Ugandan MPs sitting in the Pan African Parliament have upon all other member states to ratify the Maputo Protocol to achieve peace in Africa.
The MPs were part of the delegation attending the Wednesday joint workshop of the committee of the Pan African Parliament that was discussing mechanism on “silencing the guns in Africa” at Midrand, South Africa.
Anifa Kawooya (Ssembabule Woman MP) said that the only way Africa can silence guns and achieve peace is by ratifying the Maputo Protocol and other declarations that promote Africa’s peace, growth and development.
“Outlining the strategies and mechanism of silencing guns in our continent is of a pivotal role to the women beacuse they are the most affected due to instability, gun laundering. So as Members of Parliament, we need to ensure that our member states ratify the Maputo Protocol and ensure advancement of the 2063 Agenda because the two are the ones advancing women movements in ushering of peace and stability,” Kawooya said.
The Maputo Protocol is a binding legal framework that holds African governments to account for the continued gross violation of the rights of women and girls in Africa. They set a 2020 deadline within which all African nations must have signed and ratified it. By beginning of 2020, 13 countries had not yet to ratified the Maputo Protocol including three (Botswana, Egypt and Morocco) that have neither signed nor ratified it. On the other hand, the Agenda 2063 is a strategic framework for delivering on Africa’s goal for inclusive and sustainable development.
MP Kawooya used the example of the disarmament program in Karamoja sub region saying the program helped to curb the prevailing historical and cultural injustices in the region and later ushered in peace, stability and development. Kabula County MP James Kakooza blamed continued instability in African states to the colonial masters who keep imposing their interests on them.
“Africans need to study the factors which can help silence the guns. We have our colonial masters, but what are their interests in Africa? Are they interested in making Africa stable? We want to silence guns but what are the interests of those who are producing them? Can we resist those interests that destabilize our continent?” Kakooza said.
He urged African leaders to emulate the like of Julius Nyerere and Kwame Nkrumah who resisted colonialism and imperialism and fought for African unity.