The Speaker of the ECOWAS Parliament, Mohamed Sidie Tunis has reiterated the need for concrete and deliberate actions on Women Empowerment, 25 years after Beijing Declaration,
Speaker Tunis, who was on his way to Liberia for the Delocalised meeting on Women’s Empowerment, made this declaration on Monday 12 April, 2021 at the Mano River Bridge, when he was received by a delegation, consisting of ECOWAS staff and journalists.
He said there couldn't have been a better venue for the Delocalised meeting than Liberia. This he said is against the backdrop of Liberia’s serial feats of electing women into prominent political positions.
"Liberia is the most suitable country to host the Delocalised meeting on Women Empowerment because it was Liberia that blaised the trail in 2015, with the election of Africa's First Female President, Ellen Sirleaf Johnson.
"Few years later, another woman was elected Vice President by Liberians."
According to the Speaker, this is no mean feats by Liberia and deserved to be reciprocated."
While receiving the Speaker on behalf of the Liberian Parliament and President George Weah, at the Mano River Bridge, the border between Liberia and Sierra Leone, a member of the Liberian Parliament and leader of the country's delegation to ECOWAS Parliament, Senator Edwin Melvin Snowe, explained the significance of receiving the Speaker on Mano Bridge, adding that it was Mano Bridge that was used to transport weapons into Liberia during the Civil War. Its on the same Mano River Bridge that we are receiving the Speaker into our country," Snowe said.
The vice President of Liberia has challenged the ECOWAS Parliament to push for appropriate implementation of the community protocol on gender and human equality across regional and local governments. Vice President Jewel Taylor made this request while concluding her keynote address presented before the Plenary at the official opening of the First Ordinary Session of the ECOWAS Parliament seating in Abuja. Jewel stated that Gender equality is a fundamental human right, yet women are underrepresented in power and decision making roles, women around the region do not fully experience equal rights and their potential as economic, social and sustainable change-agents remains untapped. She said “Excellency, special guest, distinguish members of the ECOWAS Parliament, as I close, permit me to say I will be remiss if I remain silent at this august gathering of regional leaders about the perennial issue of the lack of gender inequality in our local and regional body politics;
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