Pan-African Parliament’s Opening Session Receives Solidarity Messages in Support of Reparative Justice and Continental Unity

The opening ceremony of the Fifth Ordinary Session of the Sixth Parliament of the Pan-African Parliament (PAP) was marked by an outpouring of solidarity from key regional, national, and continental institutions. The shared message across all the interventions was clear: Africa must unite, legislate, and act decisively to achieve reparative justice, deeper integration, and a people-centred development agenda.

SADC Parliamentary Forum: Rallying for Gender-Sensitive Reparations and Legislative Collaboration

Hon. Sylvia Lucas, Vice President of the Southern African Development Community Parliamentary Forum (SADC PF), delivered a moving message of Pan-African unity and reaffirmed SADC PF’s support for PAP's commitment to justice, particularly through the 2025 AU Theme: “Justice for Africans and People of African Descent through Reparations.”

Commending PAP’s leadership in championing youth, women’s rights, climate justice, and digital transformation, Hon. Lucas outlined a series of actionable proposals to reinforce the reparations agenda:

• Harmonizing policies across member states to mainstream reparative and gender-sensitive strategies;
• Establishing regional technical working groups for knowledge sharing and coordinated action;
• Strengthening research and data collection to inform targeted policies;
• Promoting inclusive dialogue and allocating regional funding to reparations programmes—especially for women and marginalized groups;
• Mainstreaming justice in development, trade, and peacebuilding initiatives.

She also reported progress toward transforming SADC PF into a full-fledged regional parliament, with 13 of 15 SADC states having signed the enabling Protocol. She warned, however, that shrinking donor support posed a serious risk to democratic institutions and called for joint missions, new partnerships, and African-led solutions to sustain regional democracy and governance.

AUDA-NEPAD: From Vision to Delivery—A Call to Parliamentarians

H.E. Mrs. Nardos Bekele-Thomas, CEO of AUDA-NEPAD, framed her message around Africa’s developmental aspirations and the imperative for strategic action beyond rhetoric. She stressed that global financial headwinds, debt stress, and supply chain disruptions demand bold African solutions and closer parliamentary oversight.

Bekele-Thomas urged parliamentarians to:

• Champion the domestication of Agenda 2063’s Second Ten-Year Implementation Plan;
• Strengthen legislative oversight of national development plans;
• Engage the public to ensure inclusive participation;
• Advocate for domestic resource mobilisation and equitable global financing;
• Deepen inter-parliamentary collaboration for unified legislative momentum.

She also highlighted major initiatives including the African Union Development Fund (AUDF), the Africa Team’s $500 billion regional project pipeline, the Country Footprint Presence model, and sectoral efforts in infrastructure, youth skills, agriculture, and digital governance. The message concluded with a clear appeal: PAP must become an engine of accountability and implementation to deliver “The Africa We Want.”

APRM: Cementing Governance and Accountability through a New MoU

Representing the African Peer Review Mechanism (APRM), its CEO, H.E. Ambassador Marie-Antoinette Rose Quatre, used the platform to reinforce PAP’s centrality to Africa’s democratic governance ecosystem.

Amb. Quatre raised alarm over mounting threats to peace and governance—including terrorism, extremism, transnational crime, and youth disaffection. Drawing from the 2023 and 2025 Africa Governance Reports, she highlighted institutional weaknesses and declining public trust as barriers to sustainable development.

Key initiatives she called upon PAP to support included:

• The proposed 2027 Africa Governance Report on Youth in Governance;
• A new Pan-African Intra-Political Party Dialogue to be initiated in Southern Africa;
• The African Credit Rating Agency (AfCRA) as a counterweight to biased Western ratings systems;
• Strategic communications around economic reform and debt justice.

She revealed that PAP and APRM would sign a Memorandum of Understanding during the session to cement strategic collaboration toward AU Agenda 2063’s Aspirations 3 and 4—on democratic governance and peace.

Speaker of Ghana’s Parliament: Reparatory Justice is a Right, Not a Plea

In a message delivered by Hon. Bernard Ahiafor on behalf of Rt. Hon. Alban Sumana Kingsford Bagbin, Speaker of the Parliament of Ghana and Chair of the Conference of Speakers and Presidents of African Legislatures, called reparatory justice “an unfinished responsibility” and “a right, not a plea.”

He celebrated the African Union’s leadership from the Durban Declaration (2001) to the Accra Reparations Conference (2023), and called on parliaments to:

• Embed justice into national policy reform;
• Educate the next generation on Africa’s true history;
• Ensure reparations frameworks address structural racism and economic exclusion.

Bagbin also invoked global support for the reparations cause, citing recent UN reports that call for deeper representation of African states in global governance and more inclusive, transparent financial systems.

A Chorus of Commitment

Together, these messages formed a compelling chorus of solidarity, urging PAP to continue leading on legislative harmonization, reparative justice, governance reform, and citizen-centred development. They reinforced that:

• Parliaments are central to Africa’s rebirth;
• Justice must move from aspiration to implementation;
• Integration, youth empowerment, and institutional reform are the pillars of a resilient African future.

As PAP’s Fifth Ordinary Session progresses, the solidarity shown on opening day signals growing alignment across Africa’s political, economic, and institutional stakeholders, and a shared resolve to turn the vision of “One Africa, One Voice” into transformative action.