Parliamentarians for Global Action (PGA), The Royal Commonwealth Society (in its capacity as a member of the Equality & Justice Alliance), the Samoa National Youth Council and the Pacific Youth Council co-organized a Pacific Youth and Parliamentarians Regional Dialogue in Apia, Samoa on October 14-16, 2019.
The Dialogue brought together youth leaders and parliamentarians from across the Commonwealth Pacific to engage in discussions on how and why legal reform is necessary to overcome discrimination against women and girls and LGBTI people, and to develop a roadmap for joint action to advance equality through the law.
Participants included the Deputy Prime Minister of Samoa, two Samoan Associate Ministers and three other Samoan MPs; the Speaker of Parliament and the Minister of Education, Youth and Sports from Tuvalu; the Minister of Justice from Kiribati; and youth activists from five Commonwealth Pacific countries.
Youth leaders, representing youth councils and women’s and LGBTI organizations, led a discussion on how to better engage young people on securing the rights of women and those of diverse sexual orientations and gender identities. Parliamentarians attending the convening expressed a clear desire to establish dialogue with young people and called on youth delegates to work with them to move forward. The discussions presented a key opportunity for parliamentarians to reflect on how they have approached legislative processes in the past and how they can improve upon this in the future, particularly with regard to engaging with young people.
Working together, delegates crafted a series of action-oriented commitments at the national level that will bring together parliamentarians and youth leaders in the Pacific to advance the reform of discriminatory laws in Kiribati, Samoa and Tuvalu. For a detailed list of the agreed commitments, please consult the Outcome Report available on the sidebar of this page.
