Prime
Among closes Commonwealth speakers’ meet as India elected next host
Ugandan Parliament Speaker Anita Among (R) passes the host baton for the Conference of Speakers and Presiding Officers of the Commonwealth (CSPOC) to her Indian counterpart Shri Harivansh in Kampala at the conclusion of the 27th CSPOC on January 6, 2024. PHOTO/HANDOUT
What you need to know:
- Speaker Among ended the conference hailing her attendee counterparts for refusing to boycott the gathering as requested by some global actors following Uganda's anti-gay law.
Parliament Speaker Anita Among Saturday afternoon closed the 27th Conference of Speakers and Presiding Officers of the Commonwealth (CSPOC) with host Uganda expressing gratitude to 50 foreign speakers and presiding Officers who attended despite 'attempts' by other undisclosed forces to ask them to boycott.
Speaking to Monitor at the close of the 4-day meeting in Kampala, Among re-echoed her previous message to critics of Uganda's tough anti-gay law.
"We have speakers who feared to come because of the law that we made. We don't kill anyone who is a homosexual. We don't reject people who come here because they are homosexuals but we only respect what we passed. We respect our values and traditions as a country," the lawmaker said.
The conference that commenced Wednesday this week discussed, among others, means of scaling up cohesion amongst members within the CSPOC fraternity.
"We have discussed very important issues on issues of climate change and mitigation of climate change. On issues of consensus building in the houses…considering the fact that most of the Parliaments that we lead have a multiparty system, we have also taken care of that," Among said.
She added: "We have also discussed the issues of health and wellbeing of Members of Parliament plus security of Parliament and legislators."
House Speaker Anita Among and her deputy Thomas Tayebwa take their visiting counterparts on a guided tour around the Ugandan Parliament in Kampala on January 6, 2023 at the conclusion of the 27th Conference of Speakers and Presiding Officers of the Commonwealth (CSPOC). PHOTO/HANDOUT
Among chaired the final closed plenary session attended by Speakers and Presiding Officers on Saturday morning, a gathering in which India was endorsed to host the 28th CSPOC meeting in 2026. India duly accepted the call.
The CSPOC was birthed in 1969 as an initiative of the then Speaker of the House of commons of Canada, Lucien Lamoureux and it has since shouldered the responsibility of bringing together Speakers and Presiding Officers of the National Parliaments of sovereign Commonwealth nations, among other duties.
The conference runs on a two-year-cycle with each conference usually convened in January to, among other things, maintain and foster impartiality among member states, promote knowledge and understanding.
The CSPOC was, among others, attended by Speakers from Nigeria, Pakistan, Rwanda, Singapore, Samoa, Sri Lanka, South Africa, Tanzania, Trinidad and Tobago, Tonga, Uganda and Zambia.
The others are Mauritius Mozambique, Namibia, Botswana, Ghana, Grinada, Dominican Republic, Guyana, India, Kenya, The Kingdom of Eswatin, Lesotho, Malaysia and Maldives.
