The Speaker of ECOWAS Parliament, Moustapha Cisse´ Lo says the parliament is committed to ensuring peace, justice, liberty, security and progress in the West Africa sub-region.
Cisse´ Lo made this known in Niamey on Saturday at the closing of the five-day 4th Legislature ECOWAS Parliament de-localised meeting.
The theme of the meeting was “Harmonisation of Gender Policies within the region”.
The meeting focused on gender, women’s rights and empowerment, child and social protection, the vulnerable groups in the region and the domestication of international conventions and treaties in member states.
The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that recommendations in favour of gender mainstreaming, domestication of international conventions and treaties and public policies in member states were discussed at the meeting.
Cisse´Lo said the determination of parliamentarians to make proposals and far reaching recommendations in favour of issues raised was a demonstration of their commitment to regional integration.
He added that the content of the recommendations by parliamentarians at the meeting was a testimony of their common zeal in the discussion and commitment to promote and defend gender.
He said their recommendations also showed commitment, especially on women’s right and their legitimate mission for peace, nation building and participation in democracy and decision making.
Cisse´ Lo said that as underscored in parliamentarians’ reports, considerable efforts had been made in terms of providing financial and technical support to member states.
This, he said, was critical to designing and harmonising national gender policies, particularly to ensure international, regional and continental commitments.
He, however, said that a lot still needed to be done in the sub-region, saying that there was the need for member states to support the domestication of international conventions and treaties relating to women and citizens’ welfare.
He noted that members of the community parliament would continue to support the executives of their various countries to achieve the aspiration of the people they represented.
Cisse´ Lo said the recommendations reached at the meeting would be communicated to other ECOWAS bodies to ensure their domestication in all community policies.
He also condoled with the people and government of the Republic of Niger over the recent attack in that country, in which several military personnel were killed.
He described the attack, which he said, was on the entire people of West Africa as: ‘barbaric’, saying that it was perpetrated by lawless individuals.
The Speaker also expressed gratitude to the Nigerien President, Mahamadou Issoufou, its Prime Minister and the Nigerien authorities for their commitment to the regional integration process.
He particularly thanked the Nigerien government and its parliament for the facilities and hospitality extended to parliamentarians during the meeting.
Cisse´Lo also extolled the leadership qualities of former members of the ECOWAS Parliament who had been appointed to higher positions in Niger.
NAN reports that the ECOWAS Parliament is made up of 15-member countries which, include Nigeria, Niger, Togo, The Gambia and Benin.
The others are Guinea Bissau, Guinea, Liberia, Mali, Senegal and Sierra Leone, Burkina Faso, Cape Verde, Cote d´Ivoire and Ghana. (N
Leave a Reply