Pan African Parliament Day: APPN, CHR pledge partnership with PAP

Coordinator of African Parliamentary Press Network (APPN), Mr. Gilbert Borketey Boyefio has said that the APPN will work to ensure that parliamentary information is made available to all Africans.

Boyefio stated this on Thursday while delivering a goodwill message during the virtual celebration of the 2021 Pan African Parliament Day (PAP Day).  

He observed that PAP is a body set up to ensure the full participation of African peoples in the economic development and integration of the continent, but regretted that not much is known about it by many citizens of Africa.

“A strong collaboration with the media to trumpet and educate African citizens on the importance of the PAP Day, will serve as a reminder to decision makers around the continent to fulfill the commitment to the PAP by ratifying its Protocol, 17 years after sanctioning its establishment. 12 AU member states have so far ratified the Malabo Protocol .16 more are required”.

“The commemoration of the PAP Day will not only aim to educate about the PAP, but it will also ignite conversations about the future of the continental Parliament in line with its mandate”.

“It is from this background that the African Parliamentary Press Network (APPN) has pledged its commitment to give massive publicity to the PAP and its activities, thereby making it a household name in Africa”

According to Boyefio, the objective of the APPN is to build a network that comprises press corps or galleries in the various legislative assemblies across Africa, who will join to ensure that the tenets of Open Parliament exist across Africa.

“The APPN is currently made up of journalists and information officers reporting in Parliament in fourteen African countries, namely Ghana, Nigeria, Sierra Leone, Gambia, Kenya, Lesotho, Zimbabwe, Senegal, Ivory Coast, Gabon, South Africa, Malawi, former Swaziland and Uganda. The plan is to have the Network in all the AU Member States before the end of this year”.

“The Network is poised to work with all legislative assemblies in Africa to ensure that parliamentary information is made available and accessible to all African citizens”.

He therefore requested the cooperation and support from the PAP and all other stakeholders to make the APPN succeed.

In his goodwill message, the Director of Center for Human Rights (University of Pretoria), Prof. Frans Viljoen observed that PAP was established to ensure that the voices of African citizens are heard and created a channel for communicating with African people.

Viljoen recalled that it was in furtherance of this objective that the Center for Human Rights (CHR) held a Civil Society Forum on the sidelines of the May 2019 Session of the PAP.

He noted that since the adoption of the PAP Protocol in 2001, all the African countries are now PAP members with the exception of Eritrea.

He also noted that PAP has played commendable roles in advocating for human rights such as embarking fact finding mission to Dafur, supporting the right of self determination  by the people of Saharawi Republic, fighting against child labour in the Ivory Coast mining industry and fought for the rights of persons with Albanism and other persons with disability.