A delegation from the National Assembly of Seychelles comprising of the Head of Delegation, Hon. Waven William, Hon. Audrey Vidot and the Desk Officer for the IPU, Ms. Emma Didon attended the 144th General Assembly of the Inter-Parliamentary Union (IPU), in Bali Indonesia from the 20th to 24th March 2022.
The delegation left before the opening to attend the SADC group and the all-Africa group meetings to review the 114th IPU General Assembly meetings. Some agenda points which were discussed were; Emergency item on armed conflict in Ukraine; Meetings of the different committees such as the Sustainable Development Committee which Hon. William is Vice President of; the adoption of committee resolutions; The Women’s parliamentary forum; The Youth parliamentary forum; Geopolitical group meetings; Side events such as Health (covid-19 pandemic) and Climate Change workshops; and Bilateral meetings between various country parliamentary institutions.
On Saturday 19th March 2022, the delegation attended the SADC meeting. The Speaker from Zimbabwe who sits on the IPU Executive Committee of IPU gave a detailed report to the meeting. These included issues like Climate change, vaccine equity and the Ukraine and Russia crisis which drew a lot of attention. The SADC group was concerned with the wording of the emergency item submitted by Ukraine. Hon William queried on whether delegates were familiar with the Glasgow Climate Pact, which was the outcome result of Cop 26. He also suggested that Africa group consider assessing Africa region parliaments who are in arrears, to better understand their cases and to intercede and encourage their contributions.
On Sunday 20th March 2022, the IPU General Assembly was dominated by the Forum of Women Parliamentarians under the theme ‘Contributing to the work of the 144th IPU Assembly from a gender perspective’. Hon Audrey Vidot intervened in the forum of the Standing Committee on Peace and International Security, on the theme titled ‘Rethinking and reframing the approach to peace processes with a view to fostering lasting peace’. Hon. Vidot discussed gender parity within the democratic processes of the world’s parliaments and called on the IPU to engage with the United Nations to promote the involvement and recruitment of women in peace negotiations, the need for countries to assess whether they have sufficient legislation in place, adequate mechanisms in advocating on Peace and Security in peace negotiation processes and finally the need to have gender parity representation on peacekeeping missions. Further explaining that women have very good negotiating capabilities similar to that of men or arguably better.
The afternoon session that followed focused on ‘Parliamentary experiences in promoting women’s, children’s and adolescent’s health in the time of Covid-19 and in recovering from the pandemic’. Here, Hon Vidot gave a brief outlook on the situation in Seychelles upon the arrival of Covid-19 which included interruptions in the country’s health services. Despite the difficulties, Hon Vidot noted and commended the work of the National Assembly’s Communicable Disease, HIV-AIDS and Sexual Reproductive Health and Rights Committee and the Women’s Parliamentary Caucus in voicing out the concerns of the vulnerable groups they represent. Mention was made on the successful action of the executive on a motion passed by the Women’s Parliamentary Caucus with the support of male MNAs on period poverty. “The executive responded even though motions are not binding to the government. It was the private sector, that sponsored and supported the programme through the Ministry of education for our young girls in the school”. With that, sanitary products were made freely available to the female students. She further briefed the meeting on the recent joint SADC - National Assembly of Seychelles’ Women’s Parliamentary Caucus workshop on Gender based violence.
In the evening from 7.30 pm the delegation attended the Official Opening ceremony of the 144th IPU Assembly where the president and Speaker of the parliament as the host together with the IPU President and Secretary-General gave the opening speeches and officially inaugurated the general Assembly in Bali International Conventional Centre (BICC).
