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Senate Welcomes UN Support For Constitution Review

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5 years ago

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Senate has welcome technical support from the United Nations.
News Rain Nigeria reports that the Deputy Senate President, Senator Ovie Omo- Agege on Friday has declared the Senate support for the technical support from the United Nations Entity for Gender Equality and Empowerment of Women ( UN Women).
The Senate members, through Senator Ovie Omo Agege, made known their stand in Abuja while receiving the United Nations Women delegation led by the Deputy Country, Representative, Mr. Lansana Wonneh, maintained that the women interest will always be protected.

Senate Welcomes UN Support For Constitution Review

Omo Agege urged all states across the country that are yet to domesticate the Violence Against Person Prohibition (VAPP) Act to do so, to empower women as in line with the constitutional provisions against discrimination of whatever form.
Senator Omo Agege also noted that the Executive arm of government should always engage the Legislature before signing treaties and agreements, stressed that there is a disconnect between the Executive arm and the Legislative arm of government most especially on the issue of gender-based.
He said: “We have had some form of disconnect between the Executive and Legislative arms of government.
“Frankly, we want to be carried along before entering into some of these treaties and agreements because Section 12 of the 1999 Constitution requires the involvement of the National Assembly for any of that to become effective, and it’s so unfortunate that it was not done. That is why we have that drawback with respect to the Beijing Declaration.”
Senator Omo Agege further stressed that it might be best if we had approached this incrementally.
And that is why some of us stood solidly behind Senator Biodun Olujimi in her Gender Equality and Opportunity Bill which, to a large extent, was actually seeking to domesticate the agreements in Beijing Protocol amongst others.
But we ran into a problem with Section 42 of the 1999 Constitution because the concern of some is that in seeking to remedy it, we should not create another set of discrimination against another.”
The Deputy Senate President stressed that the Senate is currently looking at the Ugandan model, noted that the model will ensure significant movement in the direction of what is being canvassed on behalf of the women.
Omo Agege however urged the delegation to help to sensitize the electorate, the opinion leaders, and the House of Representatives in concurring to the Sexual Harassment Bill passed by the Senate as well as the domestication of the VAPP Act in all the states of the Country.
The Deputy Country Representative, of UN Women, Mr. Lansana Wonneh, earlier in his speech has made known the organization’s readiness to offer technical support for the committee.
He applauded the Senate for making Gender Equality for Women and Girls one of the thematic areas of the exercise, he also commended the Senate for the passing of the Sexual Harassment Bill.
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