African Parliamentarians hold training workshop on drafting model laws

Hon. Haidara Aichata CISSE

A training workshop on drafting and deliberating model laws and conducting public hearings for the Bureaus of the Committees of the Pan African Parliament was conducted on Saturday on the sidelines of the Third Ordinary Session of the Fifth Parliament of the Pan African Parliament in Midrand, South Africa.

The training workshop had Dr. Birgit Laubach, a German practicing lawyer who once headed the legal staff of Green Party Parliamentary Group in the German Parliament, and had also authored many legislative initiatives as the facilitator/ trainer.

The programme was divided into three sessions with the first session dealing with the purpose and goals of model laws.

According to Dr. Laubach, a model law is created as a suggested pattern for law makers and parliaments to adopt as part of their domestic legislation and contains all the necessary provisions to regulate a specific item or project in detail. Model laws contribute to the harmonization of legislation in all member states and answers key questions such as:

What is the problem to be solved and what is the end goal?

By what specific means will the problem be solved?

Is there a framework law or detailed or detailed model law with the best practices?

Dr. Birgit Laubach

What is the scope of the policy – to whom does it apply?

The second session dealt with the drafting stages of model laws – technical tools for drafting a model law where issues such as the wording of the clauses and general explanation of the model law were highlighted. The need for a balance between comprehension and clarity in language was also stressed emphasizing the importance of one thought, one sentence and one idea,

The third and final session discussed civil society participation, access to information, consultations, public hearings of the parent committee and public hearing by the Regional Caucuses.

The role of civil society and community-based organizations as resource base for parliamentarians during public hearings on model laws was emphasized as  the African parliamentarians were advised to find ways to harness the resources that they offer.

Hon. Haidara Aichata CISSE who represented the President of the Pan African Parliament described the training workshop as timely, coming at a time PAP is focusing on the drafting of model laws that will affect the lives of Africans in line with the provisions of the Protocol that established PAP.