Description

President’s Message

This past year marked the 20th Anniversary of the Six Nation Peace Initiative on nuclear disarmament. In 1984, PGA brought together six presidents and prime ministers from Argentina, Greece, fudia, Mexico, Sweden and Tanzania, to work together and call on leaders of the United States and the Soviet Union to halt their production, testing and deployment of nuclear weapons. This initiative led to PGA's successful campaign on the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty (CTBT) which was then adopted by the United Nations General Assembly and officially opened for signature 12 years later.

To commemorate the Six Nation Peace Initiative and PGA's work on the CTBT, PGA's 26th Annual Forum was held in Wellington, New Zealand, whose members were active on these issues since the 1980s. Rt. Hon. Helen Clark, New Zealand's Prime Minister and former PGAmember, was this year's recipient of the Defender of Democracy Award for her work towards a nuclear-free world.

Over the past year, PGA's programmes on Peace and Democracy, International Law and Human Rights, and Sustainable Development and Population, successfully explored new areas of work and further developed ongoing initiatives.

The 2004 Forum addressed one of PGA's more recent international initiatives - the Consultative Assembly of Parliamentarians for the futernational Criminal Court and the Rule of Law. Over 120 legislators from around the world convened in the Parliament of New Zealand to discuss strategies to expand the universality of the Court.

PGA's Peace and Democracy Program's work in Zimbabwe successfully opened parliamentary dialogue between the two political parties, the governing ZANU-PF and the opposition, MDC. In September, PGA brought a multi-party delegation from Zimbabwe to meet with United Kingdom legislators at the House of Commons in London. This event was a significant step in improving bilateral relations between the two countries and opening discussions on how to resolve the political crisis in Zimbabwe.

In follow-up to the security sector reform work which was initiated in 2002, the Program convened the Regional Parliamentary Seminar on Security Sector Reform in Kampala, Uganda in October 2004. Over 60 MPs from Eastern, Central and Southern Africa participated in the seminar to address national security policy and to promote human security.

The Program also explored a new area of work in June when it held the Seminar on Parliamentary Ethics and Accountability at the United States Senate. The seminar provided the opportunity for US legislators to meet with their colleagues from around the world and discuss how parliamentarians can safeguard political ethics.

PGA's futernational Law and Human Rights Program has successfully galvanized the leadership of PGA members around the world to foster political support for ICC and the rule of law. As of May 2005, 99 States have ratified or acceded to the Rome Statute of the ICC. Parliamentarians working within the framework of PGA's Program played an active role in 56 countries that are now members of the ICC system.

In March 2004, the Program organized the second Ibero-American and Lusophone Parliamentary Conference on the ICC in Brasilia, Brazil which convened a total of 600 participants which included 140 Members of Parliament (MPs) from countries in Latin America, Africa and Europe. The successful outcome of the conference led to other important initiatives on the ICC and the rule of law in Latin American countries such as Argentina, Chile, and Mexico. One such event was the delegation of PGA members from Mexico to The Hague, The Netherlands, which met with ICC officials, including the President of the Court, Judge Philippe Kirsch, and authorities from the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY). In addition, the delegation met with their Dutch counterparts and with officials from the Dutch Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Judge Kirsch was invited to visit the Mexican Congress which he did one month later.

The Program expanded its work in the Middle East and North African region. In June, a PGA delegation participated in a National Roundtable on the Ratification and Implementation of the ICC Statue in Bahrain. PGA also organized the first conference on the rule of law and protection of civilians in the Middle East/North Africa region. The conference took place February 2005 in the People's Assembly of Egypt in Cairo.

The Sustainable Development Program continues to mobilize and assist parliamentarians in creating an enabling environment for the successful implementation of the futernational Conference on Population and Development (ICPD) and has served as a member of the Steering Planning Committee for the futernational Parliamentarians' Conference on the ICPD. A PGA delegation participated in the 2004 conference in Strasbourg, France which addressed legislators' roles in implementing the ICPD Program of Action.

PGA's initiatives under this Program expanded to include addressing HIV/AIDS policy in South Asia, a region that is second in the world in the number of people infected with the disease. In 2004, PGA began preparations for the Sub-Regional Parliamentary Seminar on HIV/AIDS in South Asia which took place in Pakistan in January 2005. This high-level event brought legislators from the region and from countries that have implemented effective HIV/AIDS policies to discuss the extent of the epidemic in the region and strategies to combat the spread of the disease while mobilizing legislators to address HIV/AIDS in the region.

In Africa, PGA developed its work on human trafficking, an important issue affecting many parts of the world. In collaboration with the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS), PGA held the Parliamentary Seminar on Human Trafficking in West Africa in Nigeria, February 2004. Parliamentarians discussed the causes of human trafficking, presented case studies and identified strategies they can implement to fight human trafficking.

Since its initial work on nuclear disarmament, PGA's programmes have expanded to include more issues that presently affect the globe. Our membership, which continues to grow, is dedicated to promoting democracy, peace, justice and development.

Hon. Kenneth Dzirasah MP (Ghana), Second Deputy Speaker