By Ragan M. Conteh
The speaker of Parliament, Dr Chernor Abass Bundu has stated that as Commonwealth Nations, ‘what is needed now more than ever is not more and more new conventions but rather the courage to implement the existing conventions we have already signed up to’.
Dr Abass Bundu made the disclosure at the CPA Africa region while addressing the 82nd executive committee meeting of the CPA Africa region in Accra, Ghana, on March 8, 2022.
According the speaker, some action is urgently required to give impetus to the process of actual implementation.
He said he believes the common values shared as African Commonwealth members cast ‘a special obligation upon us to take the lead and show the rest of the world the way forward’.
He added: ‘This obligation is unique to us not only because of the common values and principles we all share as Commonwealth members but also because of the sheer recognition of the fact that it’s been nearly 43 years since the CEDAW Convention; 27 years since the Beijing Declaration; 26 years since the Commonwealth meeting of ministers responsible for women’s affairs; 21 years since the UN Security Council Resolution; 11 years since the establishment of UN Women; and 7 years since the world set itself a set of targets in the Sustainable Development Goals; and today in 2022 we are still talking instead of making actual implementation the raison d’être of our actions.’
The speaker went further that they should seize the opportunity that the convergence of responsibilities between the Executive Branch and the Legislative Branch gives by refocusing priority and placing it on actual implementation of existing obligations under these instruments to ensure that we achieve gender equality today as the surest guarantee for a sustainable tomorrow instead of spending more and more resources on adopting new obligations only to add to the existing ones that are yearning for attention.
He said the gathering in Accra of the parliamentary leadership of Commonwealth Africa is therefore a great moment.
Dr Bundu stated that it affords them the chance to seize the opportunity to take the lead and show the way in advancing this critical agenda forward.
‘We must call for a halt in the adoption of more and more new international obligations as there already exist crucial obligations waiting to be implemented,’ he asserted.