The Leadership and Secretariat of the African Parliamentary Press Network (APPN) join the rest of the continent to commemorate the 2023 PAP Day celebration to mark 19 years of the establishment of the Pan-African Parliament as the first legislative body of the African Union.

The commemorative event is marked every 17th March to serve as a reminder to African citizens of the potential of the Parliament, intended as a platform for people from all African states to be involved in discussions and decision-making on the problems and challenges facing the continent.

The Pan-African Parliament (PAP), a body of the African Union (AU), was established in 2004 with the mission of “ensuring the full participation of African peoples in the development and economic integration of the continent.”Since the theme for this year’s celebration is: “Reflecting on the journey”, we would like to reiterate the call by the Executive Council of the African Union in October 2021, for the Member States to sign and ratify the Malabo Protocol.

The Malabo Protocol which is intended to extend the powers of the PAP into a fully-fledged legislative organ requires a minimum of 28 countries to ratify before it comes into force, was adopted in 2014 by the Assembly of Heads of State and Government.

Despite the constraints of the lack of ratification of the Malabo Protocol by Member States, the APPN wish to highly commend PAP for the enactment of numerous model laws to guide and meet the aspirations of the people of the African Continent.

We are inspired by the leadership of His Excellency Chief Fortune Charumbira in repositioning and rebranding the PAP to take it rightful place among the AU Organs and called on the African Union to provide the necessary resources needed by the PAP to effectively carry out its mandate to the African people.

The APPN assures PAP of its preparedness to partner it to advocate for the ratification of key Protocols and Charters of the AU, such as the Malabo Protocol, the African Charter on Democracy, Elections and Governance, etc. We further called on MPs from Member States to work closely with the APPN to promote and project PAP at their National Parliaments to improve the visibility of PAP on the continent.