Presenting the report before National Assembly members on Tuesday for consideration and adoption, Hon. Fabakary Tombong Jatta, member for Serrekunda East and majority leader, who was the head of the Gambian delegation to Nigeria, said in order to promote the ratification of the legal instruments of the African Union, the Pan-African Parliament, PAP, organised a regional meeting on behalf of the West African Region from 29 April to 1 May 2015, in Nigeria.
The majority leader informed fellow deputies that the regional meeting was organised pursuant to Article 3 of the Protocol to the Treaty establishing the African Economic Community relating to the Pan-African Parliament, which stipulates to facilitate the implementation of the policies and objectives of the OAU/ Community and ultimately of the African Union.
In the same vein, he added, the African Governance Architecture (AGA) of the AU assigns PAP the role to promote the ratification, domestication and dissemination of the legal instruments of the AU.
The Serrekunda East National Assembly member further informed deputies that the main centre of interest of the meeting, was to promote the key instruments of the African Union that fall under the ambit of the African Governance Architecture and implementation of the said legal instruments of the AU in West African countries.
These are “to sensitise the parliament of the West African Region and to strengthen their capacity on the need to ratify and domesticate the key instruments of the African Union, which constitute the foundation of the African Governance Architecture (AGA), such as the African Charter on Democracy, Elections and Governance (ACDEG) and the new protocol of the PAP;
“To support efforts aimed at increasing the number of parliaments that have ratified and/or domesticated the AU instruments on AGA;
“To strengthen the parliamentary capacity relating to the process of ratification and domestication of AU instruments;
“To strengthen the capacity of PAP parliamentarians in relation to their oversight duties, and to advocate for the ratification of the new protocol of PAP.”
