Ramkalawan elected chairperson of SADC parliamentary forum standing committee |05 May 2018

Opposition leader Wavel Ramkalawan has been unanimously elected chairperson of the democracy, governance and human rights standing committee of the Southern African Development Community parliamentary forum.

This was during its meeting held in Johannesburg, South Africa from April 26 to 28.

With this election, Seychelles, through the National Assembly, will hold the office for a term of two years.

It is the first time in the Southern African Development Community parliamentary forum (SADC PF) history that a Seychellois parliamentarian is elected chairperson of a standing committee.

This standing committee is a very important one of the SADC parliamentary forum because as its name indicates, its main goal is to foster a greater role for all member states in enhancing and overlooking all issues of democracy, respect of the rights of individuals and enhancing the promotion of the rule of law in all state. A further task of the committee is to select and send election observer missions to SADC countries during elections.

This new responsibility falls in line with the chairmanship that honourable Ramkalawan holds on the committee on truth, reconciliation and national unity in the National Assembly, which has recently submitted its report to President Danny Faure to establish a truth, reconciliation and national commission.

Honourable Ramkalawan has made significant contributions to the National Assembly of Seychelles and will continue this work as the chairperson on the democracy, governance and human rights standing committee.

The National Assembly of Seychelles is represented in the SADC PF by members Regina Esparon, Chantal Ghislain, Terence Mondon, Wavel Ramkalawan and Egbert Aglaé.

The SADC PF was established in 1997 in accordance with Article 9 (2) of the SADC Treaty as an autonomous institution of SADC. It is a regional inter-parliamentary body composed of 14 parliaments representing over 3,500 parliamentarians in the SADC region. These member parliaments are Angola, Botswana, Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), Lesotho, Malawi, Mauritius, Mozambique, Namibia, South Africa, Seychelles, Swaziland, Tanzania, Zambia and Zimbabwe.

Its mission is to facilitate strategic partnerships within the SADC region, promote information sharing, initiate and implement projects that enhance regional integration and promote effective and professional parliamentary practice.