chiti, one, a South African who was the Treasurer and the other was a Kenyan.All those trustees could not make themselves available. The South African said he had actually resigned long before as a trustee and, so, he could not come. The Kenyan simply said he was not active on this. The Zambian who was chairing and active basically, at one time, wrote back and said he was busy with his campaigns in his country and, if he found time, he would come. He used to be a Member of this Parliament previously. However, the point is that they never came. The lawyer came and appeared before CAFE more than once and all he could say was, "Look, I am not a trustee. Ask Mr Bwalya Chiti from Zambia to come," but he did provide some information. He brought transactions which showed that the R2 million had been withdrawn. Again, he would simply argue that he was not the person who authorised and, so, it was not his fault. As a result, we reported this matter in this Chamber. We 3 resolved in this Chamber that it be handed over to the Bureau for action. We are simply restating it here because we want to remind the Members that it has not been closed and I believe the Bureau is still working on the issue so that we finally close it. I think that is what I can say. The monies which were in this fund came from various sources such as partners. The Members of Parliament and the Bureau can then take the bull by the horn, having realised that we are not getting anywhere by being nice.On the issue of the Bureau and the Secretariat, I think, we are all preachers of good governance and the rule of law which means we govern according to the law and regulations. So, if you look at the Protocol and the Rules, I think, they always guide us and if we feel that we are not happy with the laws, it is not for us to disobey or to disrespect them, but to seek to amend them. That is a very important aspect of good governance. So, for the avoidance of doubt in our own Rules, Rule 17 says the Bureau shall:a)be responsible for the management and administration of the affairs and facilities of the Parliament and its organs; andb)be responsible for regulating the procedures relating to the financial, organisational and administrative needs in accordance with financial rules of the AU in matters concerning Members and international organisation of Parliament’s organs.I am just picking relevant ones:The Bureau is also responsible to determine the establishment plan and structure of the secretariat and lay down regulations for the staff including their terms and conditions of service.Under f, the Bureau will propose to the PAP the appointment of the Clerk and Deputy Clerks of Parliament. TThe Clerk’s functions are also listed here:The Clerk is the head of the Secretariat. He organises elections. He takes minutes of all the proceedings of Parliament and permanent committees. He authenticates votes of each sitting by signature. He is responsible for Parliament’s accounting issues. He supervises the staff of the Secretariat and manages the affairs of the administration.That is what is in the Rules of our law.So, please if you want to keep thinking about those things and if you want to amend them, we can always move and see what we can do on those ones.On the issue of the Procedures Manual and Financial Regulations, you are aware that in October last year, the Secretariat and the Bureau promised that this document would be available in less than six months, but this time they have said the AU has started amending the Financial Regulations Staff Rules. So, the PAP cannot then do so because they have to align the Rules with the AU. They have to await what the AU is doing and we concurred in the contribution that the budget should not go to the AU without the consent of the Bureau and Members may wonder what this is. I think we did get this information and the Bureau itself raised the issue that the budget has been presented to the AU without their knowledge.Coming to the mandate of our Committee, I wish to thank you very much. Hon. Members responded to this before I can even come in, but I agree with Hon. Members who said in our own Parliaments we have the Budget - whether you call it Finance, Budget or whatever names – but we still have the Public Accounts committee. I think we have to look at CAFE as a Public Accounts Committee if you were in your Parliaments. When you have that, you still have a committee which looks at the budget and economic affairs of your country or Parliament. So, I think the two have always existed and I agree that we should joint meetings with regard to managing financial affairs.I am actually perplexed if I can use that word, Mr President, that these issues of overlaps are raised in the Chamber on the floor, which is a democratic right but I spoke to the Chairperson of Finance, Hon. Njingum Musa Mbutoh, as to whether there were problems with his committee and my committee, and he pleaded with me. He said he was very comfortable. In fact, I am his friend. So, as a friend he said he does not see any issues but, if they are there, we are very willing, as CAFE, to meet the Committee on Monetary Affairs and agree on issues if there is apparent conflict. That is how we should work, anyway, and that is the way to go and we are ready whenever it is appropriate to meet, sit down and agree on how we work, but we are a good governance committee and I want to emphasise that the role of CAFE is in terms of standard good corporate governance, which is that we have to have what are called segregation of responsibilities in accounting. You cannot be the one who does revenue, expenditure and budget, and then you audit.No. Standard accounting principles say you cannot 4 be the same person to audit yourself. Someone else has to audit you. So, on that account, you have CAFE and, I think, it was a well thought-out idea that it was set up but then if you are able to discuss we can go ahead to discuss it.Mr President, I wanted to apologise for the word‘diverted’. I personally noted a number of errors in our report because it was quite rushed although Iwant to commend our Clerk, Ibrahim, that he worked under a lot of pressure. I saw a few errors in the report but I think they can be corrected. The word should be ‘allocated’, not even viremented. It is actually allocated, not diverted and I want to agree that within the rush of typing, the Host Country Agreement is actually is between the AUC and the South African Government. It is not between the PAP and the South African Government. That is correct. Then, I want to move on to the issue of the APROB is in the recruitment process. I think we are informed elsewhere in the report that, in addition to the APROB, there is a participatory approach which has been introduced in which staff themselves but participate in the recruitment process and we mentioned a committee of where staff are represented in the recruitment process in addition to the APROB, but I cannot amplify beyond that but just to say there is a committee specifically to assist APROB which is composed, of course, of the Bureau and other members in this case.On the issue of training for staff and that this should wait until the recruitment is finalised, of course, I am not part of the administration, and I cannot competently exhaust this issue. However, I think that since the recruitment, as far as I know, is an ongoing process and may take another two years if you look at the phases, maybe, a lot of things them may stall and end up collapsing. Work should go on as the recruitment also continues. Otherwise, everything may come to a halt. So, it is in the wisdom of those doing it to see if they can stop the training or continue.With regard to the term of CAFE, again, I need not come back to this one. I think it is a question that we should simply respect our Rules when we set up institutions in terms of the law, we have to speak to law and if we want to change them we have to move according to the same laws in terms of processes.Then, on PASTEL Evolution, Hon. Ali, I think you were right when you said that PASTEL Evolution is very suitable. You made a very brilliant contribution. It was very technical and it showed that your sound understanding of PASTEL and SAP is correct. In fact, SAP is a very expensive system which even the PAP cannot afford. PASTEL Evolution is what is sufficient for the PAP, but then the AUC has said all organs should move to SAP. That is basically the reason. Otherwise, without the AUC, the PAP would be using PASTEL Evolution and that is adequate for the needs of this Parliament.On the VAT, I think, the Hon. Mr President is going to help me on some of these issues. It is simply that PAP does not pay VAT because it is a diplomatic institution, but when it purchases goods, in the purchase price, VAT is included. So, you have to claim the refund. It is the issue of reclaiming where, sometimes, records are not in place or somebody will take their time. As to whether Hon. Members should pay VAT - here I am not speaking as a CAFE member - I know that each time we come here and buy goods, you have some people at PAP here who will issue some papers, refund VAT, and then at the airport you go to the bank and get your money back. So, Hon. Members of Parliament, as far as I know, get a refund for VAT which they pay when they buy goods.On the issue of per diem being at the level of the Chairpersons of Commissions, I think, I will leave that to the Bureau or the President to also make a comment, but I think it is one of the matters that we have been pushing.The last point was from the Hon. Member from Tanzania, on the contracts of staff which were terminated and include the one for Martha Luleka from Tanzania. I do not know whether the interpreter got it correct, because you said the committee says the Court favoured. No, the Court did not favour. It did not use politics, no; the context in which the word favour was used is not favour in terms of trying to twist the rules. It only means Martha Luleka won the case but the lawyers, sometimes, would simply say the matter was decided in the favour of, but favour is not meaning corruption or politics. It only means that she got a judgement which was good to her. So, it is not about politics. The language is not talking of politics, but I would not comment too much on that. This was a default judgement. A default judgement means the case was not challenged. Martha Luleka went to court, sued the PAP and the PAP, for whatever reason, did not appeal or oppose. So, it does not mean that the PAP did not have a case. It is only that you were absent and then the case was decided and concluded. So, in this case, the PAP should go back to the Court and say, "We are here as the PAP. We are alive and this is our side of the story." Then the Court can still make the same judgement or it can 5 vary it or whatever, but it is simply that the PAP side of the case was not heard.I believe, Mr President, I have tried to exhaust all the issues.I thank you.THE PRESIDENT:I thank you very much.Hon. Members, I now put the question that the Report of the Committee on Administration and Financial Regulations be adopted.ApplauseTHE PRESIDENT:The report is hereby adopted.Hon. Members, I hereby call on the Clerk to read the second order of the day.THE CLERK:Thank you, Mr President:Presentation and debate on the Report on Foundational Principles and Policy Priorities in Family Policies on the Continent.THE PRESIDENT:Hon. Members, I call upon Hon. Francisca Domingas Tomas, the Chairperson of the Permanent Committee on Gender, Family, Youth and People with Disability to present the Committee’s report.HON. FRANCISCA DOMINGAS TOMÁS [MOÇAMBIQUE]:Merci beaucoup, Monsieur le Président.I thank you, Mr President.Muito obrigada Senhor Presidente por me dar a palavra para apresentar o relatório sobre os "Princípios Fundamentais e Prioridades das Políticas sobre a Família".É uma honra e privilégio para mim, em nome da Comissão do Género, Família Jovens e Pessoas Portadoras de Deficiência apresentar ao PPA o relatório sobre os Princípios Fundamentais e Prioridades das Políticas da Família no continente. Gostaria, antes de mais, felicitar ao Quarto Vice-Presidente do PPA pela sua eleição ontem e desejar bom trabalho em prol do Parlamento Pan-Africano. Esta saudação é extensiva a todos os Deputados que nesta Sessão foram eleitos à várias mesas das comissões permanentes desejando-os igualmente um bom trabalho.Senhor PresidenteGostaria de pedir desculpas aos senhores Deputados falantes da língua portuguesa porque o documento que lhes foi entregue foi mal traduzido. No entanto, gostaria que eles pudessem acompanhar a minha leitura.Senhor PresidenteO nosso relatório comporta contexto; introdução; objectivos; o sumário das apresentações; a União Africana e a Família em África; Políticas sobre a família em África: uma panorâmica geral; as políticas sobre a família e as melhores práticas: o exemplo da África do Sul; explorando alguns princípios fundamentais do desenvolvimento de políticas centradas na família; diálogo; conclusão e recomendações.Nesse contexto, tendo em conta os seus múltiplos papéis e atribuições, é inquestionável a unicidade e o carácter central e indispensável da Família em África. Ao longo de gerações, esta instituição tem sido uma fonte de inspiração e de encorajamento para os seus membros, prestando orientação e apoio. Com efeito, a família está no centro de todas as sociedades humanas e é importante que os países Africanos fortaleçam a instituição da família como parte de uma abordagem integrada e abrangente para o seu desenvolvimento sustentável.Durante a sessão da Comissão realizada no dia 09 de Maio de 2013, em reconhecimento da família como unidade básica e fundamental na sociedade, a Comissão decidiu organizar um seminário sobre‘Princípios e Prioridades Fundamentais nas Políticas da Família (incluindo as melhores práticas) em África’, para melhor apreciar a situação prevalecente no continente e incrementar o nível de entendimento em torno da questão da `família`.Não vou fazer apresentação da Introdução.Os principais objectivos deste Seminário foram:(i)Obter melhor entendimento sobre a situação actual prevalecente em África, aos níveis regional e nacional sobre a problemática da família.(ii)Iniciar um debate sobre o tópico relativo à ‘família’ no contexto do PPA e da União Africana, de modo a alargar o âmbito do seu mandato a este respeito.SUMÁRIO DAS APRESENTAÇÕES A União Africana e a Família – pela Dr.ª Johan Strijdom, do Departamento dos Assuntos Sociais da Comissão da União AfricanaNa sua comunicação, a Drª Johan, Chefe da Divisão do Bem-estar Social, Grupos Vulneráveis, Controlo de Estupefacientes e Prevenção do Crime no Departamento dos Assuntos Sociais da Comissão da União Africana (CUA) fez uma panorâmica do Quadro sobre Política Social para África que visa providenciar uma estrutura de política integrada e abrangente para fortalecer e facilitar o incremento da prioridade em torno das políticas sociais ao nível nacional e consequentemente promover a capacitação e o desenvolvimento humano. A estrutura do Quadro sobre Política Social inclui a Família Africana como uma das suas áreas temáticas.A Comissão tomou conhecimento de que as atribuições do Quadro sobre Política Social incluem, nomeadamente: reprodução; produção; redistribuição e protecção.As acções recomendadas em relação à família no Quadro da Política Social incluem, nomeadamente:(i)Implementação do Plano de Acção da União Africana sobre a Família.(ii)Desenvolvimento de políticas e de leis para fortalecer e preservar a família como instituição.(iii)Elevar o índice de tomada de consciência em torno da problemática da família para fortalecer a sua união e ajudar a assumir as suas funções.(iv)Envolver a comunidade e os órgãos da comunicação social nos esforços tendentes a realçar o papel positivo jogado pelas famílias na sociedade.(v)Integrar os programas destinados às famílias vulneráveis e promover redes para o seu apoio.(vi)Incrementar a capacidade em torno das necessidades socioeconómicas das famílias vulneráveis e reforçar os valores fundamentais de solidariedade e consenso que gravitam em volta da família Africana.O Plano de Acção da UA sobre a Família foi adoptado em Julho de 2004 e as suas áreas prioritárias incluem os direitos, deveres e responsabilidades da família, os direitos e a protecção da família e o fortalecimento das relações da família. O Departamento dos Assuntos Sociais da CUA desempenhou, entre outros, um papel para facilitar a implementação do Plano de Acção:Realização do balanço intercalar da implementação do Plano de Acção pelos Estados Membros, em 2010;Organização de uma consulta de peritos para a elaboração de uma Posição Comum Africana alusiva ao Ano Internacional da Família +20, em 2012; eFacilitação da preparação de um Quadro de Monitorização e Avaliação do Plano de Acção relativo à Família.Em conclusão, indicou que o rumo a seguir relativamente à colaboração do Departamento dos Assuntos Sociais da Comissão da União Africana com a Comissão de Assuntos do Género do PPA seria o seguinte:- O mandato do Departamento de Assuntos Sociais é de preparar e harmonizar políticas dos Estados Membros, enquanto o do PPA é de supervisionar a harmonização, ratificação e implementação das políticas da União Africana. Neste contexto, os quadros políticos elaborados pelo Departamento de Assuntos Sociais deverão ser partilhados com a Comissão relevante do PPA;- O Parlamento Pan-Africano joga um papel importante na advocacia da domesticação dos instrumentos políticos da União Africana pelos Estados Membros adoptados pelos órgãos da União Africana, como o Conselho Executivo. O Departamento de Assuntos Sociais deverá garantir que todos os quadros políticos, Planos de Acção e as Posições Comuns Africanas adoptados pelas Conferências Ministeriais da União Africana, organizadas pelo Departamento, sejam depositados junto do Secretariado do PPA, como documentos de referência.Políticas relativas à Família em África: uma análise geral – Dra. ZithaNa sua apresentação, a Dra. Zitha Mokomane definiu as políticas relativas à família como todas as actividades directas e indirectas do governo que influenciam o bem-estar da família e que possam ser explícitas ou implícitas.O desenho de políticas explícitas sobre a família providencia o reconhecimento da importância que a família tem na sociedade. Neste contexto, o Plano de Acção da União Africana sobre a Família apresenta objectivos específicos para ajudar os Estados Membros a formular, implementar e monitorarem políticas e programas que visam garantir a protecção e assistência de famílias. Por outro lado, o Quadro de Política Social de África recomenda prioridades estratégicas em relação à família, tendo em vista o reforço e a preservação da família como uma instituição.A Dra. Mokomane informou aos Membros que com base num relatório de balanço intercalar da implementação do Plano de Acção da Família nos Estados Membros, dos 25 países que responderam ao questionário de pesquisa circulado pelo Departamento de Assuntos Sociais da União Africana, apenas alguns países como os Camarões, Etiópia, Maurícias, Senegal, Argélia, Ruanda, Uganda e África do Sul adoptaram políticas explícitas relativas à família.O relatório revela também que quase todos os países membros adoptaram políticas implícitas relativas à família nas seguintes áreas:Alívio da pobreza – 50% dos Estados Membros incluíram questões de família nos seus Programas de Estratégia de Redução da Pobreza;Direitos aos serviços sociais – nas áreas de educação, a saúde da família e saúde reprodutiva, embora nem todos os Estados Membros tenham informação específica sobre as suas políticas e programas para famílias com necessidades especiais;Promoção da sustentabilidade ambiental – nas áreas do ambiente, água e saneamento, nutrição e segurança alimentar, abrigo adequado e posse de terra;Direitos, deveres e responsabilidades da família – cada Estado Membro inquirido adoptou um conjunto de legislações para a protecção dos direitos da família, bem como da mulher, dos idosos e de pessoas portadoras de deficiências;Direitos de protecção da família – a maioria dos Estados Membros adoptou leis e programas que visam proteger as famílias contra a violência, abuso, o tráfico e trabalho infantil;Reforço das relações familiares – a maioria dos países adoptou leis da família;Controlo das principais causas da morbidade e mortalidade – a maioria dos países elaborou e implementou programas de sensibilização e educação de famílias e comunidades sobre prevenção de HIV/SIDA, Tuberculose e Malária;Garantia de paz e segurança – alguns países membros indicaram terem adoptado e implementado legislação sobre prevenção, gestão e resolução de conflitos, bem como promoção de boa governação, democracia e respeitos pelos direitos humanos.A Dra. Mokomane concluiu que, não obstante os resultados promissores, muitos países estavam ainda atrasados e que era necessário desenvolver indicadores claros, assim como monitorização eficaz da implementação das políticas relativas à família.Políticas de Família e Melhores Práticas: um exemplo da África do Sul – apresentado pela Sra. Siza Magangoe, Departamento de Desenvolvimento Social, República da África do SulO foco da comunicação era o de inteirar a Comissão do documento de orientação sobre a Família e propor estratégias para reforçar a instituição da família e promover a vida familiar.A Senhora Magangoe informou à Comissão que, a família estava em estado de ameaça e via-se incapaz de jogar o seu papel crucial de socialização, educação, cuidado e protecção eficaz dos membros da família, devido a vários factores, dentre outros: a pobreza, elevados índices de desemprego, violência doméstica, crime, altas taxas de gravidezes indesejadas, ausência dos pais e deterioração geral de valores morais. Esses desafios contribuíram para a desintegração das famílias, daí a elaboração do Livro Branco sobre a Família na África do Sul que o Conselho de Ministros recomendou que fosse produzido para abordar a difícil situação das famílias.A visão do Livro Branco é a de promover o bom funcionamento da família que seja afectuosa, pacífica, estável e autossustentável economicamente e que também garanta os cuidados e o apoio físico, emocional, psicológico, espiritual e intelectual dos seus membros. Os objectivos incluem igualmente:Promover a vida familiar e fortalecer as famílias através de um quadro coerente e bem coordenado;Emancipar os membros das famílias dando-lhes a possibilidade de maximizar as oportunidades económicas, mercado de trabalho e outras que o país oferece;Melhorar a capacidade das famílias e seus membros criarem interacções sociais que façam uma contribuição significativa para o sentido de comunidade, coesão social e solidariedade humana.Em forma de conclusão afirmou que a implementação com sucesso do Livro Branco sobre Famílias passa por um sistema intersectorial e interdepartamental coerente, a ser implementado a vários níveis: governo, nacional, provincial e municipal. Torna-se imperativo que todos os intervenientes acreditem e adoptem a visão do Livro Branco.Explorar alguns Princípios Fundamentais de Desenvolvimento de Políticas Centradas na Família – Sra. Marjon Busstra, Escritórios da Diplomacia InternacionalO objectivo da comunicação era a de explorar algumas das questões a serem colocadas na análise do desenvolvimento de políticas e da família e dos princípios que possam formular o trabalho da Comissão com relação à ‘família’, ao examinar as propostas de políticas e como respondem às necessidades diversas e variáveis, bem como os direitos da família em África.A Senhora Busstra esboçou os princípios da seguinte forma:(i)A família constitui uma unidade e base natural da sociedade, de acordo com a Carta Africana dos Direitos Humanos e dos Povos (Artigo 18 número 1) e uma unidade natural e fundamental da sociedade, com direito à protecção pela sociedade e pelo Estado.(ii)A Família é o berço de todos os direitos e liberdades humanas.(iii)As questões na sociedade e no ambiente de políticas públicas influenciam positiva e negativamente a família. A política é sobre influência e pode prejudicar ou apoiar as escolhas(iv)As relações familiares são fundamentais para o nosso bemestar. Elas formam a instituição de assistência social primária em qualquer sociedade, mas estão sob pressão. O casamento é um deles, sendo o alicerce fundamental no qual as famílias alargadas se unem para apoiar o casal, bem como futuros filhos e netos. Não é de admirar que a ruptura familiar tem efeitos devastadores, não apenas sobre os indivíduos, a família, mas igualmente na comunidade e na sociedade em geral.O primeiro passo é para que os governos comecem a adoptar "uma abordagem familiar" através do desenvolvimento de políticas que:(i)Activem relações familiares fortes e estáveis e o exercício da responsabilidade dentro delas.(ii)Incentivem uma cultura que valorize e crie oportunidades para as relações familiares alargadas (a solidariedade intergeracionais).(iii)Ajudem a reduzir a pressão sobre as famílias.A Comissão tomou conhecimento que os objectivos da política de fortalecimento da família visam:(i)Fortalecer e, quando necessário, reactivar a família e redes de parentesco mais amplas, de modo a prestar cuidados às pessoas idosas, jovens ou com necessidades especiais.(ii)Prevenir a transmissão intergeracional da ruptura familiar.(iii)Promover a estabilidade das relações do casal e da instituição do casamento como um meio para esse fim.(iv)Fazer o possível para atingir e manter altos padrões de parentalidade.(v)Garantir que a sociedade em geral continue a ser respeitadora da criança.(vi)Reduzir a intervenção excessiva do estado na vida familiar.(vii)Desencorajar a dependência excessiva dos cidadãos ao Estado.Por outro lado, as políticas:(i)Reconhecem o casamento e as relações familiares alargadas nos sistemas de tributação e de providência social, por exemplo, tratar as famílias alargadas como uma forma de unidade económica.(ii)Incentivam o ensino de relações.(iii)Aumentam a responsabilidade dos pais. Duas pessoas contribuem para o nascimento de qualquer criança, e devem contribuir para a sua educação.(iv)Garantem que os pais/tutores tenham tempo para gastar com seus filhos. Isso pode incluir restrições sobre as horas de trabalho longas/atípicas, garantindo a partilha de um fimde-semana e licença parental.(v)Promulgam leis fortes contra os padrões de comportamento que criam dificuldades no relacionamento, tais como a violação, o incesto, a pornografia e os casamentos forçados.A Comissão tomou igualmente conhecimento que a família está constantemente exposta às mudanças, de dentro e de fora: com a migração e urbanização, o apoio da família tradicional está a tornar-se menos disponível. Há igualmente o conflito trabalhofamília que cria desvantagem à mulher no mercado de trabalho e tem impacto negativo sobre a qualidade das relações entre os cônjuges, e aumento do risco de disfunção familiar.Em conclusão, a Sra. Busstra afirmou que a família é fundamental para o bom funcionamento da comunidade e da sociedade, e para o desenvolvimento sustentável. Portanto, as conversas sobre desenvolvimento sustentável (por exemplo, os ODM da Agenda pós-2015) devem ter em conta a família. Não é apenas um objecto/alvo, mas é igualmente o agente da política social e da mudança social.DIÁLOGONa sequência das comunicações, os membros levantaram as seguintes questões/observações relevantes:(i)Que os Governos devem tentar resolver questões de saúde, HIV e violência contra as mulheres, apoiados pelas autoridades tradicionais.(ii)Que o acesso aos serviços sociais básicos, incluindo serviços de previdência social, e uma renda básica para todos, incluindo a segurança social devem ser priorizados.(iii)Que o desenvolvimento de políticas e legislações para o reforço e preservação da instituição familiar é vital.(iv)Que África deve promover a liberdade de imprensa, caso queira enriquecer a base de conhecimentos globais que informam a tomada de decisões sobre assuntos relacionados aos problemas familiares.(v)Que deve ser reforçada a capacidade das famílias vulneráveis para suprir as suas necessidades socioeconómicas, por exemplo, por meio da transferência de renda.(vi)A Comissão observou que a maioria dos países africanos possui legislações que afectam negativamente os valores da família e foram da opinião que os principais valores familiares africanos de solidariedade e consenso devem ser reforçados.(vii)O Seminário observou, com preocupação, que um dos desafios que África enfrenta é o ritmo lento das reformas das legislações, particularmente na promulgação de legislações fortes contra os padrões de comportamento que criam dificuldades nas relações, tais como a violação, o incesto, a pornografia e os casamentos forçados.(viii)Que os parlamentares são representantes do povo e, portanto, devem estar na vanguarda da defesa de assuntos da família, caso se queira atingir a boa governação.(ix)Que as ONG e todas as partes interessadas devem trabalhar com os Ministérios de Artes e Cultura, Educação e Justiça, respectivamente, na promoção de programas relacionados com a família.CONCLUSÕES E RECOMENDAÇÕESNo final do Seminário, a Comissão fez as seguintes recomendações:(i)Que o PAP deve desempenhar um papel proactivo para defender a implementação do Quadro de Política Social da União Africana e do Plano de Acção sobre a Família.(ii)Que o PAP deve utilizar o 50º Aniversário da União Africana para estimular o debate nos Estados-membros sobre o Panafricanismo e o Renascimento Africano, enfatizando os principais valores familiares 0 africanos e o reforço da família africana.(iii)Que todas as políticas nos parlamentos nacionais devem ter uma componente da família.(iv)Que sejam identificados pontos focais nos parlamentos nacionais para apresentação de relatórios sobre a implementação da Posição Comum Africana e Plano de Acção sobre a Família.Senhor Presidente acabei de apresentar o relatório sobre o Seminário organizado pela Comissão do Género, Família, Jovens e Pessoas Portadoras de Deficiência sobre os Princípios e Prioridades Fundamentais das Políticas sobre a Família emÁfrica.Muito obrigada Senhor Presidente Merci beaucoup!I thank you.Aplausos HON. BINTANDING JARJU [GAMBIA]:Thank you very much, Madam President, for allowing me to support the report being made.Madam President, we all agree that this a very important report and we have all listened attentively because we are all family members and, maybe, family heads in some other cases. So it is very important for us to know what the AU has in place for families. We should be in the forefront to strengthen these family policies and make sure that family policies are implemented to the letter because as we have learnt from the report that families are the natural core of our societies. So, if we build better families, maybe, in the long run, we will not have these riots that are killing us, creating conflicts here and there because we would have built societies with good morals and values. We would be respecting each other and we would be content with whatever we have at our family levels, thus reducing conflicts arising here and there in our continent all because of greedWe are never content with what we have and we try to grab whatever comes our way. If we try to build good families of good morals and values, we will be creating a better society for this continent. I support all those issues that were raised in the report because I am a Member and I thank the Chairperson of the Committee for presenting the report in a very eloquent manner.I thank you very much.HON. AHAMAT TAHIR AHAMAT [TCHAD]:Merci, Madame le Présidente.Je remercie d’abord, la présidente de la Commission qui nous a fait un exposé clair et qui est aussi important.À mon avis, il est indispensable pour les États africains de renforcer le rôle de la famille en développant, d’abord, des mesures politiques adéquates.Ceci est possible, Madame la Présidente, d’abord au niveau national et ensuite au niveau régional. Mais, la question qu’on se pose actuellement est de savoir, combien d’États ont élaboré des lois pour protéger les familles vulnérables et les personnes handicapées?Concernant la santé de la reproduction, il est indispensable que les parlementaires s’impliquent pour sensibiliser la population. Par exemple, dans mon pays, le Parlement travaille en étroite collaboration avec le Département de la Santé publique dans ce sens et cela a produit des effets positifs.Merci beaucoup, Madame le Présidente.HON. JULIANA AZUMAH-MENSAH [GHANA]:Thank you, Madam President, and I would like to take the opportunity to also congratulate our Chairperson as well as the Committee Members for this comprehensive report.We would also like to thank the Office of the International Diplomacy and AUC’s Department of Social Affairs for facilitating this workshop. Madam President, we all know that our African families are unique in themselves, the reason being that they are traditional, extended, protective and supportive in nature. I will say they carry us through from cradle to grave.However, Madam President, I would say that the typical African family is now under siege or being threatened due to a lot of challenges. There are challenges of poverty, migration because the male parent will want to go and seek employment, Illiteracy and unemployment. All these go to impact 1 on the well-being of the family. Now, one thing we do not know, also, is that decisions taken at the family level by members such as migration, divorce and withdrawal of children to come out of school and go to work and early marriage may be seen as being private decisions by the family, but these entire decisions end up causing family break-downs and ultimately impact on the family and eventually become a national concern.So, it is very important that we, as Parliamentarians from the PAP and in our national governments, should put in some specific social protection policies and programmes so that we can strengthen and assist ou families to overcome the challenges that I have mentioned.I, therefore, urge all colleagues to support the programme and adopt it so that we can influence the AU and national governments to have it.Thank you.HON. SAFIA ELMI DJIBRIL [DJIBOUTI]:Merci, Madame la Présidente.Permettez-moi, dans un premier temps, de m’associer à mes collègues pour remercier l’Honorable Madame Francisca DOMINGOS pour sa présentation.Madame la Présidente,Nous sommes en train de débattre, aujourd’hui, de la question relative à la politique familiale et nous sommes en train d’évoquer les différentes stratégies pour promouvoir le bien-être familial.Permettez-moi, Madame la Présidente, de rappeler ici, de quoi a vraiment besoin une famille pour être heureuse. Je dirais tout simplement qu’elle a besoin du minimum auquel elle a droit, à savoir la santé pour tous, l’éducation pour tous, un logement décent pour tous, c'est-à-dire, avec l’eau et l’électricité.Aussi, Madame la Présidente, combien de nos États, dans notre cher continent, peuvent se targuer d’avoir atteint ces objectifs en accordant à nos familles le minimum essentiel et indispensable auquel elles ont droit? Quant à son épanouissement, je peux vous dire, Madame la Présidente, que nous nous trouvons aux antipodes.Madame la Présidente,Je suis vraiment désolée de le rappeler encore une fois – mais c’est un constat réel – car nous savons que dans nos familles un événement heureux, comme l’accouchement, est considéré comme un événement dramatique, car l’on se pose la question suivante: est-ce que la mère et l’enfant vont survivre?Nous le savons bien, car il ya un manque de structures sanitaires, du personnel qualifié, ou même, je dirai des médicaments de base.Quand nos enfants meurent de la diarrhée, par manque d’eau potable et de prise en charge adéquate; quand nos enfants ne vont pas à l’école, par manque de réfectoires ou de dortoirs; quand nos jeunes sont dans le chômage – et j’en passe – ceci n’est que le haut de l’iceberg.Alors, de quelle promotion de bien-être familial parle-t-on?Enfin, pour moi, le bien-être familial passe d’abord par la survie de nos familles, et je considère cette question de l’épanouissement familial comme étant la cerise sur le gâteau.Et peut-on parler de la cerise quand, dans notre continent, nous n’avons même pas réussi à réunir les ingrédients pour faire un simple gâteau?Madame la Présidente,Je dirais qu’il est temps de revisiter nos priorités stratégiques pour pouvoir répondre à l’essentiel auquel nos familles aspirent.Merci, Madame la Présidente, de m’avoir permis d’intervenir sur ce sujet aussi important et d’intérêt général.(Applaudissements)HON. SUAD ALBADAWI [SUDAN]:Thank you very much, Madam President.I think this is one of the best reports I have ever read in the PAP and I want to stress just one point. I think it is the destiny of Africa and unless we solve this, we will be nowhere, and that is poverty, poverty and poverty. Our families are exposed to the humiliation of poverty. They cannot feed their children and they cannot educate them. They cannot give them proper medical services. So, we expose them to begging or just to dying out of hunger and yet we have all these beautiful reports and policies and nothing is implemented. Wealth is in the hands of very small number of our population. The scale of distribution of wealth is tilted. Power and money are 2 concentrated in the hands of corrupt people and hypocrites, and the rest of the population leaves them and give them these reports. Instead of solving the problems of the poor people, they ask them to stop complaining and kill our dream of multiplying our population.Madam President, I am against this birth control. It is a crime. I am against children born outside marriage and I am against wealth in the hands of a very small number of the population and Africa should punish. It is high time Africa punished its leaders who live in palaces and drive posh cars. It must punish them for taking this from them and redistribute the wealth so that we maintain a decent standard of living for everybody. Unless we do this, the rich will be richer and the poor will stay poorer and poorer. If we are just serious in building Africa, we should balance this wealth to be enjoyed by everybody and let us start here in PAP instead of talking and talking and talking about it.I thank you.HON. AHMED REZA GOOLAM MAMODE ISSACK [ÎLE MAURICE]:Merci, Madame la Présidente.Je n’ai pas préparé de discours comme tel, mais en lisant ce rapport, j’ai été frappé par une certaine émotion qui s’en dégageait.We have all been children! Et nous venons tous d’une famille. L’essentiel de la famille, souvent nous avons tendance à ne pas y penser, c’est la maman.La maman, c’est le pivot autour duquel s’enroule l’existence de presque tous les membres de la famille.Nous parlons en général des femmes, mais rarement mettons-nous en phase sur la maman?Au fait, le plus beau cadeau que notre père nous a donné, c’est sans doute notre maman.(Applaudissements)J’irai un peu plus loin pour dire que le plus beau cadeau que la vie nous donné, c’est notre maman.(Applaudissements)Mais pourquoi, n’y a-t-il pas une loi ou bien des lois pour protéger la maman?Protéger la maman, c’est protéger la source de la stabilité familiale!(Applaudissements)Et toute maman que nous avons eue, que nous aimons tant, est le cœur même de notre cœur.Alors, quand je constate la violence qu’on fait aux femmes qui sont des mamans, le manque de responsabilité ou bien l’irresponsabilité des enfants envers leurs mamans, vous n’avez qu’à imaginer tout ce que cela pourrait causer au sein de la famille.Si une maman est blessée, si une maman souffre, si une maman est traumatisée, la famille est blessée, la famille souffre, la famille est traumatisée.En mon humble opinion, je demanderais à ce que dans tous nos pays nous mettions l’enfant […], quand on parle de la famille, premièrement sur la maman.Les autres membres de la famille sont importants, mais la maman reste la quintessence même de tout ce qu’il y a en termes de famille.Donc, j’aurais souhaité qu’une loi maternelle, qu’une loi sur la maman soit adoptée dans tous les parlements.(Applaudissements)HON. AWAD HAG ALI AHMED [SUDAN]:Thank you very much, Madam President.I also support this good outcome of the workshop. I just want to emphasise that the challenges facing African families are malaria, maternal mortality, child mortality and these types of diseases.The African values are very high and should not be corrupted by the colonialists who want us to accept many bad things as human rights. We have the values of the extended family on which we help each other so that we do not need the support of governments, and we do not have suicides as the other industrialised countries. That is why we urge our African people to stick to the high African values.Thank you very much.HON. MARIE CLAIRE GUIGMA NASSA [BURKINA FASO]:Merci, Madame la Présidente, de me donner cette belle occasion de m’exprimer sur la famille et sur le rapport qui nous a été présenté.Madame la Présidente,Chers collègues,C’est dans une famille que tout être humain, homme ou femme, noir ou blanc, rouge ou jaune vient au monde. C’est dans une famille que se construit sa charpente physique et mentale qui détermine la qualité de sa vie future. C’est également en famille que nous célébrons nos plus grandes joies. C’est dans le secret de la famille que nous versons les larmes de nos plus lourdes peines. C’est enfin dans une famille que nous disons adieu au monde.Je voudrais dire, Madame la Présidente, que par-delà ces caractéristiques propres à toutes les familles du monde, la famille africaine traditionnelle est le filet de la sécurité qui enveloppe la personne au foyer, sur la route et à l’étranger, parce qu’on a de la famille partout. Elle est l’école de la solidarité et de la citoyenneté qui connecte l’individu à la société et au monde.C’est pour dire, Madame la Présidente, que la famille est la mère de la société et des nations et que de la qualité de la famille dépend la qualité des hommes, des sociétés et des nations.Ainsi, les crises, les violences, les drames qui agitent aujourd’hui notre continent, ne sont que l’expression des blessures, des malaises, de la misère, de la pauvreté et des scandales qui déchirent et brisent nos familles africaines.Madame la Présidente,Chers collègues,Je reste convaincue que tant que les familles iront mal, nos États, nos sociétés iront mal.Alors, tous nos efforts, nos plans et programmes de développement devraient avoir pour cible première et pour cible spécifique la famille.Aussi, pour conclure, Madame la Présidente, je voudrais remercier le PAP et ses partenaires qui ont permis à notre auguste Assemblée de mettre le doigt sur cette urgence silencieuse qu’est la famille.Je voudrais, ensuite, exprimer mon respect et mon admiration à Madame Francisca, la Présidente de la Commission chargée de ce rapport qui l’a si brillamment présenté, solliciter non seulement l’adoption de ce rapport mais aussi la mise en œuvre effective des conclusions, des recommandations que ce rapport a formulées.Enfin, je voudrais, Madame la Présidente, proposer que sous l’impulsion de ce Parlement, tous les parlements africains organisent chaque année des journées nationales de la famille.HON. STEPHANIE ANQUETIL [MAURITIUS]:Thank you Madam President.First of all, I would like to congratulate our Chairperson, Hon. Francisca Domingos for her presentation. Madam President, in Mauritius, several programmes were developed in the National Action Plan of the Family. I will give examples of these programmes. The Strengthening Values for Family Life and the Premarital Counselling Programme to People (engaged couples) is for a stable conjugal and healthy family life. The Marriage Enrichment Programme aims to prepare married couples for family responsibilities and a stable conjugal life while the Intergeneration Relationship Programme aims to consolidate ties within the family and promote family values among the three generations of youth, parents and grandparents. There is also the Men as Partners Programme which is a gender sensitive project.Madam President, furthermore, an impact assessment and evaluation on the Strengthening Values for Family Life Programme and a situational analysis on family values in Mauritius will be conducted in 2014.I thank you for your attention.HON .ISAAC STEPHEN MABILETSA [BOTSWANA]:My apologies, Madam President.When the issue was presented, I was outside for some other business but I have an interest and I want to assure the Committee and its Chairperson that I do support them for their efforts.I thank you, Madam President.HON. JEANETTE KABILA [RÉPUBLIQUE DÉMOCRATIQUE DU CONGO]:Thank you, Madam President but may I request that you give me more minutes for my intervention. Thank you.Madame la Présidente,Je vous remercie pour la parole que vous m’accordez. Je tiens, d’abord, à féliciter la Présidente de la Commission avec, bien sûr, tous les membres de ladite Commission.Nous saluons les réussites des différents pays en ce qui concerne les programmes visant la protection et l’amélioration de la condition sociale de la famille. Nous espérons que les bonnes pratiques de ces pays, par exemple – le « Policy White Paper on Families » ou « Document de la Politique Familiale Sud Africaine » – vont servir d’une impulsion importante pour l’accélération de la mise en œuvre du Plan d’Actions sur la Famille de l’Union africaine dans les différents pays en retard.C’est pourquoi, je suggère, Honorable Président, pour une compréhension plus extensive que notre Commission tienne compte d’acquérir, dans le prochain atelier bien sûr, des meilleures pratiques d’au moins un pays membre de chaque Groupe régional, c’est-à-dire l’Est, l’Ouest, le Nord, l’Afrique australe et l’Afrique centrale.Honorable Présidente,La femme est l’épicentre d’une famille. Elle est l’individu qui est dans la consolidation et le maintien d’une base solide de l’institution familiale à tous les niveaux de la société et dans les milieux ruraux et urbains ainsi que dans les différentes communautés.Je ne peux pas assez souligner, Honorable Présidente, l’important rôle joué naturellement par la femme africaine dans la consolidation de nos familles.C’est en tenant compte des recommandations faites par notre Commission, particulièrement la recommandation n° 2, en page 12 de la version française, que je propose, Honorable Présidente, de clairement inclure et définir le renforcement des capacités de la femme au sein de la famille comme une stratégie pour la réussite des objectifs soulignés dans le Plan d’Actions sur la Famille de l’Union africaine, surtout en ce qui concerne le renforcement des capacités et la protection de la famille.Honorable Présidente,Comme nous parlons de la politique familiale, « le Plan d’Action de l’Union africaine sur la Famille s’est fixé pour objectifs spécifiques, parmi tant d’autres, d’assister les États membres dans la formulation, l’implantation et le suivi des politiques et programmes pour protéger et assister la famille ». C’est en page 6 du document en version française.THE PRESIDENT:Thank you! One more second!HON. JEANETTE KABILA [RÉPUBLIQUE DÉMOCRATIQUE DU CONGO]:S’il vous plaît, Madame la Présidente, je dois terminer, c’est très important.THE PRESIDENT:One second!HON. JEANETTE KABILA [RÉPUBLIQUE DÉMOCRATIQUE DU CONGO]:Merci.(Rires de l’oratrice)Permettez-moi, Honorable Présidente, de vous informer que nous avons perdu de 1998 jusqu’aujourd’hui plus de 6 millions de Congolaises, ce qui est égal à calcul simple à un million de familles, à cause des conflits armés.Aujourd’hui, nous avons le devoir de vous informer, vu l’intérêt que le PAP tient dans la compréhension des conflits armés en République Démocratique du Congo, que les forces armées de la République Démocratique du Congo, mon pays, ont libéré presque [Micro éteint].THE PRESIDENT:Thank you Honourable!HON. JEANETTE KABILA [RÉPUBLIQUE DÉMOCRATIQUE DU CONGO]:Excusez-moi, s’il vous plaît, Madame la Présidente!Please Madam President, I have to finish this. It is for public interest and it is my second speech.THE PRESIDENT:You can come in may be when we are debating the ICC Motion. Hon. Jeanette Kabila, I am giving you one second to round up.HON. JEANETTE KABILA [RÉPUBLIQUE DÉMOCRATIQUE DU CONGO]:One minute!THE PRESIDENT:No! One second!HON. JEANETTE KABILA [RÉPUBLIQUE DÉMOCRATIQUE DU CONGO]:Ok!(Rires de l’oratrice)Nous tenons à vous informer que notre armée a libéré presque toutes les régions qui étaient sous le contrôle des forces négatives du M23 et d’autres groupes armés. Mais bien sûr, il y a encore du travail à faire.Je saisis cette occasion, Honorable Présidente, au nom du Parlement de mon pays, l’Assemblée nationale comme le Sénat, de la délégation congolaise et à mon nom propre pour témoigner notre profonde gratitude à l’Angola, à la Namibie, au Zimbabwe, à la Tanzanie, à la République sudafricaine, au Malawi et tous autres pays d’Afrique, de loin ou de près, impliqués dans les efforts pour ramener une paix durable à l’Est de mon pays.Trouvez ici, notre reconnaissance du fond du cœur pour avoir réduit considérablement la disparition de plusieurs milliers d’autres familles congolaises, encore au nom de l’intégration panafricaine.Nous prions que vous portiez notre gratitude à vos [Temps de parole épuisé].HON. MOHAMMED-MUBARAK MUNTAKA [GHANA]:Thank you, Madam President.Madam President, I want to associate myself very strongly with the comment made by my colleague from Mauritius when he talked about the importance of women. He said ‘mother’. I want to say ‘women’.Madam President, you can never build a house with blocks without cement. Without cement, you can never put them together to build whether a conference room whatever. Women in our society are like cement binding the blocks together and it is important that our mothers, sisters and wives understand that the family in Africa and its resources relies greatly on them.Madam President, recently, we have been copying, very blindly, cultures that are purely not African. In Africa, it is an extended family system that we have. For us, you will have a mother with siblings, whether brothers or sisters, that have children and she prays that these children will grow up supporting each other and being together. Yet, as a wife, on many occasions, many mothers in Africa today do not want to see the siblings of the husband. They do not want to see the extended family of the husband. When we do this, we set the foundations for the confusion because, definitely, one day, if the man dies and leaves you, the siblings will begin to fight you. That is where the confusion starts. I want to plead with our wives and our mothers that when you are a mother, you wish for all your children to love each other. So, when, you are a wife, be happy to open the home to the extended family of your husband. That is the only way you will encourage him to welcome your siblings and, together, you will begin to build the family as it used to be. However, the way it is today, if we are not careful and it continues to grow, that is what is going to draw us into all eight homes and add up because nobody is ready to take care of his mother; nobody is ready to take care of his father when is old because his wife or the husband does not support it.I thank you, Madam President and I think that this topic should be repeated in the Women’s Conference to let women understand the role they play in binding families together in Africa.Thank you very much.HON. FRANCISCA DOMINGOS TOMÁS [MOÇAMBIQUE]:- Muito obrigada Senhora Vice-Presidente pela concessão da palavra. Em primeiro lugar, gostaria de agradecer a todos os intervenientes, aos senhores Deputados, por me terem felicitado e felicitarem a Comissão pela apresentação deste tema e deste relatório nesta assembleia. Em segundo lugar, gostaria de dizer que, de facto, a família é a base principal e fundamental da nossa sociedade.Cada um de nós sai de uma família, cada um de nós cresce numa família e cada um de nós o seu comportamento começa na família. A vivência que não seja desejada numa família traz consequências e comportamentos que vão até a sua morte. A pobreza, como disse a Deputada do Chade, é que cria a vulnerabilidade de todos nós, principalmente a mulher. Daí a razão de que nos nossos países devemos abordar a questão das leis que protegem as famílias, a questão das leis que protegem as mulheres. Aqui, gostaria de concordar plenamente com o Deputado das Maurícias que foi o último orador, que disse que nós todos por vezes esquecemos de onde viemos; nós viemos de uma família; nós viemos de uma mãe. É esta mãe que nós violamos, é esta mãe que nós espancamos, é esta mãe que nós deixamos vulnerável, é esta mãe que nós não damos emprego; é esta mãe que está exposta ao HIV-SIDA; é esta mãe que está exposta à pobreza extrema.Esta mãe é uma mãe que nasce a todos nós. Todos nós partimos de uma mãe, nascemos, crescemos até ao casamento, mas depois esquecemos de onde viemos, mas viemos de uma mãe. Por isso, gostaria de concordar com os vários intervenientes que apoiaram este relatório e gostaria de apelar aqui que pudessemos adoptar, temos uma resolução sobre este relatório e gostaria que adoptássemos este relatório e a resolução que nós possivelmente possamos apresentar.Parabenizar também a todos os intervenientes quando falam de gravidez precoce porque é a razão da vulnerabilidade que existe nos nossos países africanos.A mulher é criança, mas as vezes é forçada a casar por causa da pobreza. Gostaria aqui de apelar, mais uma vez aos parlamentares, que possamos realizar o nosso trabalho de protegermos essas crianças, protegermos essas mulheres, para que não estejam expostas à vulnerabilidade nos nossos países. Eu dizia, nalgum momento, que há quem defende que "educar uma mulher é educar uma nação". Porquê? Porque todos nós quando ficamos doentes, de pequeno até a altura em que nos encontramos, é uma mãe que se preocupa em tratar das várias doenças do filho, da sua filha, da sua família, de todas as outras enfermidades que se passa na família. De facto, concordaria com o Deputado, último orador também e mais outros, que referenciaram que não se pode construir uma casa sem cimento. Esse cimento é uma mulher, é uma mãe.Muito obrigada Senhor Presidente, com essas considerações todas é aquilo que eu queria concordar com os vários intervenientes, percebi que as intervenções que aqui aconteceram eram mais para apoiar e enriquecer o relatório.Obrigada Senhor Presidente pela palavra.AplausosTHE PRESIDENT:Thank you very much. We have a Notice of Motion and I will call on the Clerk of Parliament to read the Notice of motion.THE CLERK:Thank you Hon. Mr President:Motion on the Resolution of the Extra-ordinary Session of the African Union held on the 12th of October, 2013 in Addis Ababa Ethiopia to support the decisions and declarations on Africa’s relationship with the International Criminal Court.THE PRESIDENT:Hon. Members, I now call upon the Hon. Chief Fortune Charumbira to move his motion.HON. CHIEF FORTUNE CHARUMBIRA [ZIMBABWE]:I thank you Mr President. In accordance with Rule 60 of the Rules of Procedure of PAP, I rise to move a Motion on the resolution of the Extra-ordinary Session of the AU held on 12th October, 2013, in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, to support the decisions and declarations on Africa’s relation with the International Criminal Court (ICC).Mr President, aware of the decisions and declarations of the extra sessions of the AU held on 12th October, 2013, in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, on Africa’s relationship with the ICC;Further aware that the extra-ordinary summit reiterated, in accordance with the constitutive Act of the AU, the AU’s unflinching commitment to fight impunity, promote human rights, democracy, the rule of law and god governance on the continent;Whereas PAP reaffirms each strong conviction that the search for justice should be pursued in a way that does not impede or jeopardise efforts aimed at promoting peace and stability on the continent;Cognisant of the fact that PAP shares concerns with the AU on the politicisation and misuse of the indictments against African leaders by the ICC as well as the unprecedented indictments and proceedings against democratically elected and sitting African Heads of State;Concerned that the ICC seems to only target African sitting Heads of State in its indictments and other processes;Appreciating that Kenya, for example, is at the forefront in the fight against piracy in the region and global terrorism while noting that the said indictments will detract and prevent the indicted African leaders from fulfilling their constitutional responsibilities, including national, regional and global security affairs;Also concerned that the ongoing processes before the ICC may pose a threat to the stability of the continent, the fight against terrorism as well economic development;PAP resolves:(i)that the principles deriving from national laws and international customary law by which sitting Heads of State and other senior State officials are granted immunities during their tenure of office be respected and upheld by the ICC;(ii)that the trials and other processes against democratically elected and serving Heads of State should be suspended until they complete their terms of office;(iii)to support the decision of the assembly to fast track the process of expanding the mandate of the African Court on Human and People’s Rights (AFCHPR) to try international crimes such as genocide, crimes against humanity and all crimes;(iv)that the Commission expedites the process of the expansion of the AFCHPR to deal with international crimes in accordance with the relevant decisions of the policy organs and invites Member States to support this process.Mr President, I so move.THE PRESIDENT:Thank you. Any seconder? Let me call on the Hon. Abdulaziz Abdulahi Mohamed.HON. ABDULAZIZ ABDULAHI MOHAMED:Thank you Mr President. In short, I second the Motion. Thank you.ApplauseTHE PRESIDENT:Hon. Members the question before the House is a motion by Hon. Chief Fortune Charumbira on the resolution of the Extra-ordinary Session of the African Union had on the October 12, 2013 in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia to support the decisions and declarations on African relationships with the International Criminal Court. In accordance with the provisions of our Rules 6 (1) debate on a motion may not exceed one hour. I will now allow three minutes per speaker and let me invite the mover of the motion, Hon. Chief Fortune Charumbira, to lead the debate.HON. CHIEF FORTUNE CHARUMBIRA [ZIMBABWE]:Thank you, Mr President.I will try to be brief in the interest of time. As is mentioned in the Motion, we are not here to condone impunity or bad governance or undermine democracy or human rights but we are simply saying that the conduct of the International Criminal Court (ICC) on the African continent brings to question the whole intention and possibility of ulterior motives in the purported pursuit of mechanisms of justice.First of all, Mr President, I want to say that the African continent had very viable and effective mechanisms of resolving conflicts, including punishing and removing from office leaders who digressed and we have in our literature kings, chiefs and whom so ever who were removed from their offices once their conduct contravened the value laws, custom norms and values of their societies.These mechanisms, of course, were then destroyed during colonialism and we are now being asked to seek similar mechanisms away from the continent. I think we should have confidence in ourselves and say that we are capable of punishing our own leaders and we can do that. We are aware, without saying we want to condemn criminality, that more serious crimes which are on a larger scale were perpetrated during colonialism. For example, during the struggle for independence in Zimbabwe, we had more than 60,000 people who were massacred.All those issues just lie and the ICC has no interest in such matters. This is not to say that whatever in committed by Africans should then be looked at without action but we are saying it is the clear selective justice that is coming out from the way the business is being conducted that we are saying no to.I would like to urge Hon. Members and remind them that this issue puts to question or to test and our resolve as Africans, and our capacity and confidence in ourselves as Africans. It is unheard of that the King of one territory is meant to go and try another territory. The people themselves should punish their king and they are capable of doing that.Mr President, I want to urge hon. Members that we may, as African countries or individuals, have our own differences which are based on some boundary disputes and some other disputes but when it comes to this issue, we should stand as one and protect our own identity, our reason for existence and our authenticity is a human race in Africa and I urge Hon. Members to support this Motion and ignore any other differences which I want to say are inhouse differences which can always be resolved. This is a test to our humanity.Thank you.UN HONORABLE MEMBRE:Motion d’information, Monsieur le Président!Quand l’Honorable député CHARUMBIRA a pris la parole, tout à l’heure, j’ai cru comprendre qu’il lisait la motion qui est soumise à notre attention.Il me semble que j’ai la version française, mais à la vérité quand il l’a lue, je n’ai pas reconnu, en tout cas, la traduction en français.Je ne sais pas si c’est la même motion. Qu’il veuille bien m’en informer!Merci, Monsieur le Président.THE PRESIDENT:Let me read Rule 62 of our Rules of Procedure it reads as follows; " A Presiding Officer may permit a Member to move, in amended form without notice, a motion if which notice has been given, in the opinion of the Presiding Officer, the amendment does not alter any principle embodied in the original motion." I think there are three more additional clauses.The first one is on the awareness. "further aware that the extra ordinary summit will be treated in accordance with the Constitutive Act of the African Union. The AU’s affiliation commitment to fight impunity, promote human right and democracy and the rule of law, and good governance in the continent."That was added on the first page. On the second he added; " to support the decision of the Assembly to fast track the process as spelt in the mandate of the African Court."Three and four were amendments he made while he moved his motion. Is that clear now?Let me now give the floor to the seconder of the motion.HON. ABDULAZIZ ABDULAHI MOHAMED [SOMALIA]I thank you, Mr President.I would like to start my comments by saying that Africa cannot afford Kenya to be an unstable nation. I say so because post-election Kenya has had a very successful reconciliation that has taken place between the warring factions.Mr President, Somalia is one of Kenya’s neighbouring countries. My concern is that if this ICC mess continues, Kenya will be on the verge of a civil war. I say so because Kenya is the one of the very few countries in the region that has not experienced a civil war. Look at what happened in Somalia the last 23 years and in Uganda twenty years ago. Look at Rwanda and Ethiopia which have had problems in the past.Mr President, Kenya has one of the most credible judicial systems in the region and it is my belief that they can handle this issue locally. I would like to mention that with a population of 40 million people, Kenya has hosted over 600,000 refugees from neighbouring countries. In fact, it could be over that figure. Therefore, Kenya is very important in the region. It is also in the frontline in the fight against terrorism, piracy and other problems.Mr President, the ICC has become a slaughter house for innocent African leaders and that is why I do not think that I can agree with that. I believe that...HON. TOURÉ DAOUDA [CÔTE D’IVOIRE]:Honorable Président,Honorables Membres de cette Assemblée et surtout Honorable auteur de cette motion, Il est bien de notre devoir de soutenir nos respectables Chefs d’États africains pour qui nous avons beaucoup de respect, mais je voudrais attirer votre attention que tous les actes que nous posons devant cette Assemblée, engagent notre responsabilité en tant que parlementaires africains.À cet égard, j’ai des critiques ou réflexions à faire sur ce projet de motion.En lisant ce document, je comprends les considérations politico-stratégiques régionales de l’Honorable Abdulaziz de Somalie, mais j’ai froid au dos, froid parce que l’adoption de cette motion est un soutien à l’impunité à tous les gouvernants dans l’exercice de leur pouvoir et cela me pose quatre problèmes majeurs.(Applaudissements)Premièrement:Le Conseil des Chefs d’États n’a pas demandé l’avis de notre auguste Assemblée, pour consultation au moins, pour les décisions et déclarations de la session extraordinaire qui s’est tenue le 12 octobre 2013 à Addis-Abeba sur les relations de l’Afrique avec la Cour Pénale Internationale pour savoir ce que pensent les peuples africains qui sont souvent victimes de leurs gouvernants.Deuxièmement:L’argument qui consiste à dire que certains pays, certains Chefs d’États africains seraient au premier plan de la lutte contre la piraterie et la lutte contre le terrorisme, ne devrait pas constituer un laissezpasser ou une immunité pour perpétuer des crimes et exactions contre les peuples ou contre l’humanité.(Applaudissements)Et c’est, un argument pour s’attirer la sympathie des grandes puissances et détourner la CPI de leurs actes d’impunités.Troisièmement:Cette motion, nulle part, ne fait allusion aux peuples qui souffrent, et qui sont les victimes, et qui sont des Africains. Oui des Africains! Ceux-là même que nous représentons ici.(Applaudissements)Oui, je comprends que ce n’est pas le but de cette motion!Quatrièmement:Cette motion précise qu’elle constate que la CPI ne semble cibler que les Chefs d’États africains en fonction. Mais, que voulez-vous, c’est quand ils sont au pouvoir qu’ils commentent les actes de tueries contres les peuples, les crimes contre l’humanité.Alors, il faut bien qu’on les interpelle!D’où la CPI qui est une épée de Damoclès sur la tête de tout le monde et pas seulement des Chefs d’États.(Applaudissements)Pour conclure, je m’interroge!Doit-on les laisser finir leur mandant avant de les interpeller? [Microphone éteint]M. LE PRÉSIDENT:Microphone please!HON. TOURÉ DAOUDA [CÔTE D’IVOIRE]:Doit-on attendre que les peuples souffrent et continuent de souffrir en attendant la fin hypothétique des mandats renouvelés par des Constitutions faites sur mesure pour que certaines personnes se maintiennent au pouvoir à vie, et pour ainsi dire qu’elles n’aient jamais à répondre de leur vivant de leurs actes?(Applaudissements)À cette allure, nous aurons beaucoup de présidents à vie!Alors, Monsieur le Président du PAP – je dis – le Président du PAP, chers collègues députés, je demande purement et simplement, parce que je respecte ceux qui ont émis cette motion, le report de l’adoption de cette motion après débats devant cette Assemblée, à une prochaine session.Je vous remercie.(Applaudissements)HON. SHEBESH RACHEL [KENYA]:Thank you, Mr President. I thank you for allowing me to speak on this very important motion.Mr President, the speaker who has spoken before me has taken me aback. I have seen that he spoke with passion and emotion about an issue that probably, as a House, we have not taken cognisance of.Mr President, during the report of the Committee on Foreign Relations, one of the recommendations was to allow a committee to go on a fact-finding mission.Mr President, I say this because of the kind of passion that my colleague previously has spoken about, tears into me as a Kenyan. It tears into me because, Mr President, the reason the ICC wants Kenyan President and Deputy President is not because they were running for President in 2007.The President, former President, Kibaki, and former Prime Minister, Laira Odinga, were the candidates in 2007. The then prosecutor, Moreno Okampo, because he could not touch the sitting President and the sitting Prime Minister, went to the allies of the two who were the ones who were fighting for elections in 2007 that led to post-election violence.Mr President, today, the President and the Deputy President are participating fully in the ICC process.It must come out clearly that our President and Deputy President, in fact, as we speak, the Deputy President is sitting in the ICC Court. He has been sitting there for three weeks. These are not people who look down on the ICC process. If anything, they co-operated even before the ICC called them because they have gone through all the processes.What the President, Deputy President and the AUleadership are asking is if it is necessary for a President and a Deputy President who have been indicted by the ICC to sit through the trial when they have competent lawyers who can allow the cases to go on and only appear when the ICC really needs them because, Mr President, the President is sitting there for one month interchanging with the Deputy President for one month for the next three, four or ten years. We do not know how long. The country will be held at ransom by the ICC when there are clear processes, legal channels that allow for deferral or referral. We are not asking for no justice for victims.Mr President, I want a fact-finding mission, and I beg that you allow the committee to go on a fact finding mission, because the victims who come from my community and the community that the Deputy President represents spoke to the prosecutor, Madam Benisuda, very candidly, and said it has been years since 1997. We have been fighting as communities but our leaders in the communities, Mr President, if you will just allow me, have come together on the same ticket to be elected, most importantly, so that these two communities will never go to war.I know you come from countries where there is tension between communities and you know very well that no such process would ever heal your countries. What our President and Deputy President did by putting down their pride and coming together, almost even caused uncertainty during the election time. Today, Kenyan people are watching, being reminded of the pain that they went through in 2007 through a live transmission of ICC proceedings that continue to rekindle the tension that my colleague from Somalia said we do not need in Kenya. We are not saying let our President and the Deputy President go scot free. No, they also want justice as people who have been given the burden to carry for those who actually were the leaders during 2007.However, what they are saying is, "Please, allow us also to exercise our democratic right to run the country." They were elected with over 6 million votes. These Kenyans have confidence in their leadership. I am begging this House, before we go into an emotional debate, this House must be cognisant of the real cases.Mr President, just to conclude, they were taken to ICC as six. They are now remaining three. For the other three who were together in the same case with the President, there was no case but the case is exactly the same. However, the ICC has released them. On the other side, they have released one. So, it means that already in the case of the ICC, the witnesses who have withdrawn are numerous and these witnesses have said in front of the Court of Law that they were coached to go and say it is William Ruto and Uhuru Kenyatta who were the ring leaders. I am saying, even as Kenya, we want this case to be completed so that we can vindicate not only our leadership but our country. Please, let us not look at this as impunity being perpetuated but as Kenya being used as an example to other African States that you cannot do what you want to do as a country, but that you have a big brother who is always looking down upon you.I thank you.ApplauseHON. JULIANA KANTENGWA [RWANDA]:Thank you, Mr President, for recognising me. Let me take this opportunity, this being my first speech since my loss, to congratulate my opposite for winning the seat and also to encourage the Bureau to move on.Mr President, I also wish to associate myself with this debate of the AU resolution on the ICC.ApplauseFirst of all let me associate myself with all that my sister, Rachel, has put forward concerning the situation in Kenya and remind the House that, actually, when the elections were taking place and when the post-election violence broke out, we were on a fact-finding mission. We were on an Election Observer Mission to Kenya and saw what happened. So, I can, at least, as for now, say it is true that these people were not the President and Prime Minister of Kenya at that time.Having said that, Mr President, and in addressing myself to the contentious issue of the ICC, last week, I had the opportunity to meet European Parliamentarians and in the words of one he said; "We were alarmed by the decision of the AU." Who are these that are getting alarmed? Are they African people? Are they the victims in Africa? Why are they getting alarmed? It reminds me that towards the elections of Kenya, the last concluded elections of Kenya, one diplomat said that choices have consequences, warning the Kenyan people.Was outcome of the Kenyan elections supposed to affect him or not? So, these people who pretend to be more interested in the outcome of our affairs much more than we are, I think, gives ground for us to realise that it is not for nothing that they are doing all this. They are on a political agenda.That is why most of the international institutions have been politicised. They set them up as their political tools and we, Africans, walk in as if we do not know where we are going. That is how we ended up with all of us acceding to the ICC. We are not against the ICC because we are against justice, but it is the way they manipulate the issues and the way they manipulate the cases like my sister has just put it. They just want to put the seating Heads of State on trial, not because they want the justice.I have seen all this manipulation since I am from Rwanda. Since 1960, we have been at the bitter end of that struggle. Sometime back we brought a motion on international jurisdiction where somebody sits somewhere and starts assigning himself the powers to summon Heads of State to their countries under the guise of international jurisdiction. We know all these are charges that they want to put on different Heads of State.HON. MEMBER:Because they have powers, Mr President.HON. JULIANA KANTENGWA [RWANDA]:Just give me one minute to conclude. Because they are stronger than us, it should not mean that they are more right. How come that there is nobody who has ever been to the ICC, not even when they went to Iraq? Nobody has even followed up that case. Does it mean that our law is incompetent?ApplauseMr President, how come that we cannot, ourselves, point fingers at them and be brought to the same justice? As long as justice is not a level playing field, it is no longer justice, it is politics. Let them play politics. I want to use this occasion to call upon the AU that if no one sees us as right, why do not we strengthen our own Court of Human Rights?Thank you Mr President.ApplauseHON .ISAAC STEPHEN MABILETSA [BOTSWANA]:Thank you, Mr President.Let me clearly make it straight from the outset that I associate myself with the motion. In doing so I am not condoning in any manner the Head of State who, upon his or her election, now uses the mandate that he has to terrorise and traumatise the nation that he leads. I am against that. But the Kenyan situation, Mr President, is unique. Its uniqueness derives from the fact that - as a member of Co-operation and Conflict Resolution Committee - I listened to the explanation from the experts and everybody that was participating in our meeting and the message that came loud and clear is that there are two ethnic groups that were not at peace with each other in Kenya.The leaders of the two groups came together under one ticket, smoking the peace pipe. Why do we not give them support to build the nation of Kenya?ApplauseThis is the reason I am supporting them, not the atrocities and the offences committed but the fact that, maybe, we can have permanent peace in Kenya. Let us give these leaders an opportunity. How do you concentrate on governance when, on the other side, you have the axe hanging on your head and the litigation that is likely to throw you permanently in prison? Really, governance issues here, Mr President, are at stake. This is why I am associating myself with this motion and I am saying the Kenyan situation is unique. It must be accorded the status which it deserves.I thank you, Mr President.ApplauseHON. DELWA KASSIRE COUMAKOYE NOURADINE [TCHAD]:Çà c’est complet, aujourd’hui, Monsieur le Président!(Rires de l’orateur à propos de la prononciation de son nom par le Président)Merci, Monsieur le Président.J’ai suivi ce débat depuis le 12 octobre!J’ai suivi les radios internationales!De l’avis des Africains, tous les Chefs d’États doivent respecter l’Accord que les États ont signé.C’est un principe de droit, ce n’est pas inventé!Les États qui ont signé l’Accord de Rome!Ce n’est pas pour le peuple qu’ils massacrent, c’est pour eux-mêmes!Monsieur le Président,Je voudrais d’abord savoir, sur le plan du principe, si le PAP a actuellement la qualité juridique de prendre des décisions qui peuvent avoir leurs portées exécutoires.Je ne crois pas!Nous agissons en tant que qui?Quelle institution!Nous sommes en train de chercher ce pouvoir!On n’a ni le pouvoir consultatif, ni le pouvoir législatif, mais, nous intervenons en qualité de quoi?(Applaudissements)Nous devons nous conformer aux statuts, les règles qui nous situent!Ce qui est vrai, ce sont les majorités politiques quiécrasent les minorités politiques.C’est dans toute l’Afrique!C’est dans toute l’Afrique!Vous allez recenser ici, dans la salle, les minorités politiques qui ne représentent rien!J’ai assisté avant-hier à un examen d’un dossier qui reflète nos caractères sauvages. Au nom du peuple, nous prenons le pouvoir, mais une fois qu’on est au pouvoir on le massacre, c’est sur toute l’Afrique!(Applaudissements)Des démocrates ne peuvent pas tenir un langage qu’ils ne peuvent pas appliquer. Il n’y a pas de crise!La crise d’un État, c’est ce qui s’est passé au Kenya!C’est ce qui s’est passé au Liberia!C’est ce qui s’est passé en Côte d’Ivoire!C’est ce qui s’est passé au Tchad!Aujourd’hui, Hissène Habré sera jugé par un tribunal africain. Mais il faut qu’on ait le courage, si même on est de ces hommes qui nous dirigent, choisissons le camp du peuple.Eh oui, c’est ça la vérité!Ici, ceux qui représentent les Chefs d’États sont plus nombreux que ceux qui représentent la population, ici, dans cette salle!(Applaudissements)Eh oui, c’est la vérité!Mais ayons confiance en Dieu et au peuple, pas aux individus!Pas aux individus, dans [Microphone éteint].M. LE PRÉSIDENT:Microphone please!HON. DELWA KASSIRE COUMAKOYE NOURADINE [TCHAD]:Au lieu de l’Union africaine, en tant que représentants des peuples, nous sommes en même temps les fossoyeurs desdits peuples qui nous ont élus.Çà, je le dis!Pour des intérêts éphémères de deux à trois ans, on sacrifie nos peuples. Il faut qu’on s’arrête!Les infractions étant connues, laissez la Cour Pénale Internationale achever son jugement!(Applaudissements)L’Accord de la Cour Pénale Internationale dit que ceux qui sont mis en cause, ont le droit de saisir le Conseil de Sécurité qui peut leur donner un sursis d’un an. C’est à partir de ce moment que ceux qui sont accusés n’ont qu’à procéder [Microphone éteint], parce que je félicite le Premier Ministre et le Président actuels du Kenya. Ils sont plus nationalistes que nous, ici, dans la salle. Ils ont accepté d’aller et ce n’est pas parce qu’ils seront poursuivis qu’ils seront condamnés.Non!Nous sommes ici, devant un tribunal politique. Ce n’est pas du droit, mais je les félicite.Je crois, Monsieur le Président, qu’il y a quelque chose qui me chagrine un peu, le fait même que ce texte soit falsifié, nous francophones, on ne suit pas ce texte.Le conseil que je vous donne, c’est de reporter la décision à prendre!Envoyez une mission du Parlement panafricain au Kenya. Lorsque cette mission nous déposera son rapport, nous aurons, pas par rapport même à la Cour Pénale Internationale, puisque ce n’est pas de notre compétence, nous pouvons prodiguer des conseils ànos frères du Kenya.Monsieur le Président,Tout le peuple, dans son ensemble, se concerte.Nous nous sommes réconciliés!Nous demandons aux représentants du peuple qui sont des chefs de cantons et tout ceci, cela – pas le Parlement – qu’ils écrivent et qu’ils saisissent, en tant que peuples du Kenya, après une pétition à la Cour Pénale Internationale et au Conseil de Sécurité, pour dire qu’ils veulent qu’on cesse la poursuite de ces deux personnalités parce ce qu’ils ont retrouvéleur paix et leurs droits.Je crois que Dieu nous aidera et ceux qui sont morts pour cette cause nous seront reconnaissants.Merci, Monsieur le Président.(Applaudissements nourris)HON. MOHAMMED-MUBARAK MUNTAKA [GHANA]:Thank you Mr. President.Mr President, let me rise to support the motion before us and I am advising my colleagues to support this motion, not because of the wrong doings but as a matter of principle.ApplauseHON. MOHAMMED-MUBARAK MUNTAKA [GHANA]:Mr President, someone, the speaker just before me, was talking about many of us here representing our Presidents. I beg to differ. I was elected by 128,000 people to represent them in my constituency and I want him to know that I am not representing any President and I want to believe, every one of us who is here is representing the people of his constituency and his country, and not the President that he is claiming that we are representing.ApplauseMr President, let me say that it is said in my language that when you refuse to go to your father’s farm on a Friday for a Muslim, or Sunday for a Christian, you will go to somebody’s father’s farm on the ‘eat day’ or on the Christmas day.LaughterWhy are we saying this? Africa has failed to check itself. We failed to check ourselves and that is why we have all been humiliated in this entire world because we are failing to check ourselves. If we were checking ourselves, nobody would have the guts to even talk about lining up African leaders to try them.Those who were perpetrating and been taken up to the ICC, ask yourselves: They are in the United Nations Permanent Security Council and how many of them have ratified?Our Presidents are always deceived in a meeting of some benefit to their countries. So, when documents come, they are in a hurry to sign, and when they bring them to Parliament, we seldom pay much attention. We are also in a hurry to ratify. That is what has landed us into this problem.Hon. Colleagues, I want to beg you for the dignity of Africa and for the dignity of every one of us that we must not allow this to happen. Every one of us should have confidence in what we do. If it is justifiable, people should have been tried for Iraqi.How many people did not die in Iraqi? How many people did not die in Afghanistan? How many people did not die during slave trade? Why are we pretending?We are only hard on ourselves. Any time it is ourselves and we are willing to kill ourselves for them. If it is a just God, all of us in the world should be ready to make ourselves available but we should also remember, in our various countries’ constitutions, and I want to believe, it is all around the world, you cannot try the head of the family like what is happening to Kenya. At a time that they are healing their wounds, we are going to open the wounds and when the wounds are open they start fighting again. We will ask ourselves, "Who are the beneficiaries?" Let us sit here and ask ourselves.They did this much to our colleagues in the DRC. When they are fighting, who are looting their assets? There were more assets in the DRC than this. Why? People are busy, whilst we are fighting, collecting all that is available.So, please, my Hon. Colleagues, this motion is about our dignity but as we try to protect our dignity, let us also be mindful that we do not wait to get to this point again. We must put mechanisms in place to check ourselves. We must stop this vindictiveness. We are too vindictive as Africans. We hate each other; we do not like each other. Why should you want to kill your brother because of politics? We must check ourselves so that others will not have opportunity to be pointing wrongfulness at us when they are doing worse things.I thank you Mr President.HON. BERNADETTE LAHAI [SIERRA LEONE]:I thank you Mr President.I would like to preface my discussion with a question. Had any ordinary Member of Parliament or any ordinary citizen in Kenya been asked to appear before the ICC, would all Heads of State have converged and said wait for the Member of Parliament to finish his or her five-year term or wait for that individual? The answer would have been ‘no’ for Members of Parliament. They would like you to go there and perish because it is not their business.Mr President and Hon. Members, the ICC is a court of last resort. It does not go into a country just like that. Certain conditions have to be fulfilled. Until those conditions are fulfilled, the ICC cannot go into any country. This is what we are talking about today.Mr President, the resolution says that the trials of Heads of State be deferred until the end of their term.Do you know what that means? Some Heads of State will now go in and tamper with their constitutions to ensure that there is an open-ended tenure so that they stay in power. It has happened before and is still happening. Some Heads of State will continue to win elections so that they stay in power and not face the ICC.ApplauseI am not bothered about the Heads of State. I am bothered about the victims. Victims are the ones we should be talking about. Look at those poor women and men who leave their houses and go into refugee camps. Children do not go to school and they die. There is a lack of food. Women are raped and all of those things. What is their position today?We say that two communities were fighting. Yes, but the effects of that fighting did not only stop with those two communities. Their communities had nothing to do with it but it affected them also. Today, they are in worse-off state than before.Mr President, the witnesses are telling us that they have volunteered to withdraw their testimony. This is not true. They have been threatened and blackmailed that if they go ahead, then certain things shall happen to them and their families. That is why they are afraid.ApplauseMr President, I think that this issue is one where we should tread very cautiously. Why did the Heads of State not come together when Charles Taylor was apprehended? It was not their business because he was not a sitting President. What is good for the goose should be good for the gander.ApplauseWe suffered in Sierra Leone. Even up to now, the remnants of the war are all over. We are happy that most of those who bore the greatest burden have been tried. However, there are a few citizens that are still going up and down the streets of Sierra Leone with no remorse. If we say that we cannot co-operate with the ICC, what is the alternative? Give us the alternative. Our African Court is not working.ApplauseEven if it was working, what will happen? Who will put it there? If the Heads of State appoint those who sit on that African Court, they will also rule over them. There will be no independence. There will be no justice for the poor. So, please, we are not targeting Africans, we do not hate Africans but we need to call a spade a spade. Let us stop this humiliation of the African people.The people vote these Presidents in but when they come in they should make sure that they go by the social contract. You are my people and I am your God. I will look after you and you shall also obey me. What is happening? They come in and enrich themselves and when one of them is threatened, they all run because the guilty are afraid. Evil only winneth when nobody pursues it. They know that, one day, they, too, are going to be guilty after they have left office. That is what they are doing. We do not hate Africans or have bad hearts but impunity should be curbed.ApplauseWe have suffered too much. We do not elect Presidents so that they make slaves of us. This is my situation. Therefore, I am recommending that we do not even take action on this resolution. It should be thrown out. Let the African Heads of State fight for themselves. You are fighting for them and yet they have not even given us our transformation.ApplauseThey have not given us our transformation because they know that if this Parliament is transformed, we will be more powerful. We will be making laws for the whole of Africa. That means we will be taking some of their powers away. Why are they not fighting for us? Why are we fighting for them? Let them face the consequences of their actions. This is my suggestion.ApplauseWe should not accept this motion. When we come to vote, let us tick the ayes and the nos. If the Ayes win, they win. If the Noes win, they win. However, we cannot just take votes on this motion by clapping because the answer will not be representative.I thank you.HON. PASCAL SATI MABIALA [CONGO]:Honorable Président, merci de me donner la parole pour intervenir dans ce débat qui porte sur la motion relative aux relations entre l’Afrique et la Cour Pénale Internationale.Mais, comme je suis nouveau, Monsieur le Président, je ne connais pas très bien les us et coutumes de cet hémicycle.Je pense qu’il y a un vice de procédure. La motion aurait dû être précédée d’un débat général sur la question de fond elle-même.Quand j’ai écouté les brillantes interventions de mes prédécesseurs comme l’Honorable TOURÉ, l’Honorable COUMAKOYE – je crois, si je n’égratigne pas son nom – et la camarade, tout à l’heure, Bernadette LAHAI, cela veut dire tout simplement que nous n’avions pas eu ce débat; ce débat de fond sur nos relations, les relations entre l’Afrique et la Cour Pénale Internationale.Comment tout d’un coup, nous pouvons adopter une motion qui, en plus, est une motion personnalisée, parce que visiblement elle porte sur la situation intérieure au Kenya avec l’inculpation de ces deux personnalités, le Président et le Vice-président?Alors, en ce moment nous sommes très embarrassés. Il y a le risque de diviser le Parlement en deux, entre d’un coté les pro-CPI et de l’autre les anti-CPI, alors que telle n’est pas la vocation de notre Parlement, Honorable Président.C’est pour cela, comme l’ont proposé mes prédécesseurs, nous devions logiquement retirer cette motion et peut-être la soumettre à une prochaine occasion à un débat général, un débat de fond.(Applaudissements)N’oublions pas qu’au-delà de l’émotion, il y a d’abord la raison qui doit nous habiter en tant que parlementaires.N’oublions pas chers amis, honorables députés, que nos États ont souscrit librement au Traité de Rome, en leur âme et conscience. Ce Traité a été soumis à nos peuples à travers leurs parlements pour être ratifié.En ce moment, s’il y a des problèmes, si nous constatons qu’il y a une déviation de ce qui a été prévu dans le Traité, nous sommes libres, justement, de reformuler auprès de la CPI les modifications possibles sur le Traité, et il y a également des procédures qui sont prévues à cet effet. Mais nous ne pouvons pas, sur des cas précis et sur des coups émotionnels, nous mettre à nous attaquer sur ce qu’il est convenu d’appeler, aujourd’hui, comme une institution qui nous permet de lutter contre l’impunité et contre tout ce que nous vivons.Comment pouvons-nous expliquer à nos peuples que des personnalités, parce qu’élues démocratiquement ou non, seulement parce qu’elles sont à la tête des États, se permettent de commettre des crimes inqualifiables et qu’ils soient à l’abri des poursuites?Ça aussi aucun de nos peuples ne l’accepterait!(Applaudissements)Honorable Président, Comme je l’ai dit, je souscris totalement à ce que mes prédécesseurs ont proposé et je pense que logiquement vous devez simplement retirer cette motion.Je vous remercie.HON. AWAD HAG ALI AHMED [SUDAN]:Thank you very much, Mr. President.I will start by saying that I am supporting the motion not just because we are seeking immunity of the African leaders but because the ICC is used for political aims. The ICC is highly politicised. It is a great mistake to think that the ICC is supporting justice in Africa or supporting the victims of Africa. They are only looking out for their own interest. I was an election observer in Kenya and we have seen the use of the ICC decision to influence the people of Kenya. However, despite all that, the Kenyan people have elected those who are wanted by the ICC. They did the same with many African leaders. They bring them to ICC during the elections. Why is that? Why do they choose that time?Mr President, just look at what is going on in Iraq. Iraq was a very stable developing country. Then the United States of America (USA) claimed that it had chemical weapons. Then, without the support of the United Nations, the USA invaded Iraq and changed the government. Now, more than three million people have been killed and you can still see what is going on now. Nobody has asked President Bush to come to the court despite the fact that he has said it was a mistake because there were no weapons in Iraq. We are against this court because it discriminates and justice is against discrimination.That is why I urge you to support this motion for the sake of Africa and, again, colonisation coming back to Africa through the ICC.Thank you, very much.HON. BAKARY OUATTARA [CÔTE D’IVOIRE]:Merci, Monsieur le Président.À la suite de mon collègue Touré Daouda, l’Honorable Bernadette LAHAI et l’HonorableHON. BAKARY OUATTARA [CÔTE D’IVOIRE]:Merci, Monsieur le Président. À la suite de mon collègue Touré Daouda, l’Honorable Bernadette LAHAI et l’Honorable [01:05:31], je ne devrais même plus parler parce qu’ils ont vraiment pris en compte le discours que j’avais préparé.Mais, je voudrais quand même réagir, un tout petit peu, sur la motion pour dire qu’il me semble que cette motion a été vraiment taillée sur mesure, comme quelqu’un l’a dit, par rapport au Kenya.Je pense qu’il ne faut pas le faire!Il ne faut pas se baser seulement sur un seul pays!Nous parlons de l’Afrique!Au contraire, je devrais plutôt féliciter les deux personnes mises en cause. Elles ont accepté de répondre à la convocation de la Cour pénale internationale. Mais oui, je les félicite parce que de toutes les façons, elles sont allées volontairement. Si elles y sont allées, c’est parce qu’il y a une charge contre elles. Elles ont répondu! Félicitons-les!Je pense qu’il faut laisser la Cour pénale internationale aller jusqu’au bout. Maintenant, si on estime, malgré leurs argumentaires, qu’elles ont été injustement accusées, à ce moment on pourra aviser.Mais, pour le moment, laissons la Cour pénale internationale aller jusqu’au bout – pour répondre un peu à ceux qui parlent d’africanisme – pour dire qu’il faut mettre en place une institution africaine, et qu’il ne faut pas se laisser juger par l’extérieur.Je veux bien!Mais, pour le moment, qu’est-ce qu’il y a en place en Afrique pour jouer ce rôle?Est-ce qu’il faut se laisser tuer par nos Chefs d’États pour dire qu’il n’y a pas une institution africaine, alors que nous avons une Cour pénale internationale dont nos Chefs d’États ont signé le Traité?Ce n’est pas nous qui avons signé!Ce sont les chefs d’États qui ont signé!Qu’ils assument!Qu’ils assument!(Applaudissements)Qu’ils assument en attendant qu’on puisse mettre en place, peut-être, une Cour pénale africaine ou je ne sais quoi!Mais, pour le moment, il faut qu’il y ait quelque chose qui puisse mettre l’épée de Damoclès, comme quelqu’un l’a dit.Véritablement, on ne peut pas laisser la population mourir pour faire plaisir à un Chef d’État!Je suis désolé!Nous sommes ici, en tant que représentants des peuples!Nous ne sommes pas là pour représenter nos Chefs d’États!Donc, mes frères et sœurs, honorables députés, il ne faut pas se laisser distraire par de bons discours de panafricanisme pour dire que nous devons être Africains.Africains, je veux bien, mais pour le moment, il n’y en a pas!(Applaudissements)Il n’y en a pas!Donc, je vais m’arrêter là, Monsieur le Président, pour dire qu’il faut tout simplement retirer cette motion ou alors la modifier profondément, en tenant compte des réalités des peuples africains.Je vous remercie.(Applaudissements)HON. KEBZABO SALEH [TCHAD]:Je vous remercie, Monsieur le Président.Monsieur le Président,L’essentiel a été dit par tous ceux qui ont parlé avant moi. Je ne voudrais donc pas faire de la répétition. Il est évident que – je l’ai dit l’autre jour à la présentation du rapport de notre Commission relativement à cette question sur la CPI – il est évident qu’un certain nombre de dirigeants africains, les plus nombreux certainement, ont senti l’étau se resserrer sur eux pour s’organiser comme ils ont l’habitude de le faire, en syndicat, et aller chercher à se défendre à Addis-Abeba.C’est cela la réalité!(Applaudissements)On ne peut pas occulter la réalité!Ils se sont mis ensemble pour se défendre et dénoncer la CPI, comme l’ont dit tous les autres, même mon prédécesseur.Qui a pris la main de quelqu’un pour le forcer à signer?Comme d’habitude, quand on nous présente les Conventions et autres à signer, les blancs nous disent qu’il faut signer. On court et on signe sans lire et quand on voit que ça se retourne contre nous maintenant, on dit non, on ne doit plus accepter la CPI, on ne doit pas accepter qu’elle nous juge.Non!Nous, on ne doit pas l’accepter, si nous sommes réellement des défenseurs des droits et des défenseurs des populations qui nous ont élus pour défendre leurs intérêts. On ne peut pas aujourd’hui, dans cette Assemblée, Monsieur le Président, prendre la parole pour soutenir ceux qui sont en train de piller, de tuer allègrement sans accepter d’être jugés.Ce n’est pas possible!(Applaudissements)C’est cela l’enjeu!Alors, je conviens bien avec ceux qui ont parlé avant moi que cette motion, à force de vouloir l’équilibre, est déséquilibrée. La motion devait tout simplement parler clairement du cas du Kenya.On aurait peut-être accepté!Mais vouloir par le Kenya, donner l’absolution à tous les Chefs d’États africains, c’est injuste, ce n’est pas normal!On ne doit pas parler dans l’émotion, ni la passion. On doit rester serein et observer les situations telles qu’elles se présentent pour proposer des solutions.Je voudrais au passage dire, Monsieur le Président, que les autres l’ont dit avant moi encore, le texte en français est d’une présentation exécrable. Il est inadmissible que dans un Parlement, comme le nôtre, on ait un texte comme celui-là qui, dans le fond comme dans la forme, ne traduit pas du tout ce que l’auteur de la motion a dit en anglais.C’est encore une des défaillances du PAP!Pour revenir au fond, Monsieur le Président, je crois que je ne ferai que renforcer ce que ceux qui m’ont précédé ont dit.Premièrement, si nous voulons réellement sur la base de ce qui s’est passé au Kenya et qui est révélateur de la situation, voir quelle voie nous devons suivre, j’adhère parfaitement à l’idée qu’il faut envoyer une mission au Kenya. Envoyer une mission au Kenya, allons voir ce qui s’est réellement passé là-bas, revenons ici faire un compte-rendu à notre Assemblée et avisons en ce moment là.Là, je pense que ce serait la bonne procédure!D’ailleurs, je crois que dans les recommandations qui vont suivre, tout à l’heure, il y a aussi l’idée de l’envoi d’une mission au Kenya, mais pour d’autres raisons. Si cela pouvait se faire ainsi, je pense que le bien fondé de cette motion n’existe plus.Je crois que, Monsieur le Président, pour être constructif, « on ne peut pas jeter le bébé et l’eau du bain »!Pour être constructif, je pense simplement que, comme l’ont recommandé nos amis, il vaut mieux suspendre ce débat. Il faut le reprendre une fois qu’on se donne le temps d’en débattre, notamment quand la Commission va rentrer du Kenya, pour qu’on voit quels sont les tenants et aboutissants de toute la chose et décider en conséquence.C’est pour cela, Monsieur le Président, que je soutiens qu’on suspende le débat, que cette motion soit retirée et qu’elle soit reprogrammée pour la prochaine session.Je vous remercie.(Applaudissements)HON. SUAD AL-FATIH AL BADAWI [SUDAN]:Thank you very much, Mr President.I wish to start by saying that there is confusion in what we really understand from this motion. It is not a matter of protecting leaders in Kenya, or whether it is in Sudan because the ICC was not created to avail justice. That is why most of the countries in Europe and America did not sign this. They did not sign ICC document. The reason the ICC is there is that the West and America who refused to be members of this court saw and thought that the advent of the rise of Africa and the African people and all the future is not in Europe, and it is not in America. It is here in Africa. Because the future is in Africa, they started by taking all these steps from development to let us quarrel and wage wars against one another to give them the time to think of something else.And they manufactured what we call terrorism. What is terrorism? Terrorism is manufactured inside the lives of these people because they want people to go on one another and it was them who killed and impoverished these countries.Look at what is happening in Afghanistan. They are killing them. Look at what happened in Iraq. More than three million have been killed and, until today, Iraqis are fighting and killing one another. Look at they have done in Darfur. They leave the fire in Darfur and let the people kill one another and then they come with the ICC to indict the President of the Sudan.Speaking of elections, he was elected with 8 million votes by the Sudanese people. When this indictment happened, all the people, both the Opposition and the ruling party went outside in the streets outside to protect, not their President in name, but their country from the humiliation of the West and I wonder why people take the ICC or take the whole thing as a means of protecting the President. We are not protecting Presidents. We are protecting our country and our dignity. Why should the ICC be rejected by all the people in Europe and America but come here to Africa and practice? Why did they not indict Bush and others who are killing people? Why?I think it is an evil wish in our faces. It is a curse and it is a devil and we should fight it. Why do we not protect our Presidents? We are humiliated. If we elect these people, if we elect our leaders, we have to protect them. We must protect the leaders in Kenya or in the Sudan or in any country. Otherwise, let us, the Africans, punish these leaders and to take them away. It is very easy to do this. The people voted for them and the people can take them away. If we do this and just reject this devil called the ICC, I think and believe that the ICC will have nothing to do because it was created for us.Thank you.HON. AKE CAMILLE EPOUSE AKOUN [CÔTE D’IVOIRE]:Merci, Monsieur le Président, de me donner la parole.Je voulais signifier que mes collègues qui ont pris la parole avant moi, ont pris en compte mes préoccupations. J’aurais pu y passer, néanmoins, je voudrais me référer à la page 2 de la motion.Au point n° 2, il y a un élément qui stipule que: « Les procès et les autres poursuites judiciaires contre les Chefs d’États en fonction, élus démocratiquement, devraient être suspendus jusqu’à ce qu’ils terminent leurs mandats ». Ce qui paraît logique, Monsieur le Président.Mais nous savons tous que les Chefs d’États africains refusent de reconnaître qu’ils sont en fin de mandat. Même élu démocratiquement, si vous perdez les élections, vous êtes en fin de mandat.Je voudrais prendre pour exemple mon pays, la Côte d’Ivoire, où les résultats des élections présidentielles de 2010 suivis d’une enquête faite par des experts africains n’ont pas suffi pour que l’ex-président se retire du pouvoir.Les Chefs d’États de l’Union africaine se sont retrouvés impuissants devant la situation de la Côte d’Ivoire.Monsieur le Président,Je n’ai pas de mots pour vous exprimer ce que nous avons vécu: des assassinats, des chars qui arrosaient des quartiers ciblés parce qu’étant des quartiers pro-Ouattara, c’est-à-dire le Chef d’État actuel au pouvoir.En ce moment là, nous n’avions pas d’autre choix que de supplier les Français pour nous venir en aide.Monsieur le Président,Je voudrais dire à notre chère Afrique et à nous les Africains, qu’il faudrait que nous commencions, nous Africains, par respecter la démocratie.(Applaudissements)Il ne faut pas toujours voir l’enfer chez les autres.Monsieur le Président,Si nous ne sommes pas capables de soigner le mal qui nous ronge alors que nous avons le remède, acceptons donc que d’autres personnes cherchent à nous soigner.(Applaudissements)Monsieur le Président,Tant que nos Chefs d’États ne comprendront pas qu’il faut changer de mentalité, tant que nos Chefs d’États chercheront à se maintenir au pouvoir par tous les moyens, nous devons accepter l’implication de cette justice qu’est la CPI dans nos conflits.(Applaudissements)Monsieur le Président,Je voudrais terminer, tout simplement, en demandant le report de l’adoption de cette motion.Merci, Monsieur le Président.(Applaudissements).PRISCAH MUPFUMINA [ZIMBABWE]:Thank you, Mr President, for giving me the floor.Mr President, allow me to congratulate all those who were elected in various Committee positions and a special mention to the Fourth Vice President.I also wish to congratulate all new Members sworn in during this session of Parliament, me included. I salute the mover and seconder of the motion on Africa’s relationship with the ICC and wish to add my voice, too, in support of the resolution.It is unfortunate, Mr President, that most of the prosecutions are on sitting Heads of State of the continent. This is not by coincidence but intended to be so.Africa must take a strong and bold stance against victimisation of African leaders. Until they prosecute perpetrators against atrocities and crimes against humanity committed in places such as Iraq and Afghanistan by the West, the ICC cannot boast of moral high ground.Africa has to speak with one voice. None of the leaders are safe from prosecution. As Africans, time has come for us to make bold decisions. This is not a Kenyan situation only but an African issue and the debate seems to personalize the Kenyan issue.Who on earth would be a good Head of State knowing that at the end of his tenure, the ICC awaits to prosecute him or her? Let us be real. This poses a threat to national security and stability and will distract the entitled leaders from fulfilling their constitutional responsibilities. The prosecution must not only be deferred but stopped.I salute my President, in my country, Zimbabwe, for being visionary and not being a signatory to this protocol. Let us have an Africa institution. Why do we have our issues resolved by the whites? Let us have our own Criminal Court effective. I see most of the ICC personnel being African. We can do it ourselves. Let us be our own liberators and let us not play to the white men’s wishes.I thank you.HON. CECILIA ATIM-OGWAL [UGANDA]:Thank you Mr President.I also want to agree with the other Members who have spoken before me about the spirit in which the election to elect the Vice President to represent the Eastern Africa Caucus was conducted. I particularly want to congratulate my sister, Juliana, who, in the spirit of democracy, embraced the outcome of the election. I want to thank you for that.Mr President, on the issue of the ICC, I think we, as the Parliamentarians representing 54 countries in the continent, have to agree whether we are committed to the principle or promotion of human rights and justice. That is fundamental. If we do agree to that principle, it means, therefore, that we have fundamentally also rejected impunity. Therefore, Mr President, I am very perturbed by these Parliamentarians who are elected by their respective people to represent them here. I am standing here to condemn the same institution that was promoted by us and for a reason. It was promoted by us because we thought that within our own respective countries, we did not have enough capacity to try leaders of the categories that are now being tried.ApplauseMr President, as Uganda we went voluntarily to the ICC, and for very good reasons. The Lord’s Resistance Army ravaged Uganda for over twenty years. Nobody stood up to defend Uganda. Nobody stood up to defend Northern Uganda where I come from. People died. Properties were destroyed for twenty years and now we decided to take this matter to the ICC so that the ICC could help us because we felt we did not have enough capacity to try this case because when such an issue happens, there are many forces involved. There were forces of government military personnel involved. There were also rebel forces involved.Now, how would you expect a government which, probably, is also a suspect to try this case and deliver justice? Mr. President it is not about the President of Kenya. It is about the thousands of people who died in the violence. It is about the properties that were destroyed during the violence and do we continue to bury our heads in the sand? Mr President, let us take note that our court; the AU Court was set up in 2006. Tell me, today, how many cases have been tried in this court, tell me. And, tell me whether this court is capable of trying the future cases.Finally, Mr President, the President of Sudan was one of the victims of the ICC. He was to be tried. Now, how come the PAP did not come up with a resolution? Why now? We should be consistent. We are Africans, and whatever happens to Sudan, Kenya or Uganda should be the concern of this Parliament. I, therefore, condemn this motion. I am not going to associate myself with this motion. I have to refer to my government. My government must first clear its case concerning our status with the ICC before I can consider this motion. Therefore, Mr President, on behalf of my country I disagree with the motion.Thank you.HON. KONE DONGON [CÔTE D’IVOIRE]:Merci, Monsieur le Président.J’avoue que je me crois dans un mauvais rêve. J’ai été particulièrement choqué de voir que notre argent, l’argent du contribuable africain a été utilisé pour organiser un Sommet extraordinaire à Addis-Abeba, pour parler de la question de la CPI.Les pro-motion, c'est-à-dire, ceux qui sont pour la motion, lorsqu’on résume leurs préoccupations, on ne peut se poser qu’une seule question. Pourquoi ce ne sont que les Africains qu’on envoie à la CPI? Tel est en résumé l’essentiel de leurs préoccupations.Dans mon pays, la Côte, d’Ivoire, on a l’habitude de dire « qu’on ne répond pas à une question en posant une autre question ». Mais, permettez-moi, Monsieur le Président, chers collègues, de déroger à cette règle et de m’interroger.Pourquoi ce ne sont que les Africains qui tripatouillent?Pourquoi ce ne sont que les Africains qui manipulent les lois fondamentales de leur pays pour s’éterniser au pouvoir?Pourquoi ce ne sont que les Africains qui truquent les élections dans leur pays?(Applaudissements)Pourquoi ce ne sont que les Africains qui refusent l’alternance démocratique, même lorsqu’ils sont battus aux élections?Enfin, dernière question, dernière interrogation, pourquoi ce ne sont que les Africains qui n’hésitent pas, pour protéger leur fauteuil, à stigmatiser une ethnie de leur pays ou un groupe d’étrangers dans leur pays, qu’on accuse souvent de nous empêcher de tourner en rond – j’aurais plutôt dit – de nous empêcher de manger tranquillement?(Applaudissements)Chers collègues,Tous ces bruits – il ne faut pas se tromper – toutes ces gesticulations ne sont ni plus ni moins qu’une tentative de consacrer l’impunité en Afrique, sur notre continent.(Applaudissements)Les peuples africains ne devraient pas se laisser attendrir par ces pleurs, par ces jérémiades, sinon, comme on dit chez moi « La casserole dans laquelle se trouve votre chair est déjà sur le feu ».Aidez-les seulement à arriver à leurs fins, c'est-à-dire, à condamner, à se retirer de la CPI!Aidez-les et vous serez tous mangés en petits morceaux!(Applaudissements)Comme l’a dit ma sœur Bernadette, allons-nous passer en pertes et profits toutes ces victimes africaines?Nous disons non, Monsieur le Président!Chers collègues, je ne peux apporter mon soutien à cette motion!Je demande purement et simplement son retrait.Monsieur le Président, je vous remercie.(Applaudissements)ERNESTO MULATO [ANGOLA]:- Obrigado Senhor Presidente. De acordo com o debate, a África sempre esteve dividida. Duvido mesmo, se na reunião extraordinária na Etiópia, todos os presidentes estiveram de acordo.Em primeiro lugar, não penso que houve um Presidente de África que foi forçado a assinar o acordo do tribunal, logo, se assinaram é porque estavam cientes daquilo que estavam a assinar. Em segundo lugar, eu sou daqueles que penso que a África tem que parar de chorar. Nós passamos toda a vida imperialismo, não sei o quê, essa coisa toda, e nós próprios aqui no nosso continente não fazemos nada. Todas as condenações que estão a ser feitas aqui é porque os países africanos não assumem as suas responsabilidades.Eu, quando esse tribunal foi criado, fui um dos que pensava que estava errado. Estava errado, na medida em que nós temos que aprender a resolver os nossos próprios problemas. Porquê é que não houve um Presidente aqui na África de Sul mesmo apartado, chamado? Porque tivemos um Presidente Mandela que soube, no momento em que se reconciliaram, fechar a página do passado e começar a governar como deve ser. Nos outros países de África, nós não fazemos isso. Sobe ao poder começa a perseguir os outros, quando o outro vem também vai perseguir. É a situação em que nos encontramos. Logo, é para dizer que, realmente, estamos numa situação muito difícil, aqui mesmo estamos divididos e vamos ver como é que vamos sair desta moção.Penso eu, que a África tem que começar a pensar por si só e deixar de condenar os outros. Cada um defende os seus interesses. Se os Africanos podem defender os seus interesses, então façam aquilo que deve ser feito porque sempre que nós condenamos o estrangeiro ri de nós, completamente. Nós estamos aqui a condenar, mas quando saimos daqui os aliados são eles, que vão trazer tudo para nós. As armas estamos a comprar aonde? É a eles que nós compramos. E porquê? E matamos a quem? O nosso próprio irmão! Por isso, senhor Presidente, penso eu, que aqui estamos numa encruzilhada; se de um lado queremos protegermo-nos, por outro lado também, mesmo na nossa sociedade, há uns que estão a pensar que se está a dar um cheque em branco ao chefe de Estado para maltratar aos seus povos. Como é que agora o Parlamento Pan-Africano pode sair disto?Penso eu, que nós somos legisladores e tem o executivo que são os nossos chefes de Estado, há assuntos que nós devemos dar o nosso apoio e há... (inaudível) por isso como nós não estamos a votar, na minha posição eu gostaria de deixar uma reflexão, deixemos de condenar os brancos ou imperialistas e assumirmos a nossa responsabilidade. É tudo.AplausosHONORABLE MEMBER:On a point of order, Mr President.I do not mean to disrespect your Chair. I am raising the point of order under Rule 66 that says a motion of this nature shall not exceed one hour.Mr President, I am sure you are aware that we have long exceeded one hour and I would crave your indulgence to rule on this so that we will be able to make progress.Thank you, Mr President.THE PRESIDENT:I thank you.Hon Members, you would agree with me that this is a very important and sensitive motion and we are representing the people Africa and the Rules are our Rules. As your Presiding Officer, I have been mandated to interpret the Rules during the session. So, I will allow those Hon. Members who want to contribute to this very important and topical issue to exhaust their interventions.You are ruled out of order.HON BOHUE MARTIN [CÔTE D’IVOIRE]:Merci, Monsieur le Président.Je crois que mes prédécesseurs ont éloquemment développé le problème et il n’y a pas lieu de s’éterniser davantage sur les discussions. Mais, le débat que nous avons en ce moment, a un intérêt, celui de déblayer le terrain, de nous permettre de comprendre toutes les aspérités de la situation à l’effet de prendre ne serait-ce qu’une décision provisoire.Je vous dis tout simplement que:1.Sur la forme, le texte qui nous a été soumis ne peut être étudié parce que tout simplement il est complètement raté.2.Sur le fond, on se demande de quoi est-ce que le texte traite, de la CPI ou du Kenya?Interrogation!Et comme il y a interrogation, tout naturellement nous sommes quelque peu perplexes. Nous avons du mal à avancer et cela se constate tout de suite dans la salle.Monsieur le Président,Vous êtes avocat, en la matière on dit que la cause est entendue. Cela veut dire tout simplement que le texte, dans son fond comme dans sa forme, ne peutêtre soumis à étude. Il ne peut être que tout simplement rejeté.Je vous remercie.(Applaudissements).HON. SAM OTADA AMOOTI [UGANDA]:I thank you, Mr President. Let me start by congratulating the PAP for coming of age, taking its place and beginning to debate on issues which affect the African people without fear or favour. Congratulations!Mr President, I rise to oppose the motion. I want to state that you cannot fix it if it is not broken. Is there something which is broken? Yes! Do you want to fix it? Absolutely! The African Heads of State seem to suggest that we have to throw it away altogether. We have a local saying in Uganda and it cuts across the board that if you have your good meat and want to sell it, do not give it to a man or a woman with leprosy to sell it for you. It will not sell.Look at the Heads of State who are championing the cause of the withdrawal or deferment in the ICC. All of them have a conflict of interest. Some of them have amended their national Constitutions to withdraw some limits while others are planning to do so and, for diplomacy’s sake, I will not name and shame.Mr President, we, as the PAP, have always made a case for ourselves that continental supremacy and international laws must take their place and not municipal laws. Here we are, with many colleagues going back down the drain and citing municipal laws. Are we kidding ourselves? Are we shooting ourselves in the foot? We want continental laws and international laws to take their place and not to taint our municipal laws.Mr President, African institutions lack infrastructure. They are either non-existent, weak or riddled by influence by the Heads of State. I want to cite a classical case here. I have heard those who are talking about healing of wounds. We are not trying to open up those wounds. I would like to give two local examples. One is Ugandan and the other Rwandan where we think that we have an African solution to an African problem.What happens in this case? In the Ugandan case, there is something called Matoputi. It involves the local people going back to sit down and actually reopen the wounds and talk about what happened before they arrive at the solution.The Rwandan case is what you call the Kachacha Courts where people go back to talk about the problems and not sweep them under the carpet. If this is what is not right to do, then I do not think we will have an African solution to our African problem. We go back to the root or the cause of the problem. What happened? Who wronged who? How can I forgive you if I do not know exactly what you did to me?Mr President, we acknowledge all the shortcomings and that is why most of our Member States appended their signatures to the wrong Statute. We cannot walk out on that.Mr President, Uganda...Time UpI pray for your indulgence to wind up this case. Uganda made reference to what, exactly, Hon. Cecilia said. There were twenty years of insurgency of a man called Joseph Koni who was massacring people and doing all kinds of things that you cannot even think about. Before long, he found his way to Southern Sudan. Where is he right now? He is in the Central African Republic (CAR). This Parliament, the other day, discussed the dire straits the CAR is in and the fellow is right there. So, we referred his case to the ICC and anything to indict the ICC means that we are simply saying that the Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA) should walk scot free.Mr President, the AU is increasingly becoming a club of African leaders. Where have they gone back to their respective States to ask their Parliaments which ratified these protocols? For example, Uganda ratified the ICC Protocol in 2010. My President has not come back to ask what we think about a protocol which we have just ratified, but to Addis Ababa and pronounced himself on a matter which simply he has not consulted us on.Mr President, this is important. If we are Members of Parliament, we must define ourselves. Who is a Member of Parliament? A Member of Parliament is somebody who represents the people. If it is the people we are talking about, I do not think that it is right for us to come out defending our various Heads of State in matters that can be dispensed with through a due court process.Finally, a very important question was raised. If we dispense with the ICC, what is the alternative? Where is the alternative? Mr President, I do not think that giving insulation to a sitting Head of State is a solution. In fact, it is a recipe for disaster because that the Head of State will never leave power. He is going to insulate himself right there. He is going to do everything it takes to stay there and delay justice and absolutely deny justice.I, therefore, oppose this motion with my entire soul.I thank you very much.THE PRESIDENT:Hon. Members, I have exhausted my list of speakers. I now call upon the mover of the motion.HON. MEMBER:On a point of order. Mr President, I submitted my name an hour and a half ago and, honestly speaking, I do not understand.THE PRESIDENT:Hon. Members, I have, here, a list of twenty-two speakers, typed out and given to me and those are all the names I have before me. Hon. Members, if you submitted your name when this discussion had already started, there is no way we can include it unless we want to just stay here all day. I believe that you have heard the arguments and all the aspects of this issue have been brought before us, and I believe that we have also expended enough time over and above what our Rules propose. I will, now, therefore, call on Chief Charumbira to respond in five minutes, or two minutes if possible, to close this matter.HON. CHIEF FORTUNE CHARUMBIRA [ZIMBABWE]:Mr. President, I think in the two weeks we have been here...HON. MEMBER:Procedure, Mr President.THE PRESIDENT:Yes, I will rule.HON. MEMBER:Mr President, with due respect, I am standing on a procedural issue, where a Member raised an issue in regards to the time we spent on this motion and, Mr President, you gave a very wise ruling that it is imperative we exhaust the list of the speakers. I, therefore, stand on a procedural matter, Mr President, that is it in order, therefore, Mr President, for us to rule out two Members who were still on the list to debate on this important matter?Mr President, I thank you.THE PRESIDENT:Thank you, Hon. Colleague, but I have a list here and I am sure everybody else on the floor has the same list and the last name on the list is Hon. Sam Otada Amooti from Uganda. If you have an alternative and different list from this, let me know.HON. MEMBER:No, but I think the Secretariat is letting us down because you cannot submit your name an hour and a half and there is no evidence. I find it extremely worrying.THE PRESIDENT:Thank you, Hon. Member, and let me rule the Hon. Member from Uganda out of order. The list we have here is exhausted and I now call on the mover of the motion to, please, respond.HON. CHIEF FORTUNE CHARUMBIRA [ZIMBABWE]:Thank you Mr. President. I was saying that in the two weeks we have been here, or the last ten days, I think I find a lot of value for having come to this session. Just in the last one and a half hours, I have something to carry back home and say I was at the PAP because this has been a lively discussion. It was very lively and very good and my comments are as follows:You see, the Heads of State met and came up with positions on the ICC. I think it is good that, as the PAP, we also be counted in whatever way. We must debate the issue. Let us not run away from that issue. If we debate and express our opinion on the same issue, then we are there. We are counted as the PAP rather than running away and being scared of the issue.So, the way you debated becomes clear as to what we, as the PAP, have to say and I thought this gave us an opportunity. Mr President, let us be honest. For those that have a previous life of debate, it gives us an opportunity to also understand certain things that people did not know about these issues. So, all those who stood up whether from the right, the left or centre, it is very healthy, as Parliamentarians, that we exchange views and that is very good. Do not hate the motion. We should like the motion because it has given us an opportunity to say something and we have been heard for the first time. It is a learning process. The ship would go that way, sink, that way, sink, like that, but that was very good. You could see that this ship could sink but it kept floating and going and it is still there. This is a very difficult one. However, I would have liked, Mr President, the speakers to also thank me for introducing this motion and giving them an opportunity to say what they have said because, at least, now, their views are known that this is a very emotive issue.Now, going to most of the propositions, I do not even want to make a proposition. I just want to say there is a saying which says an enemy is a friend you have never met. So, by discussing and debating now, we are all better informed. What is the way forward? I think the way I see it and, to be very honest - I do not come from Kenya or Somalia - I am just an African and after listening to Hon. Members’ various views and my role is conflict resolution which is also my enterprise. How do you resolve conflicts? I do not want to create conflicts in the PAP out of emotions. We do not want to create our own conflict.I think a lot of Members did not even debate. Mr President, I will basically move that we give this matter even more opportunity for debate in which case I will support those who will say let us defer it again to the next session and debate it thoroughly.That is a good proposal. I agree with that position. I agree with it and take the credit that I introduced it so that we debate and carry the debates back home. Some people want to consult their own Presidents. Go and consult and then come back next time. So, I think, to be more democratic as a Chief, of course, and in order to make sure that we have democracy, encourage popular participation and allow everybody - taking into account all the debates - let us defer it to the next session.Mr President, I thank you.THE PRESIDENT:Thank you, Hon. Chief. Can you, please, formally move, as the mover of the motion, to withdraw it?HON. CHIEF FORTUNE CHARUMBIRA [ZIMBABWE]:Thank you. Mr President. I am reluctant to use the word ‘withdraw’, but I will use the word ‘defer’ to the next session which has been the proposal, really.Thank you.HON. MEMBER:Seconded.THE PRESIDENT:Order.The motion is hereby deferred to the next session as moved by the mover of the motion.I thank you.French [13:54: 26 – 13:55: 19]UN HONORABLE MEMBRE:Motion, Monsieur le Président!Motion de procédure, Monsieur le Président!Monsieur le Président, Je vous remercie de la parole que vous m’accordez.Monsieur le Président, Pour qu’il y a un problème dans la distribution de la parole?Je le dis parce que nous recevons les documents simplement le matin, à l’entrée de la salle. Nous suivons la lecture ensemble avec le présentateur et nous intervenons en fonction de ce qu’on vient de lire. Dès lors que nous terminons la lecture, on nous dit que la liste est clôturée.Nous ne sommes pas des magiciens pour savoir de quoi on va traiter dans la journée!Je vous propose, Monsieur le Président, que les documents nous soient distribués la veille, de sorte que nous ayons le temps de les lire et tôt le matin, nous introduisions déjà nos demandes de parole.Ceci nous évitera les mésaventures que nous avons connues aujourd’hui.On arrive le matin, on demande la parole et on ne cite pas nos noms.Nous sommes là, et nous n’avons pas entendu nos noms!Donc, la RDC n’a pas parlé à ce sujet.Je vous remercie.(Applaudissements)THE PRESIDENT:The point has been noted. Secretariat, please take note and ensure that it does not repeat itself.Hon members, we shall now take a two-hour lunch break in accordance with Rule 32 of our Rules of Procedure. Therefore, we suspend business for two hours and we will resume by 1500 hours to adopt the resolutions and recommendations of the session.I thank you.THE PRESIDENT:Paragraphs 6 and 7.HON. MEMBER:It is just a correction. We have two Moussas reading "Moussa Idris Ndele Moussa".THE PRESIDENT:Thank you. Secretary, please, take note. What about the last Paragraph?Hon. Members, I now put the question that the resolution to pay tribute to the late Honourable Dr Idris Moussa Ndele be adopted. Is it agreed to?ApplauseI thank you. The resolution is hereby adopted.Resolution on the Fundamental Principles and Policy Priorities in Family Policies in Africa HON. MEMBER: I thank you, Mr President.Paragraph 2 where it reads "Noting that PAP should utilise the 50th Anniversary of the African Union." I thought we could also add "and 10 years of PAP to stimulate the debate in Member States of PAP or Pan-Africanism and African Renaissance."I beg to move.THE PRESIDENT:I thank you. Any seconder?HON MEMBER:I second the amendment. I thank you.THE PRESIDENT:Is the amendment agreed to?Applause THE PRESIDENT: Amendment is hereby agreed to. Secretary, please, take note.French [15:43:42 – 15:44:06]UN HONORABLE MEMBRE:S’il vous plait, Monsieur le Président!Monsieur le Président,Si vous voyez bien cette résolution, le paragraphe 2 n’a aucun rapport avec les autres paragraphes alors qu’ici nous parlons de principes fondamentaux et les priorités des politiques pour la famille africaine.Ce paragraphe n’a rien à voir avec ce dont nous parlons.Je vous remercie.THE PRESIDENT:Hon. Member, is it on the same issue?AN HON. MEMBER:On soutient cette idée. Ce paragraphe n’a rien à faire avec le reste du document.THE PRESIDENT:Yes, Hon. Lahai?HON. LAHAI:Yes, Mr President. In the original document that we discussed this morning, if we go to page 10 on the conclusion and recommendations, it is stated clearly that the PAP should utilise the 50th Anniversary of the AU to stimulate debate in member States on Pan-Africanism, on the African Renaissance, emphasising core African family values and strengthening of the African family. It is there as part of the resolution and recommendations of the main document.THE PRESIDENT:Can you read out the bit that is missing from this one?HON. LAHAI:What I have on page 10, 7(2) is that the PAP should utilise the 50th Anniversary of the AU to stimulate debate in Member States on Pan-Africanism and the African Renaissance emphasising core African family values and strengthening of the African family.THE PRESIDENT:Hon. Members, I believe that when we add that missing part of the paragraph, we will get the clear connection. That was an omission by the Secretariat. Please, can you, Hon. Lahai, move that this be added?HON. LAHAI:I move that we add the missing part as an amendment to this resolution.HON. MEMBER:I second the amendment.THE PRESIDENT:Adopted.UN HONORABLE MEMBRE:Oui, Monsieur le Président!Jusque-là, j’ai lu la version française!Quand on dit: « en mettant l’accent sur les valeurs africaines principales », cela n’a toujours pas de rapport avec la famille.Il va falloir qu’on ressorte ici, dans cette recommandation, quelque chose qui a un lien avec les valeurs africaines en rapport avec nos familles.Jusque-là, ce n’est pas encore exprimé.Je considère que tous ces paragraphes ne touchent pas encore ce dont nous parlons maintenant. Il y a lieu de l’élaguer tout simplement.Je vous remercie.THE PRESIDENT:Hon. Lahai.HON. LAHAI:Mr President, the original document we had this morning refers to the African Common Position and Plan of Action on the Family. Therefore, this resolution has nothing to do with the topic. The topic is Fundamental Foundational Principles and Policies to Prioritise Family Policies in Africa. There is an African Plan of Action and Policy. It is not that it just came from the blues. The whole topic has been on the African common values on the family.THE PRESIDENT:Hon. Colleagues, we adopted the report earlier. What we have done is to simply extract the resolutions, recommendations and conclusions of the earlier report for us to adopt as the final recommendations and resolutions of this Parliament. What I expect from Hon. Members is that, if you disagree with a particular paragraph, you move for it to be deleted or amended. You cannot go into a debate at this point. We are considering and adopting the resolutions and recommendations. For any recommendation or resolution you disagree with or would like to amend, you have to make the proposals and we will take it as such. We will not be able to open a whole new debate.HON. FRANCISCA DOMINGOS:Muito obrigada Senhor Presidente. Eu gostaria de concordar com a Deputada Lahai quando diz que o documento fala expressamente sobre os valores de renascença do Pan-Africanismo em África. Nós, quando pusemos esta proposta, foi mais para enfatizar os valores africanos, porque no 50º aniversário da União Africana, os Estados membros definiram para que se enfatize o Pan-africanismo e renascença de África.Renascença de África e Pan-africanismo fala essencialmente dos valores da família e dos valores de ser africano. Então, não existe distância nenhuma entre aquilo que é o renascimento da África e o Panafricanismo, porque o Pan-africanismo fala dos valores da família, dos valores da sociedade africana, então não tem nenhuma diferença.Eu concordo com a Deputada Lahai, só que na Resolução cortaram muitas coisas, porque até há um parágrafo, que é muito importante, que foi deixado de lado, que fala da Carta Africana dos Direitos do Homem e dos Povos em relação à família. Então, este devia também estar incluso na Resolução.Obrigada.THE PRESIDENT:Hon. Colleagues, we will now have the resolution on making agricultural investment work for Africa.No amendments on paragraph 1 and paragraph 2.There is an amendment on paragraph 3.HON MEMBER:Mr President I beg to move that paragraph 3 reads as follows;"Concerned about the negative impact of land grabbing on human rights, in particular on the vulnerable population..."I beg that we stop there and delete the words "and women." The justification is that we if begin to enumerate the vulnerable population then it does not only stop with women. We will agree that there are women, children, people with disability and others. My motion is that we end at "vulnerable population" and delete the "and women." I beg to move.296 THE PRESIDENT:is there any seconder?THE CHAIRPERSON OF COMMITTEE ON AGRICULTURE:I second.THE PRESIDENT:Hon. Members there is a proposal that paragraph 3 should end at "vulnerable population." Is that agreed to?HON. CECILIA ATIM-OGWAL [UGANDA]:Mr President Sir, I totally agree with you that we can not engage ourselves into a debate but everybody knows that the most vulnerable on land are women and, therefore, we can delete the word ‘and’ and put ‘especially’ so that it reads "…vulnerable population especially women."THE PRESIDENT:Is there a seconder to that other amendment HON MEMBER: Mr President, I think that there is no harm in enumerating the vulnerable population.So I would agree that we say "…women, children, youth and the disabled." We should enumerate all of them for consistency and that is my justification THE PRESIDENT: Any seconder for the amendment?HON. MEMBER:Mr President, I second the motion as moved by Hon. Otada, my Colleague from Uganda, because when we talk about vulnerable populations we do not exclude women, youth, the disabled and children.Thank you, Mr President.THE PRESIDENT:Is the proposed amendment agreed to?It is not agreed to. So, we agree to the amendment " ...vulnerable population especially women." I thank you.The question before the House is that the amendment is adopted as proposed.ApplauseThe amendment has been adopted.HON. MEMBER:The Hon. Member from Uganda was actually correcting paragraph 2 because it starts with ‘Nothing’ which should be ‘Noting’THE PRESIDENT:Okay, we are sorry. That was a spelling mistake. Secretariat, please, take note that it is "Noting" not "Nothing".Thank you.There are no any amendments on paragraph 4, 5 6, 7 and 8.There is an amendment on paragraph 9.HON. MEMBER:On paragraph 9, there is spelling mistake, Mr President. I just want to add on the Maputo Protocol and I believe that is where we are, Mr President."The importance of the Maputo Declaration of 2003, Agriculture and Food Security in Africa, in particular the commitment to devote ten per cent."THE PRESIDENT:Thank You.There are no amendments on paragraphs 10, 11, 12, 13 and 14.There is an amendment on paragraph 15.HON. MEMBER:Mr President, there is a small amendment on the head notes. We should include the word "Parliament" after the words "the Pan African." Then we continue.THE PRESIDENT:Thank you very much. Secretariat, please take note.The question before the House is that the amendment is adopted as proposed.ApplauseThe amendment has been adopted.Hon Members, resolution on the dialogue on the existing relation between PAP and UNAIDS on AIDS response.Are there any amendments on paragraph 1?HON LAHAI:It should read as;"Recognising that HIV/AIDS remains a key priority on continental and national agenda,…" I do not know but I think it should be "on" and not "in"HON. MEMBER:"Recognising that combating HIV/AIDS remains a key priority in continental and national agenda." I beg to move Mr President.HON. BALA SARATOU BOUKARI [NIGER]:Oui, Monsieur le Président, je pense à la même chose!Effectivement, je pense aux programmes nationaux et régionaux.THE PRESIDENT:Any seconder to the amendment?SecondedThe question before the House is that the amendment is adopted as proposed.ApplauseThe amendment has been adopted.There are any amendments on paragraph 2UN HONORABLE MEMBRE:Écoutez, il y a un problème, Monsieur le Président!THE PRESIDENT:Paragraph 3 says that "Determined to be overseers…" I would have thought that the Parliamentary word is "oversight", so that it reads as "Determined to have oversight of government activities..." should be more appropriate.Can someone move that?HON. MEMBER:Mr President, I move that the paragraph reads as:"Determined to exercises oversight of government activities and ensure that governments’ commitments to HIV and AIDS are respected." I beg to move.HON. MEMBER]:SecondedTHE PRESIDENT:The question before the House is that the amendment is adopted as proposed.ApplauseThe amendment has been adopted.UN HONORABLE MEMBRE:Merci, Monsieur le Président, mais mon intervention est sans objet.Merci.THE PRESIDENT:Thank you very much.Are there any amendments on paragraph 4?HON. MEMBER:I think the same argument hold that we should remove the word "overseers" and replace it with "oversight" so that the paragraph reads as:"Further determined to continue exercising oversight of national budget..."THE PRESIDENT:Mutatis Mutandis, what has been applied previously should apply to the next one.Are there any amendments on paragraph 5?UN HONORABLE MEMBRE:C’est tout comme les précédents paragraphes, nous nous attribuons ici, des rôles que nous n’avons juridiquement pas le pouvoir, puisque nous ne pouvons pas surveiller le budget.C’est une observation!On n’a pas élaboré une loi, aucun texte ne nous donne encore ce pouvoir!Est-ce que c’est pour la simple satisfaction d’esprit ou c’est pour quelque chose de sérieux?On fait des propositions, des résolutions, une loitype alors qu’aucun pouvoir juridique dans le texte ne nous autorise à le faire immédiatement.THE PRESIDENT:Hon Member, could you, please, make a proposal that we delete, add or amend. Please be specific.UN HONORABLE MEMBRE:Comment?J’ai dit qu’on ne peut que reconnaître la nécessité de proposer!Je ne sais pas si c’est une loi qu’il faut proposer tout simplement au gouvernement!Je pense que pour le moment, tous les États ont une politique de lutte contre le VIH. Je l’ai vérifié, il faut plutôt les encourager à poursuivre, c’est tout.Il faut encourager les États à poursuivre cette lutte contre le SIDA, mais je ne vois pas en quoi une loi peut intervenir, ici, précisément.Il faut encourager le gouvernement, je crois!THE PRESIDENT:Thank you.Is there any seconder?HON. SALEH KEBZABO [TCHAD]:Monsieur le Président!Je suis désolé de contredire mon collègue. Il ne s’agit pas ici, de dire que le PAP rédige des lois. On leur dit, à eux, la nécessité d’avoir des lois-types.Ce n’est pas le rôle du PAP!THE PRESIDENT:Thank You.HON. BALA SARATOU BOUKARI [NIGER]:Merci, Monsieur le Président.Je suis désolée, le Parlement panafricain a cette possibilité de prendre les différentes lois qui sont proposées, de les harmoniser dans le cadre de faire une loi-type qui ne sera pas imposée mais proposée aux États, pour qu’ils l’adaptent à leur législation locale.Au niveau de la Commission Permanente de la Santé, du Travail et des Affaires sociales, on vient d’achever un processus de loi-type sur les médicaments et qui va être proposée aux États.Donc, la formulation que je voudrais proposer, c’est la nécessité de proposer une loi-type continentale sur le VIH en harmonisant les lois existantes de la SADC et de la CEDEAO.C’est la proposition que je fais!THE PRESIDENT:Thank you.Is there any seconder?HON. MEMBER:Seconded.THE PRESIDENT:The proposed amendment reads;"Acknowledging the need to propose a continental...of HIV/AIDS by harmonizing the existing laws of SADC, EAC and ECOWAS."The question before the House is that the amendment is adopted as proposed.ApplauseThe amendment has been adopted.Are there any amendments of paragraph 6?THE PRESIDENT:On page 6 of the English version.HON. MEMBER:Yes, because it is one up to ten.THE PRESIDENT:We are counting the paragraphs or you want us to change to counting the resolutions.HON. MEMBER:Mr President, when we get to the resolutions, therefore, to have 1 through 10, and I was thinking we could move on.THE PRESIDENT:Okay, resolution number one.Resolution number two.Resolution number three.Resolution number four.HON. MEMBER:Amendment. Mr President, number four does not seem to be clear to me. I beg to move that it reads as follows; "to organise leadership session during the ICASA 2013 in Cape Town whose primary audience would be regional Parliaments on partner parliamentarians of the continent. The purpose of the session is skills building and an opportunity to view the implementation of the AU roadmap on shared responsibilities."We delete the word "shares" and replace it with "shared responsibilities" and plans for the way forward, that means we delete "plan next steps" and replace it with "plans for the way forward." I beg to move Mr President.THE PRESIDENT:Seconder?HON. MEMBER:Seconded.THE PRESIDENT:Thank you. It is proposed that in the last sentence of resolution number four, you propose that the session is Skills Building and an Opportunity Review, Implementation of the AU Roadmap on Shared Responsibilities and Plans for the Way Forward. Is this agreed to?ApplauseTHE PRESIDENT:Thank you.Resolution number five.Number six.Number seven.HON. MEMBER:Amendment, Mr President.Number seven lays emphasis on encouraging male Parliamentarians to play a leading role in HIV response. What is the justification of encouraging only male Parliamentarians, Mr President? I just want to be clear because we are all Members of Parliament and I do not believe that a female Member of Parliament is less than a male Member of Parliament. If that is acceptable, I could then beg to move, but I wanted to bring my Hon. Colleagues to understand that.THE PRESIDENT:Please, if you have an amendment to propose, go ahead.HON. MEMBER:Thank you, Mr President. Most obliged. I feel that number seven should read, "to encourage all Parliamentarians to play a leading role in the HIV response".I beg to move Mr President.ApplauseTHE PRESIDENT:Amendment agreed to.ApplauseAmendment agreed to.Resolution number eight;Number nine;Number ten;Hon. Members, I now put the question that resolution on a dialogue on existing relationship between PAP and UNAIDS on AIDS response be adopted. Agreed to?ApplauseTHE PRESIDENT:Agreed to. Thank you.Honourable Members, resolution on a dispatch of the fact-finding mission to the Democratic Republic of Congo and Rwanda.Paragraph one;HON. MEMBER:May I seek guidance on number one before I propose an Amendment?THE PRESIDENT:Yes.HON. MEMBER:Thank you, Mr. President. I know this is a very sticky matter Mr, President, but I just wanted guidance whether we are talking about military stand-offs with the M23 only. I am just wondering whether we do not have other warring parties other than the M23 that we could make the resolution on. May I be guided before I propose an amendment?THE PRESIDENT:If you have an amendment to propose, please, do so.HON. MEMBER:Mr President, like I said, again, this is a very sticky matter and I do not want to...THE PRESIDENT:Hon. Member, it says that "...concerned by the persistence of war in the Eastern Region of the Democratic Republic of Congo, including the political and military stand-off of the M23..." means there are others. So, it is clear. The word "including" implies that the M23 is one of them.HON. MEMBER:I concede Mr President.THE PRESIDENT:I thank you.Paragraph two;Paragraph three;HON. MEMBER:Mr President, I just want to propose that, at least, we add one more sentence to acknowledge and commend the good job which is being done by the UN Peace-keeping Mission in the Eastern DRC.THE PRESIDENT:Sorry, can you come again with that?HON. MEMBER. MEMBER:I am just proposing that we add one more paragraph to commend the good job which is being done by the UN Peacekeeping Mission in the Eastern DRC.THE PRESIDENT:Any seconder for that that proposal, to commend the UN Peace-keeping Mission in that region?UN HONORABLE MEMBRE:Merci Monsieur le Président.A quel moment les interventions internationales, dans le cadre de la consolidation de la paix et de la démocratie, à quel moment elles sont négatives? Parce que nous avons suspendu un débat sur la question, je pense que ce n’est pas nécessaire de revenir là.THE PRESIDENT:Hon. Members there is a proposal for amendment which is in order, I am looking for a seconder and not opening up debate.HON. MEMBER:Seconded.THE PRESIDENT:Thank you. Hon. Members, it is being proposed that we commend the role of the UN Peace-keeping Mission in this region.HON. SAID MTANDA [TANZANIA]:Mheshimiwa Rais, nadhani mwenzangu hapa miongoni mwa mambo aliyokuwa akiyapendekeza ni kutambua juhusi ambazo zinafanywa na nchi na majeshi ya nchi zetu za Kiafrika ambayo yako pale Kongo yakihusika katika ulinzi wa amani. Kwa hiyo, nilikuwa naomba kipengele hicho kisomeke hivyo.THE PRESIDENT:Thank you. Hon. Members, there is a proposal that we amend by including a paragraph commending the African Peace-keeping Force in the DRC. Is the amendment agreed to?THE PRESIDENT:We will commend United Nations Peace-keeping Force in DRC Congo. Is the amendment agreed to?UN HONORABLE MEMBRE:Monsieur le Président. On l’appelle Brigade d’Intervention des Nations Unies.THE PRESIDENT:Secretariat will make the amendment. So, it is agreed.Paragraph four, please;UN HONORABLE MEMBRE:Monsieur le Président pour la parole.Nous sommes toujours au paragraphe 3 sauf erreur de ma part, je m’inspire de l’article 4 du Règlement intérieur du Parlement Panafricain en son point c)3 – Tenant compte de son rôle de promotion de la paix et de la sécurité, mais l’article ajoute « et de la stabilité sur le continent africain », étant un mot ou une disposition du Règlement intérieur, je propose qu’on puisse insérer cette assise dans le « tenant compte » au paragraphe 3, donc en version française « Tenant compte de son rôle de promotion de la paix, de la sécurité et de la stabilité sur le continent africain », ça serait donc conforme au Règlement intérieur.Je vous remercie Monsieur le Président.THE PRESIDENT:Thank you. Secretariat, take note.Paragraph four;Paragraph five;HON. MEMBER:Amendment.THE PRESIDENT:Yes, Hon. Member.HON. MEMBER:Mr President, I propose that we replace the words "without further delay" with the word "urgently." I beg to move.THE PRESIDENT:Any seconder?HON. MEMBER:Seconded.THE PRESIDENT:Yes, as a proposal I will delete "without further delay" and replace it with "urgently". Is the amendment as proposed agreed to?It is not agreed to. So, we take the old "without further delay."Hon. Members, I now put that the resolution on this part of the fact-finding mission to the Democratic Republic of Congo and Rwanda be adopted. Agreed to?ApplauseTHE PRESIDENT:Agreed and I thank you.THE PRESIDENT:On Page 6 of the English version.HON. MEMBER.......:Yes, because it is one up to ten.THE PRESIDENT:We are counting the paragraphs or you want us to change to counting the resolutions.HON. MEMBER......:Because Mr President when we get to the resolutions therefore resolves to have one through ten, and I was thinking we could move on.THE PRESIDENT:Okay, resolution number one.Resolution number two.Resolution number three.Resolution number four.HON. MEMBER.........:Amendment. Mr President number four does not seem to be clear to me. I beg to move that it read as follows; "to organise leadership session during the ICASA 2013 in Cape Town whose primary audience would be regional Parliaments on partner parliamentarians of the continent. The purpose of the session is skills building and an opportunity to view the implementation of the AU roadmap on shared responsibilities."We delete the word "shares" and replace it with "shared responsibilities" and plans for the way forward, that means we delete "plan next steps" and replace it with "plans for the way forward." I beg to move Mr President.THE PRESIDENT:Seconder?HON. MEMBER........:Seconded.THE PRESIDENT:Thank you. It is proposed that in the last sentence of resolution number four, you propose that the session is Skills Building and an Opportunity Review, Implementation of the AU Roadmap on Shared Responsibilities and Plans for the Way Forward. Is this agreed to?HON. MEMBERS:(Applause)THE PRESIDNET: Thank you.Resolution number five.Number six.Number seven.HON. MEMBER.......:Amendment. Mr President number seven lays emphasis on encouraging male parliamentarians to play a leading role in HIVresponse. What is the justification of encouraging only male parliamentarians Mr President? I just want to be clear because we are all Members of Parliament and I do not believe that a female Member of Parliament is less to the male Member of Parliament. If that is acceptable I could then make move, but I wanted to bring colleague to understand that.THE PRESIDENT:Please if you have an amendment propose please go ahead.HON. MEMBER........:Thank you Mr President.Most obliged. I feel that number seven should read, "to encourage all parliamentarians to play a leading role in the HIV response". I beg to move Mr President.(Applause)THE PRESIDENT:Amendment agreed to.(Applause)Amendment agreed.Resolution number eight Number nine.Number ten.Hon. Members, I now put that resolution on a dialogue on existing relationship between PAP and UNAIDS on AIDS response be adopted. Agreed to?HON. MEMBERS:(Applause).THE PRESIDENT:Agreed, thank you.Honourable Members, resolution on a dispatch of the fact finding mission to the Democratic Republic of Congo and Rwanda.Paragraph one.HON. MEMBER......:Can I seek guidance on number one before I propose an Amendment?THE PRESIDENT:Yes.HON. MEMBER.......:Thank you Mr. President.This is guidance, I know this is a very sticky matter Mr. President, but I just wanted guidance whether we are talking about military stand offs with the M23 only. I am just wondering whether we do not have other ... parties other than the M23 that we could make the resolution on, may I be guided before I propose and amendment.THE PRESIDENT:... so if you have an amendment to propose please do so.HON. MEMBER........:Mr President like I said again this is a very sticky matter and I do not want to...THE PRESIDENT:Hon. Member it seems that ... concerned by the persistence of war in the region of Democratic Republic of Congo including the ... military standoff of the M23 means there are other. So it is clear, the word including implies that M23 is one of the ...HON. MEMBER......:I concede Mr President.THE PRESIDENT:I thank you.Paragraph two.Paragraph thee.HON. MEMBER.......:Mr President I just want to propose that at least we add one more sentence to acknowledge and commend the good job which is done by the UN peace keeping mission in Eastern DRC.THE PRESIDENT:Come again with that.HON. MEMBER.......:I am just proposing that we add one more paragraph which is come to commend a good job which is done by the UN Peace Keeping Mission in DRC.THE PRESIDENT:...that proposal, to commend the UN peace keeping force in that region.UN HONORABLE MEMBRE:Merci, Monsieur le Président.À quel moment les interventions internationales, dans le cadre de la consolidation de la paix et de la démocratie, sont négatives parce que nous avons suspendu un débat sur la question?Je pense que ce n’est pas nécessaire d’y revenir.THE PRESIDENT:Hon. Members there is a proposal for amendment which is in order, I am looking for a seconder, am not opening a debate.HON. MEMBER.......:Seconded.THE PRESIDENT:Thank you. Honourable Members it is being proposed that we commend the role of the UN peace keeping force in this region.HON. SAID MTANDA [TANZANIA]:Mheshimiwa Rais, nadhani mwenzangu hapa miongoni mwa mambo aliyokuwa akiyapendekeza ni kutambua juhusi ambazo zinafanywa na nchi na majeshi ya nchi zetu za Kiafrika ambayo yako pale Kongo yakihusika katika ulinzi wa amani. Kwa hiyo, nilikuwa naomba kipengele hicho kisomeke hivyo.THE PRESIDENT:Thank you. Honourable Members there is a proposal that we amend by including a paragraph commending the African peace keeping force in DRC. Is the amendment agreed to?THE PRESIDENT:We will commend United Nation Peace Keeping Force in DRC Congo. Is the amendment agreed to?UN HONORABLE MEMBRE:Monsieur le Président!On l’appelle Brigade d’Intervention des Nations- Unies!THE PRESIDENT:Secretariat will make the amendment. So it is agreed.Paragraph four please.UN HONORABLE MEMBRE:Merci, Monsieur le Président, pour la parole.Nous sommes toujours au paragraphe 3, sauf erreur de ma part, je m’inspire de l’article 4 du Règlement intérieur du Parlement panafricain en son point c(iii) pour dire:« Tenant compte de son rôle de promotion de la paix et de la sécurité », mais l’article ajoute « et de la stabilité sur le continent africain », étant donné que c’est une disposition du Règlement intérieur, je propose qu’on puisse insérer cette partie dans le « Tenant compte… » au paragraphe 3.Donc en version française: « Tenant compte de son rôle de promotion de la paix, de la sécurité et de la stabilité sur le continent africain », serait conforme au Règlement intérieur.Je vous remercie, Monsieur le Président.THE PRESIDENT:Thank you. Secretariat take notes.Paragraph four.Paragraph five.HON. MEMBER......:Amendment.THE PRESIDENT:Yes Honourable member.HON. MEMBER:Mr President I propose that we replace the word "without further delay" with the word "urgently." I beg to move.THE PRESIDENT:Any seconder?HON. MEMBER.......:Seconded.THE PRESIDENT:Yes, as a proposal I will delete "without further delay" and replace it with "urgently". Is the amendment as proposed agreed to?It is not agreed to, so we take the old "without further delay."Honourable Members I now put that the resolution on this part of the Fact Finding Mission to the Democratic Republic of Congo and Rwanda be adopted? Agreed to?HON. MEMBERS:ApplauseTHE PRESIDENT:Agreed and I thank you.THE PRESIDENT:Hon. Members, there is a proposal that we amend, by including a paragraph 3 commending the African Peace-keeping force in DRC under the UN....HON. MEMBER:Mr President, it is the United Nations Peace-keeping Mission, not African.THE PRESIDENT:Okay, we commend the United Nations Peace-keeping Force in the DRC. Is the amendment agreed to?THE PRESIDENT:We will ask the Secretariat to make the amendment.So, it is agreed.Paragraph 4, please; (Interjection: Sorry) Yes.THE PRESIDENT:Thank you. Secretariat, please, take note.Paragraphs 4, 5...HON. LAMEJI:Amendment!THE PRESIDENT:Yes, Hon. Lameji.HON. LAMEJI:Mr President, I propose that we replace the word ‘without further delay’ with the word ‘urgently’.I beg to move.THE PRESIDENT:Any seconder for that change in grammar?There is no seconder. So, "...without further delay".…HON. MEMBER:Seconded!THE PRESIDENT:I beg your pardon? Yes, there is a proposal that we delete ‘without further delay’ and replace it with ‘urgently’. Is the amendment, as proposed, agreed to?SilenceTHE PRESIDENT:So, it is not agreed to. So, we retain the old ‘without further delay’.Hon. Members, I now put that the resolution on the dispatch of a fact-finding Mission to the Democratic Republic of Congo and Rwanda, be adopted. Agreed to?ApplauseAgreed and I thank you.Hon. Members, the resolution on the dispatch of a mission of goodwill to Kenya. Paragraph 1;HON. MEMBER:Yes, Mr President, when we debated the situation, I remember some Members of Parliament actually saying: Why single out Kenya? Other elections have been held in the last few months. Swaziland has had their elections and other countries have had their elections, too. So, I remember somebody saying that if we are going send a goodwill mission, then it should not only be to Kenya but also to countries that have concluded their elections that have been successful and they are going on peacefully. So, my suggestion is that we also include other countries that have recently conducted their elections in a peaceful manner and they are forging ahead like Swaziland although Guinea’s results are yet to be announced. So, we cannot say that........THE PRESIDENT:Thank you. We know that there were elections in Swaziland, Cameroun, Zimbabwe....Monsieur le Président, s’il vous plait Monsieur le Président ne faisons pas de la confusion, il s’agit d’une résolution pour l’envoi d’une mission au Kenya. Si on se met à citer tous les autres pays est qu’on envois des missions partout. C’est pour cela de façon précise si ce n’est le Kenya il y a pas d’autres pays.HON. MEMBER:Mr President, I would like us to, since it will not be a debate, say ‘a mission to Kenya especially on the issue of the ICC now in Kenya.’ I think that would sound better I do not know.THE PRESIDENT:Hon. Colleagues, we are not here to pick on the bits on any issues but to adopt the resolutions. Now, when we talk about elections and sending a goodwill mission, there have not been resources available in this Parliament to carry out such missions to every country that has held elections. Now, we have a proposal here to dispatch a goodwill mission to Kenya. It is either we amend that one, adopt it or reject it. So, please, let us......HON. MEMBER:Information, information!THE PRESIDENT:Yes, Hon. Lahai, if you have a proposal, make it clear.HON. LAHAI:Yes, Mr President. Other countries have had elections that have been peaceful and we have not sent goodwill messages. We do not want to start something that we cannot continue. We do not want to be accused of having double standards. So, I think that either we leave out or include all the other countries that have had elections. So, I am proposing that we just leave out this mission because we will be bringing in double standards. That is my proposal.HON. MEMBER:Information, information!THE PRESIDENT:Hon. Member, there is a proposal on the floor. Let us deal with it first and then take the information after. Hon. Members, there is a proposal that we do away with this resolution. Is there any seconder?HON. MEMBER:I second.THE PRESIDENT:Are you seconding the proposal, Hon. Member?Je pense Monsieur le Président, Excusez-moi je reviens à cette solution, puisse que je suis le premier a l’a proposé. Je sais pourquoi je l’ai proposé, il n’est pas nécessaire d’ajouter d’autres éléments pour semer la confusion. On adopte la résolution telle qu’elle est Monsieur le Président. Sa concerne le Kenya et seulement le Kenya. J’étais le premier à soulever la question.THE PRESIDENT:Yes, Hon. Member.HON. MEMBER:Mr President, Sir, I want to allay the fears of others who are afraid that the Committee on International Relations has ignored other countries where elections have been held peacefully. This resolution was proposed by the Committee in view of the fact that Kenya had a very violent election in 2007 which caused many deaths, displacements and a lot of sorrow. However, in the recent election, Kenya conducted a very peaceful election and the population was so restrained that we need to acknowledge that kind of change of heart of the people of Kenya.So, we thought that this is one unique situation that needs to be appreciated. It is not that we did not appreciate other countries where elections have been held peacefully.I thank you, Mr. President.Motion encore Monsieur le Président.Une deuxième information pour appuyer ce que Cecilia vient de dire, paragraphe 1, 2, 3 et 4 rappelant ces résolutions PAP 3, adoptées en Mai 2013 sur l’envoi d’une mission de bonne volonté au Kenya. On avait déjà adopté une résolution analogue en Mai dernier Monsieur le Président.THE PRESIDENT:Thank you. We have adopted the resolution and we cannot change our minds if we are also doing that in plenary. Yes, Hon. Lamara, from Sierra Leone.HONOURABLE LAMARA [SIERRA LEONE]:Yes, thank you, Mr President. I do believe the Hon. Cecilia commented on the fact that other countries should not feel forgotten and I think other countries will definitely feel forgotten and ignored. That is the point exactly. The fact that Kenya had a peaceful election is commendable and we want the same all over Africa. So, if we cannot do this for the rest of Africa, we should not single out Kenya because, in the past, my country also had a tumultuous period and our peaceful elections in 2012 were not supported by any goodwill mission.THE PRESIDENT:Hon. Members, I do not intend that we open up debate on this matter. So, there is this proposal on the floor, we either adopt or reject it. The proposal is that this resolution to dispatch a goodwill mission to Kenya be rejected. Agreed to?ApplauseTHE PRESIDENT:Yes, Hon. Members, we are continuing with resolutions and I will see that there must be consensus. If there is no consensus then we will now go to vote on two thirds. But I think that since there is an existing resolution, there was no consensus. The existing resolution will still prevail. The resolution that has now been passed by this House remains and is just being reinforced by this resolution. If you need to overcome both this resolution and the resolution of May, you need two thirds. So, please, let us make progress.Yes, Hon. Member.HON. LAHAI:Mr President, Zimbabwe had very tumultuous elections before this election. In fact, that election caused the power sharing between Mugabe and Tsvangarai. This time the election is over. It was peaceful and we did not send a goodwill mission. Let us not start something that we cannot continue because countries are going to be having peaceful elections. Does it mean every time we have a peaceful election, we are going to send a goodwill mission? I have nothing against it, but we do not want to start anything that we cannot continue. So, I am still standing on my proposal that we do away with this motion.HON. MEMBER:Mr President, I think, Hon. Members, we need to appreciate that we can always begin from somewhere. The fact is that you know what took place in Kenya. We equally know what took place in Zimbabwe. Let us not be mean. Let the situation of Kenya not go back. Let us adopt this resolution Interjection THE PRESIDENT: Hon. Member, that is strong language. It is unparliamentary language. Please, withdraw.HON. MEMBER:Okay, withdrawn, but, Mr President, with due respect, I want to know whether it is a goodwill mission and it is in good faith that we adopt this resolution so that a goodwill mission is sent to Kenya. We can actually include two countries. If that is the case, we can include Zimbabwe as well because even Zimbabwe had peaceful elections after a flawed one. So, I think, let us take this resolution really in good faith.Mr President, I thank you.InterjectionSPEECHFROM THE PRESIDENT: Is that a point of order or what?HON. MEMBER:It’s a motion.THE PRESIDENT:Okay, you have the floor, go ahead.Monsieur le Président, excusez-moi [motion……………………….Il y a une confusion dans l’esprit, nous n’envoyons pas la mission pour nous donner les informations sur les élections de 2013. Nous en envoyons les missions pour donner les derniers éléments d’appréciations portant accusation des deux personnalités. C’est pour chercher les faits à mon sens. Mais si ce n’est pas çà, ce nécessaire à mon entendement.THE PRESIDENT:There is no provision for the ICC in this mission that I can see. So, it is not about the ICC and information gathering. It is about a goodwill message, a goodwill mission dispatched to Kenya about their free, fair and peaceful elections. There is no ICC in it. So, if it is not the intent, please let us take a position on this proposal on the floor is that this resolution be withdrawn. Is that agreed to?ApplauseHON. AMOOT [UGANDA]:Point of procedure!THE PRESIDENT:Yes, Hon. Amoot.HON. AMOOT:Mr President, I understand the feelings of my colleagues but, again, like you guided from the Chair, the Business Motion that was carried in May, and our rules are very clear on how we go back on our word. I, therefore, want to find out if we are proceeding well by not moving a substantive motion to overcome what we did in May and subsequently moving a substantive motion to remove this resolution from our work today. I, therefore, in that spirit, would like to move that a question be put on Hon. Lahai’s proposal. I beg to move that a question be put, Mr President.THE PRESIDENT:Question has been put but there is no consensus. So, the last thing that is left for us, if we must, is to put this matter is to a vote. When we vote, we must have two thirds majority of those present and voting. Secretariat, please arrange for a vote on this topic.HON. MEMBER:Mr President, I have amendment to this issue.THE PRESIDENT:Hon. Member, after the voting, we will take the amendment. Hon. Members, please take your seats so that we can have this process concluded quickly. We still have over 10 pages of recommendations to deal with. Please, take your seats, Hon. Members. Please, be seated, Hon. Colleagues.First, we have, present in the hall, 66 Members of Parliament and two thirds will be 44 Members. The motion moved by Hon. Lahai is that this resolution be deleted from the list of resolutions for this session. Therefore, all those who are in support of the motion should, please, rise to be counted. Yes, that the resolution should not be included. All those who are in support should, please, rise to be counted.Monsieur le Président, ce n’est pas clair, il faut que vous nous posiez une question, qu’on sache.THE PRESIDENT:We have on our list of resolutions. It is the resolution on the dispatch of a mission of goodwill to Kenya. An Hon. Colleague has moved a motion which was seconded, that this resolution should be removed because it does not augur well for other States who had elections and no mission is being sent to them. So, she is proposing that we do away with this resolution. So, those who are in support of her motion should, please, stand and be counted.Non, non s’il vous plait ce n’est pas clair Monsieur le Président, jusqu’à présent vous demander seulement qui est d’accord avec elle pour écarter la motion, qui est pour qu’on garde la motion.THE PRESIDENT:Hon. Colleagues, one at time, please, and speak when you are recognised. The Hon. Member from Niger.Oui Monsieur le Président, j’ai dis il faut encore clarifier d’avantage, excusezmoi, j’ai demandé à ce qu’on çà soit clair qu’on puisse demander aux gens qui sont pour le retrait de la motion proposer initialement qui sont pour la motion et qui sont contre? C’est pour clair comme çà. Il ne faut pas parler de la motion de comment on l’appelle, LAHAI. L’honorable LAHAI, c’est plus simple. Qui sont pour le maintien? Qui pour le retrait carrément? C’est plus simple.THE PRESIDENT:Yes, Honourable Vice President.THE VICE PRESIDENT:Honourable President, why do you not start with those who are in favour of the resolution as it is and then you say those who are for withdrawal.ApplauseTHE PRESIDENT:Okay, it is the same thing.Those who are in favour of this motion should rise to be counted. Please, we are talking about the resolution. Those for the resolution of mission to Kenya, please, rise to be counted. If you support the resolution of a mission to Kenya, rise and be counted. Hon. Colleagues, please, allow the Secretariat to count. Please, be seated. Those who are for the withdrawal of this resolution, please, stand up and be counted.Thank you, Hon. Colleagues, you may be seated.HON. MEMBER:Procedure, abstention!THE PRESIDENT:Okay, those who will abstain, please, stand up. Those who will abstain from these votes, will please, stand up. Abstentions, please, take note of them, thank you.Hon. Members, we have three abstentions, 48 in favour of the resolution, 11 against. The resolution is hereby carried.Hon. Members, resolution on the fact finding mission to Central African Republic starts with the first paragraph...HON. RAMUDI:Mr President, procedure!THE PRESIDENT:Yes, Honourable Ramudi.HON. RAMUDI:Mr President, I have amendments to propose since the motion has been carried that we retain the Kenyan mission, I have amendments to move within it. How do we move, Mr President to send mission to the Central African Republic, because the motion is not passed? What we have voted on is whether we retain this resolution or we strike it out. We have said the resolution stays among the set of resolutions that we have proposed. I think it is about time now that we opened up the resolution for amendment. It does not pass in an omnibus fashion, Mr President.[APPLAUDISSEMENT]THE PRESIDENT:In terms of procedure, the Hon. Member is correct. What is your amendment, Hon. Member?HON. LAMODI:Thank You, Mr President.Mr President, I propose and amendment in the second paragraph." Recalling the painful experience endured by the people of Kenya, following the highly disputed 2007 elections."THE PRESIDENT:Is there any seconder?HON. MEMBER:Seconded.THE PRESIDENT:The Hon. Member has moved a motion that we remove the word "flawed" and replace it with "highly disputed," is that agreed to?ApplauseTHE PRESIDENT:Agreed.HON. MEMBER:Thank you, Mr President.I move that on the last paragraph, instead the word"...a goodwill mission…" we put "...a note of appreciation..."I think it will not cause the PAP anything and it will, therefore, be for our appreciation for what happened in Kenya.THE PRESIDENT:Hon. Member, this is for a goodwill mission. That is what we have agreed on and not a message. From the heading to the body of the resolution, we put "mission" not "note"HON. MEMBER:Mr President I Propose that we just write a note from PAP to Kenya and to the others who have the same case. It will not cost us anything and everyone will be equal.THE PRESIDENT:Is that in addition to "the mission"?HON. MEMBER:No. No mission, but a note for everybody because we do not have funding for sending missions to all countries with similar cases.THE PRESIDENT:Hon. Members, we have just voted on the issue of "good will mission" to Kenya and the vote was carried by a majority of Members in this House. We cannot be talking about changing it from "mission" to a "note"HON. MEMBER:I was going to make an amendment but you were going to listen to the amendment after the voting. I am now making the amendment because you said so.THE PRESIDENT:I agree with you, Hon. Member. I was just explaining to you that you can move your amendment so that we can have it properly tabled.HON. MEMBER:I propose that the last paragraph reads;"To send a note of appreciation to Kenya and other member states to express our profound gratitude and administrative solidarity with the political leader and the people of these states for the fruitful and peaceful election held."THE PRESIDENT:Is there any seconder for the amendment as proposed?HON. MEMBER:Mr President, I second.UN HON. MEMBRE:Je ne suis pas d’accord avec elle. Ça met en cause l’esprit de...THE PRESIDENT:Hon Member, we can not all be speaking at the same time. Do we have a seconder?HON. MEMBER:Yes, Mr President.THE PRESIDENT:Thank you.Hon. Members, the proposed motion is out of order because it substantially utters the intent of the motion that we have agreed to. We have taken a position on this resolution that a mission of good will be sent to Kenya and we have voted on and passed as agreed to.HON MEMBER:Mr President, my amendment on the word "flawed" has not been resolved.THE PRESIDENT:That was passed already. Were you not in the House, Hon. Member? We have passed it.Hon. Members, can we go on to consider the next resolution on a fact-finding mission to the Central Africa Republic.Are there any amendments on paragraph 1?UN HON. MEMBRE:Monsieur le Président, premier paragraphe. Il faut aussi qu’on complète: ‘Conscient des récents développements dans les domaines politiques, sécuritaire et humanitaire en République centrafricaine.’ On ne doit pas s’arrêter à ‘République’ tout simplement. Merci.THE PRESIDENT:What do you propose, Hon. Member?UN HON. MEMBER:La version française n’est pas complète. On a oublié d’ajouter les mots ‘République centrafricaine’. Il faut compléter. Merci.THE PRESIDENT:Thank you very much Hon. Member. Secretariat, note that amendment.There are no amendments on paragraph 2 and 3.HON. SAFIA ELMI DJIBRIL:Merci, Monsieur le Président. Je voudrais intervenir au niveau du troisième paragraphe. Il est marqué ‘Notant en outre la présence des milices centrafricaines lourdement armées et de mercenaires étrangers dans le pays et la nécessité de les chasser.’ Est-ce qu’on doit chasser seulement les mercenaires, ou est-ce qu’on doit chasser en même temps les mercenaires et les milices? Donc, j’allais changer la formulation de ce paragraphe, en disant ‘Notant en outre la présence des milices centrafricaines et de mercenaires étrangers lourdement armés dans le pays, et la nécessité de les chasser tous les deux.’ Parce que sinon on laisse les mercenaires. Merci.THE PRESIDENT:Thank you very much. Is there any seconder? Yes.HON. KEBZABO:Monsieur le Président, ma sœur fait une petite confusion. On ne peut pas chasser les milices qui sont centrafricaines. On va les chasser où? C’est les étrangers qu’il faut chasser. C’est ça le sens de la phrase.UN HON. MEMBRE:Pour abonder dans le même sens que l’honorable Kebzabo, on ne peut pas effectivement chasser les milices qui sont déjà des centrafricains, mais on peut chercher à neutraliser leur force de frappe, les démanteler. Et puis, les mercenaires, on les expulse. Merci.THE PRESIDENT:Thank you. Honourable Member from Djibouti, are you satisfied now, or do you still want to move an amendment?UN HON. MEMBRE:Je crois qu’il faudrait que nous changions la phrase pour qu’elle soit plus compréhensive, Monsieur le Président, et dire ‘neutraliser les milices et de chasser les étrangers’.Il faudrait distinguer les deux.THE PRESIDENT:Are you proposing an amendment? Is there any seconder to the amendment?UN HON. MEMBRE:Monsieur le Président, elle a fait un amendement qui consiste à dire tout simplement ‘Notant en outre la présence des milices centrafricaines lourdement armées et de mercenaires étrangers dans les pays, et la nécessité de les neutraliser.’ Il y a un problème, parce qu’il y a deux idées. Premièrement, démanteler les milices centrafricaines, et deuxièmement, chasser les mercenaires étrangers. C’est deux idées qu’il faut intégrer. Il faut reformuler le paragraphe.UN HON. MEMBRE:S’il vous plaît, Monsieur le Président.THE PRESIDENT:Please, if you have a proposal, be clear on it, so that we can either accept it or reject it. Honourable from Djibouti, please define your proposed amendment.HON. SAFIA ELMI DJIBRIL:Je crois, Monsieur le Président, qu’il faudrait qu’on revoit cette phrase, en disant, par exemple, ‘Notant en outre la présence des milices centrafricaines lourdement armées qu’il faut maitriser, neutraliser, et des mercenaires étrangers qu’il faut chasser’, tout simplement.THE PRESIDENT:Thank you.UN HON. MEMBRE:S’il vous plait, Monsieur le Président.THE PRESIDENT:Yes.UN HON. MEMBRE:Merci de la parole, Monsieur le Président. Si nous prenons en compte l’amendement de notre collègue de Djibouti, il va à l’encontre des décisions que le Parlement panafricain va prendre. Quand vous lisez la première décision, c’est ‘d’organiser un dialogue inclusif entre toutes les couches de la société centrafricaine pour la création d’un climat de paix avant l’organisation d’élections.’ Ça veut dire qu’on appelle le peuple centrafricain à un dialogue. Un dialogue avec ces milices; elles vont déposer les armes et vont revenir à la raison. Donc, les neutraliser c’est une autre chose qui va nécessiter la guerre. Aussi, nous avons intérêt à maintenir le texte comme tel. Je vous remercie.THE PRESIDENT:Honourable colleagues, I think all we just need to add is ‘need to expel the foreign mercenaries’. Add the word ‘foreign’, and it becomes clear. Secretariat, please note. Paragraph 5.UN HON. MEMBRE:Paragraphe 5: ‘Préoccupé également par les graves violations des droits de l’homme et de l’impunité qui y prévaut;’ En français, il faut qu’on mette le ‘y’ pour dire ce qui prévaut en République centrafricaine. Merci.THE PRESIDENT:OK, we can add it, but the resolution is about CentrAfrica Republic.Secretariat, please. Paragraph 7.UN HON. MEMBRE:Monsieur le Président, il faut enlever ‘donc’. Ça n’a pas de raison d’être.THE PRESIDENT:OK. Secretariat, take note.Honourable Members, I now approve that the Resolution on the Fact Finding Mission to Central Africa Republic be adopted. Agreed?ApplauseThank you.THE PRESIDENT:Hon. Members, we have an addtion on the board of external auditors of PAP. Where is this one coming from?Hon. Members, I cannot remember any debates on this proposal. I do not know where it is coming from. Therefore, it should be deleted. It should be removed as a printer’s error, or is it a printer’s devil?Honourable Members, resolution...HON. MUCHELEKA:On a point of order, Mr President.MR PRESIDENT:A point of order is raised.HON. MUCHELEKA:I thank you Your Excellency. I have looked through the draft resolutions and discovered that there is something missing as regards the resolutions and recommendations that were presented by the Southern African Caucus (SAC) on its report on the African Governance Architecture with specific reference to the Charter on Democracy, Elections and Governance and the Public Service Charter. I have not seen the recommendations and resolutions that were made by this House in the draft. I, therefore, propose that the resolutions and recommendations that were agreed to by this House be captured and included accordingly.THE PRESIDENT:I guess we will deal with that at the end. Secretariat, please, go and find the resolutions and recommendations wherever they are while we are going on with what we are doing.Hon. Members, Resolution on the Arms Trade Treaty.The President went through all the paragraphs without amendment I put the question that the resolution on the Arms Trade Treaty be adopted.ApplauseThe resolution is hereby adopted.Hon. Members, Resolution on Improvement of the Energy Industry in Africa for Sustainable Development.HON. MEMBER:Mr President, on Resolution 2, I would like to propose that we add "power system master plan" because the energy policy is a statement document. However, if we are talking about research and analysis, we must have a power system master plan which is going to address this issue thoroughly. Therefore, the sentence should read as follows "to develop a common continental energy policy and common power system master plan with research and analysis on different energy sources and carriers as well as technology options through the convening of a continental energy conference on Africa."THE PRESIDENT:Can you come again with your key amendments so that we can take note of them?HON. MEMBER:It should read as "to develop a common continental energy policy and common power system master plan with research and analysis." The rest remains as it is.THE PRESIDENT:You want the change to go up to "system"?HON. MEMBER:It is both, Sir. I am talking about energy policy and power system master plan because when you have a power system master plan, that is where you address issues like energy, demand, forecasting, generation expansion planning, etc but the policy is just a statement which...THE PRESIDENT:So, what do you want to change it to?HON. MEMBER:I would like to change it to "energy policy and power system master plan."THE PRESIDENT:What is the difference between energy and power?HON. MEMBER:Energy includes everything – renewable energy, petroleum products, etc. Power is just electricity.THE PRESIDENT:Why do we not help ourselves and just say, "energy policy and master plan"?HON. MEMBER:That is fine.THE PRESIDENT:I thank you. Is there a seconder to that proposal?HON. MEMBER:I second the proposal, Mr President.THE PRESIDENT:Is the proposal to amend Resolution 2 to read "to develop a common continental energy policy and master plan with research on different energy sources" agreed to?ApplauseTHE PRESIDENT:Resolution no. 3...UN HONORABLE MEMBRE:Merci le Président, je voudrais juste pour donner le contenu de la résolution, il faut ajouter juste à la fin de la phrase « des prestations de service aux communautés, notamment rurales ». Parce que c’est ça qui a été le point fondamental de ce point là. Ce sont les communautés notamment rurales.HON. LAHAI:Which part of the resolution is that?THE PRESIDENT:The last part of the sentence. Instead of "various communities", we say "various rural communities in particular"?HON. MEMBER:Mr President, I also propose an amendment to include at the end "to explore the possibility of providing cheap and accessible energy to the rural poor." I do not know how we can synchronise the two positions.THE PRESIDENT:The paragraph says "to encourage our national Parliaments to pay attention on good governance in handling any contracts, environmental impact and a fair share of services to various communities, especially rural communities." That is repetitive. You better come up with a clear proposal so that we look at it.HON. MEMBER:Mr President, all the presenters talked about the unfairness that exists in the rural poor communities. Therefore, solar energy could be a solution for the rural people. If we do not put emphasis on the rural areas, then this will not be complete. If you go back to the recommendation, you will find that it is specifically about rural communities.I thank you.THE PRESIDENT:I am sure that we can just add "and fair share of emphasis to various communities especially the rural poor."HON. MEMBER:Mr President, I was more concerned about energy being accessible, cheap and affordable. It can be made available, but not accessible and cheap enough for the rural poor to afford. I do not know how we can bring that out. I think that the mover of this Motion knows very well that this is very important. For the rural poor, the energy must be cheap and accessible.HON. MEMBER:What we can do is that after the word "fair share of," we can add, "affordable and accessible services, especially to the rural poor."HON. MEMBER:I accept that amendment.THE PRESIDENT:Do you second it?HON. MEMBER:I second it, Mr President.THE PRESIDENT:Is it agreed to?HON. MEMBER:Mr President, I think that we should not confine ourselves to just three particular issues. There are other issues that are equally important, like energy sector legislation and energy trade arrangements. If we only discuss the handling of energy contracts and environmental impact assessment, it will look awkward. Let us add up and maybe put a word like "etcetera."THE PRESIDENT:Honourable Members, we have adopted the amendment as reported by Honourable Lahai. Please, if you have additions that you want to make, make your proposal so that we can look t it. Do you have a clear proposal?HON. MEMBER:It is just an addition to encourage...MR PRESIDENT:Could that be on Resolution 4 or an amendment to Resolution three? What are you proposing?HON. MEMBER:It is an amendment to Resolution 3. It is just an addition.THE PRESIDENT:What do you want to add?HON. MEMBER:I just want to add "energy sector legislation" after "handling energy contracts, energy sector legislations and trade in energy." I think that those are the most crucial terms which need to come out.THE PRESIDENT:What else?HON. MEMBER:Energy sector legislations and regulations.HON. MEMBER:I want to add the phrase "in handling energy services." This encompasses everything from contracts, legal issues, trade and so on. Instead of contracts, it should be handling energy services. That is general and we can do away with the rest.THE PRESIDENT:Before we take yours, there was a proposal that we should include "energy sector legislations." Is there a seconder?HON. MEMBER:I second the proposal.THE PRESIDENT:The proposal is that we add "energy trading arrangements and energy sector legislations" to Resolution 3. Is that agreed to? It is agreed to.I now put the Resolution on Improvement of the Energy Industry in Africa for Sustainable Development for Adoption. Is it agreed to?ApplauseTHE PRESIDENT:Hon. Members, resolution and recommitment to the centrality of African family.Paragraph one;HON. MEMBER:Mr President, number one, is it golden jubilee or golden anniversary? I prefer to have it "Africa celebrate the golden jubilee of the Organisation of African Unity under the theme Pan Africanism......"THE PRESIDENT:It can either be golden jubilee or 50th anniversary.HON. MEMBER:Yes.THE PRESIDENT:Secretariat, please, note the use of those words. If you use one, be consistent.Paragraph two;HON. MEMBER:Another amendment there. I think it would be better that we also include the ten years of the PAP here. So, I would recommend that after the word renaissance we go further to say "and the ten years of the PAP."THE PRESIDENT:We will put this year there. We are not doing ten years of PAP this year, unless you want to remove the word this year. I have already said this year Africa celebrates 50th anniversary of the union. If you add PAP, PAP’s 10th anniversary is next year.HON. MEMBER:Yes, let me move that we remove this year.THE PRESIDENT:Okay, any seconder?HON. MEMBER:I would like to second the motion as moved by my colleague from Lesotho.THE PRESIDENT:Thank you Hon. Colleagues. The proposed amendment is that we remove "acknowledging and appreciating that this year", we remove "this year", Africa celebrates 50th anniversary of the Organisation of African Unity and ten years of PAP under the theme Pan Africanism and African renaissance. Agreed?HON. MEMBERS:Yes.THE PRESIDENT:Agreed to.Paragraph two;Paragraph three;Paragraph four;Excusez-moi Monsieur le Président, je réagis tardivement, je voudrais juste intervenir au niveau du paragraphe 2. La deuxième, il est marqué, cela nous donne l’occasion unique de réfléchir et discuter de ce qui nous lie, et nous connecte, je crois le mot « connecte » n’est pas le mot qu’il convient j’aurais dû dire, et nous rattachent aux valeurs, que nous portons à notre estime. On peut être rattaché à des valeurs, connecté je trouve que ce n’est pas un mot qu’il n’est pas à sa place.Merci.THE PRESIDENT:Thank you. Secretariat you take notes.Paragraph five;Paragraph six;Paragraph seven;Paragraph eight;Paragraph nine;Oui Merci Monsieur le Président.Monsieur le Président, ce paragraphe en version française est vraiment incompréhensible, je suis profondément préoccupé par le fait que l’examen 2009 sur le plan d’action sur la famille et qui a été adoptée par la Conférence des Chefs d’États et de Gouvernement de l’Union Africaine en juillet 2004 à révéler que seul un nombre limité de gouvernements africains avaient pris des mesures concrètes, dans la mise en œuvre de certaines recommandations. C’est vraiment incompréhensible, il y a d’abord 2009. On aurait pu être dire que l’examen en 2009 du plan d’action. Mais que vient faire en juillet 2004, nous ne voyons pas. Le juillet 2004 se rattache à quelle idée, c’est vraiment incompréhensible. C’est peut être que les services qui font le travail d’interprétation. Non pas bien rendus Peut être le Président de la commission peut nous expliquer l’idée maitresse qui prévaut et laquelle on doit retenir dans ce paragraphe. Je vous remercieTHE PRESIDENT:Yes, the plan of action was adopted in 2004, and this 10th anniversary is referring to the 2009 reviewing of that plan of action. Secretariat, please, take note so that you can make the grammatical corrections in the French version. Now we take the resolutions...Resolution one;Resolution two;Resolution three;Hon. members, I put the question that the resolution on the recommitment to the centrality of the African family be adopted. Agreed to?ApplauseTHE PRESIDENT:Agreed and I thank you.Hon. Members, we now go to the draft recommendations of the Third Ordinary Session of the Pan African Parliament.Recommendation one – is recommendations on the situation in Central African Republic.Paragraph one.Paragraph two.Merci, Monsieur le Président.Je pense qu’au niveau du deuxième paragraphe quand il a dit Centrafrique en octobre 2013, je vais relever et dire conformément à la résolution.THE PRESIDENT:Thank you, Honourable.Secretariat, take notes.Paragraph three;Paragraph four;Paragraph five;Paragraph six;Paragraph seven;Paragraph eight;Now we go to the recommendations:Recommendation one;Recommendation two;Recommendation three;Recommendation four;Recommendation five;HON.SALEH KEBZABO:Monsieur le Président, juste une petite faute, la deuxième ligne, chargé de gérer la transition et non pas pour en français.THE PRESIDENT:Thank you. Secretariat, take note.Recommendation six.Merci Monsieur le Président, je voulais faire ajouter en urgence par rapport aux graves violations des droits de l’homme, je pense qu’il faut ajouter « droits humanitaires et l’impunité » parce qu’en Centrafrique il y a la question des droits humains, des droits de l’homme mais aussi il y a la question des droits humanitaires.Merci beaucoup.THE PRESIDENT:Hon. Member, we are talking about human rights violations. You are talking about humanitarian issues. That would be a different proposal. Can you make the proposal again Hon. Member?Monsieur le Président, Je vais faire ajouter, en urgence au rapport par rapport aux graves violations des droits humaines, je crois qu’il faut ajouter droits humanitaires et l’impunité. Par ce en En Centrafrique, il ya la question des droits de l’homme et la question des droits humanitaires.Je vous remercie.THE PRESIDENT:Okay, in English, maybe, we can say "the African Commission on Human and People’s Rights urgently reacts to the serious human rights violations, impunity and the humanitarian situation in Central African Republic." Will that satisfy you?Oui, ça me convient.THE PRESIDENT:Any seconder that we add "humanitarian situation"?HON. MEMBER:Yes, I second the motion.THE PRESIDENT:Thank you. Is it agreed to?ApplauseTHE PRESIDENT:Thank you. We have amended Resolution six to include "the humanitarian situation".Recommendation seven;Recommendation eight;Hon. Members, I put the question that the recommendations on the situation in Central African Republic be adopted. Agreed to?ApplauseTHE PRESIDENT:Thank you, adopted. Hon.Members, recommendation on the situation in Republic of Mali.Paragraph one;Paragraph two;Paragraph three Monsieur le Président.Sur ce point, je voudrais proposer que considérant la CEDEAO, la Communauté Internationale pour amener la paix au Mali.Je soutiens çà Monsieur le Président.THE PRESIDENT:Yes, there is a motion on the floor for an amendment, let us take it fast, are you seconding it?HON. MEMBER:Okay.THE PRESIDENT:A seconder for that motion, that we change paragraph three to read, "commend the efforts made by ECOWAS and the international community to restore peace in Mali". Agreed to?ApplauseTHE PRESIDENT:Okay.Paragraph four;Paragraph five;Je soutiens.Paragraphe cinq, Monsieur le Président, le nom c’est IBRAHIMA.HON. MEMBER:Amendment. At the end of the first line, "on his brilliant election," just delete brilliant. "On his election." No need for "brilliant". Thank you, Mr President.Elle a été brillante, cette élection il faut la maintenirTHE PRESIDENT:Hon. Members, please, there is a proposal that we delete "brilliant". Is there any seconder?HON. MEMBER:No.THE PRESIDENT:Any seconder? No seconder so...Monsieur le Président. Moi, je soutien que c’est une c’est une brillante élection, je voulais soutenir la proposition.THE PRESIDENT:Thank you. The word "brilliant" is retained and since he was a Member of the PAP, he must have been brilliant.Paragraph six;Merci, Monsieur le Président.Moi je propose, reconnaissant les efforts réalisés par l’Opération Serval et les FATIN, c’est-à-dire les Forces Armées Nationales Tchadiennes en intervention au Mali dirigées respectivement par la France et le Tchad, avec la participation du Niger et d’autres pays africains pour chasser les groupes armées djihadistes hors du Mali. Il y a d’autres villes qu’on n’a pas encore citées. Que le Tchad a intervenu avec ses propres moyens et qui a perdu des hommes qui ne font pas parie de la MINUSMA, c’est pour cela je veux absolument l’appellation du mot FATIN.THE PRESIDENT:Okay add it, right? Hon.Members, my country, Nigeria, has forces in Mali, how come we are not mentioned? Ghana as well has forces in Mali. Chairperson of International Relations?HON. SALEH KEBZABO: (TCHAD)On a dit entre autres.THE PRESIDENT:Okay, I thank you.Paragraph seven;Paragraph eight;Paragraph nine;Paragraph ten;Recommendation one;Recommendation two;Recommendation three;Recommendation four;Recommendation five;HON. MEMBER:Recommendation two, Mr President.THE PRESIDENT:Yes?HON. MEMBER:It is just an issue of grammar. Instead of "operational", we can use "operationalising" the African Allied Force.THE PRESIDENT:The key word there is "operational", unless you want to delete "render" and leave "operationalise".HON. MEMBER:That will sound better I think. I do not know. But that is what I think.THE PRESIDENT:Secretariat, that is a grammar matter. Sort it out. Hon. Members, I put the question that the recommendations on the situation in Republic of Mali be adopted. Agreed?ApplauseTHE PRESIDENT:I thank you. It is agreed.THE PRESIDENT:Hon. Members I put that Recommendations 1 to 4 on the situation in Guinea, Paragraph 1 to 8 be adopted.Motion put and agreed to. Recommendations adopted.I thank you.Hon. Members, recommendations on the situation in Kenya.HON. MEMBER:Yes, Mr President.THE PRESIDENT:Yes.HON. MEMBER:I would like to propose an amendment here given the fact that Kenya is hosting the largest number of refugees in the world, so, I would like to acknowledge Kenya’s role for the humanitarian assistance. That is the paragraph I would like to propose. Thank you, Mr President.THE PRESIDENT:Yes, is a proposal to be added?HON. MEMBER:As it is the only paragraph, I would like to acknowledge the Kenyan role in humanitarian assistance. We can place anywhere.THE PRESIDENT:Okay, when you get to the paragraph where you want to add it let us know.LaughterTHE PRESIDENT:You can put it in paragraph one, paragraph two or, Maybe, paragraph three. You can make the amendment. Okay. Paragraph 2...UN HON. MEMBRE:Monsieur le Président,‘Considérant que les élections de mars 2013 au Kenya ont été fructueuses et paisibles;’ Des élections fructueuses, je ne sais pas ce que cela signifie vraiment en français. On peut remplacer par ‘transparentes et paisibles’.THE PRESIDENT:Secretariat, please take note of the word "fruitful" and replace it with the appropriate word. Yes, Hon. Member, you can move your proposed inclusion in paragraph three.HON. MEMBER:Mr. President, this is how it reads; "Kenya’s role for humanitarian assistance" and that word should be "acknowledge" or "be delighted" or whatever, "appreciate" in Paragraph 3.THE PRESIDENT:Paragraph 3.HON. MEMBER:Paragraph 3, Mr President, Kenya’s role in providing humanitarian assistance to fellow Africans.THE PRESIDENT:Any seconder?HON. MEMBER:Mr President!THE PRESIDENT:Yes, Hon. Member?HON. MEMBER:Mine is just a procedural issue really. I think the Hon. Member was clear that he want a stand-alone recommendation.THE PRESIDENT:That is what we have done.HON. MEMBER:Yes, and I thought that you are now at number 3 because I have an amendment at number 3.THE PRESIDENT:Now, your proposal, should we recognise it as Paragraph 3? If so, I am looking for a seconder.HON. MEMBER:Yes, thank you Hon. Members, I have the proposal or amendment that we include as Paragraph 3; "Also recalling Kenya’s role in providing humanitarian assistance to fellow African States".THE PRESIDENT:Is that proposal agreed to?ApplauseTHE PRESIDENT:Agreed.HON. MEMBER:Further amendment, Mr President!THE PRESIDENT:We now go to paragraph 4.HON. MEMBER:Further amendment, Mr President.315 THE PRESIDENT:To Paragraph 3 or 4?HON. MEMBER:Just to paraphrase on paragraph 4 now.THE PRESIDENT:Yes, go ahead.HON. MEMBER:Thank you, Mr President. I realise that paragraph 3 now becomes paragraph 4, you are right. On paragraph 4, I would like to propose an amendment by deleting the word "presumed implication" after Vice President "William Ruto’s presumed implication" and replace it with "alleged participation" because that is what they are being tried for. I beg to move.THE PRESIDENT:Any seconder?UN HON. MEMBRE:Pour ce qui est de la version française, il n’y a pas de problème, Monsieur le Président.THE PRESIDENT:Can I read the whole thing or not? Is it not clear? There is a proposal that needs to be seconded.THE PRESIDENT:paragraph 5.HON. HAMAD M. Y. MASAUNI [TANZANIA]:Mheshimiwa Rais, sikusudii kuwarudisha nyuma, lakini kwa kweli niko njia panda kwa sababu mapendekezo haya nilidhani malengo yake makubwa ni kurekebisha yale matatizo yaliyojitokeza.Kwa mfano, mimi nilibahatika kuwa kwenye ile mission ya uangalizi kule Swaziland na kulikuwa na malalamiko kuhusiana na utaratibu wa demokrasia unavyoendelea, kuna mambo ambayo wangehitaji wasaidiwe. Lakini uchaguzi unapokuwa mzuri, mambo mengi tu mazuri yapo Afrika yanafanyika. Sasa sentensi inasema kwamba sijui Rais Uhuru Kenyatta na William Ruto walikwenda ICC, inaonekana inaning’inia, hakuna flow. Sielewi tunarecommend nini hapa. Nilitarajia pengine labda kama kulikuwa kuna matatizo ambayo yamejitokeza katika uchaguzi wa Kenya ndiyo tungependekeza marekebisho yake ni yapi. Lakini kusema tu kwamba sijui walikuwa kwenye ICC wameitwa, halafu sentensi nyingine sijui kuna Mkutano Addis, sasa tuna-quote kilichofanyika; kwa hiyo, sioni mantiki ya recommendation kama ambavyo umekusudia.Mheshimiwa Rais, naomba mwongozo wako katika haya.THE PRESIDENT:Hon. Member, at this stage you can ask us to delete, amend or replace it. If you have neither of those issues, we will proceed. Do you want it deleted or amended?HON. HAMAD M. Y. MASAUNI [TANZANIA]:Basi kama ni hivyo, nilikuwa naomba hayo mashauri yote yanayohusu ICC yaondoshwe, sioni mantiki. Sijui tuna-recommend nini hapa. Kwa hiyo, sioni mantiki yoyote ya kuwepo hizi paragraph mbili hizi. Kwa sababu hatu-recommend kitu chochote. Ni maelezo tu ambayo yamekaa flat.THE PRESIDENT:Thank you very much, Hon Member. The Hon. Member is proposing that anything on the ICC should be removed from these recommendations. Is there a seconder? Yes?UN HON. MEMBRE:Moi, je pense que c’est un constat ici. Ça ne pose pas de problème. Nous devons laisser cette partie.THE PRESIDENT:Yes, Hon. Gayo.HON. DR. GAYO:Thank you, Mr President. My amendment is on paragraph 6.THE PRESIDENT:Dr Gayo, please, just give me a minute. Let us finish with the initial proposal of the Hon. Member. I do not see a seconder.HON. MEMBER:Me.THE PRESIDENT:Yes.UN HON. MEMBRE:J’appuie la proposition de Monsieur Saleh pour dire qu’ici il n’y a pas de jugement de valeur. On prend acte tout simplement; c’est tout. Merci.THE PRESIDENT:You are not seconding the proposal. Yes, Dr Lahai!HON. DR LAHAI:I think what we should do, because we have debated this issue today, maybe, we will require the resolutions rather than, maybe, acknowledging the resolutions. We recall that there has been a resolution by the African States on this issue. I would recommend that we recall that there has been a resolution.THE PRESIDENT:Okay, the proposal has not been seconded by anybody. Yes, Dr Gayo you have an amendment?HON. DR GAYO:Thank you, Mr President. My amendment is "acknowledging the resolution of the Extra Ordinary Summit held by the African Union in October, 12th 2013 in Addis Ababa, to debate the relationship between Africa and the International Criminal Court and urging the Security Council to transfer the ICC headquarters to African soil". I thank you.THE PRESIDENT:Is that part of the resolution of the Heads of State? I do not think so.HON. MEMBER:Amendment!THE PRESIDENT:Now, we are acknowledging the resolution. So we cannot act to the resolution. We can only acknowledge it. We are not amending the resolution for them. The amendments have been made and we are only acknowledging it as a build up to this recommendation.HON. MEMBER:Amendment in that very one.THE PRESIDENT:Yes, HON. MEMBER: Mr. President, please…UN HON. MEMBRE:Monsieur le Président, je voudrais qu’on soit plus respectueux à l’égard de Monsieur William Ruto qui n’est pas l’adjoint. Il est le vice-président. Il faut l’appeler comme tel. Le Président Uhuru Kenyatta et du vice-président William Ruto aux paragraphes 3 et 4. Ça c’est le un. Le deux, je ne me contente pas qu’on revienne sur ce débat, en fait, sur la CPI qu’on a eu tout à l’heure. On devrait pouvoir retirer les paragraphes 3, 4 et 5, parce que quand je lis la recommandation plus loin, il n’y a rien avec la CPI. En retirant les paragraphes 3, 4 et 5, et même 6, nous tombons directement sur la condamnation de l’attaque perpétrée le 21 septembre, et qui va avec la recommandation, puisqu’on demande une solution régionale sur les questions de radicalisme, de recrutement des terroristes, etc. Voilà l’amendement que je voulais faire, honorable Président.THE PRESIDENT:Thank you. We have an amendment and why did you not second the other one that was made by the Hon. Colleague earlier, that everything to do with ICC be deleted? So, the amendment you are proposing is that we delete what we now have as paragraphs 5, 6 and 7. Is that correct Hon. Member?HON. MEMBER:Yes.HON. SAID MTANDA:Mheshimiwa Rais,THE PRESIDENT:Yes!HON. SAID MTANDA:Mheshimiwa Rais, kwa sababu mapendekezo haya yanahusu juu ya hali ya usalama wa Kenya na hasa kufuatilia matukio yale ya kigaidi na mashambulio yaliyofanywa. Kwa hiyo, naunga mkono aliyosema mwenzangu, sioni haja kwa nini kuna paragraph inayoeleza masuala ya viongozi wa Kenya kwenda ICC. Kwa hiyo, nilikuwa naunga mkono kwamba vipengele hivi viondolewe.Vile vile katika tafsiri ya Kiswahili, katika mapendekezo ambayo tunayatoa hapa, Bunge la Afrika linapendekeza kwamba tafsiri ya Kiswahili haijakaa sawasawa: "Umoja wa Afrika utafute suluhisho la haraka la kikanda ambalo litashughulikia tishio la "msimamo mkali" na kuzuia ajira inayofanywa na vikundi vya msimamo mkali katika Afrika."Nadhani "terrorist group" katika lugha fasaha ya Kiswahili ni "vikungi vya kigaidi", sio "vikundi vya msimamo mkali." Kwa hiyo, ningeomba tafsiri hii katika Kiswahili isomeke hivyo, kwamba: "Umoja wa Afrika utafute suluhisho la haraka la kikanda ambalo litashughulikia tishio la vikundi hivi vya kigaidi ambavyo vinaendesha mashambulizi katika maeneo mbalimbali ya Afrika", badala ya namna ambavyo ilivyowekwa katika tafsiri hii ya Kiswahili. Naunga mkono.THE PRESIDENT:Hon. Member, can you stick to what you really propose so that we can deal with it?Hon. Members, the proposal has been seconded that we delete paragraphs 4, 5, 6 and 7 that have to do with the ICC completely from this recommendation.Is that agreed to?ApplauseTHE PRESIDENT:Agreed to and I thank you. Secretariat, please, take note, that all ICC issues are hereby removed.Now we go to the recommendation. We have only one recommendation; any amendments to the recommendation? Thank you, Hon. Members. I now put the question that the recommendations on the situation in Kenya, as amended, be adopted. Agreed to?ApplauseTHE PRESIDENT:Agreed to.Hon. Members, recommendations on the situation in the Democratic Republic of Congo, paragraphs 1, 2, 3, 4.UN HON. MEMBRE:Monsieur le Président, ce paragraphe est bon, mais il y a tout simplement un problème grammatical. En français, quand on dit ‘Est du Congo’, ça s’écrit en majuscule.Deuxièmement, il y a un problème de précision. Quand on lit le paragraphe, on dit que ‘les relations entre le gouvernement congolais et rwandais demeurent tendues sur la question relative.’ Là, il faut faire une précision: ‘relative à la déstabilisation des partis Est du Congo’, et que les Nations unies ont établi clairement l’appui du Rwanda au M23. L’amendement, c'est-à-dire, ce qu’on ajoute, est ‘déstabilisation dans la partie Est’.HON. MEMBER:Amendment, Mr President.THE PRESIDENT:There is one on the floor already. Hon. Colleague, can you clearly define the amendment you want on paragraph 5?UN HON. MEMBRE:Monsieur le Président.THE PRESIDENT:Hon. Member, please let the Hon. Colleague who has just spoken, who have proposed that amendment to complete. Can we have the amendment clearly so that we know what we are going to second?UN HON. MEMBRE:L’amendement est clair. Il est question d’ajouter tout simplement une précision. Et la précision est celle-ci: deuxième phrase, on ajoute après ‘question relative’ ‘déstabilisation dans la partie Est du Congo’. C’est entendu je crois. Je reprends maintenant toute la phrase.THE PRESIDENT:Okay. So you want added, "matters where you have" to "destabilistion in the Eastern Congo?"Thank you. Any seconder! Yes, Hon. Member!UN HON. MEMBRE:Monsieur le Président, il n’a donné que des précisions. Parce que parler seulement de ‘relative à l’Est’, de quoi s’agit-il ‘à l’Est’? Je crois que son amendement donne un peu plus de clarté. Je vous remercie.THE PRESIDENT:You seconded it?HON. MEMBER:Yes.THE PRESIDENT:Thank you. The amendment proposed on paragraph 5 is acknowledging the relationship between the Congolese and the matters which lead to destabilisation of Eastern Congo. Is the amendment agreed to?ApplauseHON. MEMBER:No. Clarification!THE PRESIDENT:Is the amendment agreed to?HON. MEMBER:Clarification!THE PRESIDENT:Only clarification, Hon. Member from Uganda.HON. MEMBER:Mr President, I am wondering. I need clarification, Mr President, as to whether this statement is still necessary when we have moved a resolution on page 8 of our resolution to send a fact finding mission to the Democratic Republic of Congo and also Rwanda. I am, therefore, wondering whether this particular paragraph is necessary.UN HON. MEMBRE:Monsieur le Président, je demande la parole.THE PRESIDENT:Hon. Member, I have said you either move for it to be amended, deleted or added.HON. MEMBER:Mr President!THE PRESIDENT:So, move for it to be deleted if you do not think it is necessary.HON. MEMBER:Mr President, for purposes of reconciling the two countries and the fact the we moved a strong resolution, I would like to propose that this particular paragraph be deleted.THE PRESIDENT:Any seconder?HON. MEMBER:Seconded.THE PRESIDENT:I have the proposal that paragraph 5 be deleted. Is that agreed to?ApplauseUN HON. MEMBRE:Monsieur le Président, nous sommes des parlementaires, et je crois que nous avons le devoir de dire la vérité. Monsieur le Président, ce qui est repris ici c’est de l’histoire. Ce n’est pas en reprenant ceci qu’on ne va pas réconcilier deux pays. Les Nations unies, par la bouche de Monsieur Ban Ki Moon, nous, Union africaine ou Parlement panafricain sommes une émanation des Nations unies. On reconnait que le Rwanda a déstabilisé la partie Est du Congo. Alors, je ne sais pourquoi nous avons été hypocrites pour enlever la vérité. Ça va frustrer une partie – si on peut appeler ça partie – au conflit. Ce que je demande est que cette vérité historique soit maintenue dans ce texte. Ça évitera à d’autres pays d’agresser d’autres pays africains. C’est tout simplement pour la vérité, parce qu’aujourd’hui, comme elle vous l’a dit, les Nations unies ont mis à la disposition du Congo 3000 hommes qui sont en train de mettre en déroute les forces négatives du M23. Donc, c’est pour l’histoire que nous retenons cette phrase. Personne ne peut nier que le Rwanda n’a pas déstabilisé le Congo dans cette partie. Je vous remercie.UN HON. MEMBRE:Monsieur le Président, si je peux ajouter quelque chose.HON. MEMBER:Compromised motion, Mr President.THE PRESIDENT:Yes, Madam Cecilia?HON. CECILIA:Mr President, I think we cannot run away from the factual situation. So, I would rather that we maintain "noting that the relationship between the Congolese and Rwandan Government on matter related to Eastern Congo remains tense" and we stop because that is a fact but, for us to continue and talk about the United Nations Report and so on which is not available to us, I think we will be lying to ourselves. So, I would like rather that we stop where matters are factually stated, that there is tension and that is where our sentence will stop and we delete "and that the United Nations be clear..." be deleted. I thank you, Mr President.ApplauseUN HON. MEMBRE:Monsieur le Président, s’il vous plaît. C’est moi qui ai fait la motion. Est-ce que je peux donner une précision? Monsieur le Président, nous parlons français, et aussi, comme parlementaires, nous devons savoir être précis. Dans ce bout de phrase-là, je peux ajouter quelque chose.Nous disons ‘demeurent tendues sur la question relative au sport à l’Est du Congo’. A supposer que j’ajoute ‘sport’, est-ce que nous serons d’accord?Par conséquent...THE PRESIDENT:Hon Member, please, resume your seat. Thank you.Hon. Colleagues, I think that where we make proposals we know what the rules are. We have these recommendations that are proposed for them to be amended. We are not planning to resume any debates. So, please, let us conform to our procedures. There is a motion that this whole paragraph 5 be deleted. That motion is still in this House for us to rule on. If we have a consensus on it, then we will do so. If we do not, then we will work on it. Is there a consensus, Hon. Colleagues, that paragraph 5 be deleted?ApplauseUN HON. MEMBRE:Non, il n’y a pas consensus, Monsieur le Président.HON. MEMBER:No!THE PRESIDENT:Thank you Hon. Colleagues, there is no consensus so –HON. MEMBER:Inaudible interjection.THE PRESIDENT:Hon. Colleagues, we have another proposal from Hon. Cecilia. Hon. Member, please resume your seat. The proposal is that we continue with paragraph 5 and then we stop at "remains tense". Is there a seconder to that?HON. MEMBER:Seconded, Mr President.HON. MEMBERS:No, Mr President, no.THE PRESIDENT:Do we have a seconder?HON. MEMBER:Seconded.THE PRESIDENT:Hon. Members, please, you only speak when you have been recognised. Yes, we have a seconder to that motion that we stop at "tense".HON. MEMBER:Seconded, Mr President.THE PRESIDENT:Yes.HON. FRANCISCA DOMINGOS TOMÁS [MOÇAMBIQUE]:- Muito obrigada senhor Presidente. Eu estou a secundar a proposta da Deputada Cecília, que esta frase termine até "tensas". Obrigada.THE PRESIDENT:Thank you. Hon. Members, is that proposal agreed to?HON. MEMBER:No, no!UN HON. MEMBRE:Non, nous devons argumenter, Monsieur le Président, avant de trancher. Est-ce que vous m’accordez la parole, Monsieur le Président? Merci beaucoup Monsieur le Président.Monsieur le Président, si vous prenez le document…THE PRESIDENT:Hon. Member, please we are not beginning a debate here. We are adopting, amending or rejecting.THE PRESIDENT:Hon. Member, please...HON. MEMBER:It is not compulsory, Mr President.THE PRESIDENT:Make a clear proposal. You make it because there is a contention on paragraph 5. So, please, restrict yourself to a proposal. I thank you.UN HON. MEMBRE:Monsieur le Président, il faut que tout reste. Voici les raisons. Nous ne devons pas entrer en contradiction avec ce que nous avons déjà adopté. Le document précédent qui nous a été présenté ici, le document de résolution, si vous prenez à la page 8 – vous lisez très bien, Monsieur le Président – il est dit ‘Préoccupé par la persistance de la guerre qui sévit dans la partie orientale de la République démocratique du Congo, notamment le face à face politique et militaire avec le M23 et les relations tendues avec le Rwanda’. Donc, nous l’avons déjà énoncé. Ceci n’était qu’une conséquence de ce que nous devons énoncer ici, Monsieur le Président. Les deux documents se complètent. Comme vous pouvez le voir, les décisions qu’on a prises dans le document précédent sont issues des résolutions qui sont prises ici. Donc, nous nous ne pouvons pas, ici, avoir à adopter des décisions que nous avons prises sans que ce soit appuyé par des résolutions. Donc, Monsieur le Président, j’appuie, et je crois que tout le monde ici est censé connaître ce qui se passe réellement à l’Est de notre pays, comment le Rwanda a déstabilisé notre pays. Que ce soit dit clairement, et que ce ne soit pas caché. J’ai dit. Je vous remercie.UN HON. MEMBRE:Monsieur le Président!THE PRESIDENT:I thank you. Please, Hon. Colleagues, paragraph...HON. MEMBER:Procedure!THE PRESIDENT:Hon. Members, paragraph 5 is before us and there is a proposal that it be retained as it is.Is that agreed to?ApplauseHON. MEMBER:No!THE PRESIDENT:Hon. Members, if you contend the issue and we cannot have a consensus, we will put it to vote.HON. MEMBERS:Inaudible interjections THE PRESIDENT: Hon. Members, if we are unable to reach a consensus on this issue, we will have to put it to a vote.HON. MEMBER:Mr President!UN HON. MEMBRE:Monsieur le Président, motion.THE PRESIDENT:Yes, Hon. Kantangwa!HON. JULIANA KANTANGWA:Thank you, Mr President. I believe you all know that the country being mentioned is my country and if you recognise, Hon. President, we have tried to restrain ourselves as much as we can. Mr President, I do not believe that the floor of this House is meant for us to bring up our national assertions here when we do not have the facts. We have already passed a resolution for this House to go for itself. We open up our doors to Rwanda and the DRC. When the fact-finding mission comes back, then we can fully debate the facts based on what they would have seen and not this business of asserting what the UN has said. There is no UN resolution up to this day pertaining to Rwanda. The UN Group of Experts made allegations which were not carried by the UN Security Council. So, what are we talking about now? Mr President, I need your protection.THE PRESIDENT:Hon. Members. Yes, you have the floorHON. JULIANA KANTANGWA:Thank you, Mr President. So, what I am saying is if that is their conviction, I do not believe that they should come and convince us, as a nation or State, by making an allegation against another nation or State when we have the capacity to go for a fact-finding mission. Go and bring your report and then we will debate it that way. Otherwise, we cannot accept the merits or demerits of the case we have not known. We have already passed that resolution and actually these recommendations stand redundant after we have passed that resolution because we are already acknowledging that we do not know the facts on the ground. So, how can we now sit here and start debating the facts depending on hearsay, literature or whatsoever?I thank you, Mr President.HON. FRANCISCA DOMINGOS TOMÁS [MOÇAMBIQUE]:- Senhor Presidente quando eu levantei para apoiar a Deputada Cecília foi porque, de facto, nós já aprovamos uma resolução que envia uma missão para Ruanda e Congo. Então não podemos detalhar tal e qual como as coisas estão lá. O que nós sabemos é que Congo e Ruanda têm alguns problemas e há essas situações tensas que nós devemos ir investigar o que é que está a acontecer realmente em Congo e Ruanda. Então não precisamos dizer aqui que porque estão a desastabilizar, Ruanda está a apoiar M23 porque nós não temos esses documentos. Então se nós não temos documentos e ainda não temos o relatório da missão que nós vamos enviar, então não podemos detalhar o documento, não precisa. Nós temos que enviar a missão, em primeiro lugar, mais tarde quando a missão vier com um relatório para nos informar qual é o ponto de situação que existe em Ruanda e em Congo podemos discutir aqui a situação dos dois países.Na Resolução, nós já dissemos que vamos enviar uma missão. Esperemos que a missão que vai a Congo e a Ruanda venha com resultados.Obrigada Senhor Presidente.THE PRESIDENT:Thank you, very much.HON. CECILIA ATIM-OGWAL [UGANDA]:I thank you Mr President. I am raising a point of procedure.I think these documents are resolutions. We have to adopt, amend or reject. That is what I think and I will be guided properly. Now, because of the sensitivity of the matter, we are now engaging two sides to a debate and we are not going to end this matter.That is why I came with a compromise position that we recognise that there is a problem and we recognise that we lack facts and that is why we are sending a mission. This compromise motion takes care of both that we recognise that there is a problem and that we recognise that we do not have the facts. We need to go and get our own facts and then we can report to the House.I am sorry, Mr President, I may be wrong, but I have taken the trouble to study the Rules within this short period that I have been in the PAP. I have read and I understand the Rules and, therefore I am just pleading with you, Mr President, to comply with the Rules that guide these meetings.I thank you.THE PRESIDENT:Hon Cecilia, what Rule are you referring to? Please, be specific on the Rule.HON. CECILIA ATIM-OGWAL [UGANDA]:The Rules on debate, Mr President.THE PRESIDENT:If you need help, it starts from Rule 38, on page 32 of the Rules of Procedure under the topic General Rules for the Conduct of Sitting and Debates. Which particular one have you been referring to that has not been observed?Hon. Member, we are unable to wait for you to find out which Rule you are referring to. So, you are ruled out of order.Hon. Colleagues, we have paragraph 5 which has a contention as to whether we should adopt it or not. We have tried to find ways to resolve it and cannot. We will put it to a vote so that we can move forward. It has been a very long day.All those who are in support of the retention of paragraph 5 as contained in our document on recommendations should, please, stand up to be counted.CountingTHE PRESIDENT:All those that support the deletion of paragraph 5, please, stand up and be counted.CountingTHE PRESIDENT:Hon Colleagues, our Rules provide that for an amendment to be made to a motion or a recommendation, we need concurrence of two thirds of the House to pass it. To leave that amendment as it is has failed and, as such, that it be deleted has also failed. We will only vote on another proposal or an amendment.There was a proposal from Hon. Cecilia Atim-Ogwal and we will vote on that amendment.Those who are in support of the amendment proposed by Hon. Cecilia Atim-Ogwal, please, rise.Counting Those who are against the amendment proposed by Hon. Cecilia Atim-Ogwal please riseCountingUN HONORABLE MEMBRE:La proposition de Cécilia s’il vous plait!UN HONORABLE MEMBRE:Il y a une confusion Monsieur le Président.UN HONORABLE MEMBRE:Monsieur le Président, on ne comprend plus rien, vous avez fait voter le maintien de l’ensemble ou rejet? Il y a un vote qui a eu lieu vous ne nous avez pas donné le résultat.Maintenant vous passez à l’amendement Cécilia qui semble être favorable à une partie, vous devez nous donner d’abord le premier résultat du maintien ou rejet de l’ensemble du texte.THE PRESIDENT:Thank you, Hon. Member.The voting that was done on whether we should delete or retain failed because those who asked us were not two thirds of the House. They failed to have it deleted.There was another proposal to have it amended and we are now voting on the amendment and awaiting the results of the voting on the amendment.UN HONORABLE MEMBRE:Monsieur le Président, si on n’a pas pu supprimer on maintient, parce qu’il y avait un vote. Là, vous faites une deuxième interprétation de la loi.UN HONORABLE MEMBRE:Je peux parler Monsieur le Président?THE PRESIDENT:Hon Members, if we have two thirds that say we should amend it, then we will amend it. I do not know whether I am coming out across clearly. The initial proposal was for it to be deleted and we voted on that. Those who moved for it to be deleted lost the proposal because they could not make two thirds.We now have another proposal for amendment and we have voted on the proposed amendment and we are counting to see if we have two thirds.UN HONORABLE MEMBRE:Monsieur le Président, une motion de procédure.THE PRESIDENT:Yes, Hon. Member?UN HONORABLE MEMBRE:Monsieur le Président, je vous remercie.Je pense que nous avons pris avec légèreté certaines de nos questions. J’ai commencé déjà par m’inquiéter dès le départ, parce que nous ne pouvons pas appliquer deux procédures à un même fait demandé.Vous devrez déjà donné des conseils à ceux qui ont rédigé ces recommandations, parce que vous savez que c’est un problème émotionnel, parce que c’est un problème de guerre et la vie des êtres humains.Quand on discute de ce genre de problème, on prend la disposition pour attirer l’attention des uns et des autres, parce qu’on cherche la solution pour que ce problème ne revienne pas.Vous n’avez pas pris de disposition, en toute vérité il y a eu le cafouillage. Vous ne pouvez pas prendre une résolution concernant un fait et ne pas le reconnaitre lorsqu’il devient une recommandation.L’erreur a commencé dès le départ, parce que vous avez en fin de compte pris une position politique africaine. Ce n’est plus un problème de droit et vous avez faussé la procédure. Excusez-moi de vous le dire, je ne le dirai pas j’en assumerai la responsabilité morale.Il y a eu un mélange, à un certain moment on ne comprenait pas du tout ce que vous voulez.THE PRESIDENT:Hon Colleague, could you, please, make you point clear so that we can understand where you are coming from?UN HONORABLE MEMBRE:Je suis là pour faire la vérité et non...THE PRESIDENT:Yes, Honourable. We need translation.UN HONORABLE MEMBRE:Mais je suis clair, je suis clair parce que vous ne pouvez pas mettre en cause la décision du Conseil de Sécurité de l’ONU ici dans cette salle. C’est un problème de droit, c’est un acquis. Vous ne pouvez pas Monsieur le Président trouver des astuces, il est établi au Conseil de Sécurité, à l’Assemblée générale un fait que nous reprenons, c’est ça Monsieur le Président.Excusez-moi.THE PRESIDENT:Hon. Colleague, the debate is not whether the United Nations has the resolution on it or not. The debate is about its inclusion in our recommendation. We now have a difficulty in being able to remove it because it has not been able to get support from the required two thirds of Members of this House.Hon. Members, this paragraph remains as it is and we continue with our deliberations.DES HONORABLES MEMBRES:Non! Non! Non!THE PRESIDENT:Hon Members, to amend it requires two thirds.HON. MEMBER:Thank you, Mr President.We had a proposal for amendment from Hon. Cecilia and we voted on that. We have not been told the result of that second motion. Mr President, I cannot continue talking when hon. Members are also talking. I think this House has adopted new Rules because this is contrary to our Rules.However, Mr President, Hon. Members are making noise and a lot of assertions. If we are going to fill this House with the rumours that those UN experts have put forward, why was it not adopted by the Security Council? Why did they not bring the resolution for us to see? Why did the Security Council throw it out if it was substantive?We are now requesting the House to go by itself. We have passed the resolution. We did not hear anything by the Rwandan Delegation. We kept quiet, welcomed it and we were happy. They have said come and find out by yourselves.As a matter of fact, Mr President, who are fighting? It is the Congolese harassing them. They have denied them their dignity and humanity. Because we share the same language, they are now asserting that it is Rwanda. Come and find out for yourselves. That is what we are saying. Let them stop the noise. We can also make it. Let us go and find out. We are appealing to the Hon. President that he tells us the outcome of the vote on the amended motion that allows us to go and find out for ourselves.Mr President, we should deal with facts and not rumours.Thank you.UN HONORABLE MEMBRE:Monsieur le Président, vous avez donné la parole à une partie...Vous venez de laisser parler Juliana, je peux parler aussi, je suis député...THE PRESIDENT:Let me, please, announce the result of the last vote we took.We did not achieve the two thirds that is required.ApplauseTHE PRESIDENT:Thirty-four Hon. Members voted in favour of Hon. Cecilia’s proposed amendment and twenty-two voted against it. We have not been able to achieve the two thirds as required by our Rules. Please, let us proceed.Are there any amendments on paragraph 6?UN HONORABLE MEMBRE:Monsieur le Président, paragraphe 6...UN HONORABLE MEMBRE:Motion! Monsieur le Président...UN HONORABLE MEMBRE:paragraphe 6, il y a juste une erreur, il faut ajouter le à. « … des concertations nationales tenues à Kinshasa … »THE PRESIDENT:Thank you. Secretariat, please take note.Are there any amendments on paragraph 7?HON LAHAI [...]Mr President, when there is the statement "on one hand", there must also be another statement that says "on the other hand".THE PRESIDENT:Which one are you referring to?HON LAHAI [...]:Paragraph 7:"Acknowledging President Joseph Kabila’s decision to, on one hand..." then it goes on to the end and we do not know what the other hand is.THE PRESIDENT:I think the "on one hand" should be deleted.HON. MEMBER:I move that it be deleted.THE PRESIDENT:Thank you.THE PRESIDENT:Thank you. Now, we move to recommendations. Recommendation 1; ...HON. MEMBER:Monsieur le Président, pour cette recommandation, voilà ce que nous proposons.Que l’Organisation des Nations unies et l’Union africaine organisent et supervisent des dialogues politiques entre tous les acteurs nationaux et régionaux de tous les pays impliqués dans la crise àl’Est de la République démocratique du Congo. Je vous remercie.THE PRESIDENT:Thank you. Secretariat, please, take note on recommendation 2.HON. MEMBER:Recommendation 2, amendment.THE PRESIDENT:Yes, please.HON. MEMBER:Mr President, I move that we amend recommendation 2 to read as follows: But the United Nations Organisation and African Union impose sanctions on any country, we use the word "proven" and delete the word "engaged" and say: "on any country proven to be engaged in the destabilisation of its neighbours". The justification is what we have carried in 5, the proof of destabilisation. They just leave it open ended with "engaged". It has to be proven engagement. That’s my amendment.THE PRESIDENT:Thank you. Hon. Members, I put the question on the recommendation on the situation in DRC Congo for adoption. Agreed to?ApplauseTHE PRESIDENT:Thank you. Hon. Members, recommendations on the situation in Somalia. Paragraph 1....HON. MEMBER:Correction, Mr President.THE PRESIDENT:Yes, Hon. Member?HON. MEMBER:Yes, the first paragraph shows August, 2012. That is not correct. It is September 10, 2012.THE PRESIDENT:Thank you. Secretariat, please, take note. Paragraph 2, paragraph 3.HON. MEMBER:On paragraph 3, Mr President, yes.I would like to know that if.... Ooh, Nigeria is here.Then, thank you, Mr President.THE PRESIDENT:Thank you. Paragraph 4.HON. MEMBER:Yes, Mr President.According to the report of the Committee on Cooperation, they said they got information from different organisations, including the meeting in Addis Ababa where they agreed to take out the word of "Tubaran" and use words of "Tuba Region". So, the word of "Tubaran" should be replaced with "Tuba Region".THE PRESIDENT:Secretariat, please, take note. Paragraph 5, paragraph 6.HON. MEMBER:I think, Mr President, while drafting this recommendation, there was lack of information. Here it says: "Commending ........... For launching a framework of dialogue between the two parties in order to resolve the impasse and to identify options to establish a transition administration in Tubaland." There was an agreement for Juba. EGARD under the auspices of the Chairperson of EGARD Council of Ministers, the Foreign Minister of the Ethiopian Federation. This has come here without the knowledge of those three agreements. Here it recommends and that is done already. I would have replaced this amendment as follows: "...to the agreement forged by the EGARD between Somali Federal Government and the leadership of Juba Transitional Administration as cited in the agreement in September 2013 in Addis Ababa".Thank you, Mr President.THE PRESIDENT:Thank you. Any seconder for that amendment?HON. MEMBER:I second.THE PRESIDENT:Those who support the amendment, agreed to?ApplauseTHE PRESIDENT:Secretariat, please, note the amendment. Collect it from the Hon. Member. Paragraph 7, 8 and 9. Recommendation 1...HON. MEMBER:Yes, Mr President. The recommendation says that "Somali Federal Government consider as a matter of urgency an establishment of platform for dialogue with the leadership..." So, I will suggest that we take out "leadership" and say that: "platform for dialogue with Al Shabab members" who will denounce the act of terrorism and extremism. Instead of using the word "leaders" because there are some that do not allow the Government of Somali to deal with foreign terrorists. Thank you.THE PRESIDENT:Thank you. That is the proposed amendment. Is there any seconder?HON. MEMBERS:Yes, Mr President, the way this paragraph has been formulated here, it says that the "establishment of a platform for dialogue with the leadership of Al Shabab". So, this dialogue is it between Al Shabab and the Somali Government. That is what we exactly want to understand. The Somali Government cannot engage in dialogue with the Al Shabab.Thank you, Mr President.THE PRESIDENT:Here, it is clear. It says Al Shabab members who denounce the acts of terrorist and extremism. So, it is clear which Al Shabab they should be talking to. It is those members who denounce acts of terrorism.HON. MEMBER:Mr President, there are those who are on the list of international terrorists. Suppose the leaders denounce, Mr President.THE PRESIDENT:I understand. That is why he wants the "leadership" removed. So, Members who denounce acts of terrorism and extremism can be dialogued with. Hon. Members, the proposal that the "leadership" be deleted from this paragraph has been seconded. Is it agreed to?ApplauseTHE PRESIDENT:Agreed to. Please, Secretariat, take note of the amendment. I turn to recommendation 2; recommendation 3; Yes, Honourable Lahai.HON. LAHAI:Only the African countries have sent in military troops. So, what they are asking for are additional military troops for the country, because there are no sufficient numbers. So, we add: "African countries to mobilise to support Somalia by sending additional military troops to the country"THE PRESIDENT:Thank you.HON. MEMBER:Yes, I have a point to raise on that one, Mr President. I suggest that in the case of the Nigerians, it should be "additional police force". The Nigerians there are not the military. Those who are in Somalia they are a police force.THE PRESIDENT:Okay, we should add "police force". So, it should be "additional military and police force to the country".HON. MEMBER:Mr President, it would be better to say that "the AU to mobilise to support Somalia by sending troops and logistical support from the troops".THE PRESIDENT:You want the African countries to be led by the AU?HON. MEMBER:Yes.THE PRESIDENT:Okay, any seconder to that amendment? I think it is semantics - African countries, AU is the same. Hon. Members, I put the question that recommendation on the situation in Somalia...HON. MEMBER:Mr President, I am sorry to take you back. I thought before we make a declaration on this resolution, I think it was a mistake because on paragraph 3, we should have stated that we appreciate the support granted to Somalia by the AU through AMISON. We forgot that, because it is really through AMISON, in paragraph 3 and, therefore, when we come to the last one that is where we have a problem. It is still the AMISON Project which we are talking about which must increase the military personnel and the police force. So, I think it was just an oversight. I just want to draw your attention. But if it is okay, I have no problem.HON. MEMBER:Point of order, Mr President!These countries that have contributed troops to Somalia are not all under AMISON. There are countries there are fighting Al Shabab and they are not there under AMISON. Thank you, Mr President.THE PRESIDENT:Thank you very much. If we have not agreed on the proposal, let us move on. I think "African countries" covers everything. Hon. Colleagues, I put the question that the recommendations on the situation in Somalia be adopted. Agreed?ApplauseTHE PRESIDENT:Thank you very much.Honourable Members, recommendations on Climate Change, Poverty and Energy. Paragraph 1;UN HON. MEMBRE:Monsieur le Président, dans la version française, la date est 15-16 août 2013. IL manque 2013.THE PRESIDENT:Okay, Secretariat, please, add here paragraph 2 and 3. Yes, Hon. Member?UN HON. MEMBRE:Monsieur le Président, dans le paragraphe, les mots ‘est établi en Afrique’ existent déjà.THE PRESIDENT:Thank you, note the grammatical request. Paragraphs 4, 5, 6, 7, 8 and 9, 10, 11, 12, 13 and 14. I will come to the recommendations. Recommendations 1, 2, 3, 4 and 5. Hon. Members, I put the question on recommendations on Climate Change, Poverty and Energy for adoption. Agreed?ApplauseTHE PRESIDENT:I thank you. Honourable Members, Recommendations on African Illegal Immigration. Paragraph 1;UN HON. MEMBRE:Monsieur le Président, c’est par rapport au titre. Est-ce ‘Recommandations sur l’émigration ou l’immigration clandestine africaine?’ C’est une question de sémantique. C’est l’émigration ou l’immigration? C’est l’émigration, n’est-ce pas? Je pense que c’est l’émigration.THE PRESIDENT:I think it is migration. Yes, I agree with you. It is illegal migration not immigration.UN HONORABLE MEMBRE:In French, it is émigration.THE PRESIDENT:Yes, in English, let us correct it to ‘migration’. Paragraph 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, ...UN HON. MEMBRE:Monsieur le Président, à propos de ce septième paragraphe. Le drame du 03 octobre 2013 à Lampedusa, dans la Méditerranée, d’abord on devrait changer pour mettre ‘émigration. Mais ici le problème c’est que ce n’était pas uniquement des africains. Ce sont des Syriens et d’autres peuples qui ont péri à la porte de l’Italie. On ne peut pas considérer cela comme une situation spécialement africaine. Je ne sais pas comment on peut arranger le paragraphe, parce qu’il ne s’agit pas des africains seulement.THE PRESIDENT:Thank you, I think we cannot delete that section: "... of October 2013 in Lampedusa in the Mediterranean...." Secretariat, please take note. Paragraph 8, 9. We, therefore, count the recommendations. Recommendation 1, ...UN HON. MEMBRE:Monsieur le Président, la recommandation me pose un grave problème, parce que lorsqu’on lit le texte tel qu’il est, on a l’impression que c’est uniquement les moyens de voyage qui sont mis en cause. Ce n’est pas seulement les moyens de voyage. C’est fondamentalement le fait même de quitter l’Afrique pour aller ailleurs. C’est ça le problème. Donc, tel que c’est rédigé ici, nous sous-entendons que si les jeunes peuvent avoir d’autres moyens pour aller, on les encourage à y aller! Je ne crois pas! Donc, s’il faut proposer, je pense que, comme on n’a pas le temps de travailler très profondément sur le texte, on enlève la dernière ligne – en tout cas en français. Ce serait donc ‘les Etats africains sensibilisent et informent les jeunes de leurs pays respectifs sur les graves risques de l’émigration clandestine africaine.’THE PRESIDENT:Any Seconder? Yes, Hon. Member, thank you for seconding it. Hon. Members, with this proposed amendment, I will delete the the rest of the sentence after "African illegal migration". Agreed?ApplauseTHE PRESIDENT:We have amended and adopted. I thank you.We move on to recommendation 2;HON. MEMBER:Mr President, I propose an amendment to recommendation 2 to read as follows: "that African Heads of State create employment opportunities and use venture funds as an addition for the youth in order to curb poverty and unemployment on the African Continent". The justification is that we are seeking to create youth who are self employed as well. I beg to move.THE PRESIDENT:Sorry, what did you add?HON. MEMBER:Mr. President, I would like it to read as follows: "African Heads of State create employment opportunities and use venture funds for the youth in order to curb poverty and unemployment on the African Continent". The justification for the adding the youth venture fund is to create youth who are self employed not just to create jobs for them. I beg to move.THE PRESIDENT:Any seconder?HON. MEMBER:Seconded.THE PRESIDENT:You seconded. Okay, thank you.UN HON. MEMBRE:Je peux améliorer, Monsieur le Président. Je soutiens l’amendement, et je voudrais l’améliorer, parce que la recommandation elle-même a trait à l’émigration. Il ne faudrait pas qu’on le perde de vue. Je voudrais qu’on termine en disant ‘afin de lutter contre la pauvreté et le chômage sur le continent Africain pour limiter l’exode massif des jeunes vers l’Europe.’UN HON. MEMBRE:Merci, Monsieur le Président. Ici, ça change l’esprit, parce que je parle en français...THE PRESIDENT:Hon. Member, please, could you stand while you speak on the floor? Yes, go ahead, please stand.UN HON. MEMBRE:Il faut que je me lève. Ah, je ne sais pas! Tantôt il faut être debout, tantôt il faut s’asseoir. Je ne me retrouve pas. Merci, Monsieur le Président. La deuxième formulation est sur le plan de compréhension des faits bien disposés par rapport à la seconde. La seconde solution est dans la première solution: de lutter contre l’émigration.THE PRESIDENT/ MEMBERS:Thank you. Secretariat take note paragraph 7. Yes, Honourable Lahai.HON. LAHAI:Mr. President, when you have the statement on the one hand, you should have another statement to say on the other hand.THE PRESIDENT:So, which one are you referring to?HON. LAHAI:7 acknowledging President Joseph Kabwira’s vision to: on one hand then it goes to the end that is the other hand. We don’t know.THE PRESIDENT:I think on one hand should be deleted.HON. LAHAI:I move that it be deleted.THE PRESIDENT:Thank you. Now recommendations, Recommendation 1. Yes, Recommendation one!French [18:36:50 - 18:37:11]UN HONORABLE MEMBRE:Monsieur le Président,Pour cette recommandation, voilà ce que nous proposons:« Que l’Organisation des Nations-Unies et l’Union africaine organisent et supervisent des dialogues politiques entre tous les acteurs nationaux et régionaux de tous les pays impliqués dans la crise àl’Est de la République démocratique du Congo ».Je vous remercie.THE PRESIDENT:Thank you. Secretariat take note. Recommendation 2.HONOURABLE……..:Recommendation 2, amendment.THE PRESIDENT:Yes, please.HONOURABLE……..:Mr. President, I move that we amend Recommendation 2 to read as follows: But the United Nations Organisation and African Union impose sanctions on any country, we delete the word ‘proven’ and say: any country .. Rather we delete the word ‘engaged’ and say: on any country proven to be engaged in the destabilisation of its neighbours. The justification is what we have carried in 5, the proof of destabilisation. They just leave it open ended that ‘engaged’ it has to be proven engagement. That’s my amendment.327 THE PRESIDENT:Thank you. Honourable Members, I put recommendation on the situation in DRC Congo for adoption. Agreed to? (Applause) Thank you. Honourable Members, recommendations on the situation in Somalia. Paragraph 1.... (Interjection: Correction Mr. President. Mr. President correction) Yes, Honourable.HONOURABLE……..:Yes, the first paragraph shows August 2012, that’s not correct it’s September 10, 2012.THE PRESIDENT:Thank you. Secretariat take note. Paragraph 2, paragraph 3. (Interjection: Paragraph 3, Mr. President) Yes.HONOURABLE……..:I would like to know that if I don’t see it well, ho! Nigeria is here, then, thank you, Mr. President.THE PRESIDENT:Thank you for a waive in Nigeria. Paragraph 4. (Interjection: Yes, Mr. President) Yes.HONOURABLE……..:According to the report of the Committee on Cooperation, they said they get information from different organisations including 1, the meeting having in Addis Ababa they agreed to take out the word of Tubarani and use word of Tuba Region. So, the word of ‘Tubaran should be replaced with ‘Tuba Region)THE PRESIDENT:Secretariat take note.Paragraph 5, paragraph 6. (Interjection: Thank you, Mr. Chairman) Yes.HONOURABLE……..:I think, Mr. Chairman, while drafting this recommendation there was lack of information. Here it says: commending..... For launching a framework of dialogue between the two parties in order to resolve the impasse and to identify options to establish a transition administration in Tubaland. There was an agreement for Juba Egard under the auspices of the Chairperson of Egard Council of Ministers. The Foreign Minister of Ethiopian Federation. That is thus come here without the knowledge of those three agreements. Here it recommends and that is done already. I would have replaced this amendment as follows: ............to the agreement forged by the Egard between Somali Federal Government and the leadership of Juba Transitional Administration as cited in the agreement in September 2013 in Addis Ababa. Thank you, Mr. Chairmen.THE PRESIDENT:Thank you. A seconder for that amendment.HONOURABLE……..:I second.THE PRESIDENT:Those who support, agreed to?(Applause) Secretariat, please note the amendment collect it from the Honourable Member. Paragraph 7, 8, 9. Recommendations 1, (Interjection: Yes, Mr. President) Yes, Honourable.HONOURABLE......:Yes, Mr. President. The recommendation says that Somali Federal Government consider as a matter of urgency an establishment of platform for dialogue with leaders, the Al Shabab leaders they are not or so ..........some of them are foreigners. So, I will suggest to take out this leadership and say that: ‘platform for dialogue with Al Shabab members will denounce the act of terrorism and extremist’ instead of use the word of leadership because there are some ............. that does not allow to the Government of Somali to deal with foreign terrorists. Thank you.THE PRESIDENT:Thank you. Proposed amendment. Any seconder?HONOURABLE……..:Yes, Mr. President, the way this paragraph has been formulated, here it says that the establishment of a platform for dialogue with the leadership of Al Shababu. So, this dialogue is it between Al Shabab and the Somali Government. That’s what we exactly want to understand. Somali Government cannot engage in dialogue with Al Shabab. Thank you, Mr. President.THE PRESIDENT:Here it’s clear it says members, Al Shabab members who denounce the acts of terrorist and extremism. So, it’s clear which Al Shabab they should be talking to those members who denounce acts of terrorism.HONOURABLE........:Mr. President, there are those who are in the list of internal international terrorists. The leaders, suppose they denounce?Yes, Mr. President.THE PRESIDENT:I understand, that’s why he want the leadership removed. So, Members who denounce acts of terrorism and extremism can be dialogued with. Honourable Members, the proposal that the ‘leadership’ be deleted from this paragraph, it has been seconded. Is it agreed to?HONOURABLE……..:Yes. (Applause)THE PRESIDENT:Agreed. Please, secretariat note the amendment. And so, I turn to Recommendation No. 2. Recommendation No. 3.Yes, Honourable Rahai.HON. LAHAI:Only the African countries have sent in militia, so what they are asking for is additional militia troops for the country, because there are no insufficient numbers. So, we add: ‘African countries to mobilise to support Somalia by sending additional military troops to the country’THE PRESIDENT:Thank you.HONOURABLE……..:Yes, I have a point to raise on that one, Mr. President. Or suggest like the Nigerians additional police force. Nigerians are not the military. Those who are in Somalia they are police force.THE PRESIDENT:Okay, we should add ‘police force’ ‘additional military and police force to the country’. Okay, yes, Honourable.HONOURABLE……..:Mr. President, some of African countries, it’s good to say that AU to mobilise to support Somalia by sending troops and see logistical support from the troops.THE PRESIDENT:You want the African countries to be led by AU?HONOURABLE……..:Yes.THE PRESIDENT:Okay, any seconder to that amendment? I think it’s semantics, African countries, AU is the same. Honourable Members, I put that recommendation on the situation in Somalia...... (Interruption: Mr. President, Sir.) Yes, Honourable Member.HONOURABLE……..:Mr. President, Sir, I am sorry to take you back. I thought before we make a declaration on this resolution, I think it was a mistake because on paragraph 3, we should have stated that we appreciate the support granted to Somalia by AU through AMISON. We forgot that, because it is really through AMISON, paragraph 3 and therefore, when we come to the last one that’s where we are having a problem. It is still the AMISON project which we are talking about which must increase the military personnel and the police force. So, I think it was just an oversight, I just want to draw your attention. But if it is okay, I have no problem. (Interjection: Point of Order, Mr. President) Yes.HONOURABLE……..:These countries that have contributed troops to Somalia they are not all under AMISON, a country like .........there are there fighting Al Shabab and they are not there under AMISON. Thank you, Mr. President.THE PRESIDENT:Thank you very much. If we haven’t agreed on the proposal, if not, if not, let’s move on. I think African countries covers.................Honourable colleagues, I put that recommendations on the situation in Somalia be adopted. Agreed? (Applause) Thank you. Thank you very much.Honourable Members, recommendations on Climate Change, Poverty and Energy. Paragraph 1.HON. SALEH KEBZABO [TCHAD]:Monsieur le Président, Dans la version française, la date du 15-17 août à Midrad, c’est le « 2013 » qui manquent.THE PRESIDENT:Okay, secretariat, please add here Paragraph 2 and 3. Yes, Honourable French [18:50:45 – 18:50:57]UN HONORABLE MEMBRE:Monsieur le Président, Dans le paragraphe 3, je voudrais qu’on mette le groupe de mots « est établi en Afrique » au lieu de « existe déjà en Afrique ».Merci.THE PRESIDENT:Thank you, note the grammatical request, exist, established. Paragraph 4, 5, 6, 7, 8 and 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14. I will come to recommendations. Recommendation 1, 2, 3, 4, 5. Honourable Members, I put recommendations on Climate Change, Poverty and Energy for adoption. Agreed? (Applause) I thank you.Honourable Members, Recommendations on African Illegal Immigration. Paragraph 1, (Interruption: Mr. President) Yes, Honourable.UN HONORABLE MEMBRE:Excuse me!Excusez-moi s’il vous plaît!Monsieur le Président, C’est par rapport à la « Recommandation sur l’émigration ou l’immigration clandestine africaine? »C’est une question de sémantique!C’est « l’émigration » ou « l’immigration »?C’est « l’émigration », n’est-ce pas?Ah oui, c’est « l’émigration », Monsieur le Président, je pense bien.THE PRESIDENT:I think it’s migration. Yes, I agree with you. It is illegal migration not immigration.UN HONORABLE MEMBRE:Yes! Ok!Migration! In French it’s « émigration ».THE PRESIDENT:Yes, in 7 English let’s we correct in ‘migration’. Paragraph 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, (Interruption: In French) Yes, Honourable.UN HONORABLE MEMBRE:Monsieur le Président,À propos de ce septième paragraphe, le drame du 3 octobre 2013 à Lampedusa, dans la Méditerranée, d’abord on devrait changer pour mettre « émigration ». Mais ici, le problème c’est que ce n’était pas uniquement des Africains. Ce sont des Syriens et d’autres peuples qui ont péri aux portes de l’Italie. On ne peut pas considérer cela comme une situation spécialement africaine.Je ne sais pas comment peut-on arranger le paragraphe, parce qu’il ne s’agit pas des Africains seulement.THE PRESIDENT:Thank you, I think we cannot delete that section........... Of October 2013 in Lampedusa in Mediterranean. Secretariat, please take note. Paragraph 8, 9. We therefore, count the recommendations. Recommendation 1, (Interruption: In French) Yes, Chair.HON. SALEH KEBZABO [TCHAD]:Monsieur le Président,La recommandation me pose un grave problème, parce que lorsqu’on lit le texte tel qu’il est, on a l’impression que c’est uniquement les moyens de voyage qui sont mis en cause. Ce ne sont pas seulement les moyens de voyage, c’est fondamentalement le fait même de quitter l’Afrique pour aller ailleurs. C’est cela le problème!Telle qu’elle est rédigée ici, nous sous-entendons que si les jeunes peuvent avoir d’autres moyens pour aller, on les encourage à y aller!Je ne crois pas!Donc, s’il faut proposer, je pense que, comme on n’a pas le temps de travailler très profondément sur le texte, on enlève la dernière ligne – en tout cas en français. Ce serait donc « Les États africains sensibilisent et informent les jeunes de leurs pays respectifs sur les graves risques de l’émigration clandestine africaine ».THE PRESIDENT:Seconder? Yes, Honourable.Thank you for seconding it. Honourable Members, with this proposed amendment I will delete the ‘the rest of centre after African illegal migration’ agreed? (Applause) We have amended, adopted, thank you.Recommendation 2 (interruption: amendment)HONOURABLE.......:Mr. President, I propose amendment to Recommendation 2 to read as follows: ‘that African Heads of State create employment opportunities and use venture funds as an addition for the youth in order to curb poverty and unemployment on the African Continent. The justification is that we are seeking to create youth who are self employed as well. I beg to move.THE PRESIDENT:Sorry, what did you add?HONOURABLE……..:Mr. President, I seek to add the following, I would like it to read as follows:‘African Heads of State create employment opportunities and use venture funds for the youth in order to curb poverty and unemployment on the African Continent’. The justification for the adding the youth venture fund is to create youth who are self employed not just to create jobs for them. I beg to move.THE PRESIDENT:Seconder.HONOURABLE……..:Seconded.THE PRESIDENT:You seconded. Okay, thank you.HON. SALEH KEBZABO [TCHAD]:Je peux améliorer, Monsieur le Président?Je soutiens l’amendement et je voudrais l’améliorer, parce que la recommandation elle-même a trait àl’émigration. Il ne faudrait pas qu’on le perde de vue.Je voudrais qu’on termine en disant: « … afin de lutter contre la pauvreté et le chômage sur le continent africain pour limiter l’exode massif des jeunes vers l’Europe ».UN HONORABLE MEMBRE:Merci, Monsieur le Président.Ici, ça change l’esprit, parce que je parle en français [...].THE PRESIDENT:Honourable, please, could you stand where you speak on the floor? Yes, go ahead, please stand.[Interruptions]UN HONORABLE MEMBRE:Merci.Ah!Il faut que je me lève!Ah, je ne sais pas, tantôt il faut être debout, tantôt il faut être assis, je ne me retrouve pas.Merci, Monsieur le Président.La deuxième formulation est, sur le plan de la compréhension des faits, bien disposée par rapport àla seconde.La seconde solution est dans la première solution:« de lutter contre l’émigration ».C’est dans la première solution, et comme le diable est dans les détails, on veut aller aux détails, ça nous servira!(Applaudissements)THE PRESIDENT:Hon. Members, there is a proposed amendment which has been seconded.UN HON. MEMBRE:Oui Monsieur le president. Je soutiens la proposition de Monsieur Coumakoye qui effectivement dit de façon claire et nette que, dans le numéro deux que nous avons ici, toutes les solutions y sont. Les chefs d’Etats africains créent des opportunités d’emploi pour les jeunes afin de lutter contre la pauvreté et le chômage sur le continent africain. C’est clair et net. On n’a plus besoin d’ajouter autre chose.Je vous remercie.MR. PRESIDENT:Okay, we have a proposal or amendment which has been seconded and I, therefore, put for the adoption of the amendment; agreed to.UN HON. MEMBRE:Un autre amendement, Monsieur le Président. En dehors de ce point.THE PRESIDENT:Yes, Hon. Member from Sudan.HON. MEMBER:Mr President, there is redundancy. "Create employment opportunities" includes everything. It includes getting funds for the projects that should be directed to issues including policies and everything and, therefore, encompassing most of what is required. If there are any additions to this statement, it is a redundancy. Therefore, I want to say that the proposed changes should not be made. Thank you.THE PRESIDENT:That is why, Hon. Members, we need to agree or disagree on the additions that have been proposed. So, it is not time for speech making now. We have put the question; are we adding this amendment or are we not? It is that simple. Those who are in favour of adding the agreements say yes.HON. MEMBERS:Yes!THE PRESIDENT:Those who are against the adding of the amendments say yes.HON. MEMBERS:Yes!ApplauseTHE PRESIDENT:We retain the statement as it is; recommendation 3, recommendation 4;HON. MEMBER:I am proposing an amendment on Recommendation 4 which says African focus on policy reform and strengthening of development. I am proposing that we say, "African States focus on policy reform and enhancing" instead of "strengthening". We substitute "strengthening" with "enhancing" development and service delivery in order to create within African countries conditions and contexts that attract the young people in "the diaspora" instead of saying "abroad". Thank you, Mr President.THE PRESIDENT:Any seconder?HON. MEMBER:Yes, I second.THE PRESIDENT:And whereas the proposed amendment to number 4 to change where there is "strengthening" to "enhancing" and changing where there is the word "abroad" to "diaspora". Is that agreed to? Agreed to. Number 5.UN HON. MEMBRE:Monsieur le Président, l’esprit de la lettre des recommandations voudrait que nous limitions l’exode des jeunes vers l’Europe, ou que nous bannissions complètement cet exode illégal. Donc, je souhaiterais qu’on enlève complètement le point n°5 des recommandations.Merci.THE PRESIDENT:Any seconder?HON. MEMBER:I second.THE PRESIDENT:Hon. Colleagues, he proposed that item number 5 be completely deleted. Agreed to?HON. MEMBERS:No!THE PRESIDENT:Yes, Hon. Member, is that on item number 5?HON. MEMBER:Yes, on number 5.THE PRESIDENT:Go ahead.HON. MEMBER:No, I think it should be maintained because we know that this exists and this recommendation urges those countries who are accepting these illegal immigrants to be treated fairly. You know, if I can just take an example of my country and South Africa, we do have a lot of people from Lesotho who come here to South Africa illegally but, now, the way they are treated, Mr President, is not good. It is not good. So, this recommendation urges countries like South Africa to treat the Zimbabweans, Swazis, Tswanas and all those immigrants fairly. They should put in place regulations to treat them like human beings. As it is happening now, it is not like that, Mr President. So, I think we should maintain this paragraph.THE PRESIDENT:Thank you.UN HON. MEMBRE:Monsieur le Président, je suis d’avis avec le frère qui vient de parler. En fait, la proposition que je voulais faire concerne le dernier mot. Au lieu de parler des conditions ‘plus souples’, il faut seulement dire ‘plus humaines’.THE PRESIDENT:Thank you. Yes, Hon. Member.UN HON. MEMBRE:Honorable Président, ce que je voulais dire, c’est qu’en fait c’est par hypocrisie que nous avions voulu retirer cette partie. Nous n’avons pas les moyens pour arrêter l’émigration, et je suis d’accord avec l’honorable tout à l’heure. Mais je voudrais également qu’on retire le terme ‘à développer’. On dirait simplement ‘les émigrés africains en situation irrégulière à mettre en œuvre’ plutôt ‘qu’à développer’; directement à mettre en œuvre des projets d’émigration plus humains.Merci, honorable le Président.THE PRESIDENT:Thank you, Hon. Member. The proposal on the table is that we amend paragraph 5 to include, European Union in particular those receiving illegal Africa immigrants to implement more humane immigration policies. Is that agreed to?ApplauseTHE PRESIDENT:I thank you. I now put the recommendations on African illegal migration for adoption. Agreed to?ApplauseTHE PRESIDENT:Thank you Hon. Members. Yes, Hon. Chairperson of Gender.HON. FRANCISCA DOMINGOS TOMÁS [MOÇAMBIQUE]:- Senhor Presidente, peço desculpas porque estamos muito cansados, mas no princípio da aprovação das resoluções e recomendações, o meu relator da região Austral colocou uma questão em relação a resolução e recomendações do relatório de África Austral sobre o seminário realizado em Maputo. Não sei se vamos deixar passar, mas propunha que fosse analisado aqui porque é mesmo agora que tem que acontecer.Obrigada.THE PRESIDENT:Yes, Hon. Member. I do not think that the recommendations are available here now and we will, therefore proceed with the ones we have adopted. My apologies, on behalf of the Secretariat, for this.HON. MEMBER:Sorry, I thought you had earlier said that the report was presented, debated and adopted, and you earlier said that the issues, recommendations and resolutions will be included in the final version of what we are about to adopt. There are other resolutions which were debated on the floor and agreed to by the House and our understanding is that, indeed, it was an omission on the part of the Secretariat, but still they should be included in the final version because that is what we agreed to as a House. We adopted that report. Thank you, Mr President.THE PRESIDENT:Thank you very much but on everything we have gone through today, we have also adopted. So, how do we now bring something that we have not finalised as a House? The process of adopting our recommendations and resolutions is to finalise them and make them a statement from this Parliament and, as such, I will be unable to include anything that has not been finalised by this plenary. I, therefore, stand by my earlier ruling that we apologise. The Secretariat did not include it and hopefully we can adopt it during the next session. I thank you.Hon. Members, Excellencies, Members of the Bureau of the PAP, Hon. Members of the PAP, as we draw the curtains on this very memorable Third Ordinary Session of the Third Parliament of the PAP, I would like to most sincerely, on behalf of the Bureau, thank each and every one of you for your invaluable contributions.This session has witnessed many memorable events. We have elected a new Member of the Bureau, His Excellency the Hon. Dr. Ashebir Woldegiorgis Gayo, from the Republic of Ethiopia as Fourth Vice President of Pan African Parliament. His election is a reflection of our desire for change and hopefully his presence in the Bureau will bring new ideas to the leadership of the Pan African Parliament.Hon. Members, we have also witnessed very intense debate on a lot of topical issues. We started with an opening ceremony which had the participation of His Excellency, Kwesi Séléagodji Ahumey-Zunu, Prime Minister of the Republic of Togo who honoured us with his presence.We also had the presence of the Deputy Chairperson of the African Union, His Excellency Erastus Jarnalese Onkundi Mwencha who delivered a lecture on the African Union Agenda 2063 and 2014 AU Budget Oversight. He went on and presented the 2014 Budget. For us it is a step in the right direction because now we have been negotiating and finally have a consensus with the African Union Commission to present for the first time to the Pan African Parliament the 2015 Budget of the African Union to our Session in March 2014.This will enable us to carry out our oversight responsibilities for the purposes of transparency and accountability on behalf of the people of Africa. We also had,, during the same period, the President of the Arab Parliament, Speaker of the National Assembly of South Sudan, the Speaker of the Senate of the Republic of Kenya and several other delegations, members of the diplomatic corps and other eminent guests who sent us goodwill messages.Hon. Members, our successful dialogue and education reminds us on the need for us, as Members of various National Parliaments, to ensure that within our National Parliaments, we preach for access to education for the African child. We must use our role as Parliamentarians to ensure that adequate resources and funding is made available for education to ensure also that quality and content and standards of education given to our children is the one that will prepare them for the society that we live in today - enable them to be useful contributors to the development of our continent.We have also received reports from the activities of the various committees who have continued to work hard within the limited resources available for our programmes and I must commend our Committees. They have fully come out of stream and we hope that in 2014, Committees will rise to greater heights.Hon. Colleagues, we have also during this session paid tribute to the Former President of the Pan African Parliament, late Hon. Dr. Idriss Moussa Ndele who left us lasting legacies and we have memories that we will keep with us for years to come.Hon. Colleagues, as we draw the curtain in this Third Ordinary Session of the Third Parliament, we will tomorrow be hosting the 2013 Annual African Women Parliamentarians Conference and we urge that Hon. Members of Parliament, both men and women make up time to attend this Conference 3 where we will be addressing the concerns of violence against women and girls on our continent.The incidence of violence against women and girls is on the rise and this is unacceptable to us as Parliamentarians. This Conference will therefore have a lot of opportunities to address this issue which is cross cutting and we believe, affects each and every one of us individually.Hon. Members, in March 2014, we will be celebrating 10 years of the formation of the Pan African Parliament and there is need for us to use that period to evaluate the journey so far. Have we been able to meet up with the visions of the founding fathers of our institution and what do we have as a vision for the next 10 years of the Pan African Parliament.I, therefore, urge as we depart to our various National Parliaments and member States, that Members of Parliament will take time off to approach the Heads of Governments, Foreign Ministers of various National Governments and Speakers and Heads of National Parliaments to advocate on behalf of the Pan African Parliament for the renewal and adoption come January 2014, of the Amended Protocol that will enhance the transformation of our Parliament and give us additional functions both in legislative and oversight.Hon. Members, let me, once more, thank you and more so, especially those of you who are still in the hall at this time. I give very special thanks to each one of you for the perseverance and your participation throughout this session and I reiterate, once again, the commitment of this Bureau to work assiduously, transparently and openly on all issues pertaining to our institution in order to ensure that this Pan African Parliament is better when we leave it the way we met it.Hon. Members, the membership of Parliament Medical Care Cover will become operational from tomorrow, November the 1st 2013 and I urge all those who have not had time to fill in their forms and be registered to endeavour to do so before you leave Midrand.I would like to use the opportunity to thank our Secretariat and our support staff whose efforts have helped us to achieve a successful Third Ordinary Session.May I wish each and every one of us journey mercies and God’s guidance as we return to our various destinations and we pray that you will meet your loved ones and all those you left behind safe, whole and healthy.As we close, let me also, once more, reiterate that our Bureau will continue to remain open and accessible for all Hon. Members whether during the sessions or outside the sessions.On that note, I hereby declare the Third Ordinary Session of the Third Parliament of the Pan African Parliament closed.I thank you and God bless you all.
