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Mobilizing Legislators as Champions for
Human Rights, Democracy, and a Sustainable World

Pan-African Parliament

Hon. Yusuph Abdallah Nassir MP (Tanzania) at the Pan-African Parliament Joint Committee Session on the Arms Trade Treaty.
Hon. Yusuph Abdallah Nassir MP (Tanzania) at the Pan-African Parliament Joint Committee Session on the Arms Trade Treaty.

What is the PAP?

The Pan-African Parliament (PAP), also known as the African Parliament, was established in 2004. It is the legislative body of the African Union. The PAP is at present composed of 229 Members of Parliament representing 52 African countries. It exercises oversight and has advisory and consultative powers, lasting for the first five years. The ultimate aim of the Pan-African Parliament is to evolve into an institution with full legislative powers, whose members are elected by universal adult suffrage. Initially, the seat of the Pan-African Parliament was in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia but it was later moved to Midrand, Johannesburg, South Africa.

PGA’s Work

Since the issuance of arrest warrants for crimes against humanity, war crimes and genocide against the sitting President of Sudan by the ICC in 2009-10, PGA members played an active role for almost a decade in opposing and blocking the introduction of resolutions within the PAP that were aimed at support certain AU policies calling African States to withdraw from the Rome Statute.

Latest News: ROME STATUTE CAMPAIGN

Flag of the Democratic Republic of the Congo. Photo credit: Pexels.

PGA expresses its deep concern over the current escalating violence in the Eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), and its devastating effect on the civilian population, who has been exposed to atrocities for an excessive period of time.

Screen Capture: UN Web TV

On 22 November 2024, the Sixth Committee of the United Nations unanimously approved the “United Nations Conference of Plenipotentiaries on Prevention and Punishment of Crimes against Humanity”.

United States Office of Humanities, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

Rep. Jim Leach was an outspoken, early champion for the establishment of the International Criminal Court. As early as 1989, more than a decade before the ICC itself was established.