MIDWEEK REPORTER
MIDRAND, SOUTH AFRICA-The President of the Pan African Parliament, Chief Fortune Charumbira has welcomed a proposal for the continental body to convene an all stakeholders indaba on gender based violence by end of the year.
PAP President, Chief Charumbira welcomed the proposal for a summit while reaffirming zero tolerance on gender based violence especially against women which has become widespread on the African continent.
The proposal is contained in a petition handed over to the PAP Vice President Francois Ango Ndoutoume yesterday by a group of women activists led by Kwanele Foundation chief executive officer Sihle Sibisi at the African premier parliament headquarters in Midrand, South Africa yesterday afternoon.
The group also proposed a bi-annual gender based violence summit in 2024, to also have the African premier parliament to aggressively deal with GBV matters and cases.
Kwanele also suggested that PAP declare child marriages illegal the same way the International Labour Organisation has outlawed child labour, that girl child circumcision is evil and has no place in the modern society.
They also said PAP should denounce rape and femicide in all forms as they are not justifiable in any way in society.
PAP was established in March 2004, by Article 17 of the Constitutive Act of the African Union, as one of the nine Organs provided for in the Treaty Establishing the African Economic Community signed in Abuja, Nigeria, in 1991. The Protocol establishing the PAP was ratified by 49 Member States.
